|
|
|
SPS Mohamed Abdelaziz: "the autonomy presented by Morocco aims at hindering" the Saharawi people’s self-determination 29.01.06
|
|
Santiago de Compostela (Spain), 29/01/2006 (SPS) The President of the Republic, Mohamed Abdelaziz, declared on Saturday that "the autonomy presented by Morocco aims at hindering the holding of a referendum" on the Saharawi people’s self-determination. He affirmed that King Hassan II death was "a real loss for the enforcement of the UN’s resolutions in Western Sahara", reported Spanish Press Agency, EFE.
In a press conference he gave in Santiago de Compostela within the framework of the official visit he started last Friday in Galicia, the Head of the Saharawi State warned that the attempts deployed by the "Moroccan Government to create an autonomy for the Western Sahara under the Moroccan sovereignty is an attempt that aims at hindering the holding of a referendum" on self-determination conforming to the UN’s resolutions.
He also considered that the coming to power of Mohamed VI on the Alaouit throne revealed to be "deceiving, in the course of time, as we noticed that the behaviour of the new king, regarding human rights in Western Sahara, was worse than his father’s".
Saharawis arrived to the conclusion that the death of Hassan II, "was a real loss for the enforcement of the UN’s resolutions", since the new king is trying by all means to distort the international legality an impose a colonial fait accompli in Western Sahara, while his father has at least accepted the concept of the self-determination referendum for the Sahara people.
The President of the Republic finally affirmed that his Government is "deeply concerned about the violations, committed by the Moroccan kingdom, against Saharawi people’s fundamental rights to self-determination in the occupied territories of Western Sahara".
Mr. Abdelaziz, was received on Friday in vigo by the President of the Government of the region of Galicia, the socialist Emilio Perez Tourinio, the vice-President, Anxo Quintana, from the Galician Nationalist bloc in addition to the President of the Parliament, Dolores Villarino, with whom he had meetings discussing the last developments of the political and humanitarian situation in Western Sahara, it should be recalled.
Le Président Abdelaziz, a d’autre part eu des entretiens, samedi, avec des leaders politiques locaux, ainsi qu’avec les responsables des syndicats et des membres de l’Université de Compostelle, rappelle-t-on encore. (SPS)
He also had other meetings on Saturday with the local leaders of political parties, as well as representatives of trade unions and of the University of Compostella, it should be further indicated. (SPS)
020/090/000 291300 Jan 06 SPS
|
SPS Saharawis in Boujdour ask for the right of their people to self-determination
|
|
Boujdour (occupied territories), 29/01/2006 (SPS) Saharawi citizens in Boujdour, ased on Thursday for their people’s right to self-determination during a war recpetion they organised for their families coming from the Saharawi refugee camps withing the framework of the UN’s family exchange visit between the separated Saharawi families since the military invasion of the Western Sahara in 1975 by Morocco, SPS correspondent reported.
The Saharawi citizens chanted slogans asking for Saharawi people right to freely exercise their right to self-determination and independence, expressing their happiness with the arrival of their relatives, whom they did not see for more than three decades because of the wall of shame erected by Moroccan forces of occupation, the same source said.
Flags of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic were raised in front of the house of the Saharawi citizen Demba Baha, as well as on the vehicles of the Minurso, which were transporting the members of the families coming from the Saharawi refugee camps to visit theirs in the occupied city of Boujdour.
The Moroccan forces of occupation immediately blocked the streets that lead to the place of the reception, stopping many citizens from joining the rally.
Another peaceful demonstration was organised by the Saharawi citizens in Boujdour, on Friday evening, in front of the house of the citizen Abih Brahim Salem, rejecting the Moroccan occupation and calling to its immediate withdrawal from Western Sahara.
The Moroccan forces of occupation intervened, using truncheons and running the demonstrators with vehicles.
This demonstration cause 5 wounded persons, according to the first available list, mainly Mrs. Soultana Khaya, and Mrs. Al Izza Babeit, while three other citizens were transported by the police to an unknown destination, the same source added.
On his part, the Saharawi citizen Abih Brahim Salem, denounced this inhuman act, committed by the Moroccan repressive forces, before the agents of the MIUNRSO, who were present during the intervention. (SPS)
020/090/000/TRD 290133 Jan 06 SPS
|
SPS Two Swedish and South American NGOs expressed their support to Saharawi people's "legitimate and peaceful" struggle for self-determination
|
|
Chahid El Hafed, 29/01/2006 (SPS) Undertaking a few days visit to the Saharawi refugee camps, the SweFOR (Swedish Fellowship of Reconciliation) and the SERPAJE-AL (a NGO struggling for the promotion of peace in Latino America), both militants for the active non violence, expressed, on Saturday in Chahid El Hafed, their support to the "the peaceful struggle" of the Saharawi people to recover their "legitimate rights to self-determination and peace", reported SPS’s correspondent.
