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WEEKS 25-26 : 13.06.-26.06.2004 |
14.06.04
Withdrawal of recognition by Ecuador
Ecuador is reported to have withdrawn its support of SADR. This
country recognised SADR in 1983. (AFP)
21-23.06.04
Moroccan prisoners of war
The Polisario Front released 100 Moroccan prisoners of war at the
request of the Republic of Ireland, the current chair of the European
Union, which received emissaries from the Polisario Front last April,
as well as by the Spanish government, which had recently dispatched a
high ranking delegation to the camps. This release coincides with the
visit to the camps of the Irish Minister of State at the Department
of Foreign Affairs with Responsibility for Overseas Development and
Human Rights, Tom Kitt. The ICRC proceeded with the repatriation of
the prisoners on 23.06.04.
This release, the second this year, brings the number of Moroccan
prisoners still being detained down to 412.
On this occasion the Polisario Front regretted that no gesture had
been made on the Moroccan side to clarify the fate of some 150
Saharawi soldiers captured during the war and 500 civilians
disappeared under Moroccan occupation. (ICRC
News, 23.06.04:
100 Moroccan prisoners repatriated)
22.06.04
Cuban visit
The Cuban Ambassador in Algeria, accredited for SADR, Alberto Blanco,
carried out a working visit to the refugee camps, where he was
received by President Mohamed Abdelaziz. He had talks mainly on
bilateral relations of cooperation in both social and cultural
fields. He also visited the Cuban mission resident in the refugee
camps which is working in the field of health.(SPS)
23.06.04
Illegal immigration tragedy
According to an eye-witness account from a Basque fieldworker,
returning from an archeological research trip conducted in the
liberated territories of Western Sahara from 7-13 June 2004, the
Moroccan army recently expelled 25 illegal Asian immigrants by
driving them out over the other side of the wall and abandoning them,
without food or papers to their sad fate. Three were gunned down.
These unfortunate individuals, coming from Bangladesh and India,
through the various ways and means of international mafia were
intercepted by a Polisario Front patrol in the region of Mijek. It
seems the UN, although on the spot through its mission in Western
Sahara (MINURSO), had been reluctant to take action, as this matter
does not fall within its responsibility. A solution would seem to be
emerging thanks to the intervention of the President of the Saharawi
Parliament and the Prime Minister.
These facts only represent the tip of the iceberg of all the crimes
committed towards migrants from the third world in transit countries
to Europe. In Morocco and in the occupied territories of Western
Sahara, favourite last staging posts for entry to the "European
Eldorado", immigrants are caught practically on a daily basis and
they are turned back without pity, under pressure from the European
destination countries, who also bear a responsibility. >>
Veinticinco emigrantes asiaticos recogidos por una patrulla des
Frente POLISARIO en los territorios librados Testimonio
original en español
trasmitido por la Asociación de Amigos y Amigas de la RASD -
traduction
en français.
23.06.04
Oil
In May 2004, the oil company Kerr-McGee du Maroc Ltd. (KMG) continued
its off-shore seismic survey in the Boujdour region, using the
companies Fugro and Svitzer. KMG considers that this zone looks as if
it could be as profitable as the Gulf of Mexico. ( Source:
IHS
Energy
in Sahara update)
After Baker's resignation:
11.06.04
Kofi Annan's letter to the Security Council
The UN Secretary-General decided that in his capacity as Special
Representative for Western Sahara, Mr. Alvaro de Soto, "will continue
to work with the parties, and neighbouring countries, in pursuit of a
just, lasting and mutually acceptable political solution, which will
provide for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara in
the context of arrangements consistent with the purposes and
principles of the Charter of the United Nations".
(Letter
dated 11 June 2004
from the Secretary-General addressed to the President of the Security
Council, S/2004/492)
14.06.04
Ahmed Boukhari, Polisario representative at the UN, to the Canary
Islands press:
"Only another American will be acceptable in the eyes of the
Polisario Front to replace the former Secretary of State James Baker
as a special envoy of the United Nations Secretary General for
Western Sahara, otherwise Morocco will not respect him..." Boukhari
also called on Spain to act as Portugal did for Timor in order to
accomplish the decolonisation of its former colony.
