SAHARA PRESS SERVICE

Madrid, 29/07/04 (SPS) Polisario Front's representative to Madrid, Mr. Brahim Ghali, demanded Wednesday from Spanish Government to "clarify" its position from Saharawi people's right to self-determination, as recognised by international legality, reported Algerian Press Agency (APS) Wednesday.

Mr. Ghali also asked the Spanish Government to clarify its position on the peace plan, elaborated by the UN Secretary General's former personal envoy to Western Sahara, Mr. James Baker, which is the representation of this international legality, he said.

In this respect, the Saharawi diplomat recalled that the Baker Plan was the subject of an international agreement embodied through the resolutions 1495 and 1541 UN's Security Council had adopted.

He estimated that the Spanish current position on Western Sahara's conflict is characterised by "an evident ambiguity" that can push to believe that there is a change in the Spanish official position, traditionally favourable to the exercise by the Saharawi people of its right to self-determination.

"We hope the Spanish position be in harmony with the international legality, which endorse Saharawi people's right to self-determination through the organisation of a free, fair and legitimate referendum", he declared.

Ghali recalled that the conflict is a decolonisation problem, as it was considered by the UN even before the Moroccan military invasion of the territory and the Madrid's accords of 1975.

"29 years of struggle and resistance should persuade those who still wonder about the aspirations of the Saharawi people", he affirmed, adding that his people's attachment to its just struggle "will not be weakened because of time, pressures, or the attempts to impose the fait accompli".

On another hand, he indicated that Polisario Front will positively deal with any initiative that will help hasten the process of the settlement of the conflict within the outlines of the international legality and under the auspices of the United Nations and so as to enforce the peace plan Security Council approved for the resolution of the problem.

"The attempts to circumvent this international legality and Saharawi people right to self-determination will never guarantee stability in the region, nor will it assure a just, peaceful and final solution to the conflict", he notified.

"The defence of international legality can not be selective. One can not defend the international legality in Iraq and in the Middle East and not do the same in Western Sahara", he added.
 
On another hand, the diplomat estimated that the statement of the USA Trade representative, Robert B. Zoellick, on the content of the US-Morocco Free Trade Agreement (FTA) has proved that "in contradiction to the claims of many Moroccan officials, the American position on Western Sahara did not change and still supports the UN's efforts aiming at enforcing the peace plan".

The United States Trade Representative, Robert B. Zoellick, has recently indicated that "The United States and many other countries do not recognize Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara", stressing that the FTA will only "cover trade and investment in the territory of Morocco as recognized internationally, and will not include Western Sahara".

The Saharawi delegate hailed "Algerian stable position of principle that supports the just cause of the Saharawi people and based on the defence of international legality". (SPS)

010/090/700/TRD 291944 July 04 SPS

SPS
OCCUPIED TERRITORIES/REPRESSION/UN
A NGO denounces human rights violations in Western Sahara, in Geneva

Geneva, 29/07/2004 (SPS) The International Youth and Student Movement for the United Nations denounced the violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms in occupied territories of Western Sahara, Tuesday during the 56th session of the under commission for the promotion and protection of Human Rights in Geneva.

Human Rights situation in Western Sahara "continue deteriorating to the point of becoming critical, and the climate remains marked by terror especially these last times when many Saharawi activists were deported by force to Morocco", underlined the organisation in its intervention to the second scheduled point of the discussions in the commission.
 
It recalled the "excruciating" terms of the report recently publicised by Amnesty International, which reported a "worsening of repression" and "human rights violations committed by Moroccan Government". 

"The military invasion and occupation of Western Sahara by Morocco, which is carrying on for a long time, and the edification of the walls of defence that constitute a flagrant violation of the international law, had contributed to the isolation of Western Sahara of the external world and maintained the international public opinion in complete ignorance of the overwhelming repression in that territory lives since decades", it indicated.

The repression exercised by Morocco "is stronger than before", it noted, adding that if the Tazmamart secret detention camp was closed for the moment "other centres like Temara and la Carcel Negra (black jail) in El Aaiun are still opened".
 
On another hand, the NGO called to the dismantling of the Moroccan Wall of defence, which "continues causing death, terror and pains to the Saharawi civil population". Millions of anti-persons mines scattered all along the wall "each year, kill and mutilate dozens of persons and Saharawi shepherds in their continuous movement searching for water and pasturelands for their flocks", it added.

To the organisation, the international community must "pressure Morocco in order to conform to the article 19 of the international agreement of civil and political rights" and to comply with the international legality letting the UN "lead to a term the decolonisation of Western Sahara through a free and democratic referendum on self-determination". (SPS)

010/090/110/TRD 290913 July 04 SPS