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SPS SOUTH AFRICA/AMINATOU HAIDAR/VISIT Mrs. Haidar signs in Johannesburg a symbolic twining between "Soweto" and the Saharawi neighbourhood of "Maatallah" 29.06.05
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(Special Envoy)
Johannesburg, 29/06/2006 (SPS) Saharawi human rights activist and ex-political prisoner, Aminatou Haidar, signed, on Wednesday afternoon in the "Hector Petersen" museum in Soweto (Johannesburg), a symbolical twinning between the legendary South African neighbourhood and the Saharawi neighbourhood of "Maatalah", the symbols of the peaceful struggle against the oppression and colonialism in the two African countries.
This act was signed, from the South African part, by the Secretary General of the African National Congress Youth League, Sihle Zikalala, with the presence of the mother of the first martyr who fell under the fire of he forces of Apartheid during the historical uprising of South African in June the 16th 1976 in Soweto, the young Hector Petersen.
"This twinning is a symbol of friendship between the two peoples, South African and Saharawi, a twinning between the struggle of these two peoples, but also a symbolical sign of similarity between the sufferings and the struggle for freedom and independence the two parties lived", Mrs. Haidar declared in her intervention before her interlocutors.
On his part, Mr. Zikalala underlined "the firm and total support not only of the South African Government but also of the African National Congress Youth League, as well as the Party, to the Saharawi people’s legitimate struggle for their independence".
Mrs. Peterson, on her sde, expressed her to Mrs. Haidar her "absolute support to your strugle. Your struggl and that of your people will achieve teir goals as the struggle we undertook for long years of sufferings and sacrifices for our rights. You are convinced and determined to defend your rights, and as long as you are determined no power, no repression and no tyranny can face you".
In her intervention, Mrs. Haidar stressed the striking similarities between the two legendary neighbourhoods, underlining "that in June the 16th 1976, Soweto was the theatre of the biggest popular uprising of South Africa to protest against the repression and against the violations committed by the Apartheid against the Africans of this country, while the Saharawi neighbourhood « Maatallah » was on its side the theatre of a similar popular uprising, this time to protest against the presence of Morocco, which is a colonial, violent and repressive regime, similar to the regime of Apartheid".
Aminatou Haidar also underlined that if Soweto has its Hector Peterson, as the first martyr of this popular uprising for freedom, "the neighbourhood of Maatallah has in its side its first martyr, Hamdi Lembarki, who was killed in cold blood by Moroccan police agents in October the 31st 2005".
Since June the 18th, Mrs. Aminatou Haidar undertook a mobilisation visit to South Africa, which enabled her to meet with many political personalities, such as t Minister for Foreign affairs, Mrs. Dlamini Zuma, as well as the leaders of the main political parties, associations and research centres in the country. (SPS)
060/JHB/000 291104 juin 06 SPS
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SPS SOUTH AFRICA/AMINATOU HAIDAR/VISIT Dr. Blade Nzimande to Mrs. Haidar: "Our support to your legitimate struggle for independence is unconditional"
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(Special Envoy)
Johannesburg, 29/06/2006 (SPS) The Secretary General of the South African Communist Party, Dr. Blade Nzimande, affirmed, on Tuesday during his reception in Johannesburg, to the Saharawi human rights activist, Mrs. Aminatou Haidar, that the support of his party "to your legitimate struggle for independence is unconditional".
The South African leader, who received Mrs. Haidar in his bureau in company of the person in charge for Foreign Affairs in the Party, Lucian Segami, a representative of the Communist Youth, George Raphela and the National Organiser within the party, Solly Afrika Mapalla, listened with big concern to the account presented by the Saharawi activist on the dangerous human rights situation in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara.
"The Saharawi people do not only suffer from the violations of their political rights to self-determination and to independence because of the illegal Moroccan occupation of the Western Sahara, but also the violations of their most fundamental rights to free expression, peaceful demonstration, freedom of movement not to talk about the violations of the economical, cultural and social rights", Mrs. Haidar stressed in her intervention.
She called the South African responsible to "redouble the efforts so as to help in the protection of the Saharawi people in the occupied territories, who are submitted to all kinds of tortures, abusive arrests and detentions in addition to unfair and illegal judgments, among other violations".
The Communist Party SG (the CP is a member of the political coalition in power in South Africa) reiterated to Mrs. Haidar the engagement of his party "to struggle side by to respect the international law and legality".