(agencies)
15.06.04
Canary Islands
The affiliated groups of trades unions UGT, CC.OO and Intersindical
Canaria, published a common manifesto of solidarity and support for
the just struggle of the Saharawi people for their freedom and right
to self-determination. They condemn the blockage to the peace plan by
Morocco and call on Spain to shoulder its
responsibilities.
20.06.04
The Austrian Head of State, in a letter to the President of SADR,
expressed his concern about the "political developments in Western
Sahara", deploring "the serious difficulties that the Saharawi people
is undergoing" because of the illegal occupation of its territory by
Morocco. (SPS)
21.06.04
Letter from Annan to Abdelaziz
"While regretting the departure of Baker, I wish to assure you that I
remain firmly determined to help the parties towards a political,
just and lasting solution which would be mutually acceptable and
would assure the "self-determination of the people of Western
Sahara", writes Kofi Annan in a letter sent to Mohamed Abdelaziz.
(SPS)
22.06.04
Danish parliament
In reply to a question from a member of the parliamentary group
Enhedslisten, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Soern Soendergaard,
assures him that his Government "does not recognise the
occupation of Western Sahara by Morocco", considering that the
presence of the latter on Saharawi territory is illegal and
unacceptable. (SPS)
22.06.04
UN
Alvaro de Soto, special representative for Western Sahara charged by
the UN Secretary General to continue the work of James Baker, starts
a consultation tour. In Madrid he met the Spanish Minister of Foreign
Affairs and affirmed at the end of discussions that the UN "maintains
the Baker Plan as a basis for the search for a peaceful solution to
the conflict in Western Sahara, considering that this plan remains a
viable solution to reach this goal." (agencies)
23.06.04
Spanish Diplomacy
The Madrid daily La Razon let it be understood that the head of the
Spanish government, Zapatero would suggest he would organise an
international conference on Western Sahara (like the Israel-Palestine
conference in 1991), which would bring together Morocco, the
Polisario Front, the neighbouring countries of Algeria and
Mauritania, as well as France and the USA. The French proposal
of a meeting between Morocco and Algeria was immediately refused by
Algeria not long ago. (La
Razon, 15.06.04
:Zapatero y Mohamed VI preparan una conferencia en Madrid sobre el
Sahara, Pedro Canales)
A spokesman for the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs as well
as other sources denied these allegations.(El
Confidencial, 23.06.04:
Exteriores desmiente: no habrá conferencia de paz en Madrid
para resolver el conflicto del Sahara Occidental)
The Spanish Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs León declared that the right place for resolving the question of Western Sahara remained the United Nations and that his government was not in favour of a "bilateralisation". (Europa Press)
In mid-July the head of the Spanish Government Zapatero will go to Algiers. (abc 23.06.04)
24.06.04
German parliament
The German
parliamentary group CDU-CSU (opposition) notes in a statement that,
following the resignation of James Baker, the settlement of the
conflict of Western Sahara risks further postponement. It asks for
the immediate appointment of a new envoy of the Secretary General to
show the people of this troubled region that the exercise of their
right to self-determination is in the interests of the international
community and peace in the region. (Pressemitteilung)
On next day the SPD Parlamentary group (Social-democrats) in its
pressstatementdans also asks for a new Special envoy of the
Secretary-General, whose authority is accepted by both parties and
who wil work seriously for a resolution of the conflict.
(Pressemitteilung
)
20.06.04
Sidi Mohammed Daddach, Tamek Ali Salem and Hmad Hammad, Saharawi
human rights activists, were followed by cars belonging to the
Moroccan administration in Boujdour when they tried to meet families
from the camps coming on the exchange visits organised by the UNHCR.
The three Saharawi activists claimed that the governor of the town
had called the host families in to ask them not to receive any
Saharawi activist and threatened them with prison and job loss. The
three activists issued a public statement in which they recall that
the Moroccan authorities watch all movements of Saharawi activists
very closely and try to prevent any contact being made with the
families coming from the refugee camps, adding that these hindrances
to freedom of circulation are very serious and do not affect only the
activists. They call for the urgent intervention of the international
community to put an end to this repeated practice.
