SAHARA PRESSE SERVICE

Dajla (occupied territories), 30/06/2005 (SPS) Saharawi citizens in the occupied city of Dajla organised, Wednesday afternoon, a sit-in of two hours in front of the seat of the Moroccan colonial administration to demanding the release of Saharawi political prisoners, the respect of human rights and the organisation of a referendum on self-determination, reported SPS’s correspondent on the ground.

The demonstrators raised placards calling for the ending of colonial occupation in the territory, stopping of iniquitous trials against Saharawis, as well as the putting an end to the campaign of systematic repression against Saharawi human rights’ activists. They also were bearing pictures of Saharawi human right activist, Mrs. Aminatou Haidar, still imprisoned in the Carcel Negra (black prison) in El Aaiun.

They chanted slogans such as: "No other alternative to self-determination", "Long live Polisario Front", "Despite of repression we are a people that can never be exterminated", "Oh Martyr! Sleep in peace; we will carry on the struggle".

More than sixteen Saharawi citizens were injured during confrontations that opposed Saharawi demonstrators last Monday the 27 of June with Moroccan forces of repression, while a persona t least was arrested and two houses broken by police.

Before, last June the 11th also in Dajla, dozens injured were named and many reported arrested by Moroccan police and forces of intervention during Saharawi demonstrations in the city. The forces of repression intervened brutally to disperse this demonstration that were organised in solidarity with the detainees of the Intifada of last May. A Saharawi woman, aged 70, Mrs. Ehel Najem Fatma, alias Laribiya, was abducted by police.

The city is submitted to a state of siege and the neighbourhoods of Lebrarik, Lebeichat, Kseikssat, Oum Tounsi and Al Ghoufran, inhabited by Saharawis were completely sealed by the forces of occupation who controlled the passengers.

Saharawi Government called Security Council to protect Saharawi civilians against Moroccan repression, chastisement and reprisals, considering that the heavy sentences against three Saharawis by "Moroccan colonial justice", are an example of the strong measures, procedures of intimidations and terror used by the colonisers of the 21st century, it should be recalled. (SPS)

010/090/110/ALG/TRD 301007 June 05 SPSS

SPS
SADR/SPAIN/MOROCCO/INTERNATIONAL LAW
Saharawi Government recalls Moratinos that his country remains the Administering Power of Western Sahara

Chahid El Hafed, 30/06/2005 (SPS) Spain is still the Administering Power, according to International Law, as long as Saharawi people do not exercise their right to self-determination through a free and regular referendum organised and supervised by the UN, Saharawi Government recalled to Spanish Minister for Foreign Affairs, Miguel Angel Moratinos.

The Head of the Spanish diplomacy has declared last Wednesday before of the Spanish Parliament in response to an interpellation by a deputy of the Parliamentarian group Coalition Canaries (Coalicion Canria-in Spanih) that "it is the United Nations and not Spanish Government who identified Morocco in their resolutions and texts as the Administering Power".

These Statements "do not correspond to the facts and are not based on any legal basis", said a spokesperson of the Saharawi Ministry for Foreign Affairs, stressing that "Morocco is only a power of aggression and occupation and must be dealt with as such by the international community".

He recalled Mr. Moratinos, who "seems to have apparently neglected to read the Legal opinion of the UN’s Under-Secretary General for legal Affairs, Hans Corell, on Western Sahara (S/2002/161)", which stipulates that he status of the Administering Power is still Spain’s.

To the Saharawi Government, "as far as International Law is concerned, Spain remains the Administering Power of Western Sahara and its responsibility vis-à-vis Saharawis, who share with so many ties with Spanish peoples, remains complete until Saharawi people can decide democratically on their future through a free, regular and transparent referendum on self-determination".

In legal opinion, sent to the Security Council last January the 29th 2002, M. Corell stressed that "The Madrid Agreement did not transfer sovereignty over the territory, nor did it confer upon any of the signatories the status of an administering Power - a status which Spain alone could not have unilaterally transferred. The transfer of administrative authority over the territory to Morocco and Mauritania in 1975, did not affect the international status of Western Sahara as Non-Self-Governing Territory", it should be recalled. (SPS)

010/090/100/ALG/TRD 301820 June05 SPS

SPS
SPAIN/MOROCCO/WESTERN SAHARA/LAW
The Spanish Parliamentarian visit to Western Sahara may legitimise Rabat’s colonial status (Associations)

Madrid, 30/06/2005 (SPS) The President of the Coordination of the Associations of Solidarity with the Sahara (CEAS - Sahara), José Taboada, warned that the visit that a Spanish Parliamentary delegation is planning to undertake to Western Sahara, to evaluate the situation on the ground after the last waves of repressions, may serve Rabat in "legitimising" its colonial status in Western Sahara.

To Mr. Taboada the visit must be undertaken within the framework of the UN with international observers, with a freedom of movement and with all guarantees so as Morocco do not use it in legitimising its colonial fait accompli, "this is a responsibility of the two Chambers of Representatives", he added.

On another hand, Mr. Taboada said he is worried of the possibility to see Saharawi people been used as an exchange card and be betrayed again by the official Spain. He recalled that "Morocco, as far as the UN is concerned, is not even the Administering Power of Western Sahara". There will be no solution "before Saharawi people is enabled to freely decide on its future through a referendum on self-determination", he put.

"The Representatives of the democratic Spain can not do what the former Government of Franco did betraying Saharawis, the ones we sacrificed for the sake of our political transition", he concluded. (SPS)

010/090/666 302030 June 05 SPS