SAHARA PRESSE SERVICE

Bir Lehlou (liberated territories), 24/10/2005 (SPS) The President of the Republic, Mohamed Abdelaziz, called on the African Union (AU) to contribute in taking charge of dozens immigrants, who were recently abandoned to their fate by Moroccan Government in the middle of the Western Sahara’s desert, asking him to help for their repatriation to their countries under conditions that ensure the respect for their rights and dignity.

In a letter he sent last week to the Chairman of the AU, Mr. Olusegun Obasanjo, the President od the republic asked the AU to "contribute to taking charge of those immigrants and to ensure their immediate repatriation to their countries under conditions that ensure their safety and the respect for their rights and dignity", briefing him on the last developments on the question of the hundreds African immigrants, the Head of the State.

On another hand, Mr. Abdelaziz deplored that "no rigorous measures have been taken to put an end to these inhuman practices carried out by the Moroccan Government", though the Saharawi Government had drew the attention of the world to the inhumane plans and similar crimes of Morocco since Rabat abandoned a first group of Asian immigrants in August 2004.

Worst, instead of recognising its guilt and "acting in line with international conventions on the protection of refugees and immigrants", Morocco, in an attempt to hide its horrendous actions, "started laying blame on the Frente POLISARIO, and threading to wage war and implicate other parties in the conflict, while putting pressure on the United Nations not to cooperate with the Frente POLISARIO in such a noble and humanitarian" efforts to rescue me immigrants, Abdelaziz wrote indignantly.

"Whilst we stress that illegal immigration is a phenomenon of which solution entails a collective responsibility, we also underline the need for those solutions to respect the principles of human rights and human life and dignity", the Head of the State said. (SPS)

060/090/000 241100 Oct 05 SPS

SPS
SADR/AFRICAN UNION/MOROCCO/IMMIGRANTS

SADR calls for an international enquiry on Moroccan Government’s violation of hundreds immigrants’ human rights

Bir Lehlou (liberated territories), 24/10/2005 (SPS) The President of the Republic, Mohamed Abdelaziz, called the international community for an international investigation on the "dreadful crime" committed by Morocco against hundreds immigrants, who were abandoned by Rabat’s authorities in the harsh desert of Western Sahara, wrote Abdelaziz last week in a letter to Mr. Olusegun Obasanjo, The Current Chairman of the African Union.

"We call for the commencement of an international enquiry regarding this dreadful crime and for bringing its authors to justice, in order to ensure that this humanitarian disaster, of which victims are mostly African citizens, would not occur again", the President of the Republic said in the letter he sent to his Nigerian counterpart informing him on the situation of 117 immigrants Polisario Front rescued from the desert after they were abandoned by Moroccan authorities to their fate.

The Head of the State informed Mr. Obasanjo that Saharawi authorities "mobilized all our military units stationed along the wall to rescue those immigrants and save them from unavoidable death". He underlined that the rescued are now "lodged at shelters administered by the Saharawi Red Crescent throughout the Saharawi liberated territories, especially in Bir Lehlou, Tifariti, Amheiriz, and they are receiving the necessary services, in the presence of MINURSO and a dozen of international humanitarian organisations and media".

On another hand, Mr. Abdelaziz deplored, in a letter he recently addressed to the UN’s Secretary General, the fact that "since Wednesday, 12 October 2005, we have begun picking up clandestine immigrants who were found astray in the Saharawi liberated territories, all in bad shape, exhausted, starving and thirsty after they had been forced by the Moroccan authorities outside the military wall to face the danger of imminent death", it should be stressed.

He recalled the UN’s official that he had already drew his "attention to the fact that the “Moroccan Government was about to carry out a new outrageous act, incompatible with human dignity, that consists in driving ‘clandestine immigrants’ to perish in the middle of the desert as it had done of late, or forcing them out the Moroccan defensive wall that divides Saharawi territories".

