|
WEEKS 39-40 : 19.09.-02.10.2004 |
- SADR
- OCCUPIED TERRITORIES &endash; SAHARAWI RESISTANCE
- REFERENDUM
- TERRORISM
- ITALY
- HUMAN RIGHTS
- HUMANITARIAN AID
- SOLIDARITY
- COMING UP
- INTERNET
- NEW PUBLICATIONS
17-18.09.04
Belgium
An Belgian interparliamentary delegation carried out a visit to the
Saharawi refugee camps. Consisting of Pierre Galand (Socialist),
Jacinta De Roeck (Green and Socialist) and Jean Cornil (Socialist),
the group sought information on the situation of the refugees and had
talks with leaders of the Polisario on the latest developments
relative to the settlement plan for the conflict. Pierre Galand
pointed out, in a speech, that "there is no assembly in the world
which does not recognise the legitimate right of the Saharawi
people", he believed that the Saharawi struggle fosters "legitimacy
and peaceful coexistence between the peoples of the world".
[El
Moudjahid,16.09.04]
Recognition of SADR by South Africa (continued)
20.09.04
The President of the Republic, Mohamed Abdelaziz, sent a message of
congratulations to the South African president Thabo Mbeki,
expressing the view that the initiative of recognising SADR and
establishing diplomatic relations between the two countries will not
fail to apply extra pressure on Morocco to comply with international
law and to organise a referendum of self-determination for the
Saharawi people. [complete
text English].
Many messages welcoming the move were also sent to South Africa by
politicians, parliamentarians, associations and NGOs from around the
world.
The letter through which South Africa had announced and explained its decision to recognise SADR to the Moroccan authorities has been made public. [Letter of President Thabo M'Beki to the king of Morocco Mohamed VI, 01.08.04 ] [Lettre du Président Thabo M'Beki au roi Mohamed VI du Maroc, 01.08.04]
South Africa's decision keeps making waves in Morocco, where one notes on one hand virulent criticisms of the government's policy and Moroccan diplomacy, and on the other hand a bitter campaign against Algeria, held responsible for all evil and accused of bellicose intentions. [Reactions, press review, .... >> special page set up
26-27.09.04
A national conference devoted to the management of the Saharawi state
brought together the government and officials from various levels and
sectors. The head of government, who presided over the meeting gave a
positive picture of the administration of the state since its
creation. The participants nevertheless made many suggestions for
reorganisation and technical reform to deal more effectively with the
challenges of the developing Saharawi society.
OCCUPIED TERRITORIES &endash; SAHARAWI RESISTANCE
This month of September is characterised by an increase in militant activities in the whole of the territory occupied by Morocco as well as in the towns of southern Morocco with a significant Saharawi population.
15.09.04
Dakhla
Saharawi activists announce the setting up of a committee against
torture, "in order to break the media black-out imposed by the
Moroccan government on Saharawi territory and the isolation of this
coastal town from the other towns under Moroccan occupation."
[SPS] [AFAPREDESA,
15.09.04] [ Comité
de Acción Contra la Tortura en
Dajla,
27.09.04]
17.09.04 Black
Prison in El Ayoun
Saharawi political detainees denounce "the dangerous process which
human rights are encountering in the occupied territories of Western
Sahara" and demand "the immediate liberation of all Saharawi
political prisoners and for light to be shed on the fate of the
disappeared". [Comunicado"presos
políticos saharauis en la cárcel
negra"
27.09.04]
Saharawi human rights defenders call for "all human rights
organisations to intervene with the Moroccan authorities to put an
end to the serious abuses perpetrated by Morocco in the occupied
territories of Western Sahara", underlining that the two victims of a
summary sentence (Haddad and Fakak) had only expressed "their
support for the right of the Saharawi people to self-determination".
The Association of Families of Saharawi prisoners and disappeared
(AFAPREDESA) and the Union of Saharawi Lawyers (UJS) had already
condemned these "serious violations of the right of each person to a
fair and just trial".
