|
|
|
SPS EP calls on Rabat to end its human rights violations in Western Sahara 28.10.05
|
|
Strasbourg, 28/10/2005 (SPS) European Parliament (EP) calls on Morocco to put an end to its violations of human rights in Western Sahara, demanding the immediate release of all Saharawi political prisoners, in hunger strike since last 19th October, and asking for the revelation of the truth about the fate of more than 500 Saharawi victims of forced ‘disappearance’, according to a resolution adopted by the EP on Thursday and supported by all European political groups.
"Deeply preoccupied about the last reports by Amnesty international and the World Organisation Against Torture (WOAT), who talked about serious violations of human rights, by Morocco, against Saharawi populations", the EP demands from the authorities of "Morocco to immediately release human rights defenders, Mrs. Aminatou Haidar, Mr. Ali Salem Tamek and the other 35 Saharawi political detainees", underlined the resolution, which was approved by 98 votes in favour, none against and one abstention, during the EP’s plenary session held Thursday.
"Hailing the release, by Polisario Front, of all Moroccan prisoners of war", of who the last group was release last August the 18th, the European Parliamentarian groups called on the Moroccan authorities to "account for more than 500Saharawi ‘disappeareds’, including the Saharawis reported missing during military campaigns" waged by Moroccan regime during its invasion of the territory.
The Parliamentarians also noted the discovery of common graves "of persons who died in illegal centres of detention", where it was possible to "determine the places where 57 victims of forced disappearance, among whom 43 are Saharawis", the text added.
On another hand, the resolution asked for "the protection of the Saharawi populations, the respect of their fundamental rights, especially the right to free expression and to the freedom of movement, conforming to the dispositions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to treaties and to international conventions on Human rights".
The text finally exhorted "Morocco to facilitate access the territory of Western Sahara to independent observers, to representatives of human rights’ organisations as well as to the international Medias". (SPS)
060/090/000 280248 Oct 05 SPS
|
SPS EP demands the culmination of the Western Sahara’s process of decolonisation conforming to international legality
|
|
Strasbourg, 28/10/2005 (SPS) European Parliament (EP) "demands to the kingdom of Morocco, to the Polisario Front, to the neighbouring States as well as to the European Union to cooperate with the UN for the finishing of the Western Sahara’s process of decolonisation", conforming to the UN’s Security Council’s pertinent resolutions, underlined a resolution adopted by the EP on Thursday and supported by all European political groups.
Supporting "a just and lasting solution to the Western Sahara’s conflict, on the basis of Law and international legality, conforming to the UN’s Security Council’s pertinent resolutions, especially the resolution 1495", the EP demanded from "to the kingdom of Morocco, to the Polisario Front, to the neighbouring States as well as to the European Union to fully cooperate with the UN for the finishing of the Western Sahara’s process of decolonisation".
On another hand, EP expressed its satisfaction with the nomination, by the UN’s Secretary General, of his Personal Envoy for the Western Sahara in the person of Ambassador Van Valsum and the designation of M. Francisco Bastagli as the Special Representative, in charge of the UN’s Mission for the referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), "what would contribute to re-activate the peace process in Western Sahara", the resolution asserts.
Further, the Euro-parliamentarians officially invited the new Personal Envoy of the UN’s Secretary General to report before the European Parliament’s Committee for Foreign Relations and its sub-committees as well as before its delegations for the Relations with the Maghreb.
Recalling the UN’s Security Council’s and general Assembly’s resolutions as well as the EP’s precedent resolutions regarding the Moroccan-Saharawi conflict, the EP exhorted the European Council and the "Member States to actively support the UN’s efforts calling to the protection of the natural resources of the Western Sahara as far as it is a non-self-governing territory, which is the object to a decolonisation process". It criticised, thus, the Moroccan systematic plundering of the Saharawi natural resources and the European accords of cooperation or investments with Morocco that includes the occupied territories of Western Sahara.
