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SPS Mrs. Aminatou Haidar asks the EU for urgent intervention to release Saharawi political prisoners 28.06.05
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Pretoria, 28/062006 (SPS) The Saharawi human rights activist, Mrs. Aminatou Haidar, called on the European Union (EU) to urgently intervene so as to exhort the Moroccan authorities to immediately release all Saharawi political prisoners.
In a letter she addressed to the President of the European Parliament, Mr. Josep Borell, Mrs. Haidar, who is actually undertaking a visit to South Africa, asked for the immediate release of the human rights activists arrested last June the 17 and asked for the legal procedures engaged against them, exhorting the European parliament to clearly denounce the Moroccan practices.
Here is the complete text of the letter, of which SPS received a copy:
"
South Africa, 26 June 2006.
Dear Mr. BORRELL FONTELLES,
Following my recent visit to the European Parliament, where I had the chance to be received by you and by members of different political groups, the Kingdom of Morocco remains unwilling to put an end to its systematic violations of human rights, and has even intensified its brutal repression against the Saharawi civil population.
The use of force that targets our entire population, including our children and old people, has reached unparalleled proportions and is now targeting the human rights activists in particular, who have increasingly been harassed. In this context, the occupying authorities have just intensified their persecution by arresting, on 17 June, a group of Saharawi human rights activists comprising Brahim Sabar, former prisoner of conscience and General Secretary of the Saharawi Association of the Victims of the Gross Violations of Human Rights perpetrated by the Kingdom of Morocco; Ahmed Sbai, former prisoner of conscience and member of the Coordination Council of the association; and Heddi Kainane, former prisoner of conscience, and his brother Heddi Saleh.
The case of Lehmam Salama Brahim Mulud is extremely serious after he was subject to an attempt of murder by a common-law delinquent, who was sharing with him the same cell, at the instigation of an officer at the prison of Inzegan.
In addition to the above-mentioned cases, other Saharawi citizens have been arrested and tortured by police forces such as Taubali Hafed, Ahmaidat Ahmed Salem and Gasmi Lehbib.
The lack of democracy and the regime of terror of which we are victims have made our situation unbearable. Consequently, besides stifling our voices and those of Saharawi activists through detention and unfair trials, the Kingdom of Morocco continues to resort to forced disappearance as a means of oppression. A recent case in point is the trial of El Hafed Tubali whose whereabouts remain unknown after he had been kidnapped last week.
The European Union cannot turn a blind eye to what is happening near its borders nor try to ease its conscience by making simple calls for the respect for human rights in Western Sahara. It is for this reason that, as a human rights activist, I call for your urgent intervention to press the Moroccan authorities to ensure the immediate release of my fellows and cancel the lawsuits levelled against them, and to make the European Parliament condemn vehemently the abuses of human rights.
The situation that we are going through is tantamount to a silent genocide of our people that the International Community should impede, while working to be present in situ given the importance and urgency of dispatching an ad hoc delegation of the European Parliament to the Territory. This delegation cannot remain hostage to the cunnings of the Kingdom of Morocco. Therefore, I would like to call on the delegation to immediately embark on its trip in the framework of the mission with which it was entrusted by the Parliament in accordance with its resolution of 27 October 2005.
The longer it takes the worse the situation becomes. For three decades we have been enduring the manoeuvres and dilatory tactics of the Kingdom of Morocco. The European Parliament cannot and should not succumb to Morocco's blackmailing, nor should it allow that its credibility be questioned, which implies in this case tolerating that Morocco persists in its strategy of hiding from the scrutiny of the International Community the appalling silent genocide of the Saharawi civil population under its military occupation.
Mr. BORRELL FONTELLES,
I trust that you will heed this call that I also launch on behalf of my fellows. You are our brothers and our hope because, you as a President of the European Parliament and all members of this institution and the Saharawi people, we all are historically united in the search for and defence of the values of democracy, justice and freedom.
