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SPS Zreignat’s "rescued from hell”, entitled Spanish Newspaper “El Periodico” 28.09.05
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El
Aaiun ( occupied territories), 28/09/2005 (SPS)
"Rescued
from hell", Spanish newspaper "El Periodico" entitles an article in its Tuesday
edition, written by the newspaper’s Special envoy who succeeded to visit
Saharawi political prisoner, Lehssen Zreignat, the only rescue so far of the 37
Saharawi political prisoners in hunger strike for the 50 day in the Moroccan
prisons, in his house.
"5 weeks hunger strike in the Carcel negra (Black Jail) in El Aaiun, pushed him to the borders of death" before being released on parole last September the 14th "fearing he will die in prison", the newspaper said, quoting the victim, who affirmed he want to "return back to his cell", considering that it is a "dishonour" to be free while his companions are dying in custody.
Mr. Zreignat, who was arrested, tortured and imprisoned for having written a letter to the Moroccan colonial authorities protesting against the repression and ransacking of Saharawi houses, which took place last may in the Maatallah neighbourhood, affirms he reminded the "the photos of Abou Ghreib" when he got into the Carcel negra, underlining that "only the strong persons or rich ones can stand it".
He indicated that the Carcel Negra is "controlled by a mafia that is implicated with the direction of the prison. Each cell has got a chief and a guardian, both prisoners, who are paid monthly by the Director to control the drug and alcohol’s dealing and to rent places to prisoners to sleep".
"If you pay 2500 dirham (= 230 Euro), which is a big money here, you can have 50 cm to sleep, while those who do not pay would have to sleep in toilets, sleep standing or sitting, having to survive insupportable smells", the same source added.
Mr. Zreignat, finally told his interlocutor about the hardships of the hunger strike and the physical sufferings of the hunger-strikers, affirming that he was certain of never "getting alive out this hell", despite that the director of the prison offered him "the freedom and money" if only he break the hunger strike.
Currently, "like a baby boy", he is about to recuperate slowly, unable to tolerate strong nutrition, after having spent days in hospital. He was admitted in the hospital after a big dispute with the Moroccan Attorney, who wanted to charge the family of the victim of the costs of his convalescence in hospital.
Mr. Zreignat finished this interview sending an appeal to the international NGOs to intervene in favour of hunger strikers. "The lives of these people must be saved", he said with "a voice that recovered firmness", underlined the Special Envoy of the Spanish newspaper, Josep Sauri. (SPS)
010/090/666/TRD 291059 sept 05 SPS
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SPS Algeria vigorously denounces the letter addressed by Morocco to the UN (complete text of the letter of Mr. Baali)
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New York, 28/09/2005 (SPS) The Algerian Permanent Representative to the UN, Mr. Abdallah Baali, vigorously denounced the letter of Morocco’s Representative addressed to the UN, in which Algeria is "directly or allusively blamed about some aspects of the Western Sahara’s conflict", said Mr. Baali in a letter he sent to the President of the UN’s Security Council.
Here is the complete text of the letter SPS translated from French:
New York, the 26th of September 2005.
To
H.E.Mr. Lauro L. Baja
Ambassador, Permanent Representative
Of Philippines to the UN and
President of the Security Council
Mr. President,
I have got the honour to draw the intention of your Excellency on the document S/2005/602 that contains a letter of the Permanent Representative of the Kingdom of Morocco, in which Algeria is directly or allusively blamed about some aspects of the Western Sahara’s conflict.
The kingdom of Morocco was caught in flagrant crime of repression against the Saharawi civil population. International NGOs and media accused Rabat of serious crimes and acts of torture against Saharawi political prisoners. Morocco reacted the same way an occupying or colonial power by closing the territory it illegally occupies since 1975, denying entry to the territory to international media, NGOs and Parliamentarians if not expulsion them manu militari.
Then, and whenever the occupying or colonial powers are face and accused, the Kingdom of Morocco start denouncing pretended manipulation. Morocco affirms that the photos largely spread by the international medias and which exposed the shocking fate Saharawi prisoners are submitted to by well known torturers, are mere falsifications. Further it maintains that these prisoners, who are well identified by Amnesty international as political prisoners, are only vulgar drug dealers.
Finally, like all occupying or colonial powers, who were isolated on the international scene because of the policy of oppression and repression, and instead of instead of recognising its guilt for the crimes committed against Saharawi people during three decades, the kingdom of Morocco resume to insults against its Algerian neighbour accusing it of all its problems.
