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WEEKS 51-52 : 18.12.-31.12.2005 |
18.12.05,
Oil
The Polisario Front announces in London that six British oil
companies, among them Premier Oil, are short-listed for the award of
oil exploration licences for the 12 off-shore lots made available for
bids by SADR. The final choice will be announced in the second week
of January. [The
Business online,
UK, 18.12.05]
20.12.05,
Parliament
The autumn session of the Saharawi National Council (parliament) was
held in the wilaya of Ausserd. The parliament studied reports from
the government and approved its program for 2006.
23.12.05,
African Union
The Saharawi Ambassador at the African Union, Lehbib Breika, handed a
letter from the President of the Saharawi Republic to the President
of the African Commission, Alpha Omar Konaré, in which he asks
the African Union to condemn Morocco's serious human rights abuses in
the occupied territories of Western Sahara. The letter also makes
reference to the taking charge of African immigrants, expelled by the
Morocco authorities and given refuge by the Polisario Front, which is
always in the liberated zones.
26.12.05,
Recognition
In a joint statement signed in Montevideo by the Saharawi Foreign
Minister, Mohamed Salem Ould Salek and the Uruguan Minister of
Foreign Affairs, Reinaldo Gargano, Uruguay announced its official
recognition of SADR. This recognition is "a strong message to the
international community to accelerate the decolonization of Western
Sahara, in accordance with international law", said Lehreitani
Lehssan, in charge of the mission from the Saharawi presidency.
M'hamed Khaddad, responsible for relations with the UN, for his part,
described this recognition as "a great victory for the Saharawi
people". For the Saharawi Ambassador in Algiers, Mohamed Beissat,
"after the recognition by South Africa, it is a new very powerful
message from the international community in favour of the rights of
Saharawis to self-determination and an illustration of the
increasingly noticeable isolation of Morocco within the international
scene." [Joint
statement
]
82 states at present recognise SADR. [list]
28.12.05,
Moroccan reaction
Morocco, which "learnt with profound astonishment" of the recognition
of SADR by Uruguay, called this gesture "a hostile and unfriendly
act" and accused Uruguay of "reneging on its previous commitment to
work towards the search for a peaceful, lasting and negotiated
solution within the United Nations." Morocco underlined that
Uruguay's arguments are "weak and incoherent" and that this act
"constitutes an affront to the unanimous feelings of the Moroccan
people".
31.12.05
The President of the Mauritanian Military Council for Justice and
Democracy, Colonel Ely Ould Mohamed Val, greeted the President of the
Saharawi Republic on the occasion of the New Year, during a telephone
conversation. [SPS]
OCCUPIED TERRITORIES AND SOUTH MOROCCO
12.12.05,
Homage
The Spanish Commission and Foundation for Refugee Aid (CEAR) awarded
the 5th Juan María Bandrés Prize for the defence of the
right to asylum and solidarity with refugees to Aminatou Haidar, for
her exemplary peaceful struggle for the rights of the Saharawi people
and for the respect of international law in Western Sahara under
Moroccan military occupation. Aminatou has been in prison since 17
June in the Black Prison of El Ayoun, where she was sentenced several
days ago to 7 months' imprisonment. [más]
16.12.05,
Black Friday
A demonstration on Friday 16 December brought together numerous
people from many areas of El Ayoun and the Unity camps established on
the outskirts of the town, in addition, pupils from several
educational establishments. Following a very brutal intervention by
police forces dozens of people were wounded and 120 were arrested,
beaten, even tortured, and about fifteen houses were trashed.
[more]
[photos
1
+ photos
2
]
Ten persons were presented to the public prosecutor, six were found
guilty and imprisoned in the Black Prison, four were released.
There were four girls, held and interrogated for several days, beaten
and tortured by well-known torturers: Aboulhassan, Hamid Bahri and
Rabiiaa in the CID police station and at the PC of the CMI. Eleven
people, including women, some injured, were driven by night about
twenty kilometers out of town and abandoned in the desert, some
without clothes, after having been
beaten.[more]
[video
on Cahiers du Sahara]
[the list
of Saharawi political prisoners has been
updated]
There were many protests in reaction to these events:
The Association of Families of Saharawi Prisoners and Disappeared
(AFAPREDESA) and the Union ofSaharawi Jurists (UJS), the association
of solidarity from Seville, the National Algerian Committee of
Solidarity with the Saharawi People (CNASPS). The associations,
AARASD and CORELSO organised a demonstration in Paris on 23.12.05.
