December 2016

El-Aaiun (Occupied Territories), Dec 31, 2016 (SPS) - Formations of the Moroccan occupying forces intervene Thursday violently against Saharawi peaceful demonstrators, according to Sahrawi human rights sources. 
The Sahrawi demonstrators took to the street of Skeikima to demand the right of the Saharawi people to self-determination and independence as well as respect of human rights in the occupied territories of Western Sahara, where the Moroccan forces of occupation intervened violently against them, threatening them and breaking into several of their homes.

Nouakchott, Dec 30, 2016 (SPS) - Sahrawi Prime Minister Abdelkader Taleb Omar attributed to the Moroccan regime the responsibility for the tension in the region of Guerguerat in the south of Western Saharan, affirming that the Polisario Front decided to send troops to put an end to Morocco’s attempts to encroach upon the border strip with Mauritania.

Hussein Tamek Complex (Shaheed El-Hafed), December 30, 2016 (SPS) - The national partners in the external action called Thursday FOR deepening relations in order to expand international solidarity circle, on the sidelines of the annual conference ON foreign relations, in the presence of members of the National Secretariat of the Polisario Front, SADR government and diplomatic corps.

Madrid (Spain) December 29, 2016 (SPS) - Dozens of people, members of the Spanish movement for solidarity demonstrated Tuesday outside Morocco's embassy in Madrid, Spain, to demand "the immediate release of Saharawi political prisoners in Moroccan jails."

Chahid El Hafed, December 28, 2016 (SPS) -The Minister Delegate in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in charge of African affairs, Mr. Hamdi Mayara stated on Tuesday at the annual foreign relations conference that the Saharawi State delegation to African Union has effectively demonstrated its presence in all AU bodies.
The delegate minister, in charge of African affairs, stressed that the Saharawi state is present in all African institutions and actively participates in all activities at the African level.

Chahid El Hafed,   December 27, 2016 (SPS) - The annual Conference on Foreign Relations was inaugurated today in the presence of the President of the Republic, Secretary General of the Frente POLISARIO, Mr. Brahim Gali, members of the National Secretariat, The Saharawi Government and the National Council, as well as the diplomatic corps and cadres of the POLISARIO and the Saharawi State.
 

Washington, December 27, 2016 – the American worldwide spread newspapers – Washington Times – published Sunday an opinion entitled Hope in the Sahara, The courts send a word of caution to the king of Morocco in which the Washington Times highlighted the considerable achievement that the Frente POLISARIO gained in the international sphere in its struggle against the kingdom of Morocco for the self-determination of the Sahrawi people.
 

Chahid El Hafed (Sahrawi refugee camps) December 27, 2016 (SPS) - A delegation of the African Union Commission arrived in the Sahrawi refugee camps, as part of the three-day working visit to the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).
The delegation, led by the adviser to the AU Commission's chairperson, Lazarus Kapambwe, was received in ChahId El-Hafed by Sahrawi Deputy Minister for African Affairs Hamdi Mayara in presence of members of the Sahrawi National Council (Parliament)

Bilbao, December 27, 2016 (SPS) – the Sahrawi Abroad Community in Bilbao has organized Yesterday a demonstration in front of Moroccan Consulate in the said city, denouncing the unfair and illegal retrial of Sahrawi political prisoners of Gdeim Izik group.
 
Solidarity associations with the Saharawi people, the Saharawi community and trade unions have held a rally before the Moroccan consulate in Bilbo where they have denounced the repression against the Saharawi people in the occupied territories of Western Sahara. SPS
 

London, December 27, 2016 (SPS) -  The British Organization of Human Rights in Western Sahara, Adala UK, called on Morocco to allow the international observers’ access to Western Sahara, condemning the blockade imposed on the Sahrawi territories.
The NGO said in a message released Monday on its website, that hundreds of international human rights defenders, journalists and observers have tried to enter the Sahrawi territories occupied by Morocco and in 2016, 89 have been returned to Moroccan cities or expelled to their countries.

Rabat, December 27, 2016 (SPS) -The trial (on appeal) of the Sahrawi "Gdeim Izik" political prisoners, arbitrarily sentenced to heavy penalties by a Moroccan military court, was postponed until 23 January 2017.
The trial opened at a civil court in Rabat, under the pressure of international human rights organizations.

Rabat, 25 December 2016 (SPS) - The trial of the Sahrawi political prisoners called “Gdeim Izik group,” prosecuted by the Moroccan justice, will start Monday in Rabat, against a background of several calls for their “immediate and unconditional” release as well as for the judgment of the Moroccans who were responsible for “arbitrary detentions.”

Madrid, Dec 24, 2016 (SPS) - The Trade Union Confederation of Spanish Workers' Commissions (CCOO-Spanish) called for a rally on Tuesday in front of the Moroccan Embassy in Madrid to express solidarity with the Sahrawi political prisoners of Gdeim Izik Group.

Madrid, Dec 24, 2016 (SPS) – Algerian Minister of Maghreb Affairs, African Union and Arab League Abdelkader Messahel said Friday, in Madrid, that the ruling of the European Court of Justice (ECJ), confirming that EU-Morocco free trade deal cannot apply to Western Sahara territory, "shows the rightness of Algeria's position."
Messahel, in an interview with APS, said "Western Sahara conflict is a decolonization issue and the territory is non-autonomous, hence the need for its people to enjoy the right to self-determination;"

London, Dec 24, 2016 (SPS) - Two lawyers, José Revert Calabuig and Nieves Cubas Armas, representatives of the General Council of the Spanish Legal Profession who had planned to visit, as international observers, the trial on 21 December of Saharawi activist Ali Saadouni and his fellow activists in El Aaiún. They were expelled from the capital of Occupied Western Sahara at midday on 20 December, sent by plane back to Gran Canaria.

Washington, DC, Dec 24, 2016 (SPS) - The US-Western Sahara Foundation heartily welcomes the European Court of Justice's recent ruling on the European Union's trade deal with Morocco and calls for the United Nations to follow through on the long promised referendum.

Sahrawi Times, Issue 3 - 23 Dec. 2016

As the year 2016 ends, it is rather very unfortunate that the global mechanism which is supposed to maintain international world order is still facing a lot of dysfunctionality. The very ones who are supposed to be protected by the international communities are hitherto the victims of a conspiracy of international negligence and silence.

Madrid, Dec 24, 2016 (SPS) - Western Sahara conflict is among the regional issues of the strategic dialogue with Spain, said Friday in Madrid Algerian Minister of Maghreb Affairs, African Union and Arab League Abdelkader Messahel.
The Minister made this statement to APS a day following the first session of Algeria-Spain Strategic Dialogue in Madrid, which he co-chaired with Spain's State Secretary for Foreign Affairs Ignacio Ybanez.

Madrid, Dec 24, 2016 (SPS) Several Spanish cities have decided to organise demonstrations to express their support and solidarity with the Saharawi political prisoners of Gdeim Izik whose trial is scheduled to start Monday.
In Madrid, the Spanish Coordination of Solidarity Associations with Sahara (CEAS-Sahara) called for a rally in front of the Moroccan embassy to demand the release of the Saharawi political prisoners on 27 December.

Paris, December 23, 2016 (SPS) -The decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) excluding Western Sahara from the agreements signed with Morocco, is "resounding political defeat" for Morocco and its legal and political consequences "are huge," Algeria's ambassador to the European Union (EU) Amar Belani.