|
NEWS |
08.-21.02.2004
08.02.04
The Minister of Information, Sid'Ahmed Batal, expressed his
government's "astonishment", after the publication of a dispatch from
the press agency Associated Press (AP), "littered with mistakes and
innuendoes tending to confuse the legitimate struggle of the Saharawi
people for self-determination, with international terrorism and
contraband."(SPS)
In a dispatch from Rabat, dated 05.02. and entitled "Securing the
Sahara at the centre of Maghreb country concerns and their Western
allies", Nicolas Marmié, correspondent for AP, presented as on
the same basis "Contrabandiers, armed Islamic militants, independence
rebels of the Polisario Front (...) which move around more or less
freely in the immense desert of the Sahara." Same note in Aujourd'hui
le Maroc of 06.02., with headline "The Polisario, breeding ground of
terrorism". (The same agency broadcast on 19.02 a report by the
same author announcing that the 100 Moroccan prisoners of war had
been handed over to the ICRC, when they were still in
Tindouf).
08.02.04
The Council of Ministers decreed that 18 June should be an annual
"national day of the disappeared" and called for pressure to be put
on Morocco to make it shed light on the fate of the Saharawi
disappeared and to guarantee individual freedoms of citizens in the
occupied territories. (SPS)
09.02.04
Marathon
The fourth Sahara Marathon will begin on 23 February next, with the
participation of over two hundred athletes from different
nationalities, who will run the regulation 42,159 km separating the
wilaya of El Ayoun.
10.02.04
El Khalil Sidi M'Hamed, the emissary of President Mohamed Abdelaziz,
was received in Nouakchott by the Mauritanian President, Maaouiya
Ould Sidi Ahmed Taya. (SPS)
13.02.04
Release of 100 Moroccan prisoners of war
The Polisario Front announced the unilateral release of 100 Moroccan
prisoners of war, including officers. This release came at the
festival of Aïd al Adha, following a request from Qatar. The
Polisario Front asked Qatar to intervene with Morocco, with a request
to liberate Saharawi soldiers and to shed light on the fate of the
disappeared.
MINURSO hails planned release of 100 Moroccan POWs in Western
Sahara.(UN
News)
The presidency of the European Union welcomed this decision. It
reiterates its appeal for the liberation of the remaining 514
prisoners and invites the two parties to the conflict to respect
their humanitarian commitments and to cooperate to find the missing
disappeared persons.(declaration)
19.02.04
Humanitarian catastrophe
The Saharawi Minister of Cooperation, Salek Baba Hacena, making a
statement at a press conference in Merida (Spain), described as
"critical" the food situation of the Saharawi people and warned of
the imminence of a humanitarian catastrophe, caused by considerable
delays in the aid programs of international organisation which have
not received the necessary finance.
09.02.04
Moulay Brahim Ali Maati, Saharawi citizen, born on 20 January 1975 in
Smara, was arrested on 4 February, on the pretext of complicity with
a common law detainee condemned to 3 years in prison. El Maaiti is
known for his constant devotion to the defence of human rights. He
has served as translator during meetings of foreign delegations with
families of disappeared Saharawis as well as with victims of Moroccan
repression in the occupied territories of Western Sahara. AFAPREDESA
strongly condemns this serious violation of human rights perpetrated
by the authorities of the Moroccan occupation.(AFAPREDESA
french
or spanish)
14.02.04
Mohamed Bahia Sidi Brahim Errachid, Saharawi citizen, was questioned
by the Moroccan police in a cafeteria on Mecca Street in occupied El
Ayoun. Without explanation he was beaten up, taken to the police
station and brutally tortured. This same day a football match was
being played between Algeria and Morocco, an occasion for Saharawi
youth to give expression to its refusal of Moroccan occupation by
taking the side of the Algerian team. The public prosecutor of El
Ayoun ordered the incarceration of Errachid in the Black Prison.
Numerous disputes and attacks against Saharawis took place because of
that football match. (AFAPREDESA, french
or spanish
)
15.02.04
Joint patrols of the Moroccan gendarmerie and the Spanish Civil Guard
are going to supervise the coastal zone off-shore from the Canary
Islands and from El Ayoun in order to locate and intercept boats
carrying illegal immigrants.
According to the Polisario representative in the UN, visiting the
Canary Islands, the sending of these patrols into the territorial
waters of Western Sahara constitutes a violation of international
law.
07-08.02.04
International Socialist Council, Madrid
The Coordination of Spanish Associations of solidarity with the
Saharawi people asked the Spanish socialists, in a letter, to defend
before the Council of I.S. the right of the Saharawi people to
self-determination in the face of Morocco's "intransigence".