On another hand, when Morocco dramatises about the fate of its former prisoners of war, who were all released, it tries to make forget that, during years and under the pretext of the closed file, Rabat chose to denied even their (the prisoners) existence and that their release took a long time to be achieved exactly because of these continuous delays and volt-faces of Morocco. First, regarding the referendum of self-determination which should be preceded by the release of all prisoners, according to the very terms of Settlement Plan that was negotiated and accepted by Morocco and Polisario Front, and approved by the UN’s Security Council, besides the Peace Plan for the self-determination for the people of Western Sahara, which was unanimously supported by the UN’s Security Council "by its enforcement all political prisoners and prisoners of war will be release, each party having to honour this obligation whatever the behaviour of the other party is".
Concerning "the thousands Moroccans still in the camps" Morocco seems to be preoccupied about today are, in fact, Saharawi refugees "pertinently identified by the UNHCR", and who did not have other choice than to flee from their country that was invaded and occupied by Morocco. They were generously offered exile by Algeria, as it did with other exiled persons from Africa, Europe, Asia end Latino America. They (the refugees) confidently wait for the day when they can go back home with freedom and dignity.
In brief, thousands of he mentioned Saharawis are settling in the territory fleeing the Moroccan occupation and some of them were received by Algeria under the urgent requests of the pertinent international organisations.
In reality, the mediocrity of the Moroccan discourse relies in its failure to explain to the international community why it is maintaining a whole people under occupation, and why it continues denying these people their right to freely decide over their future, and why it is rejecting, after having accepted, the different UN’s peace plans, despite the disapproval of the international community. Algeria, on its part, remains serene and convinced of being in the side of the law and justice and confident that sooner or later the people of Western Sahara will exercise its inalienable right to self-determination.
Due to the very serious situation that prevails in Western Sahara, where 151 Saharawi prisoners of war and hundreds Saharawi civil are still reported missing, although Polisario Front had for humanitarian reasons released the last Moroccan prisoners of war, and where 37 Saharawi political prisoners are in hunger strike since last August the 8, the Security Council must urgently call on Morocco, on the basis of the Council’s pertinent resolutions, to account for the Saharawi prisoners of war and civil ‘disappeareds’ as well as to put an end to the inexcusable hardship lived by the 37 Saharawi political prisoners whose lives are currently in danger.
Far from this, the Security Council wanted by designating Ambassador Wan Walsun, as the UN’s Secretary General’s Personal Envoy , in succession to Mr. James Baker, to firmly reiterate the necessity of enforcing the Peace Pan for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara, and since it is question here of the finishing of the decolonisation of a non-self-governing territory according to the UN’s Charted, the Council wanted to invite the occupying power to conform to the international legality, which is here the principle of equality between peoples and their rights to govern themselves. The Council, who in its resolution 1495, has clearly indicated this way, can not let Morocco, indefinitely, manage the impasse, paralyse the actions of our organisation and deceive all the aspirations of the international community at a moment when the latter is settled for the celebration of these principles, goals and ideals of the UN.
Abdallah BAALI
Ambassador, Algeria Permanent Representative To the UN." (SPS)
060/090/000 281640 sept 05 SPS
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SPS Many demonstrations in Andalusia in favour of the Saharawi hunger strikers disturb the Hispano-Moroccan summit
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Seville, 28/09/2005 (SPS) 3 demonstrations simultaneously took place Wednesday in Malaga, Almeria and Cordoue in solidarity with the 37 Saharawi political prisoners in hunger strike for the 50 day in the different Moroccan prisons. The demonstrations are organised on the occasion of the high level Hispano-Moroccan meeting that starts this Wednesday in Cordoue and will be continued Thursday in Seville between the Head of the Spanish State and his Moroccan counterpart.
The President of the Federation of the Associations of friendship and solidarity with the Saharawi people, Francisco Guerrero, warned that "the moral responsibility about what may happen to those in hunger strike is not only Moroccan Government’s but also a responsibility of the Spanish Government".
The State’s Coordination of the Associations of solidarity with the Western Sahara, (CEAS-Sahara), which is composed of hundreds associations and thousands sympathisers in all the Spanish autonomous regions, underlined in a press release that the holding of this meeting 'in the current circumstances'', will be a ''real shame for Spain on an international level''.