117 immigrants, who were expulsed by Morocco and abandoned in the middle of the desert like hundreds other according to their testimonies, were rescued thanks to search efforts deployed by Polisario Front’s and Minurso’s military units. (SPS)

060/090/000 241129 Oct 05 SPS

SPS
SADR/SPAIN

End of the President of the Republic’s visit to the Balearic Islands

24.10.05

Ibiza (Balearic Islands - Spain), 24/10/205 (SPS) The President of the Republic, Mohamed Abdelaziz, ended on Sunday a three days official visit he started last Friday to the Balearic Islands on an invitation from this Spanish autonomous region’s Government.

In Ibiza, the last stage of the visit of the Saharawi presidential delegation, the Head of the State was received by the Executive Councillor in charge of health and common properties, Vicente Serra Ferrer, the President of the Association of solidarity with the Saharawi people and the President of the aid fund "Pituis".

The President of the Council wished welcome to the Saharawi delegation before stressing the good relations that exist between the inhabitants of the Island and the Saharawi people as well as their cooperation in different domains.

A meeting was then organised at the seat of the Island’s Council of Ibiza and Formentera which was attended by elected officials and representatives of the movement of solidarity and the local press.

Upon his return to Mallorca in the evening, the President and the delegation accompanying him were the guests to a big reception which was attended by more than two hundreds persons, mainly representatives of the different Spanish political parties, associations, NGOs and also delegates of the solidarity with the Saharawi people and representatives of the Saharawi community in the Balearic Islands.

On behalf of the audience, the President of the association of solidarity with the Saharawi people expressed the indefectible solidarity of the Balearic Islands with Saharawis in their struggle for justice and freedom. It also stressed the situation that prevails in the occupied territories since last May the 21st and condemned the fierce repression that is striking helpless Saharawi citizens. The President of the Association also asserted that no efforts would be saved to guarantee the release of the Saharawi prisoners of consciousness in the Carcel negra (Black Jail) of El Aaiun and to support and accompany Saharawi resistance until independence.

After the Balearic Islands, the President of the Republic and the delegation accompanying him arrived to Vitoria on Sunday evening for a three days official visit to the Basque country, it was indicated. (SPS)

010/090/100/TRD 241017 oct 05 SPS

SPS
SADR/ITALY/TRADE UNIONS/CONFERENCE

A Conference of the Trade Unionist movement in solidarity with the Saharawi people

Roma, 24/10/2005 (SPS) The three main Italian trade unions, CGIL, CGIL and UIL will organise, in the 28 and 29 October in Roma, a conference of solidarity with the Saharawi people so as to "re-launch the engagement of the trade unions for the finding of a peaceful solution to the Western Sahara conflict and to enforce Saharawi people’s right to self-determination on the basis of the UN’s resolutions", according to the organisers.

This conference, held under the theme ''Which future for Western Sahara", and which will witness the participation of trade unions from Europe, Africa and of the Mediterranean, as well as representatives of workers in the occupied territories of Western Sahara and abroad, including the Secretary General of the General Union of the Workers of Sagia el Hamra and Rio de Oro (UGT SARIO), Mohamed Cheikh. It will also be an opportunity to reaffirm the international Trade Unionist’s solidarity with the Saharawi population, which is "deprived of its elementary right to live in peace over their territory which is occupied by Morocco".

"The trade unionist movement can not passively watch the aggravation of a crisis that remains unresolved for decades", a joint press release of the three Italian trade unions underlined, stressing on "the dramatic consequences" of this situation on the conditions of life o the Saharawi population.

The organisers o this conference also estimate that the European and Mediterranean Trade Unionist movement "can give, apart of the policy of their respective governments, a decisive contribution to the Saharawi people’s cause to ensure a future of progress and cohabitation from it, based on the respect of the UN’s resolutions".

Italian and European Parliamentarians, including Mr. Carlo Leoni and Mr. Alessandro Forlani, co-presidents of the Italian inter-parliamentarian Committee and Mrs. Luisa Morgantini, member to the European Parliament’s Committee on Human rights, will intervene during the debase, it was indicated. (SPS)

010/090/700/TRD 241040 oct 05 SPS