Since June the 18th, Mrs. Aminatou Haidar undertook a mobilisation visit to South Africa, which enabled her to meet with many political personalities, such as t Minister for Foreign affairs, Mrs. Dlamini Zuma, as well as the leaders of the main political parties, associations and research centres in the country. (SPS)
060/JHB/000 291104 juin 06 SPS
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SPS SOUTH AFRICA/AMINATOU HAIDAR/VISIT "Your struggle for freedom in ours and we owe you total support", affirms Mr. Motlanthe to Mrs. Haidar
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(Special Envoy)
Johannesburg, 29/06/2006 (SPS) The Secretary General of the South African National Congress,Mr. Kgalema Motlanthe, affirmed on Wednesday in Johannesburg, to the reception in Johannesburg, to the Saharawi human rights activist and ex-political prisoner, Mrs. Aminatou Haidar, that the struggle of the Saharawi people " for freedom in ours and we owe you total support".
Addressing his Saharawi guest, who is undertaking an official visit to South Africa since June the 18th, the South African official of e political party in power in the country expressed his deep concern "in front of the terrible human rights situation in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara", underlining that his party "was and will remain a firm ally of the Saharawi people and their legitimate rights to independence and freedom".
Mrs. Haidar thanked the South African responsible "for the principled position adopted since the beginning by your party, and also by the South African Government and people in favour of the Saharawi people’s legitimate rights to self-determination and independence".
Since June the 18th, Mrs. Aminatou Haidar undertook a mobilisation visit to South Africa, which enabled her to meet with many political personalities, such as t Minister for Foreign affairs, Mrs. Dlamini Zuma, as well as the leaders of the main political parties, associations and research centres in the country. (SPS)
060/JHB/000 291104 juin 06 SPS
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SPS OCCUPIED TERRITORIES/REPRESSION Three NGOs denounce the condemnation of Saharawi human activists in El Aaiun
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El Aaiun (occupied territories), 29/06/2006 (SPS) The Committee against torture in Dajla, the Committee for the support of the Saharawi people’ right to self-determination and the local Committee of the ASVVGDHEM, recently created in Bojador, denounced on Thursday "the heavy sentences", between three and one year, pronounced on Tuesday by the Moroccan colonial court in El Aaiun against three Saharawi human rights activists.
The NGOs energetically condemned "the torture and ill-treatments to which the three human rights activists are subjected in the Carcel Negra", asking for treating them as political prisoners should be treated and to allow their families to visit them in the better conditions.
They also called on the international organisations "to exercise pressures" on the Moroccan Government to the "unconditional" release of the political prisoners and Saharawi human rights activists in the Moroccan prisons.
The three organisations also called for "the immediate release" of the Saharawi citizen, Khaya Bachir El Mamoun, who was arrested Tuesday evening, while he was attending the trial of the three Saharawi human rights activists.
The thre Saharawi human rights activists, including the SG of the Saharawi Association of the Victims of the Flagrant Human Rights Violations committed by the Morocc State, Brahim Sabbar, in addition to Haddi Ahmed Mahmoud Elkainan and his brother Haddi Salah, were arrested and ill-treated about two weeks ago in El Aaiun by the Moroccan forces of repression in company of another Saharawi activist, Sbai Ahmed, it should be recalled. (SPS)
020/090/110/TRD 291045 June 06 SPS
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SPS OCCUPIED TERRITORIES/REPRESSION Demonstrations in the occupied city of El Aaiun
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El Aaiun (occupied territories), 29/06/2006 (SPS) Demonstrations asking for the immediate withdrawal of the Moroccan occupation from the Western Sahara were organised Tuesday evening to Wednesday early morning in the occupied capital of the Saharawi Republic, concordant sources indicated.
These demonstrations were organised by young Saharawis, who raised the Saharawi national flags during hours in the main neighbourhood of the occupied capital, El Aaiun, the same sources added.
The Moroccan forces of repression brutally intervened to disperse the demonstrators and arrested a group of young persons for hours before releasing them, the same sources added. (SPS)
020/090/110/TRD 291745 June 06 SPS
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SPS SADR/SPAIN/CULTURE Cultural Festival for a free Sahara in Madrid this Saturday
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Leganes (Madrid), 29/06/2006 (SPS) A Cultural Festival for a Free Sahara, the first of his kind in Leganes, will take place starting from this July in the "Plaza de toros de la Cubierta" in the municipality of Madrid, according to a press release publicised by the organisers of the Festival, of which SPS received a copy.
A festival that aims to "claim for a just solution" to the conflict of the Western Sahara, respecting the "the Saharawi people’s legitimate rights, recognised by the UN and the international community", the organisers stressed.
Conferences and debates between the representatives of Spanish political parties and others from the Polisario Front and representatives of Associations of solidarity with the Saharawi people, will be planed for in the program that will take place in two days, it was indicated.