(spanish)
07.02.04
Meeting in Madrid of the Task Force of the European Coordination of
support for the Saharawi people.
Appeal
to the
International Community from the European co-ordination of support to
the Saharawi people.
09.02.04
The Nobel Peace Prize-winner, José Ramos Horta, Minister of
Foreign Affairs for East Timor, considers that Paris "is putting its
image at stake by the incoherence of its position on the conflict of
Western Sahara" and that this position of a permanent member of the
Security Council "could be a disservice to the UN". Ramos Horta was
replying to questions from the journalist Ana Camacho for
Mundo
Negro.
11.02.04
UN - decolonisation
Opening of the 2004 session of the Special Committee of 24,
Press,
Release
SG/SM/9155 GA/COL/3091.
12.02.04
Austrian Parliament
Foreign Affairs Committee
On the initiative of the Greens, the Committee supported a motion in
four parts, which asks for the support of the government for the
peace process in Western Sahara. The Committee expressly supports
Kofi Annan's peace process and asks the government to commit itself
in favour of the Saharawis' right to self-determination, and for the
active participation of European countries in the peace process, and
for the respect of human rights in this region and the release of all
political prisoners.
20.02.04
Confidence-building measures
"Should everything proceed as planned, we expect the first family
visit flight to take place in early March," UN High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR) spokesman Kris Janowski told a news
briefing
in Geneva.
The Arab language Moroccan weekly Al-Ousbou' wrote on 13
February that "the Moroccan authorities went back on their decision
to cooperate with the ICRC (sic) to allow Saharawis to visit their
relatives. Morocco is keen that Saharawis should not enter until they
have attested to their "Moroccan" identity and that those who want to
go and stay with their family in the Sahara should be authorised to
do it, while the Polisario puts as a condition that the security of
travellers should be ensured from their departure until their return
in Tindouf."
Ali Salem
Tamek
The Democratic Confederation of Labour (CDT) decided to exclude
Tamek, who is a member of its administrative committee and secretary
general of the Assa branch.
The Moroccan extreme left brought together in the G5 (GSU, Ennahj Addimocrati , PADS, CNI and Fidelity to Democracy) makes up a united front, which should become a political party in the medium term. Let us recall that Ennajh Addimocrati still argues for "self-determination for the Saharawis", while others back a "political solution which does not question Moroccan sovereignty over the Sahara". (Tel Quel, 17.02.04)
European
Parlament
«European Parliament resolution on the EU's rights, priorities
and recommendations for the 60th Session of the UN Commission on
Human Rights in Geneva (15 March to 23 April 2004) »
Declaration
of Mohamed Sidati , 11.02.04.
13.02.04
Guipuzkoa: Caravana solidaria con los saharauis
Una caravana de camiones, cargados con 120 toneladas de alimentos
reunidos por 45 municipios guipuzcoanos y diferentes empresas, ONGs y
colegios, partió de Donostia rumbo a los campamentos de
refugiados saharauis.>Balance
de la campaña
15.02.04
Sevilla: Caravana por la paz
Este proyecto transportá a los campamentos 11 trailers con
250.000 Kg. de alimentos.
Otras : Caravana Andaluza de Ayuda al Sahara 2004, el camion de la Asociación Zamorana con los Niños del Sáhara, Asociación de Amigos del Sáhara de Cordoba, Burgos, Salamanca, Caravana de Castilla y Leon, Caravana Linarense, etc...
COMING UP... >> see also agenda
27 de Febrero:
fiesta anual de la República Árabe Saharaui
Democrática.
El Ayuntamiento de San Sebastian, Dirección de Juventud,
Educación, Cooperación y Derechos Humanos oganiza
diversos actos testimoniales: 24.02.04 proyección del
Documental Sahara Maratón, 26.02.04 Conferencia y
presentación del libro La historia prohibida del Sahara
español, impartida por el periodista y autor del libro
Tomás Bárbulo. 26.02-13.03.04 exposición sobre
el Sahara Occidental, el país del pueblo saharaui.
Rally for Saharawi National Day - to call on the UN to organise the promized referendum for self-determination in Western Sahara - AWSA - Australia Western Sahara Association. Friday 27th February, 12:30 - 1:30pm, UN Information Centre, 46-48 York Street, Sydney, Australia.
Vuelos charter a los campamentos de refugiados saharauis
International march to the wall of shame in Western Sahara , New agenda: 22-25.04.04
OPINION
UJSARIO: Documents de l'atelier jeunesse de l'Eucoco 2003.
NEW
PUBLICATIONS
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LIBRO: "Mientras soñaba... (al oeste del sahára)", Agripín Montilla Mesa, Ediciones Litopress, 2003, 590 páginas.
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