22.09.04
Goulimin
Saharawi unemployed graduates from Goulimin announce the creation of
an Association for unemployed Saharawi graduates. They organise a
sit-in outside Goulimin town hall after the municipal authorities had
refused to register the association and they line the streets
afterwards calling out slogans hostile to the colonial occupation of
Western Sahara. They show solidarity with their brothers in the
occupied territories on the occasion of the 5th anniversary of the
Intifada of "Place D'Cheira". The Moroccan police disperse the
demonstrators with batons and tear gas.
[SPS]
22.09.04
Agadir &endash; Abduction
A Saharawi citizen, Yahya Mohamed El Hafed, alias Azza, was arrested
and imprisoned without trial in the prison of Galat ben Sergaou
(Agadir), on 16 September last, according to his father. The former
soldier had been recruited by force in the Moroccan armed forces in
1987 and demobilised two years ago. He had gone to Agadir military
barracks in response to a summons by the royal gendarmerie. His blind
father, suffering from war wounds, who was accompanying him at the
moment of his arrest, was left without any means to return to
Tan-Tan. El Hafed was freed on 28.09.04 in Rabat, after having
been interrogated and tortured by the 5th bureau, military
security.
The Collective of Saharawi Human Rights Defenders in the territory of
Western Sahara under Moroccan control and the Committee of victims of
abduction of Smara strongly condemned this act.
[Statement
of the Committee of Victims of events of Smara, 24.09.04]
[Communiqué
de Ali Salem Tamek, 23.09.04] >> Arabic
text on his release
25.09.04
Assa
3000 people demonstrated in the streets of Assa for several hours on
the occasion of the 12th anniversary of the intifada of 1992, which
was repressed with bloodshed. The demonstrators chanted slogans
hostile to the occupation of Western Sahara and in favour of the
Polisario Front and the independence of Western Sahara. The whole
town was heavily patrolled by a big reinforcement of police.
Two other demonstrations for independence were held on 7 and 14
September, in this town of southern Morocco populated principally by
Saharawis. [week
37-38/2004]
[REPORT
about the resistance of the Saharawi people against Moroccan
occupation. 1992 - 2004]
26.09.04 El
Ayoun
A young Saharawi, Cheikh Bneiba, was arrested following an argument
with Moroccan settlers, who tried to force him into their house to
torture him. The Moroccan police dispersed with truncheon blows the
numerous Saharawis who came to the rescue of their compatriot.
[corr]
27.09.04
Smara
Ahmed Naciri continues to suffer threats and harrassment by the
Moroccan authorities. At the beginning of September, the governor of
Smara, Abdelkrim Bezzâa, summoned him to stop any human rights
activities, failing which he could expect something worse. He
required from him a letter "begging for pity" to find a job and wage
in the administration. Earlier several emissaries from the
authorities had already intimated to Naciri that he must be silent if
he wanted to avoid reprisals.[Appeal
from
the former political detainee Ahmed Naciri, 30.09.04]
[Statement
from the Committee of victims of the events of Smara ,
30.09.04]
01.10.04
Dakhla - Arrest
A Saharawi citizen, Balla Salmi Bouaâilla, born in 1977 in El
Ayoun, was arrested and taken to the central police station. Saharawi
citizens immediately gathered outside the building and organised a
sit-in to protest at this arbitrary arrest, shouting slogans hostile
to the Moroccan occupier and calling for the immediate release of the
detainee. The next day the demonstrations took place outside the
court where the trial of the detainee was taking place. Balla has
been condemned to a suspended sentence of 2 month and a fine of 500
dirhams.
Balla Salmi Bouaâilla is part of a family in which three
members have been victims of abduction: Nbghouha in 1989, Dawh in
1991 and Mailah in 1992 . [corr.]