A dense musical, cultural and interactive activities are also in the program, according to the organisers. (SPS)
070//TRD/060/000 291845 June 06 SPS
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SPS SADR/SPAIN/SOLIDARITY March of solidarity with the Saharawi people in Seville in June the 8
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Seville, 29/06/2006 (SPS) A March of solidarity with the Saharawi people will be organised, in July the 8th in Seville, by associations of solidarity with the Saharawi people in Andalusia, according to a press release of the Andalusan Federation of the Associations of Solidarity with the Western Sahara (FANDAS), of which SPS received a copy.
The March, which will start from the Concordancia Place to "El Muele de la Sal" (Seville), will ask for "the decolonisation and independence of the Saharawi people" in exile since 30 years, as well as the "respect of the human rights in the Western Sahara", the organisers stressed.
The Andalusan Associations of solidarity with the Saharawi people organise since 1991 annual demonstrations calling for the settlement of the conflict of the Western Sahara conforming to the resolutions of the United Nations so as to enable the Saharawi people to go back to their country, it should be recalled. (SPS)
070//TRD/060/000 291831 June 06 SPS
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SPS SADR/MOROCCO/UN/HUMAN RIGHTS Trial of three Saharawi human rights activists: Abdelaziz interpellates Annan
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Bir Lehlu (liberated territories), 29/06/2006 (SPS) Due to the "iniquitous" trial, on Tuesday, of three Saharawi human rights activists, who were savagely tortured for two weeks, the President of the Republic, Mohamed Abdelaziz, interpellated the UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, for their " to immediately put in place all necessary mechanisms that are conducive to protecting the safety and security of the Saharawi civilians and defending their fundamental freedoms".
Here is the complete text of the letter, of which SPS received a copy:
"Mr. Kofi Annan,
Secretary-General of the United Nations
New York
Bir Lehlou, 29 June 2006
Mr. Secretary-General,
In a letter that was addressed to you on 20 June 2006, I drew your attention to the unjust detention of the Saharawi civilians: Brahim Sabar, Ahmed Sebai, Hadi Mohamed Mahmoud Keinan and Salah Hadi Keinan who were arrested on 17 June 2006 along with Hafed Tawbali, a former prisoner of conscience, and to the fact that the detainees were brutally tortured by the Moroccan authorities close to the city of La Aíun, the capital of the occupied Western Sahara.
Nonetheless, the Moroccan authorities have even gone further by making Saharawi detainees face sham trials that provide no due process guarantees. In this context, on Tuesday 27 June 2006, the three Saharawi prisoners of conscience were unfairly tried in the occupied city of El Aaiun.
After failing to begin the trial a day earlier and without notifying the families, the court proceedings were eventually conducted during which fabricated accounts and charges were levelled against the detainees, who testified that they were subjected to brutal interrogations that led to some of them losing conscience whilst others had to be hospitalised.
In line with the persisting injustice and repression being inflicted on the Saharawi human rights activists, the court immediately proceeded to hand down unjust sentences against them. Brahim Sabar, a former prisoner of conscience and General Secretary of the Saharawi Association for Victims of Gross Violations committed by the Moroccan State, has been sentenced to two years imprisonment; Hadi Mohamed Mahmoud Keinan, a human rights activist and former prisoner of conscience, has been sentenced to three years imprisonment; and Hadi Salah Keinan has been sentenced to one year imprisonment.
There are still groups of Saharawi prisoners of conscience held, without a trial, in the prisons of the occupied Saharawi city of El Aaíun and the Moroccan city of Agadir. There is no hope at all that the detainees would have a better chance and be taken to court to face a genuine and fair trial.
As in the above-mentioned letter, I would like to underscore, once again, that the Moroccan Government has been pursuing a policy of terror and fear against the Saharawi population in general and the human rights activists in particular. The policy is manifest in the successive and continuous campaigns of persecution, kidnapping, detention, torture, assassination attempts and even burning people alive as were, for instance, the cases of Salek Saidi, Mohamed Butabaa and Lhmam Salama. This trial is just one case in point.
It is very lamentable indeed that all these violations and abuses, which are being committed against civilians defending internationally recognised human rights, are taking place in a territory that is put under the responsibility of the United Nations and just a month after the visit to the Territory by a delegation of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
I would like to call on you to intervene urgently to put an end to these terrorising and oppressive practices and to ensure the immediate release of all Saharawi prisoners of conscience. I would also like to urge you to immediately put in place all necessary mechanisms that are conducive to protecting the safety and security of the Saharawi civilians and defending their fundamental freedoms by enabling them to exercise their inalienable right to self-determination by means of a free, fair and just referendum.
Please accept, Mr. Secretary-General, the assurances of my highest consideration.
Mohamed Abdelaziz,
Secretary-General of the Frente POLISARIO". (SPS)
010/090/100/ 292105 June 06 SPS
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