Concerning the visit of a delegation the EP is planning to dispatch to the occupied territories of Western Sahara to investigate on the situation of the human rights violations that prevails in the territory, the resolution considered that this initiative "would provide the EP with new elements of information on the situation", and that it is "convinced that this delegation would be able to achieve its duty without obstacles and at the planed moment, that is to say in January 2006", unless Morocco decides, as it is accustomed, to maintain the occupied territories under the state of siege imposed on the Saharawis since the invasion of their territory in 1975. (SPS)
060/090/000 280356 Oct 05 SPS
|
SPS Sidati: With its new resolution the EP unveils the real face of Moroccan colonialism in Western Sahara
|
|
Strasbourg, 28/10/2005 (SPS) Saharawi Minister delegated to Europe and Member of Polisario Front’s National Secretariat, Mohamed Sidati, affirmed Thursday in Strasbourg in a written statement SPS received, that the new resolution the European Parliament adopted the same day n Western Sahara has unveiled, before of the international community, the colonial and repressive policy of Morocco in the occupied territories of the non-self-governing territory.
By adopting this "firm resolution that denounces the violations of human rights and support Saharawi people’s legitimate rights to self-determination", the EP addressed "the Moroccan kingdom, in the clearest terms, to express its condemnation and disagreement with the Moroccan colonial and repressive policy in Western Sahara", he asserted.
Thus, "with this resolution adopted on Western Sahara by European Parliamentarians –al democratic political groups included- denounce the terrible injustice and its consequence the brutal repression by the Moroccan authorities committed against the Saharawi people. They estimated, indeed, that there is nothing more unjust than an occupation via the use of power and violence as it is the case in Western Sahara", the text confirmed.
The EP has directly demanded from Morocco, the Saharawi minister adds, "to reconsider its disastrous colonial policy that is the bearer of all the ingredients of destabilisation in the region of the Maghreb, what is in itself a threat to Europe".
Therefore the EP "called on the (European) Council and the Committee asking them to pay efforts and provide an active support to the UN for the resolution of the conflict on the basis of self-determination for the Saharawi people", Mr. Sidati estimates.
This European position confirms, if need be, "the increasing isolation o the policy of Morocco in the Western Sahara within the European bodies, especially the EP", the Saharawi diplomat estimates.
On another hand, Mohamed Sidati, criticised the shameful attempts "undertaken by the Moroccan Government, which quadrupled these days the number of its envoys, visiting the Parliamentarians in their seats to make them change their opinion.
Sidati expressed his satisfaction with the firmness and integrity of the European Parliaments who did not hesitate to "clearly declare to their Moroccan interlocutors that they are upset, or even chocked about the inhumane treatment reserved to the Saharawi populations in the occupied territories and about the intransigent attitude of Morocco concerning the
Rejection of a just and democratic solution to the conflict of Western Sahara".
"Deeply preoccupied about the last reports by Amnesty international and the World Organisation Against Torture (WOAT), who talked about serious violations of human rights, by Morocco, against Saharawi populations", the EP demands from the authorities of "Morocco to immediately release human rights defenders, Mrs. Aminatou Haidar, Mr. Ali Salem Tamek and the other 35 Saharawi political detainees", underlined the resolution, which was approved by 98 votes in favour, none against and one abstention, during the EP’s plenary session held Thursday.
Supporting "a just and lasting solution to the Western Sahara’s conflict, on the basis of Law and international legality, conforming to the UN’s Security Council’s pertinent resolutions, especially the resolution 1495", the EP demanded from "to the kingdom of Morocco, to the Polisario Front, to the neighbouring States as well as to the European Union to fully cooperate with the UN for the finishing of the Western Sahara’s process of decolonisation".
Recalling the UN’s Security Council’s and general Assembly’s resolutions as well as the EP’s precedent resolutions regarding the Moroccan-Saharawi conflict, the EP exhorted the European Council and the "Member States to actively support the UN’s efforts calling to the protection of the natural resources of the Western Sahara as far as it is a non-self-governing territory, which is the object to a decolonisation process". It criticised, thus, the Moroccan systematic plundering of the Saharawi natural resources and the European accords of cooperation or investments with Morocco that includes the occupied territories of Western Sahara. (SPS)
060/090/000 281407 Oct 05 SPS
|
|
SAHARA
PRESS SERVICE