["Intifada"
attempts in Western Sahara,
Morocco,
afrol News, 1.10.04]
>> News on the occupied territories and southern Morocco
can be found on the News-BLOG
SAHARA LIBRE
Body for
Equity and Reconciliation in Western Sahara (IER)
In accordance with its mandate to settle once and for all the
consequences of human rights abuses, delegations of the IER met in El
Ayoun victims in ill health and in Smara, families of disappeared
Saharawis. Over 400 cases of illness, excluding victims from the
mines, have been counted, including some who require urgent
attention, but nothing has been done up until now. A group of
associations of victims and families of victims as well as human
rights activists handed a memorandum to the IER
http://alisalemtamek.site.voila.fr/MemoSahara.pdf, which the
delegation initially refused, but finally accepted on 5 May 2004. But
the IER has not invited its authors to discuss it and has not
published this document on its
website,
on which all the other documents given to the IER can be
found.
20.09.04
The special representative of the United Nations Secretary General
for Western Sahara, Alvaro De Soto, was received in Nouakchott by the
Mauritanian President Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya.
21.09.04
UN General Assembly
During the general debate, several speakers brought up the conflict
in Western Sahara:
Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika affirmed that any attempt to take the question of Western Sahara out of its place as a decolonisation issue "could only lead to failure". Bouteflika underlined that the conflict in Western Sahara is "a problem of incomplete decolonisation". He emphasised the fact that Algeria "cannot and will not substitute for the the people of Western Sahara in the determination of its future", which is an allusion notably to France's appeals for direct negotiations between Morocco and Algeria.
While the Moroccan press allowed it to be understood that the king would make a new proposal for the resolution of the conflict, Mohamed VI only repeated his usual talk of territorial integrity and national sovereignty.
The Spanish Prime Minister declared himself in favour of a just and lasting political solution to the conflict in Western Sahara, accepted by all the parties and which respects the principle resolutions of the United Nations. He called for all the parties concerned to redouble their efforts towards a dialogue and negotiations established by the United Nations to resolve a conflict, which has, in his words, lasted too long.
The representatives of Tanzania, Namibia, Lesotho, Mauritania and Guinea raised in their speeches the necessity of settling the question of Western Sahara within the UN framework.
22.09.04
SADR-Spain encounter
The Spanish Minister for Foreign Affairs, Moratinos, met around the
time of the General Assembly with his Saharawi counterpart, Ould
Salek, accompanied by the Saharawi Ambassador in Washington, Mouloud
Saïd and the UN representative Ahmed Boukhari. Moratinos, in a
statement to the press, confirmed the support of his government for
the Baker plan, underlining, however, that "Spain has always talked
of adjustments to the Baker plan". He declared that the Saharawi
delegation "had shown enormous suspicion and great concern" about the
role of the Spanish government, but that "confidence had been
re-established". The Spanish minister called the meeting "very
positive, very interesting and very useful", adding that "the
Saharawis can have legitimate aspirations, but they must understand
that , as Spanish political representatives we have to do
something".
Moratinos declared the next day that he was consulting "all the
parties" on the Western Sahara conflict, pointing out that he had
also talked with the King of Morocco, the American deputy Secretary
of State, William Burns, the Algerian President and the Moroccan,
Algerian, Tunisian and Mauritanian Foreign Secretaries. He made clear
that he would continue his efforts to convince Paris, standing firm
with the Moroccan position, to take a step in the direction of
Madrid, close to the Polisario Front. [El Pais in
Sahara-Info]
23.09.04
The Polisario Front coordinator with MINURSO, Mohamed Khaddad, said
that "the ball is in Morocco's court" after the country refused the
Baker plan. In an interview published by the London daily "El Hayat",
Mr. Khaddad expressed the view that Rabat "lacks the courage to put
forward acceptable proposals". "The international community has
granted Morocco sufficient time to find a solution", Mr Khaddad
considers.
23.09.04
Sitting in Guatemala-City, the Parliament of Central America
(PARLACEN), which brings together Costa Rica, Belize, Guatemala,
Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama, adopted a resolution of
"support for self-determination for the people of SADR, exhorting
parliaments across the world to "support SADR and its territorial
integrity, as well as the aspirations of its people for peace and
progress". Recalling the terms of a previous resolution adopted in
2000 [week
05/2000],
the Parliament reaffirmed its support for the "just struggle of the
people of SADR for the consecration of its national
self-determination, for peace and building democracy through our
moral support and solidarity."
