|
WEEKS 47-48 : 14.11.-28.11.2004 |
2.11.04
The President of the Saharawi Republic receives the American Senator,
James M. Inhofe (Republican Oklahoma), who chairs the Committee for
the Environment and Public Works in the Senate and is a member of the
Committees for Armed Services and Native American Affairs.
[SPS]
16.11.04
A centre for training for public office is inaugurated in the
Saharawi refugee camps by the Prime Minister, in the presence of a
representative from the Basque Institute for Public Administration,
members of the Saharawi authorities and Basque NGOs funding the
project. The centre is named after Juan Antonio Gonzalez Caraballo, a
Spanish doctor who devoted a large part of his work to solidarity
with the Saharawi people and who lost his life in a traffic accident
in the Saharawi refugee camps.[SPS]
15-16.11.04
The Secretary General of the Socialist Internationale, Luis Ayala,
affirms in a press conference, while the Council of his organisation
was meeting on 15 and 16 November last in Johannesburg, that the
position of the I.S. is "in accordance with the resolution [in
favour of self-determination] adopted at the 22nd congress in Sao
Paolo" in 2003. A Polisario Front delegation takes part in the
session.
13.11.04, El
Ayoun
El Kainan Hedi Sidahmed, a political prisoner N° écrou
24319 [see week 20/03],
is forcibly transferred to an unknown place. He is maltreated in his
cell by prison guards and four members of the Moroccan armed forces,
who handcuff him. Some 250 people gather outside the prison for the
whole night to support the prisoners who are protesting against the
treatment inflicted on Keinan.
El Ayoun
Saharawi women organise a sit-in for four hours outside the office of
daira number 6, to denounce their "marginalisation by Moroccan
authorities", claiming their "right to accommodation". The
demonstration was dispersed by Moroccan security forces, led by the
pacha and the chief of police, who savagely destroyed some banners
and arrested the director of the newspaper "Ouad Noun", who was
taking photographs of the demonstration.
[SPS]
Assa
Since 15.11.04, Saharawi university students from Assa and Zac
(southern Morocco) have been organising an unlimited sit-in outside
the transport agency, Supratour, which provides transport to areas
not served by the train. After the 1999 uprising in El Ayoun, the
Moroccan authorities decided to take charge of transport for Saharawi
students, but which they stopped doing at the start of the present
university year.
On 19 November, about 90 Saharawis took part in a sit-in with
traditional tents outside the pacha's office. They want respect for
their demands, jobs, solutions to their problems, not just police
measures. Actions in solidarity have taken place in Smara, Tantan,
Aouinet and Torkoz. Another big march of support for the unemployed
was held on the evening of 19 as well as the next day, bringing
together 1,500 people. Extra forces to maintain order were brought in
along with soldiers from Tiznit and Bouizakarne. Seven young people
threaten to start a hunger strike.
On 24 November new demonstrations took place. Four marches from
different schools and colleges met in the square named Place Ali
Salem Tamek to go together to the pachalik. As well as families of
unemployed one could see councillors and parliamentarians among the
protesters. In Tan-Tan a sit-in finished with arrests and some
injuries. [statements
and reports]
17.11.04,
Smara
The Committee of victims of events in Smara announces that 3 young
Saharawis were arrested and tortured on 15.11.04 (eve of the 3rd
anniversary of the 2001 uprising, [week 47/01].
[Communiqué
with photos, 17.11.04]
International
Campaign for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders in Western
Sahara
The Local committee of support for the campaign sends an
open
letter
to the European Parliament. (20.11.04)
15.11.04,
Germany
Response of the Minister for Foreign Affairs to two questions on
Western Sahara from the MP Siegfried Helias: "The situation is
blocked since James Baker's departure". "Germany supports the efforts
of the UN to find a peaceful solution, following its departure from
the Security Council it is going to get more particularly involved in
humanitarian questions".
20.11.04,
Australia
The Australian Labor Party (Victoria), at its conference held in
Melbourne, unanimously passed a motion supporting the right of the
Saharawi people to self-determination and independence .
