SAHARA PRESSE SERVICE

SPS
SADR/MOROCCO/EGYPT/MEDIAS

Autonomy for the Western Sahara, a manœuvre against the Saharawi right to self-determination (Abdelaziz)

26.09.06

Cairo, 26/09/2006 (SPS) The last initiative of the Moroccan King, Mohamed VI, consisting in giving autonomy to Saharawis, is only a manoeuvre aiming to deprive the Saharawi people from exercising their right to self-determination, affirmed the President of the Republic, Mohamed Abdelaziz, in an interview to the Egyptian newspaper, "Al Ahram", publicised on Monday.

The idea of this project "is not a new idea, because it was already proposed by the late King, Hassan II, and brings nothing new for the settlement of the conflict", the President of the Republic recalled.

"It is a manoeuvre aiming to stop the Saharawi people from exercising their right to self-determination and an attempt to confiscate their national rights, this is why we completely reject this proposal", he said.

President Abdelaziz also underlined that Morocco must conform to the international legality and answer the demands of the United Nations so as the Saharawi people can decide over their future through a self-determination referendum.

In this respect, the Head of the Saharawi State wondered about the reasons behind the Moroccan rejection of the referendum, the plan proposed by the ex-UN Secretary General’s Envoy in charge for the Western Sahara dossier, James Baker, and the rejection of the resolution 1415 that recommends some fundamental points including a period of a 4 to 5 years autonomy before the organisation of a referendum.

The Saharawi President qualified the invitation by the “Moroccan Royal Consultative Council for the Western Sahara”, a Moroccan body recently re-constituted by Rabat, to "a direct dialogue" for the settlement of the question of the Western Sahara, "a vain and too late manoeuvre", he said.

He recalled, however, that the Council is not recent, adding that everybody remembers that the Council was created by the late King Hassan II of Morocco in 1981 after his return from the Summit of the then Organisation of African Unity, held in Nairobi, during which he announced, to the entire world, that he approves the organisation of a self-determination referendum for the Saharawi people.

On another hand, Mr. Mohamed Abdelaziz indicated that his last visit to Washington "was a success".

"We realised some positive results", he affirmed, adding that "this does not exclude the fact that without the unconditional support to Morocco by some permanent members of the UN Security Council, France in particular, the Saharawi question would have been resolved".

He recalled, in the same respect, the position of the United States, which remains attached to the Baker Plan and asks the UN to resolve the question. (SPS)

010/090/700/TRD 260859 sept 06 SPS

SPS
OCCUPIED TERRITORIES/MOROCCO/HUMAN RIGHTS

A Moroccan NGOs concerned about Saharawi activists conditions of detention

Rabat, 26/09/2006 (SPS) A Moroccan human rights organisation expressed, on Monday, its ''concern'' about the deterioration of the state of health of the Saharawi political detainees, who are undertaking a hunger strike in three Moroccan prisons, especially in the notorious Carcel Negra (Black Jail) in the city of El Aaiun, the occupied capital of the Western Sahara.

The Moroccan Association for Human Rights (AMDH- French abbreviation), expressed, in a press release publicised by its Central Bureau, a ''vivid concern'' about the deterioration of the state of health of the Saharawi political prisoners, in hunger strike since last September the 4^th to claim for their rights, including the amelioration of the conditions of detention.

11 Saharawi political prisoners, including some human rights activists detained for six months so far in the notorious ''Carcel Negra'' in the occupied city of El Aaiun, and in the Moroccan cities of Inzegan and Aït Melloul, are observing periodical hunger strikes since last June 2006.

The hunger strikes denounce especially ''their inhumane conditions of detention, the harassment they are daily subjected to as well as to demand to be gathered together in the same cell'', human rights defenders indicate.

AMDH called on the Moroccan authorities of occupation ''to open a dialogue with the Saharawi political detainees'', because, according to the Moroccan NGO, ''the pursuit of the hunger strike may damage their health, if not threaten their lives''.

The NGO, further, underlined ''the alarming situation in the Moroccan prisons'', which lead many detainees to undertake many movements of protest and hunger strikes, not to talk about the death of three prisoners during the last weeks, the press release stressed. (SPS)

010/090/700/TRD 260914 sept 06 SPS