SAHARA PRESSE SERVICE

Chahid El Hafed (refugee camps), 31/10/2005 (SPS) Saharawi Journalists’ and Writers’ Union (UPES in Spanish) condemned the assassination by the Moroccan authorities of the young Saharawi demonstrator, Lembarki Hamdi ould Salek ould Lmahjoub, on Sunday in El Aaiun, as a result to the torture he underwent in the torture centres of the Moroccan Group Urban of Security (GUS), calling to the opening of an international investigation on the human rights violations in the occupied territories of Western Sahara and south Morocco.

Condemning this new repressive act "committed by Moroccan authorities against a helpless Saharawi citizen, who was arrested without crime, tortured in violation of all laws to be cowardly assassinated by his torturers after that", UPES called all international bodies, especially the UN and the European Union, to "immediately intervene so as to protect Saharawi population in the occupied territories of Western Sahara", in a press release, publicised Sunday evening, of which SOS received a copy.

Here is the complete text of the release:

30/10/2005

Press release

Moroccan authorities assassinated the first martyr of the "Intifada of Independence"

With great grief we learned about the sad information on the death, Sunday 30 October in the afternoon in the capital of the Western Sahara, El Aaiun, of the Saharawi citizen, Lembarki Hamdi ould Salek ould Lmahjoub, due to the injuries he got after the torture and ill-treatment he was subjected to in the torture’s centres of the Moroccan Group Urban of Security (GUS), since he was arrested Saturday 29^th October 2005.

The young man, according to testimonies we were able to get, was peacefully demonstrating last Saturday while taking part like hundreds of his compatriots to a peaceful Saharawi popular action of protest against the colonisation of his country by Morocco. He was then arrested for having thus expressed his opinion and his rejection f the Moroccan presence in Western Sahara.

We draw the attention, on the same occasion, to the fact that the systematic repression by the Moroccan colonial authorities against the Saharawi population in the occupied territories of Western Sahara, who are suffering inhumane conditions of life, humiliation, racial segregation and terror, unveiled in al its dimension the will of assassination with premeditation adopted as a genocide policy by the Moroccan occupier against Saharawi people, since the Moroccan invasion of the territory in 1975.

Sad about this enormous loss, Saharawi Journalists’ and Writers’ Union (UPES) expresses its deepest condolences to the family of the martyr, his companions and friends, to Saharawi people and to all the defenders of the rights and principles he died while defending, mainly the right to self-determination, to free expression and opinion.

The Saharawi Journalists’ and Writers’ Union (UPES):

- Condemns this new crime, committed by the Moroccan authorities against a helpless Saharawi citizen, ho was arrested without been guilty of any crime, tortured in complete violations of all laws and cowardly assassinated by his torturers. UPES considers the death of the martyr as a new and irrefutable proof on the dangers that threaten all the Saharawi population under Moroccan occupation, daily submitted to the worst abuses of their rights, including the right to life, security and dignity.

- Exhorts the international community, the competent bodies and organisations to pressure Morocco and demand the opening of an international independent investigation on the Moroccan human rights’ violations in the occupied territories of Western Sahara and south Morocco.

- Demands the arrest of the Moroccan officials accountable for crimes committed against Saharawi citizens in the occupied territories of Western Sahara and south Morocco, and claims for their bringing before international justice.

- Calls international organisations and bodies, especially the European Parliament, which adopted an important resolution on human rights in Western Sahara last October the 27th 2005, to immediately intervene so as to protect the Saharawi population in the occupied territories of Western Sahara and to ensure the follow up and the strict respect of this resolution.

- Recalls the international community that Western Sahara, illegally occupied by Morocco, is a non-self-governing territory, which is still under the authority of the UN as it can be understood from the UN’s General Assembly and Security Council’s resolutions. That is to say that the UN must assume all its responsibilities towards the Saharawi people, including their protection from Moroccan tyranny and repression and the finishing of the decolonisation process of the territory conforming to the international legality and to the principles of the UN’s Charter.

- Calls the UN, democrat Governments and Parliaments, Organisations and personalities concerned about peace and justice to pressure Morocco put an end to the security and Medias siege it imposes on the occupied zones of the Western Sahara since 1975.

- Exhorts international press and NGOs to visit the occupied zones of the Western Sahara, to investigate by themselves on the Moroccan violations of Saharawi people’s political, cultural, social and economical rights.

Saharawi Journalists’ and

Writers’ Union (UPES)

Refugee camps

URL:www.upes.org

email:upes@upes.org". (SPS)

060/090/000 310207 Oct 05 SPS

SPS
OCCUPIED TERRITORIES/REPRESSION/SWITZERLAND

Arso and a Swiss Committee of support demands the truth on the tragic death of Lembarki

Geneva, 31/10/2005 (SPS) The Swiss Committee of support of Saharawi people and ARSO demanded that "all the truth be revealed o this tragic affair", calling the Swiss Federal Government "to intervene urgently vis-à-vis the Moroccan authorities, to stop the brutal and disproportionate repression against the Saharawi civil population of Western Sahara, and to release the persons who are detained for their opinions", according to a press release publicised Monday in Geneva by the two Committees.