Giving a press conference at the seat of the Association of the Families of Saharawi Prisoners and Disappeareds (AFAPREDESA) within the framework of a visit of work with the Saharawi civil society, the representatives of the two organisations expressed their high consideration to the peaceful struggle of the Saharawi people for their legitimate rights.
"We struggle to impose the respect of the human rights, including peoples’ right to peace and self-determination", declared Mr. Gustavo Cabrera Vega, Latin American Coordinator of the SERPAJE-AL, and "we believe that Saharawi people’s choice to struggle with peaceful ways is a proof of their maturity, responsibility and desire for peace", he added in response to the Saharawi journalists present to the conference.
On her part, the SweFOR Secretary General, Mrs. Anna Akerlund, declared to the correspondent of the SPS that "the visit of this delegation aims at deepening our knowledge of the Saharawi people, with whom we had already worked through Saharawi association such as AFAPREDESA".
She estimated that this sojourn will be very informative for the members of the two organisations, "who will be able to transmit their experience to the international public opinion".
Speaking politics, Mrs. Akerlund estimated that "the Saharawi question is to much neglected on the international level, and parting from this, our visit will be very helpful and we can help remedy to this international ignorance".
Composed of 8 members, the delegation is planning to visit the different Saharawi refugee camps, the National institutions, the seats of the Saharawi organisation, including the youth’s and the women’s, and will also visit the liberated territories of Western Sahara, Mr. Abdesslam Omar, President of the AFAPREDESA, declared to the press.
The two NGOs will start, Tomorrow (Monday) in the 27 of February School camp in collaboration with AFAPREDESA, a training programme on the methods and "advantages of the active non violent protest as an alternative that targets the pacification and demilitarisation of societies", Abdesslam Omar added. (SPS)
060/090/000 291706 Jan 06 SPS
|
SPS "We would like that the Nordic countries inform the international public opinion on the situation in Western Sahara", declares Lamine Yahyaoui
|
|
Chahid El Hafed, 29/01/2006 (SPS) Polisario Front’s Representative to the Scandinavian countries, Mohamed Lamine Yahyaoui, affirmed that his organisation wishes the Nordic countries would be more active in divulgating the reality on the political and humanitarian situation in Western Sahara Occidental, especially in the Saharawi territories under Moroccan occupation, "which are submitted to a terrible medias and military siege", the diplomat declared to SPS on Sunday in Chahid El Hafed.
Asked by SPS, in margin of a press conference animated by Swedish NGOs, which arrived on Sunday morning to the Saharawi refugee camps within the framework of a work visit with the Saharawi civil society components, Mr. Yahyaoui considered that the "Nordic countries are determined to find out about what is happening in the occupied territories of Western Sahara, especially after two of their diplomatic delegations have been denied entry to the occupied territories of Western Sahara without a convincing reasons".
The Saharawi diplomat estimated that all the components of the Nordic countries, would it be governmental institutions or NGOs, "are alarmed by the few information coming from the occupied territories of Western Sahara, and all of them would like to find out about the political and humanitarian situation" of the Saharawi citizens under Moroccan occupation.
He finally called on the Nordic countries to more firmness with the Moroccan Government, "which is not only violating Saharawi people’s fundamental rights but is showing disrespect to the international community, by refusing to enforce the UN’s resolutions, especially the Baker Plan, unanimously adopted by the UN’s Security Council, which recommends the organisation of a self-determination referendum for the Saharawi people".
Rabat had, in fact, prohibited on Tuesday the entry to El Aaiun (Western Sahara) to a delegation composed of diplomats from the three Nordic Embassies, of Finland, Sweden and Norway, in Morocco, indicated EFE, quoting the President of the Norwegian Committee of support to Western Sahara, Ronny Hansen.
The three countries protested against Moroccan colonial authority after it prohibited a Nordic diplomatic delegation the entry to the occupied territories of Western Sahara, reported Spanish Press Agency, EFE, quoting the same Norwegian source.
On another hand, Swedish NGO, SweFOR (Swedish Fellowship of Reconciliation) and the SERPAJE-AL (a NGO struggling for the promotion of peace in Latino America), both militants for the active non violence, are undertaking a visit of work with the Saharawi civil society in the Saharawi refugee camps, it should be recalled.
Composed of 8 members, the delegation is planning to visit the different Saharawi refugee camps, the National institutions, the seats of the Saharawi organisation, including the youth’s and the women’s, and will also visit the liberated territories of Western Sahara, Mr. Abdesslam Omar, President of the AFAPREDESA, declared to the press.
The two NGOs will start, Tomorrow (Monday) in the 27 of February School camp in collaboration with AFAPREDESA, a training programme on the methods and "advantages of the active non violent protest as an alternative that targets the pacification and demilitarisation of societies", Abdesslam Omar added. (SPS)
060/090/000 292002 Jan 06 SPS
|
|
SAHARA
PRESS SERVICE