SAHARA PRESSE SERVICE

Roma, 27/10/2006 (SPS) The Saharawi human rights activist and ex-political prisoner, Mrs Aminetou Haidar, was granted Naples’ honorific citizenship (Italian) for her restless struggle for the respect of human rights in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara under Moroccan occupation.

During the ceremony that took place at the seat of Naples’ Mayoralty with the presence of many local political officials, Mrs. Haidar received from the hands of Naples’ Mayor, Mrs. Rosa Lervolino Russo, a medallion and a document granting her the honorific citizenship of the capital of the southern Italy, as a proof of admiration and respect of the values the Saharawi activist is conveying in her struggle for the respect of human rights in the Western Sahara.

In her speech, Mrs. Russo praised the qualities of the Saharawi activist, who dedicated her life to a noble cause, the Saharawi struggle, she is defending in the occupied territories as well as in the different international forums.

The Mayor evoked the great engagement of Mrs. Haidar in the peaceful struggle of the Saharawi people and their legitimate right to freely decided over their future. She recalled of the numerous recognitions and awards Mrs. Haidar was granted by the international community as well as her widely appreciated and remarked interventions before the European Parliament, the UN Commission for Human Rights as well as other forums, where she informed about the serious deterioration of the human rights situation in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara.

Mrs. Russo underlined that Naples is "proud", out of a sense of solidarity "and deep admiration", to offer the honorific citizenship to a woman "of such a great status and deep sensitiveness" who is peacefully struggling against violence to defend her people and who is engaged in the noble cause of the defence of human rights.

She further said that the Italian authorities will be more engaged for the respect of the international legality in Western Sahara and so as to help put an end to the persecutions and sufferings of the Saharawi people.

On her side, Mrs. Haidar declared to be honoured about this distinction, which is, she said, "a new recognition of the Saharawi people’s peaceful struggle and a new proof on the Italian people and authorities’ solidarity with the Saharawi people’s cause".

It is also, she added ''a new defeat for the Moroccan authorities, who resort to violations, violence, intimidations and close the territories under their occupation, forbidding the representatives of the international community from investigating on what is really happening there, all this in complete contradiction and disregard to the international legality".

She finally expressed gratitude to the authorities of Naples, and to the Italian authorities, associations and activists for the active support to the Saharawi cause, saluting the "positive" position of the Italian Government during the recent vote on a resolution on the Western Sahara in the UN General Assembly’s Fourth Committee on Decolonisation, recalling that Roma has then voted in favour of the exercise by the Saharawi people of their right to self-determination and independence. (SPS)

010/090/700/TRD 271950 oct 06 SPS

SPS
WESTERN Sahara/MOROCCO/INTERNATIONAL

LAW Saharawi people’s national rights confirmed by international jurists

La Hague, 27/10/ 2006 (SPS) Saharawi people’s right to self-determination was confirmed, on Friday in The Hague, by European an American experts in international law, during an academic conference on the "question of the Western Sahara and the international law", organised by the Hague’s Institute for Social Studies (Netherlands).

The Secretary General of the NGO "platform of jurists for East Timor", Pedro Pinto Leite estimated that the question of the Western Sahara is completely clear as long as the international law is concerned. He stressed that Morocco is the only party that seems to have a special reading of this question, falsifying the facts and using political arguments to justify its position.

In this respect, he gave an example with Rabat exclusion of the points in the International Court of Justice’s legal opinion that contradicts Morocco’s expansionist thesis in the Western Sahara.

While this legal opinion, he said, says that only "some" Chiefs of Saharawi tribes had had relations with the Alaouit Monarchy and that this does in no way affirm the Moroccan sovereignty over the Western Sahara, the Moroccan Government, in its official literature, has absolutely eliminated the adjective "some", and thus distorts the opinion of this UN court.

In addition, Rabat ignores, in its official thesis, any recognition of the Saharawi people’s right to self-determination contained in the same legal opinion of the Hague’s Court, he further said.

It is clear, Mr. Pinto Leite said, that the objective the Moroccan Government seeks is to "curiously" deform the international legality to perpetuate its policy of occupation of the Western Sahara.

The jurist, who sees a complete similarity between the Saharawi case and the East Timor’s, which was resolved years ago through a self-determination process, also denounced "the total illegality" of the Moroccan exploitation of the Saharawi natural resources.

Thus, he added, the European Union-Morocco fishing agreement, which includes the Saharawi territorial waters, is completely illegal and "violates the norms of the international law".

This same opinion is also shared by Professor Roger Clark, Member of the Council of Law Professors of the Rutgers School (United States of America). He considered that the forced occupation of the Western Sahara is an "aggression" is a violation of the Saharawi people’s right to self-determination according to the UN’s norms.

The Finnish Professor of International Law, Mr. Lauri Hannikainen estimates that the occupation of the Western Sahara is a triple facet case of violation of the international law, a violation of the right to self-determination, a forcible occupation of a territory and an illegal exploitation of the natural resources of a territory.

The Spanish Professor Eduardo Trillo considered that Spain remains the administrative power of the Saharawi territory and consequently it should assume the results of the Moroccan occupation. "By refusing to denounce the Moroccan occupation Spain flee its responsibilities", he estimated.

The Saharawi Representative in the United Kingdom and Ireland, Dr. Sidi Omar, developed for the audience, including a great number of Law students, the legal, historical and political framework of the Saharawi people’s struggle. Polisario Front’s Representative recalled the genesis of the occupation of the Western Sahara and of the Saharawi people’s resistance since the Spanish occupation.

Meanwhile, he recalled the evolution of the international legality until the Baker Plan, which expressed the international consensus hindered by Morocco.

The British writer and journalist, Toby Shelley, the writer of "Endgame in the Western Sahara", confirmed the deep-rootedness and the continuity of the Saharawi resistance to the colonial occupation since the sixties, despite the proclamation of the cease-fire in 91.

The Hague’s conference will be continued Saturday by other conferences on the exploitation of the Western Sahara’s natural resources. (SPS)

010/090/700/TRD 271957 oct 6 SPS

SPS
SADR/MOROCCO/SOUTH AFRICA/MEDIAS

"The Moroccan military wall of separation is a crime against humanity" (Ambassador)

Pretoria (South Africa), 27/10/2006 (SPS) "The Moroccan military wall of separation (in the Western Sahara) is a crime against humanity at all levels", the Saharawi Ambassador to Pretoria, Oubbi Bouchraya Bachir, declared in an interview to the South African television, SABC AFRICA, in its daily programme «African Visions», last Tuesday.

Mr. Bachir stressed that "on the political plan, the wall of separation reinforced the military siege of the occupied territories of the Western Sahara, encourages the Moroccan regime to persist in the denial of the Saharawi people’s right to a self-determination referendum, and consequently prolongs the tragedy of our people".

"On the humanitarian plan, it divides the country to two parts, separates the Saharawi families, disfigures the environment, not to forget the millions mines that surround this wall and cause death and injuries among the Saharawi civilians every year", he added during this programme consecrated to African deserts and especially the Western Sahara.

Villages and communities were "simply erased from the map by the Moroccan army of occupation", because of the Moroccan military wall, the Saharawi diplomat stressed.

"The Western Sahara as a landscape is deeply injured, and its beauty, so long chanted by poets, stained by this horrible wall", he said, before he addressed the African spectators drawing their attention to the particularity of the Saharawi case since the occupying power is another African country, Morocco. (SPS)

010/090/100/TRD 271716 oct 06 SPS