Yours sincerely,
Aminatou Haidar
Saharawi Human Rights Activist". (SPS)
010/090/700/TRD 281615 jun 06 SPS
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SPS MR. Lehmam calls on human rights organisations to protect Saharawis against Moroccan opression
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Agadir (south Morocco), 28/06/2006 (SPS) Saharawi political prisoner, Lehmam Salama Brahim Mouloud, incarcerated in the Moroccan prison of Inzegan, and actually in the hospital of Agadir, called on human rights organisations to protect Shaarawi citizens against the "serious human rights violations perpetrated by the Moroccan State in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara and in the south of Morocco".
In a written statement, of which SPS received a copy, Mr. Lehmam also asked for the judgment of the Moroccan officials accountable for these abuses, estimating that "the Moroccan Government is and remains accountable for the possible results of the recent attempt of his assassination.
He finally expressed his "unconditional support and solidarity" with all Saharawi political prisoners in the prison of Carcel negra in El Aaiun (Western Sahara), in the prison of Inzegan and that of Ait Melloul but also in the south of Morocco.
The Saharawi political prisoner, Lehmam Salama Brahim Mouloud, who is detained in the prison in the Moroccan city of Inzegan, was recently stabbed at the neck by a Moroccan prisoner under the orders of an employee of the prison called Abdellatif, it should be recalled.
According to medical source from the hospital "Hassan II" in Agadir, the state of helth of Mr. Lehmam, I very critical, and may need a chirurical intervention, it should be recalled. (SPS)
020/090/110/TRD 281350 Jun 06 SPS
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SPS ASVVGDHEM Denounces heavy sentences against human rights activists in El Aaiun
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El Aaiun (occupied territories), 28/06/2006 (SPS) The Saharawi Association of the Victims of the Flagrant Human Rights Violations Committed by the Moroccan State (ASVVGDHEM), denounced on Wednesday, the heavy sentences, between 2 to 3 years imprisonments, which was pronounced on Tuesday by the Moroccan colonial court against three Saharawi activists, including the Secretary General of the Association, Brahim Sabbar.
The Association also condemned "the savage repression and torture" to which the three activists were subjected to during their detention in Moroccan police secret torture centres, calling for "the opening of an investigation" and to the judgment of the persons accountable for the exercise of torture, indicated a press release by the ASVVGDHEM, which was publicised on Wednesday.
The Association asked for: the revelation of the truth on the assassination of Martyrs Lembarki Hamdi and Abba cheikh, as well as on the attempt to assassinate the young Saharawi, Saaidi Salek, who was recently set on fire in a police station in the occupied capital of the Western Sahara, El Aaiun; to consider hundreds complaints against Moroccan security officials, presented by Saharawi citizens victims of torture and other abuses.
ASVVGDHEM also launched an "urgent" appeal to the international community, especially the UN and the Security Council, to "assume their responsibility towards the deterioration of the human rights situation in the Western Sahara".
It finally asked all the lovers of peace and justice, to "guarantee to these Saharawi political prisoners their right to a fair trial and to exercise pressures on the Moroccan Government to respect the human rights in this territory".
The three Saharawi human rights activists in addition to the ex-political prisoner, Sbai Ahmed, were arrested and ill-treated since about tend days by the Moroccan forces of repression, upon their return from the occupied city of Bojador where they supervised the foundation of a new section of the ASVVGDHEM, it should be recalled. (SPS)
020/090/110/TRD 191030 June 06 SPS
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SPS AFASPA interpellates the EU to respect human rights in the Western Sahara
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Bagnolet (France), 28/06/2006 (SPS) The French Association of Friendship and Solidarity with the Peoples of Africa (AFASPA), called on the European Parliament (EP), Monday, to "use its influence" and to "condition its cooperation with the kingdom of Morocco by the respect of human rights" and the "organisation of free referendum, which is the only way that can finish the decolonisation" of the Western Sahara.
I a letter that it addressed to the President of the EP, M. Josep BOREL, of which SPS received a copy, the AFASPA estimated that "the illegal situation imposed by a country that advocates and obtain accords with the European Community can no more continue without undermining the credibility of the institutions in charge of the defence of the respect o the international law".
In this respect, the AFASPA underlined the strategy adopted by Morocco towards the international community so as "to try to hide what is happening in the territory through the disinformation of the international press, the obstruction to the access to the territory of the Western Sahara to journalists, in addition to the expulsion of the journalists and supporters of the Saharawi cause and international observers".