In fact, the Coordination recalls, ''the only crime of these prisoners i shaving demonstrated against the illegal occupation and claimed for the respect of the UN’s resolutions that stipulate that the territory (Western Sahara) continues to be the object to a process of decolonisation".
''Saharawis have got the right to decide on their future through a just, transparent referendum within the framework of which independence is included as an option'', the Coordination added.
Thus, it noted, the statements of certain Moroccan officials, these last days, which describe Saharawis as ''criminals'' and mentioning, anew, the ''daydream of autonomy'', constitutes a ''real wickedness".
''In a country where there is no liberties and where human rights are not respected, autonomy is not viable and can, in any case, be imposed by an invader'', the Coordination added, recalling that 30 years passed since Spain ''has abandoned the Saharawi people to their fate''.
In this respect, the Coordination called the whole Spanish society to demand from its Spanish leaders to immediately denounce the Tripartite Accords of Madrid of 1975, which made of the Saharawis ''the big sacrifice for our democratic transition".
On another hand, the Coordination will organise Thursday a big demonstration in Seville in front of the seat of the Autonomous Government of Andalusia to denounce the Moroccan repressive practices in the occupied territories of Western Sahara and demand the immediate and unconditional release of the 37 Saharawi political prisoners in hunger strike, for 50 days already, in the different Moroccan prisons, the organisers indicated. (SPS)
010/090/700/TRD 281718 sept 05 SPS
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SPS Creation of a Committee against Torture and Human rights’ violations in Paris
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Paris, 28/09/2005 (SPS) A ''Committee for the respect of the liberties and human rights in Morocco'' was created Wednesday in Paris to inform the French and international opinion on human rights’ violations in the Moroccan kingdom, in like in the case of the 37 Saharawi political prisoners in hunger strike since last August the 9th, reported Algerian Press Agency, APS.
The 37 Saharawi prisoners, who are repressed because of their opinion in favour of the self-determination of their country, had started a hunger strike in the prisons of El Aaiun, Ait Melloul (Agadir), and Oukacha (Casablanca).
They were arrested in the summer of 2005 for having peacefully demonstrated and claimed for the ending of the Moroccan occupation to their country conforming to the UN’s resolutions.
To inform the international opinion about this tragedy many associations, including that of the ''Friends of SADR'', besides personalities from the different tendencies, created a Committee for the respect of the liberties and human rights.
"The creation of this Committee is for us an emergency because of the increase of the repression in Morocco and in the occupied Western Sahara against all those who express in peaceful ways their claim for their right to self-determination", declare the President of the AA-RASD, Mrs. Régine Villemont, quoted by APS.
"It is clear that the Committee will immediately warn the French and European opinions about the urgency of the situation of the Saharawi political prisoners, but its actions will continue as long as Western Sahara is occupied by Morocco. It should never be forgotten that the question of Western Sahara is a question of decolonisation at the first hand", she added.
The action of the Committee "until the liberation of the Saharawi territory" was also put forwards by Mr. Marc Eperon, President of a Federation that is composed of 3.000 associations specialise in the themes of childhood and education.
"The cases of the 37 Saharawi prisoners strengthened our conviction that it is necessary to mobilise all means so as to put an end to the human right’ violation in Western Sahara" and in the occupied territories of Western Sahara, underlined Mr. Eperon.
"Our support to the Saharawi people will continue until it obtains its right to a sovereign country and to a free and independent State", he added.
He "deeply regretted that the international organisation were unable so far to exercise pressures so as the UN’s resolutions on Western Sahara be enforced ".
To the Polisario Front’s Representative to France, Mr. Sadafa Bahia, the field of action of the Committee comes within the framework of "a logic of resistance" of the Saharawi people in the face of the Moroccan occupation. He emphasised on the need to "arising awareness of the maximum persons and institutions about our cause".
Within this vision, the Committee decided to take profit of the very ceremony of creation to start actions, including a demonstration which is planed for this October the 5th, in front of the French National Assembly to inform the French Parliamentarians.
''12 hours of solidarity with the Saharawi people and the Saharawi political prisoners in hunger strike' is the slogan of that demonstration during which demonstrators will call on all the means of communication to inform them about the seriousness of the human rights violations in Morocco and about the serious states of health of the Saharawi political prisoners.