A reaction that intervene after the death of the late, Lembarki Hamdi Salek Mahjoub, announced Sunday in the hospital Ben Mehdi of El Aaiun by the Moroccan colonial authorities, as a result t torture that caused his death after he was arrested during peaceful demonstrations in which he lifted Saharawi flag.

The two committees estimated that it was time the "administration of the non-self-governing territory, which’s decolonisation is so awaited for, be undertaken by the UN as the unique solution that will allow the quick realisation of a self-determination referendum the international boy decided long before".

Talking about the facts of the assassination of this first deadly victim of the Intifada, started since last May the 21st, the press release indicated that he was abducted last Saturday the 29^th October 2005 during a demonstration, by agents of the Group Urban of Security, GUS, and was violently beaten in the street for having "publicly lifted the Saharawi national flag".

"He was after that transferred to the station of the criminal police where he was subjected anew to violence that lead to hi hospitalisation in the early morning in Sunday the 30^th October. He died few time after his admission", the press release stressed.

The late, Lembarki Hamdi Salek Mahjoub, was born in 1974 in El Aaiun, where he lived with his parents in the house n6, 24th November Street. His family, who claims an autopsy of the late, still refuse to get his body back despite of the pressures from the colonial administration that tries by all means to burry the victim as soon as possible. (SPS)

010/090/666/TRD 311511 oct 05 SPS

SPS
SADR/OCCUPIED TERRITORIES/REPRESSION

Saharawi Government decreed a 24 hours national mourning after the death of Martyr Lembarki

Bir Lehlu (liberated territories), 31/10/2005 (SPS) he Saharawi Government decreed a 24 days national mourning starting from next Friday after the tragic death of Lembarki Hamdi Salek Mahjoub, who died Sunday morning under torture he was subjected to by Moroccan forces of occupation after his participation t peaceful demonstrations, announced a pres release by the presidency publicised on Monday.

All official ceremonies of the mourning will be observed and a prier of "Al Ghayeb" (of the absent) will be organised in the Saharawi refugee camps and in the liberated territories, the press release stressed, expressing "deep condolences of the Government and Saharawi people to the family o the late ".

The press release stressed on another hand that the late Lembarki was "assassinated" by the Moroccan Government after been arrested and submitted to the "most abject forms of torture". The text estimated that this is "a serious escalade and a decisive turning point in the process of the peaceful that was wad since last May".

Condemning this "odious crime" committed against an innocent person, the Saharawi Government considers the Moroccan State "accountable for this crime" and of the "consequences that may result from it, and which are certainly not in favour of the peace and stability in the region".

The Saharawi Government also drew the attention of the international community and the persons concerned with justice on "the dangerous aspect of the explosive situation in the occupied cities of Western Sahara" (...) "caused by the Moroccan policy of repression against the helpless Saharawi population", calling the UN and the Minurso to "guarantee a complete protection to Saharawis and to ensure them their legitimate rights to free expression, movement and demonstration, beside the lifting of the state of the security and medias siege imposed on the Saharawi territory, with a view to allow international observers and press the free access to the territory.

010/090/666/TRD 311511 oct 05 SPS

SPS
SADR/UN/ OCCUPIED TERRITORIES/REPRESSION

Polisario Front seize the UN’s Security Council after the death of Martyr Lembarki

New York (United Nations), 31.10.05 (SPS) Polisario Front seized the UN’s Security Council, Monday in New York, after the death of Martyr Lembarki who died Sunday in El Aaiun as a result to the torture he was subjected to by the Moroccan forces of occupation. Polisario called to the "urgent intervention of the Security Council so as to compel Morocco put an end to its violations of human rights and assassinations of innocent people who claim their right to the free expression and opinion in peaceful ways.

In a letter handed over to the current President of the UN’s Security Council, Mihnea Ioan Motoc, Polisario Front underlined that the death of the late Lembarki "is a political assassination that reflects, in all cases, the continuity and deterioration of the actual situation in the occupied territories, in which the Government of the colonial power leads its policy of violation of human rights in the presence of the UN’s mission on the ground.

"After he terrible pictures of dozens Saharawi prisoners pilled into narrow spaces in the Carcel Negra in El Aaiun, and after the public announcement by the Moroccan official bodies about the discovery of some 43 dead bodies of Saharawi citizens in different Moroccan prisons, this new crime should not pass without sanctions", the letter added, estimating that this new turning point "may provoke an extremely serious situation in the occupied zones of Western Sahara, which consequences remains unpredictable".

010/090/666/TRD 311648 oct 05 SPS