El Aaiun (occupied territories), 30/10/2006 (SPS) Five Saharawi citizens were arrested by the Moroccan forces of occupation during demonstrations that took place on Saturday night to Sunday early morning in the occupied city of El Aaiun, claiming for the "immediate withdrawal" of the Moroccan occupation from the Western Sahara, concordant sources indicated.

Demonstrators lifted the Saharawi national flags and chanted slogans in favour of the Saharawi people’s right to self-determination and independence, before they were "brutally" by the Moroccan forces of occupation.

The forces of repression arrested the Saharawi citizens: Mohamed Dedi Loud, Mohamed Boutabaa and Moulaye Toubali, while Kamal Abou Alvadl and Ali Fdhil were arrested and interrogated for hours before they were abandoned in bad state in the middle of a street by the Moroccan forces.

Many flags of the Saharawi Republic were fixed on houses, and writings on walls in many neighbourhoods in the occupied capital of the Western Sahara, El Aaiun, demanding an immediate withdrawal of the forces of occupation.

On another hand, a Saharawi citizen, Saaid Ouaban, was arrested in the city of Tan Tan (South of Morocco) and led to the police station of the city to undergo the "different forms" of torture and interrogatories by the Moroccan services of intelligence.

Me. Saaid was interrogated about the activities of his brother, Souleiman and his relations with the Saharawi human rights activists before he was released in a critical shape, the same sources added. (SPS)

020/090/700/RD 301245 Oct 06 SPS

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The Hague, 30/10/2006 (SPS) Many European and American Jurists denounced, on Friday in the Hague (Netherlands), the exploitation of the Saharawi natural resources (Phosphates, fishing resources, and offshore oil), and considered the European Union-Morocco fishing agreement as illegal because of the Status of the Western Sahara as a Non-Self-Governing territory..

During the academic seminar, organised by the Hague’s Institute for Social Studies, the British jurist, Stephanie Khoury, considered that the EU-Morocco fishing accord as "a violation of international obligations" of the European union.

To Mr. Vincent Chapeaux, Belgium University, the legality of the exploitation of the Saharawi resources "was question and brought on the table even before the conclusion of this accord".

The question, according to the jurist, is to find out if this fishing accord "includes the Western Sahara or not", because the accord defines the extent of the zone concerned with the agreement stressing the "the territorial waters and water under Moroccan jurisdiction", without defining the geographic limits of the South of Morocco, and this leaves the door wide open to the fishing exploitation in the Saharawi territorial waters.

Legally speaking, the jurist said, the accord can not include the Saharawi territorial waters, otherwise it will be a "violation of international waters". In his argumentation, the jurist referred to the EU-Morocco accord itself, to the UN Charter, to the UN Convention on the Maritime International Law and the UN General Assembly’s resolutions on peoples sovereignty over their natural resources.

Mr. Carlos Wilson, International Coordinator of the "Western Sahara Resources Watch", asked for the immediate stopping of the « robbery » of the Saharawi natural resources and the necessity of preserving them to the profit of the aboriginal population.

He gave, as an example on that, the recent withdrawal of the American KMG (Kerr-McGee) from exploitation in the Saharawi occupied territories, while it had accords of offshore exploration in the region of Bojador with Moroccan public companies.

Quoting the legal opinion of Dr Hans Corel, ex-UN Under Secretary General for Juridical affairs, Mr. Wilson denied Morocco any kind of sovereignty over the Saharawi territories and estimated that "the Saharawi people has a universal and permanent right over the natural resources of their land".

Recent antecedents, the Czech jurists, Mrs. Sacha Stepanova noted, establish the similarity with East Timor, which is often compared to the Western Sahara.

It should be recalled that the International Court of Justice declared oil exploitation in East Timor by some Australian and Indonesian companies as illegal, estimating that their activities as "a violation of the East Timor’s people", who have the sovereignty over the natural resources of their territory and who were to decide over their future through a self-determination referendum. (SPS)

020/090/700 301105 Oct 06 SPS

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