Summary of a
debate in Morocco about the conflict in the Sahara (French):
Un
conflit...ensablé,
La Nouvelle Tribune, 17.06.04
Interview
with M. Mustapha Naimi,
anthropologist, Sahara, a process towards a relevant type of autonomy
is needed, La Nouvelle Tribune, 17.06.04.
16.06.04
Expulsion
Two Norwegian journalists, Tor Dagfinn Dommersnes and Fredrik Refvem,
were expelled from Morocco where they had arrived on Sunday 13.06.04
complete with a press visa in due form. They intended to provide for
the daily, Stavanger Aftenbladet, reportage on the political
situation in the kingdom, the Sahara conflict and the problems
of illegal immigration to Europe. Dommersnes had a meeting the
same morning with the Saharawi dissident Moutik Lahcen. The claims of
the Moroccan Minister for the Interior relayed by AFP, of contacts
with Ali Salem Tamek are without foundation. This third expulsion
since the beginning of the year has raised an outcry in Norway, in
Morocco and elsewhere. See detailed media
coverage.
16.06.04:
Tan Tan
Anti-saharawi repression
Following the discovery of a SADR flag on a dispensary building in
the quarter of Ain Arrahma in the town of Tan Tan, police forces
proceeded to arrests in the Ain Arrahma and Ben Khalil districts.
Ali-Bouya Mayara, son of a former disappeared, Hmadnah Salama
Jnaieba, as well as Hassanna Med elHafed, an official in the Tan Tan
Ministry of Agriculture, were apprehended. These three young
Saharawis underwent long interrogations concentrating on their
relations with the ex-political prisoner, Ali Salem Tamek, before
being released the same day.
18.06.04
In response to the declarations made during the signing on 15 June
2004 of the Free Trade Agreement between Morocco and the USA in
favour of maintaining the occupation of Western Sahara by Morocco as
an anti-terrorist measure, Congressmen Joe Pitts and Donald Payne
today blasted efforts by the Kingdom of Morocco to dodge its
international commitments in the name of its "territorial integrity."
(Statement.)
22.06.04
Moroccan military authorities recruit young Saharawi graduates in Tan
Tan. This new venture can be seen as an attempt to destroy the fabric
of Saharawi society. This way they are conditioned to the norms and
wishes of the occupying authorities and their resistance is broken.
All the young Saharawis totally reject this policy, which is aimed
principally at university students who have several years of study
behind them.
22-24.06.04
The Sahara: Past, Present and Future, Conference at the University of
East Anglia, Norwich, UK
Within the framework of its program of Saharan studies, the
University of East Anglia in Norwich organised a conference bringing
together over a hundred specialists in areas as diverse as
archeology, sociology, political economy of tourism and natural
resouces, biology, environmental science, etc. Half a day was devoted
specifically to Western Sahara. >>Program
with abstracts to download
9 to 17 June
2004
Visit to France
The CMCAS of Valence (Caisse Mutuelle Complémentaire et
d'Action Sociale, an organisation close to trades unions which
manages social insurance and promotes sporting and cultural
activities) invited, as part of initiatives of solidarity and support
of the Saharawi people, the Saharawi Minister for Culture and Sport,
Mariem Salek Hammada. She took part in the CMCAS Festival in Valence
and after a tour in the south of France was received in various
cities in the districts surrounding Paris.
At an inter-EC regatta in Lorient on 18 and 19 July, the two sailing
boats hired by CMCAS of Valence were named: "Solidarity with" "the
Saharawi people", they each sported a SADR flag.
24.-25.06.04
San Sebastian
About 250 representatives of 140 institutions twinned and with
solidarity links with the Saharawi people from all over Spain took
part in this meeting. (more to follow)
Holidays in
Peace
As part of this action, around 8300 children have arrived in Spain to
spend the summer with host families. Saharawi children are also being
offered holidays in other countries.
30th EUCOCO Conference: Zaragoza 26, 27 + 28 november 2004.
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Endgame
in the Western Sahara: What Future for Africa's Last
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Toby Shelley, Zed Books, 2004.
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