MEDIA
The Moroccan journalist Ali Lmrabet, imprisoned in 2003 then pardoned, visited the Saharawi refugee camps. After the ban on his papers "Demain Magazine" and "Doumane", he is currently working for Spanish media. The interview he conducted with the President Mohamed Abdelaziz appeared in El Mundo le 14.11.04 . He talked about his own impressions of the trip in a press conference in Algiers and in the columns of El Watan.
The interview
of Abdelaziz in brief:
Madrid's position: "equivocal and obscure". Alluding to "the
incomprehensible comings and goings of Spanish diplomacy", Abdelaziz
points out that, "one day, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs assures us
it supports the Baker plan, the next day it says the opposite. One
week it declares that the Baker plan is the right way to go and the
next it talks of the need for adding adjustments".
The Saharawi President would like the Spanish government to be
"sincere and clear" in its intention of supporting the organisation
of a referendum of self-determination in Western Sahara and hopes for
clarification during his forthcoming meeting with the Spanish head of
state.
A propos the Baker plan, he is very firm: "for us the Baker plan is a
package to take or leave. I cannot accept any "adjustment" nor any
other provision which could alter it",
Recognition by South Africa, it is the attitude of the Moroccan
officials which provoked it. "It is the present Moroccan government
or more exactly the present king of Morocco and the group around him
who are really responsible for the recognition of the Polisario by
South Africa. They are the ones who moved off the track created by
Hassan II since 1981 to organise a referendum of self-determination
for the Saharawi people."
On the role of France: "The French government has an enormous
responsibility for the changes going on today in the Maghreb. The
hexagonal government supports with all its might the Moroccan
position and it does so in contradiction with what it is defending on
an international level. If the conflict continues, it's in part the
fault of France and its support for the Moroccan regime. The day when
France counsels Morocco - I'm not saying would force it - to
negotiate a way out of the conflict, I assure you there will be
important advances". [original full
text in Spanish
] [traduction
française
]
In another interview on the eve of his meeting with the Spanish Prime Minister, Zapatero, the Saharawi leader was keen "to recall that Spain is the former colonizing power in Western Sahara. It remains, according to UN statutes, responsible for the successful decolonization of the territory. Spain owes it to the Saharawi people to discharge this historic debt." [El Watan, 25.11.04]
26.11.04,
Madrid
The Spanish Prime Minister received Mohamed Abdelaziz, secretary
general of the Polisario Front for an hour and a half at the office
of the PSOE. This first encounter at this level was described as
constructive and cordial. The two parties will maintain permanent
contact and Madrid has declared itself ready to play the role of
"facilitator" between the Polisario and Morocco, to reach an
agreement within the UN framework. [agencies]
The SADR President will continue his visit to different regions of
Spain and will meet the leaders of the Popular Party, PP and United
Left, Izquierda Unida, IU. He is taking part in the 30th European
Conference of support to the Saharawi people in
Saragossa.(26-28.11.04)
26.11.04,
Saragossa
Opening of the 30th European Conference of Support for the Saharawi
people in the presence of 500 delegates from Europe and
parliamentarians and well-known figures from different regions of the
world and SADR president Abdelaziz. [More information on the
special
web page
and in the next edition of the news]
09.11.04
Parliamentary debate
Fever among Moroccan officials and political parties. The Minister
for Communication, government spokesman, Nabil Benabdallah, replies
to questions concerning articles in the independent press on the
subject of the situation in Western Sahara (Le Journal Hebdomadaire,
Assahifa, Tel Quel, Al Bidaoui). He makes clear that "our position of
principle and policy consists in rejecting categorically such
indecent practices which exploit this free space for dishonest ends."
[corr.]
11.11.04
A party of the partisan press, notably Al Alam of the Istiqlal party,
Al Ahdath Al Maghribia, close to the USFP, and also to security
interests, publishes the declarations of a government source which
prefers to remain anonymous, on what it calls "the activities and the
spread of sympathisers of the separatists of the Polisario Front in
the towns of Goulimin, Tantan and Smara".