24.09.04
UN
Morocco published the Memorandum which it sent to the Secretary
General for the debate in the Security Council on the extension of
MINURSO's mandate.
[Mémorandum
adressé le 24 septembre par le Maroc au Secrétaire
général des Nations unies, M. Kofi Annan.]
[Memorandum
del Reino de Marruecos sobre el diferendo regional relativo al Sahara
24 septiembre de 2004, dirigido al secretario general de la
ONU]
[Memorandum
of the
Kingdom of Morocco on the regional dispute on the Sahara September
24, 2004 , addressed to the UN Secretary-General.]
28.09.04
UN
Publication by the UN of the Memorandum sent by the Polisario Front,
on 1 September 2004, to the member states with a view to the debates
of the General Assembly.
[Memorandum by the Frente POLISARIO addressed to the Member
States of the United Nations, 01.09.04 HTML
- PDF]
[Mémoire du Front POLISARIO sur la question du Sahara
occidental, adressé aux États Membres de l'Organisation
des Nations Unies, 01.09.04 HTML
- PDF]
[Memorando dirigido a los Estados Miembros de las Naciones Unidas
por el Frente POLISARIO, 01.09.04 HTML
- PDF]
Special UN page September-October: http://www.arso.org/UN0904.htm
27.09.04
Spain
Moratinos, Spanish Minister for Foreign Affairs, presented himself at
his own request to the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, to explain
the new "active policy" of his government on the question of Western
Sahara. He declared that this will not betray the Baker plan. The
next resolution of the Security Council should, according to
Moratinos, allow for the extension of MINURSO's mandate, so that
current diplomatic efforts might achieve results. The Security
Council should also give its special representative Alvaro de Soto a
broader mandate, so that, starting from the Baker plan "a dynamic of
negotiation could be created that the two parties could accept, in
keeping with the principle of free determination of the Saharawi
people and which could be submitted to a referendum".
20-21.09.04
2nd African colloquium on terrorism and cross-border crime
Nineteen African, European, Asian and American countries and
officials from Interpol drew up a strategy for the fight against
cross-border terrorism and crime in Africa. They committed themselves
to conduct "joint cross-border operations to fight terrorist and
criminal threats in Africa effectively", a continent which they
consider "high risk". These countries are Algeria, United States,
France, United Kingdom, Turkey, Egypt, Morocco, Senegal, Burkina
Faso, Chad, Sudan, Ivory Coast, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Cambodia, Benin,
Burundi, Togo and Mauritania, meeting for discussion in Noukchott.
[agencies].
17-18.09.04
First conference
of regional European and African
assemblies
in Florence
About a hundred official delegations and representatives from thirty
African countries took part in this first conference on the theme
"Decentralisation: the new dimension of democracy, peace and
development".
The Vice-President of the Regional Council of Tuscany, Enrico
Cecchetti, reiterated in his speech, the support of his region for
"the struggle of the Saharawi people for its right to
self-determination". Mansour Omar, wali of El Ayoun, who led the
official Saharawi delegation, thanked the Tuscan officials for "their
constant support" for the Saharawi people. Tuscany has allocated aid
to 30 African countries, including 13% of it for SADR.