In this respect the Committee decide to call on a collective of doctors to go to the Moroccan prisons to see the prisoners. (SPS)
010/90/700/TRD 281733 sept 05 SPS
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SPS 24 hours sit-in by the friends of the Saharawi people in front of thee seat of the Spanish F.A ministry in Madrid
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Madrid, 28/09/2005 (SPS) hundreds persons started, Wednesday afternoon, a 24 hours sit-in and hunger strike in front of the seat of the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Madrid, in solidarity with the Saharawi political prisoners in hunger strike in Moroccan prisons, reported the Spanish press.
A demonstration that aims at "protesting against the brutal repression and the human rights violations Moroccan forces exercise against the Saharawi civil population in the occupied zones of Western Sahara, and which resulted in dozens persons arrested, imprisoned an tortured", indicated an appeal by the State’s Coordination of the Associations of solidarity with the Western Sahara, (CEAS-Sahara), on Tuesday.
"We claim for justice for the Saharawi detainees and ‘disappeareds’", "Where are they?", "Stop the Moroccan repression", "Morocco! get out of the Sahara", "Referendum ; yes", "Let’s avoid war", are some of the slogans written on placards that were suspended on 3 tents, built in the Lealtad Place, in the centre of Madrid in front of the Ministry. There were also picture of the prisoners piled into the cells of the Carcel Negra as well as the victims of the repression.
The President of the CEAS-Sahara, José Taboada, who will submit on Thursday after the end of the demonstration a letter written by Saharawi political prisoner Ali Salem Tamek to the Spanish Minister for Foreign Affairs, Miguel Angel Moratinos, declared to the press that Saharawi political prisoners in hunger strike "are struggling with the only weapon they got: their lives in exchange of freedom", indicating that other demonstrations will take place in the future in other autonomous regions.
On his part, the General Coordinator of the Unified Left (IU- in Spanish), Gaspar Llamazares, who took part to this demonstration, warned that "Saharawis should not be used by the Spanish Government as a mean of exchange to ameliorate its relations with Morocco", expressing his support to Saharawi people’s right to self-determination.
''The amelioration of the relations between Spain and Morocco must not mean the exclusion of the Saharawi people’s right to self-determination. We call the Spanish Government to assume its responsibilities regarding the Western Sahara and as kit to call on Morocco to put an end to its policy of repression in the occupied territories of the Sahara, a policy that was unanimously condemned by the Spanish Congress (low Chamber of parliament) recently", he recalled.
''We want the Spanish Government to stand for Saharawi people’s right to self-determination, during the summit between the two countries, and demand from Morocco to respect human rights", he said.
The PRESIDENT OF TH Spanish League for Human rights, José Alonso Rodriguez, declared his intention to raise the question of the hunger-striking Saharawi political prisoners in the next meeting of the UN’s Committee for Human Rights, reported Algerian press agency, APS.
''A military invasion can not be legalised, nor legitimised. Morocco can not impose the fait accompli of the Sahara for a hundred years'', Mr. Alonso said, the same source wrote. (SPS)
010/090/700/TRD 281951 sept 05 SPS
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SPS An European Parliamentarian indignant by the Moroccan human rights violations against Saharawi people
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Strasbourg, 28/09/2005 (SPS) The European Parliamentarian, Marta VINCENZI, expressed her indignation about the Moroccan human rights violations against the Saharawi people, calling for the release of the Saharawi political prisoners and to the recognition of the Saharawi Republic, in an intervention before of the European Parliament during its plenary session held in Strasbourg last September the 26th, reported a press release by the Saharawi Ministry for Information.
"The physical conditions of dozens Saharawis in hunger strike are very critical, as Amnesty International announced. Among them there are famous women and men symbols of human rights’ defence", recalled Mrs. Vincinzi addressing her counterparts in the European Parliament.
"Last August Polisario Front released the last Moroccan prisoners of war, which is a positive action that was hailed by the UN’s Secretary General, President Bush, and all the international community", she underlined, estimating that the Saharawi political prisoners in Moroccan cells did not take profit of this positive action.
She asked the Moroccan Government "to cooperate by accepting a peaceful solution to the conflict that goes through the recognition by Morocco of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic", the press release added.
