SAHARA PRESS SERVICE

SPS
Washington, 26/07/04 (SPS) American Democrat Congressman, Jim McDermott, criticised " way in which Morocco has handled the Western Sahara", qualifying it as "a stain" on Moroccan contemporary history. He also stressed on the need to exclude Western Sahara from the US-Morocco Free Trade Agreement (FTA).

Hailing American Congress' decision to clarify this detail in the official document of the FTA, Mr. Dermott underlined that " in no way does the free trade agreement cover trade investment in the Western Sahara",  in his intervention before of the Committee for ways and means.

Beside the fact that this "agreement will have a negligible impact on trade and negligible impact on our economies", he maintained, "We should have ensured that the area of Western Sahara was justly and peacefully resolved before signing the accord, stressing on the need "to protect the indigenous people of the Saharawi who live in Western Sahara".

USA, emphasised the Congressman should have exerted pressures on Morocco before signing this accord with "a nation that has been occupying a territory to which it has no legal claim for 25 years, a nation that has erected a 2,000-kilometer wall to keep the inhabitants of Western Sahara from fleeing, with a country that has no respect for the right of self-determination" of Saharawi people, as decided by UN for a politic, fair and lasting settlement to the conflict in Western Sahara.

The United States Trade Representative, Robert B. Zoellick, had underlined that the FTA recently signed with Morocco does not include Western Sahara, it should be recalled.
 
" The United States and many other countries do not recognize Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara", he indicated, adding that "The Administration's position on Western Sahara is clear: sovereignty of Western Sahara is in dispute, and the United States fully supports the United Nations' effort to resolve this issue". (SPS)

060/090/000 261350 JUL 04 SPS

SPS
SADR/SPAIN/SOLIDARITY
The President of the Parliament of Andalusia will receive Tuesday Saharawi children in holidays' colonies

Seville 26/07/2004,(SPS) The President of the Parliament of Andalusia, Maria del Mar Moreno, will receive Tuesday afternoon a delegation of Saharawi children in holidays colonies, at the Parliament building, indicates a communiqué of the Seville Provincial Association of friendship with the Saharawi people, SPS received.

These children, will ask the President of the Parliament to exhort Spanish Government "to back the organisation of a referendum on self-determination of Saharawi people, as decided in United Nations’ resolutions, so as to enforce international legality in Western Sahara and in order to strengthen security and stability to the benefit of all the peoples of the Maghreb", indicated the same source.

The young Saharawi ambassadors will ask international community "to dismantle the wall of shame, built by Morocco in 1980, having already caused death to hundreds and injuries to thousands victims and which is maintaining Saharawi families separated since decades", it was added.

It should be recalled the young Saharawis, who will spend two months among Families in Andalusia, were received by the Defender of the people of Andalusia, the Mayor of Seville, and the Delegate of the Government of Andalusia and the President of Seville’s office of deputy.
.
In a programme called "holidays in peace", more than 9000 Saharawi kids were received this year by Spanish families from all regions. (SPS)

040/090/100/TRD 261234 July 04.

SPS
SADR/SPAIN
Spanish writers call Zapatero to an effective commitment to impose the respect of Saharawi people's rights

Madrid, 26/07/2004 (SPS) More than 190 Spanish writer called Monday the Head of Spanish Government, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, to make use of his voice and prestige in commitment and support to the just cause of Saharawi people.

"The positions maintained by successive Spanish Governments, since 1975 so far, were ambiguous if not contradictory. It is time to see far to the future and to strengthen a political line which will bring justice to prevail ", underlined the signatories in a letter addressed to Mr. Zapatero, of which SPS received a copy.

The writers noted that "we can not stand in an equal position towards the victim and the aggressor", baring in mind "that the ethical accountability towards Saharawis should be relevant to our responsibility" and that "Saharawis have always shown their ties and confidence in Spanish people".

After the unbalanced war Saharawi people led against Mauritania from one side and Morocco from the other, and after peace agreements signed, "many UN's resolutions had reaffirmed Saharawi people right to self-determination, added to accords followed by successive Baker's plans, were all pushed to failure by Morocco", recalled the writers.

"Spain, for political circumstances not worth recalled and which have no ethical justifications, had ignominiously abandoned Saharawi people to their fate with which Spain was linked for more than a century", recalled the letter.

The text, also, recalled that 30 years have already passed since Madrid's accords while 200.000 Saharawis, old peoples and children included, live badly in the refugees' camps, claiming for the enforcement of international accords from the desert

The signatories addressed a similar letter to the 36th conference of Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) in power, noted the text. (SPS)

020/090/000/TRD 261215 JUL 04 SPS

SPS
MOROCCO/MOHAMED VI/ASSESSMENT/DECEPTION/MEDIAS
After five years governing, the subjects of his majesty are deceived, according to Spanish press

Madrid, 26/07/2004 (SPS) Moroccan citizens are deceived about the lack of creativity of their Monarch and about Mohamed VI disastrous management of the affairs of the State, who "perpetrated the privileges of the crown and deepened the poverty" in the country, noted Spanish newspaper, El Periodico, in its Sunday's edition.

"Five years ago, Moroccans put their hopes in this new young Monarch, with his timid gestures and sensitive appearance", wishing that Mohamed VI be the King who build up "a new Morocco, full of justice, with less poverty and more jobs", indicated the newspaper, adding that today Moroccans have abandoned the dream in the change of the country and the curing of the sufferings of its citizens.

"The society is divided in two. On the one side, the Makhzen protecting the Monarchy and monopolising the economical resources of the country, while in the other the rest of Moroccans, who have no other alternative but to try to survive", noted the same source, referring to interviewed Moroccans.
 
The newspaper indicated that in terms of human rights, "the deterioration was enormous and torture was instituted", while within the economic sphere "the Monarch is the first businessman and the first banker in Morocco".

"The absence of political reforms and the voraciousness of the Makhzen accentuated poverty, underdevelopment and unemployment", stressed the newspaper, indicating that "20% of the population live under the absolute poverty line while half the population live in a rest of sorts poverty situation".

"Moroccan misery led the country to be a breeding ground for terrorists who strike in their territory as well as in other countries", warned the newspaper. (SPS)

010/090/666/TRD 261111 July 04 SPS