(see below)
The minister for the occupied territories and the Saharawi community abroad, Khalil Sidi Mohamed, in a statement warned public opinion about the dangers represented by the repressive policy of the Moroccan authorities to a peaceful settlement of the Saharawi conflict and for the stability of the region.
17.12.05,
Smara, Boujdour
Two Saharawis, Likhrif Mahmoud and Laroussi, were arrested in Smara.
Their families and other Saharawi citizens demonstrated outside the
police station to call for their release. In Boujdour, Chaker Lahbib
Khaya was arrested and beaten for having placed the SADR flag on a
public building. [SPS]
18.12.05,
Equity and Reconciliation Body
"In the context of the Saharawi conflict, the investigations of the
IER provided clarification on the fate of 211 people presumed
disappeared. 144 of them died during or following armed clashes. For
40 of them, their identities, places of death and burial have been
determined. For 88 others, if their identity and their places of
death have been found, the location of their grave is not yet known.
12 people who died have not been identified, while 4 others, injured,
arrested and hospitalised died in hospitals and were buried in
cemetries that are located. Finally, 67 people presumed disappeared
were brought to Tindouf in Algeria by the intermediary of the ICRC on
31 October 1996."
18.12.05, El
Ayoun
Two Saharawi children, Myriam Mahmoud (a 14 year-old girl) and Taki
Saadeddine were arrested and subjected to bad treatment after a
demonstration in the Alawda quarter. Their families declared that the
state of their physical and psychological health is
"catastrophic".
19.12.05, New
arrests
Two Saharawis working in the Cherifian Office of Phosphates (OCP)
were abducted at their place of work by plain clothes agents from the
Moroccan general information. Their fate is unknown.
19.12.05,
Dakhla
Three elderly people were mortally wounded and a fourth is in a
critical state after having been knocked over by a truck driven by a
Moroccan soldier in a street in Dakhla.
20.12.05, El
Ayoun
New independentist demonstrations followed by the arrest of three
Saharawi citizens, Nah Tarik, injured in one leg, Elhad Mustapha and
Hanini Mohamed. The three young men were savagely maltreated during
their arrest and tortured for 3 hours.
20.12.05,
letter
In a letter sent to the president of the Security Council, Emyr Jones
Parry, the Saharawi president asked for an "extraordinary session" of
the Security Council to be held in order to give MINURSO the means to
protect the civil population. [Full
text
SPS]
20.12.05,
sentence
The court of first instance in El Ayoun sentenced a student,
Sid'Ahmed N'dour, to a sentence of 4 months' imprisonment, for having
"humiliated an agent of public order and taken part in non-
authorised gatherings." [SPS]
20.12.05, El
Ayoun
A soldier, Mohamed Ali Ruimi, disappeared on 24.11.05, reappeared on
19.12.05 at the PC of the CMI in El Ayoun.
20-21.12.05
Independentist demonstrations took place in the four main Saharawi
occupied towns, Dakhla, El Aaiun, Smara and Boujdour, where two
people, Khaya Bachir and Mahjoub Soudani, were arrested.
22.12.05,
Smara
A big demonstration for independence was held in the main street of
the holy city, followed by the intervention of the police and
temporary arrests accompanied by bad treatment and
torture.
23.12.05, El
Ayoun
Sidi ould Ali ould Barka, 85 years old, died in El Ayoun hospital
following injuries sustained during the intervention of police forces
on 16 December.
24.12.05, El
Ayoun
Saharawi students from El Mansour Eddahbi school organised a peaceful
march in favour of independence of the Sahara, rapidly and brutally
dispersed by the police. Several people are injured.
24.12.05,
Human Rights NGOs
The Executive of the Moroccan Forum for Truth and Justice called the
Moroccan Minister of Justice to "free all political prisoners",
particularly the Saharawi activists, and denounced the conditions
under which their trial took place.
For its part, the Moroccan Association for the defence of human
rights, at the end of the meeting of its central executive, pointed
to "the worrying backsliding in the respect of human rights (in
Morocco)". [SPS]
26.12.05,
The Saharawi political prisoners in the prisons of El Ayoun, Ait
Melloul, Kenitra and Sraghna (Morocco), declared their solidarity
with El Agdadi Ali, a Saharawi political detainee in Tiznit, on
hunger strike since 12 December last. El Agdadi, who was maltreated,
makes a claim to transfer to Aït Melloul, where there are
other Saharawi political prisoners.