To Mrs. Vincinzi, Europe "can not stay silent", and she claimed for a decisive initiative to "succeed in releasing the Saharawi human rights activists and so as Saharawis who are in the occupied zones or in the refugee camps can find an accord with Morocco, so as to live in peace at last, cooperating to the establishment of the Saharawi Republic, and stop living in exile or in prisons". (SPS)
010/090/666/TRD 282011 sep 05 SPS
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SPS SADR: Instead of helping him getting weapons France would rather convince Morocco respect human rights in Western Sahara
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Bir Lehlou (liberated territories), 28/09/2005 (SPS) The Saharawi Minister of Information, Sid Ahmed Batal, warned about "the imminent dangers", that may result from the signing between France and Morocco of a contract, of 400 Millions Euros, to renovate Morocco’s 27 Mirage F1, estimating that Paris would rather compel Morocco stop his flagrant human rights violations in Western Sahara, indicated a press release publicised Today by the Ministry.
"Getting the information about the signature of a contract, of 400 millions Euros, to renovate the 27 Moroccan Mirage F1", the Saharawi Government would like to "warn against the dangers that may result out of it", estimating that "this French attitude is an inadequate action specially in the current circumstances", which are characterised by the persistence of Morocco in his defiance of the international community by keeping with his systematic human rights violations in the occupied territories of Western Sahara since the military invasion of the non-self-governing territory in 1975 .
"This contract was approved at a moment when the Moroccan Government persists in its violation of the international legality by illegally occupying some zones of the territory of the Saharawi Republic, by violating human rights in these same zones, by its stubbornness to ignore the 37 Saharawi political prisoners in hunger strike for the 50 day so far, the 151 Saharawi prisoners of war Morocco still detains and more than 500 civil ‘disappeareds’ whose fate are still unknown", Mr. Batal Added.
France must convince Morocco to abandon his policy of intransigence and conform to the international legality, not to encourage him ameliorate its armament, "which will undoubtedly be deployed to maintain his colonial army in the occupied zones of the Saharawi Republic, and to strengthen the defences of its wall of shame", estimated the text, of which SPS received a copy. (SPS)
060/090/100 282355 sept 05 SPS
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SPS 100 prisoners leave the Carcel negra and 180 transferred from the prison of Ait Melloul o other Moroccan prisons
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El Aaiun (the occupied capital of SADR), 28/09/2005 (SPS) Moroccan authorities proceeded on Tuesday ad Wednesday, to a big movement of transfer of detainees from the Carcel Negra (Black Jail) in El Aaiun an from the local prison of the Ait Melloul city, within the framework of an attempt to make forget the horrors that were revealed via the photos taken from inside the Carcel Negra and diffused on Internet, showing dozens prisoners piled into narrow cells like sardines and others sleeping in toilets, reported concordant sources in El Aaiun.
"The penitentiary authorities of the Carcel Negra in El Aaiun proceeded Today to the transfer of 72 prisoners, in 2 busses, to the local prison of Ait Melloul and 28 others were transported towards an unknown destination, while in the local prisons of Ait Melloul 150 prisoners were transferred towards the local prison of Tiznit city (south of Melloul) and 30 others were transported to the local prison of Taroudant city (east of Agadir)", reported reliable sources to SPS.
"37 Saharawi political prisoners are still in hunger strike for the 51 day, and are under serious danger because of the deterioration of their health, while the Moroccan authorities adopt a criminal and complete policy of indifference", recalled one of the sources, estimating that this presence explains the big movement in Moroccan prisons. "At least the struggle of the Saharawi political prisoners helped in forcing Morocco give some attention to the serious situation of the Moroccan cells and camps of concentration and torture", the same source added.
Eye witnesses informed SPS that the administration of the prison is working hard, since last September the 21st, to whitewashing the Black Prison and to remedy to the terrible hygienic conditions of the place that did not change since the hasty withdrawal of the former Spanish colonial power in 1975.
Observers think that all this preparations are undertaken to receive the visit of a delegation of the international press, which was expected in El Aaiun last Tuesday. The Moroccan colonial authorities established a "guided" programme for the delegation to attempt to promote "the advantages of the colonial occupation of the Western Sahara and the 'civilisation' virtues of the new coloniser, as well as the 'great' economical and social 'achievements' in what they call their provinces of the south".
In this respect, and to get ready to the visit of this delegation to the Carcel negra, 72 detainees were already transferred to overpopulate other Moroccan prisons out of sight, while reliable reports talk about another possible transfer of more than 400 other prisoners so as to relieve the overcrowding of this "duplicate of the Nazis’ concentration camps", one of the detainees said. (SPS)
060/090/000 280024 sept 05 SPS
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SAHARA
PRESS SERVICE