The Forum on the Future of the Greater Middle East, the first meeting to be organised in the framework of the American initiative on the remodeling of this immense grouping which runs from Morocco to Pakistan, is planned to take place in Morocco. It aims to promote political and economic reforms. The Forum should bring together Foreign Affairs and Finance Ministers from over twenty countries of the Middle East and North Africa, alongside those of the G8 (USA, France, UK, Germany, Italy, Japan, Canada and Russia), as well as officials from international organnisations. Several Moroccan organisations, political, trades union, human rights,professional and associative are banding together to oppose the holding of this meeting.
24.11.04,
Mexico
fficial visit of the King of Morocco. The question of Western Sahara
was raised in the joint press statement. The two parties want a
lasting negotiated political solution in keeping with UN resolutions.
The President of Mexico during a joint press update with the Minister
of Foreign Affairs Benaïssa confirmed that Mexico has recognised
SADR diplomatically for 25 years, in a spirit of active neutrality.
[Comunicado
Conjunto]
[Comunicado
de la Embajada de la RASD en
Mexico
]
26.11.04
Mohamed VI has talks with the President of Brazil Lula da Silva and
signs a framework agreement between Morocco and the Mercosur (Brazil,
Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay).[By the way, for his trip the
monarch needs two Hercules airplanes for his furniture and cars,
himself travels aboard his Boing 747-400 accompanied by a
Grumman,]
16.11.04
The IER organises public hearings from mid-December
The body Equity and Reconciliation (IER) is starting from
mid-December 2004 to organise public hearings during which former
victims will present their testimony on human rights abuses which
Morocco saw between 1956 and 1999. This program, which will extend
over ten (10) weeks, will concern among others the towns of Tantan
and Smara. In parallel, the IER will organise twelve hearings on
different subjects devoted to questions intimately linked to abuses
which Morocco has known. Among the subjects are: "survivors of
disappearance", "torture", arbitrary detention", "women and human
rights abuses", "exile", "the events of the Sahara", "secret
detention centres". And "families of the disappeared". 22,000
requests for compensation for "forced disappearance and arbitrary
detention committed between 1956 and 1999" [Source :
Instance
Equité et
Réconciliation]
26 / 27
novembre 2004 - Uagadugu, Burkina Faso
10th summit of French speakers
Contribution of the international Federation of the League of human
rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation against Torture (OMCT)
(...)
c. Human rights defenders in a situation of conflict, of
post-conflict or generalised chaos.
In Morocco, despite the fact that the armed conflict ended 13 years
ago in Western Sahara, Moroccan activists who peacefully defend the
right to self-determination and denounce human rights abuses
perpetrated in this province, are still the target of Moroccan
authorities. Notably, the Western Sahara branch of the Forum for
Truth and Justice was dissolved in 2003 through a judicial procedure
and three activists from the organisation were sentenced in 2003 for
"incitation to insurrection" [full
text
]
SIGN THE APPEAL FOR THE DEFENCE OF THE SAHARAWI HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS
13.11.04
Over 5,000 people take part in a "march for the freedom of the
Saharawi Coordination of Associations in solidarity with the Saharawi
people. Participants demand that the Spanish government should take
on its historic responsibilities and actively support the
organisation of a referendum of self-determination in Western Sahara.
A manifesto read out in front of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs ends
the gathering, and a delegation is received by Bernardino
Léon, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
[Photos
of the demonstration in Madrid 13.11.04]
18.11.04,
Mexico
The Association of Friendship with SADR is inaugurated in Mexico,
made up of domains.
19.11.04,
Brussels
On the initiative of the Belgian Parliamentary Intergroup, "Peace for
the Saharawi People" a colloquium was organised in the Belgian
Parliament. See statement from the Polisario Front representation in
Belgium.[communiqué
]
19.11.04,
Paris
Meeting and Debate "Western Sahara : the legitimate right of the
Saharawi people to self-determination within the framework of the UN
peace plan", organised by the Algerian Cultural Centre and the
Association of Friends of SADR, with the Polisario Front
representative in France, Mohamed Habiballah, Nacer Boughalem and
Mahrez Lamari, officers of the Algerian Committee of Solidarity with
the Saharawi people, Mr Francis Jacob and Régine Villemont.
[L'Humanité,
23.11.04]
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