26.12.05
A new, hitherto unheard of, tactic discovered by the Moroccan special
services : ban on entry to a town. Moustapha Tamek, a human rights
activist, was prevented from entering the towns of Dakhla and
Boujdour by security agents who let him know he was not
approved.[more]
29.12.05
Sidi Mohamed Ambarek Haidala, nicknamed Bahi, born in 1976 in El
Ayoun, was killed by a mine in the region of Aougharnat in Western
Sahara while he was collecting firewood.
29.12.05,
Goulimine
About a hundred people demonstrated outside the wilaya (town) office
of Goulimine, protesting about the repression in Western Sahara,
demanding the release of the Saharawi political prisoners, expressing
their solidarity with El Agdadi Ali on hunger strike and demanding
work for the unemployed. The police forces attempted for several
hours to disperse the gathering, then finally beat the demonstrators
violently with truncheons. Several people were injured, some were
hospitalised.
29.12.05,
Dakhla
Police forces brutally intervened inside Al Fatah institute,
seriously wounding several Saharawi students. They had protested
against a philosophy teacher, who by his discriminatory remarks had
attacked the dignity of the Saharawi people. Families of the injured
students publicly denounced these events and called for those
responsible to be punished.
31.12.05
The Saharawi president sent a letter to the 55 Saharawi political
prisoners incarcerated in the prisons of El Ayoun, Tiznit, Kenitra
and elsewhere on the occasion of the New Year. He expressed his
solidarity and his unconditional support to those he called the
"heroes" of the peaceful Saharawi struggle for independence.
[SPS]
The second trial of the fourteen human rights defenders sentenced on 14 December will take place on Tuesday 3 January at the penal court of El Ayoun.
16.12.05
In the context of the program of exchange visits of families between
the camps in Tindouf and occupied Western Sahara, ten families from
the region of Rio de Oro embarked in Dakhla, bound for for Tindouf,
while eight families coming from the camps arrived in
Dakhla.
21.12.05: New
York- Secretary-General's year-end press conference (unofficial
transcript)
Q: Mr. Secretary-General, you appointed a new Special Envoy to the
Western Sahara this year, and he's scheduled to deliver his report
next month. Are you confident that 2006 will be the year to resolve
the Western Sahara question?
SG: I think that that issue is too complex for 2006. But we will
persevere.
23.12.05
The European Commission approved the regulations of the new EU
fishing agreement with Morocco, which grants to Spain 95 fishing
licences in waters under Moroccan sovereignty and administration,
therefore, also in Saharawi territorial waters. The agreement must
still be approved by the parliament.
23.12.05,
Paris
Numerous French and Saharawi activists from the Committee for the
respect of freedoms and human rights in Western Sahara (CORELSO) and
the Association française des amis de la RASD met on the human
rights square - place du Trocadéro &endash; to "denounce the
intensification of the repression exercised by the Moroccan
authorities against the Saharawi population".
31.12.05,
humanitarian aid
The Federation of associations in solidarity with the Saharawi people
from the Spanish region of Andalusia (FANDAS) collected over 1,000
tonnes of food, medical and educational supplies which will be taken
to the Saharawi refugee camps.
Contact:
Narcís Soler i Masferrer
Universitat de Girona - Facultat de Lletres
Plaça Ferrater i Mora, 1, 17071 GIRONA
0034 972418788 972418200 fax:972418230
narcis.soler[at]udg.esBrahim Cheij Breih
Ministerio de Cultura y Deporte
0034686215416
bcheij[at]hotmail.com
Conférence mondiale de solidarité avec le peuple sahraoui aura lieu le 27 février 2006 dans la localité libérée de Tifariti
World Conference of Solidarity with the Saharawi People in the Liberated City of Tifariti.
Neue Webseite: Demokratische arabische Republik Sahara: http://www.jaimetna.de/
Freedom in the World 2006: Charts and Report (PDF docs)
- Quand les mots perdent leur sens ! Baba Sayed
- Review of the ESISC Report on the POLISARIO Front, Sidi M. Omar
- Una Pregunta ????? Agaila Abba Hemeida
- Marocains (es) l'heure du choix a sonné ! Baba Sayed
- TREINTA Y ..., Mohamed Ali
- QUE NO DECAIGA EL ANIMO, Mohamed Salem Ali
- Une hirondelle ne fait pas le printemps ! Baba Sayed
- Treinta años de preguntas y respuestas, Zouri Saguia
- What Lies Behind the ESISC Report, Khatry Beirouk
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