This conference was jointly organised by the Tuscany region, the
Conference of European regional legislative assemblies (CALRE), the
Italian Presidency, the UN Economic and Social Department with
patronage from the European Union, the Council of Europe and the
Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
APPEAL FOR THE DEFENCE OF SAHARAWI HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS, BIRDHSO, September 2004
18.09.04
Abdoullahi Lakhfaouni, a Saharawi imprisoned since 2000 in the
central prison of Kenitra (Morocco) and sentenced to 7 years and 5
years in prison, was attacked by an employee of the prison, Daoudi
Moustapha. Last August some of his personal possessions were stolen,
but his complaint had no result. Lakhfaouni, who considers himself a
political prisoner, is turning to human rights organisations to put
an end to his bad treatment, malnutrition, lack of medical care and
other human rights abuses of the most elementary kind to which he is
subjected. [Testimony
from inside Moroccan prisons
" Abdullahi Lakhfaouni" 17.09.04, AFAPREDESA]
[Testimonio
del interior de las cárceles
marroquíes
" Abdallahi Ouali Lajfaoui",17.09.04, AFAPREDESA]
23.09.04
A Belgian senator, Pierre Galand, on return from a mission to the refugee camps, declared that "the principle donors of aid, Europe and the United States, had reduced or ended their aid because of pressure and the propaganda by the Moroccan authorities and their allies". "These campaigns have made out that the food aid is misappropriated, but missions of inquiry sent by international organisations, notably World Food Program and UN High Commission for Refugees, have totally denied these allegations", the senator indicated during a press conference in Brussels. Galand considers that the food stocks available to 160,000 Saharawi refugees have reached the level of high alert, with only food for a month and a half left, "while international norms provide for stocks of three months".[aps]
23.09.04
Arab Solidarity
A group of Arab intellectuals, including university teachers,
lawyers, doctors, journalists and writers, announced in Beirut the
constitution of a Committee of Support for the Saharawi people. It
wants to work for the right to self-determination and independence of
the Saharawi people and raise awareness in Arab countries of the
suffering experienced by this people for over three decades.
[SPS]
30.09.04
Letter to the Spanish Prime Minister, Zapatero
A group of representatives of culture handed to the Palace of
Moncloa, the seat of government, a new list of signatures to the
letter sent on 19 July last by over 200 writers and artists
[week
31-32]
. The new signatories include famous names such as the Nobel
prize winner, José Saramago, Federico Mayor Zaragoza,
President of the Foundation "Culture and Peace" the former
president of UNESCO, Belén Gopegui, Antonio Gala, Juan
Genovés, Javier Sádaba... who join the list which
has now acquired 400 names. To this an additional letter comes from
the Association of veterans of the Spanish army of Ifni 1956-1960 as
well as two thousand first signatures of citizens of Spain, from the
whole world including the camps and the occupied territories of
Western Sahara. [letter
in Spanish
].
SPAIN
MADRID:
Viernes 15 de Octubre 2004 19:30 Presentación del
monográfico de ariadna-rc.
La
memoria en la cultura saharaui.
Recital de poesía saharaui.
Biblioteca regional de Madrid "joaquín leguina",
C/.Ramírez de Prado 3, 28045 Madrid Tfnos. 917 208 850 917 208
860 Fax:917 208 890
AUSTRALIA
The Australia
Western Sahara Association presents as part of Refugee Week with the
theme "A journey of understanding to respect and hope":
In MELBOURNE, a photo exhibition and a film about the Australian
delegation to the Saharawi refugee camps in April 2004. 26 October-5
November: Photo exhibition "Waiting..." - black and white photographs
taken by Georgia Vlassopoulos. On Friday 29 October, 6.00-8.00 pm:
Opening of the exhibition by Jean McLean and screening of the film
"it's a long way to Tifariti" to be presented by Sydney-based film
maker Yvette Andrews. At the New International Bookshop Gallery,
Victorian Trades Hall.
In SYDNEY, The Heart of the Sahara &endash; a musical benefit for the
Saharawi refugees with the Café of the Gate of Salvation
(Sydney's premier a cappella choir) Mohamed Bangoura (African
drumming & dance) Wednesday 27 October The Basement-Sydney.
L'autodétermination du Sahara Occidental 1974 - 2004 . Analyses, réflexions, témoignages:
Nuevo
foro:
Un
Hogar Saharaui: " Té y
Tertulia"
Un rincón para discutir, debatir y analizar el conflicto del
Sahara Occidental, además de otros temas que preocupan a los
Saharauis. La participacion de todos los interesados es
bienvenida.
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