AFASPA also asked the European Parliament to "implement it decision to send an ad-hoc delegation on the ground, as well as all initiative that favours the freedom for the Saharawi people". (SPS)
020/090/000/TRD 282005 June 06 SPS
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SPS A Week of the Saharawi Republic from July the 5th to the 12th in Algiers
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Algiers, 28/06/2006 (SPS) The Algerian National Committee of solidarity with the Saharawi people (CNASPS), will organise from July the 5th to the 12th, the week of the Saharawi Republic, the President of the association, Mahrez Lamari, announced on Wednesday, the Algerian Press Service, APS, reported.
To this event a delegation of the Polisario Front, composed of 150 member, chaired by the President of the Republic, Mohamed Abdelaziz, will participate in "a quality development of the solidarity and support of the Algerian people to the Saharawi people", Mr. Lamari declared during a press conference in Algiers.
The week of the Saharawi Republic in Alger sis a full program of cultural, political and artistic event animated by Algerian and Saharawi artists, Mr. Lamari said.
Conferences such as "the Algerian revolution and the edification of the State" and "the women and the edification of the institutions of the Saharawi Republic", will also be organised during this week.
On another hand, Mr. Lamari declared that a caravan will transport after this event an amount of aid offered by the Algerian citizen of Algiers to the Saharawi refugees under the slogan "the humanitarian caravan of independence".
He also indicated that 600 Saharawi children are invited to spend their vacations in Algerian beaches from July the 15th to August the 31st. (SPS)
010/090/700/TRD 281625 June 06 SPS
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SPS Mr. Ould Salek participates to the meeting of the AU Executive Council in Banjul
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Banjul, 28/06/2006 (SPS) The Saharawi Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mohamed Salem Ould Salek, participated on Wednesday in Banjul, to the meeting of the African Union (AU) Executive Council (Council of Ministers), which is held two days before the annual summit of the African Heads of States and Governments planed for July the 1st and 2n in Banjul.
The Executive Council will discuss, for two days, the report of the AU Council for Peace and Security, the report of the Group of the seven Heads of the State concerning the subject of the project of the United States of Africa, the subject of health in the continent, the reform of the United Nations, the crisis and tensions in the different African regions in addition to other subjects.
The meetings will study all these subjects, including the common position to face the European policy of immigration and the creation of an African research centre on immigration, the project of the Charter for Democracy, and the ratification of the Convention for the protection and promotion of cultural diversity, before presenting them to the leaders of the continent, it was indicated.
The Saharawi Minister is accompanied by a delegation composed of the Secretary General of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Mohamed Yeslem Beissat, in addition to Ambassador to the AU, Lehbib Breica, and Alioune Habib Kentawi, Ambassador to Nigeria. (SPS)
010/090/100/TRD 281755 June 06 SPS
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SPS The Assembly of Madrid supports Saharawi people’s right to self-determination
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Madrid, 28/06/2006 (SPS) The Assembly of the autonomous Community of Madrid recently approved a motion in which it expressed its support to the Saharawi people’s right to self-determination and its condemnation of the "repression exercised by the Moroccan army in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara".
The Assembly of Madrid "support the Saharawi people’s right to freely decide on their destiny through a self-determination referendum, so many times delayed, so as they can live in peace in their country, the Western Sahara, as stipulated in the different UN resolutions", has underlined the motion, which was presented by the Izquierda Unida Party (unified left).
The motion, which also received the support of the Socialist and Popular Parties condemns "the repression exercised by the Moroccan army in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara, which was intensified during the last year after the starting of the Saharawi peaceful national resistance".
The Assembly of Madrid further asked the UN, the European Union and Governments and the Spanish Government "to assume their responsibilities and urge Morocco to respect the international legality so as to hasten the settlement of the conflict on the basis of the exercise of the right to self-determination through a referendum that will allow Saharawi people to freely decide on their future ".
The motion also urged to more support and more assistance to the Saharawi refugees, who are suffering the hard conditions of refuge in one of the most inhospitable landscapes on earth. (SPS)
010/090/700/TRD 281637 June 06 SPS
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