|
WEEKS 39-40 : 24.09.-07.10.2006 |
21.09.06,
Venezuela
The president of the Saharawi parliament, Mahfoud Ali Beiba, spoke to a
group of parliamentarians from the Latin
American Parliament in Caracas.
21-28.09.06, UK
Zahra Ramdane, International Relations officer for the Union of
Saharawi Women, took part in the annual conference of Plaid Cymru
(Welsh national party) in Swansea, Wales and in the annual conference
of the Labour Party in Manchester from 24 to 28 September.
25.09.06, Declaration
“The autonomy proposal is just a manoeuvre aimed at stopping the
Saharawi people from exercising their right to self-determination, that
is why we reject this initiative en bloc”, the Saharawi president,
Mohamed Abdelaziz affirmed in an interview with the Egyptian daily,
Al Ahram. He indicated that the United States remains attached to
the Baker Plan and that, if France was not favouring the Moroccan
party, the Saharawi question would be solved. [SPS] [in
Arabic]
21-22.09.06, AU
The Saharawi Minister for Public Health, Boullahi Sid, took part in
Maputo in a special meeting of ministers of health from the African
Union devoted to “Universal Access to comprehensive sexual reproductive
health services in Africa”. [Maputo
Plan of Action]
30.09.06, Urgent Appeal
The security stock of basic foodstuffs in the Saharawi refugee camps
will run out at the end of October, the Saharawi Red Crescent (CRS)
warned.
To cover food needs until the end of 2006, the CRS needs 7.700 tonnes
of basic foodstuffs. The CRS affirmed that the principal cause of this
situation comes back to the fact that the UNHCR and WFP are not
honouring their undertakings following pressure from Morocco. [Appel .doc]
02.10. 06,
Declarations
During a press conference in Algiers, the Minister Counselor to the
Presidency, responsible for Europe, Mohamed Sidati, declared that “the
Polisario Front refused to negotiate with Morocco on anything other
than the ways of implementing the agreements already reached”. He
declared that France would like to mention in the next Security Council
resolution an appeal to new direct negotiations. They are “seeking to
make the settlement process for the conflict on Western Sahara deviate
from its natural framework, which is decolonisation”, he pointed out.
Concerning the European Union, the minister declared that France and
Spain stop it from playing its role. Speaking of France, he said that
whoever is the next president, “the situation cannot be worse than it
is today”.
OCCUPIED
TERRITORIES AND SOUTH MOROCCO
Independence
demonstrations continue in El-Ayoun. Over forty young Saharawis of both
sexes were arrested between 24 and 27 September. Other demonstrations
were organised in solidarity with the Saharawi prisoners on hunger
strike. A child of 12 years, El-Ayachi Sid Ahmed, is questioned after a
demonstration outside Bir Anzaran school.
Police forces carry out research on Saharawi demonstrators and
activists.
In Dakhla, two people were arrested on 27.09.06 for having hung up SADR
flags in the Oum Tounsi quarter, later closed off by the police. In El
Ayoun five people are arrested in the night of 28.09.06, in the
Maatallah quarter, by plain clothes police. Some were being arrested
for the second time, taken out of the town and abandoned after having
been mistreated. A pupil was questioned in Smara the same day. On
2.10.06, it’s the turn of the former political detainee, Andour
Lahoucine.
06.10.06, El-Ayoun
The Saharawi lawyer and human rights defender, Asfari Naama, resident
in France, was arrested at the entrance to the town of El Ayoun. He was
on a visit to his home country in the company of two people of French
or Bulgarian nationality according to sources, who were also arrested.
Asfari Naama had been questioned before in Tan-Tan on 20 August 2005
and subjected to a long interrogation. [Note
French]
Hunger Strike
The state of health of the hunger strikers is getting worse in El Ayoun
prison as well as in the Moroccan prisons of Inzegane and Aït
Melloul. More and more are being hospitalised. The authorities and the
doctors apply pressure to stop the action but are having no success.
Loumadi Said, sent back to hospital on 26 September, continues his
strike which started on 7 August. Brahim Sabbar, Ahmed Sbai and others
on hunger strike since 4 September, refuse to eat so long as their
demands are not taken into account. Some of the hunger strikers
interrupted their action, for reasons of health, on 1 October. However,
they started a 48 hour hunger strike of solidarity with Sabbar and Sbai
on 6 October.
[reports
and news] [ASVDH]
Appeals
The cell monitoring the state of health of Saharawi political detainees
on hunger strike, composed of the ASVDH, (the Saharawi Association for
Victims of Serious Violations of Human Rights committed by the Moroccan
State) and the Committee for Self-determination in Western Sahara
(coordinator, Sidi Mohamed Dadach), on 22 September put out a distress
call to “save the lives of 29 Saharawi political prisoners on hunger
strike”. The next day, it launched an Urgent Appeal to save the life of
Loumadi Said, which 28 of the co-detainees joined.
Appeals were also made by members of the families of the strikers.
Brahim Sabbar and Ahmed Sbai, respectively SG of ASVDH and
vice-president of the Committee for the Protection of Saharawi
political prisoners, appealed on 30 September to international human
rights organisations to put an end to the human rights abuses
perpetrated by Morocco in Western Sahara and to call for respect of
their rights as political prisoners.
26.09.06, Morocco
The Moroccan Association for Human Rights, AMDH expressed its “very
deep concern” about the deterioration of the state of health of the
hunger strikers and called upon the authorities to “open an dialogue
with the Saharawi political detainees about their demands”. [SPS]
Spain
24-hour hunger strikes in solidarity with the hunger strikers took
place in Madrid, Bilbao and Vitoria. [photos]
Courts
26.09.06, Appeal Court of Agadir
Two Saharawi political detainees, Bougaraa Omar and Banga Cheikh, still
minors, were set free by the Court of Appeal in Agadir.
27.09.06, Appeal Court of El-Ayoun
A Saharawi political detainee, Choubeida Laaroussi appeared before the
Appeal court of El Ayoun for the third time. His trial was postponed
until 11 October.
03.10.06, Inezgane
A Saharawi political detainee, Lafkir Lahcen, seriously weakened by
being on hunger strike, appeared before the instructing magistrate.
Other news
16.09.06, threats
The Moroccan Arabic language daily Assabah writes that groups of
Moroccan citizens and organisations alerted by the international
campaign of the Saharawi activist Aminatou Haidar, are preparing legal
procedures in order to deprive her of her nationality and to withdraw
her passport.
21.09.06, El-Ayoun
A Saharawi former political prisoner, Laroussi Mohamed Ali Bambari,
died following torture suffered in Moroccan detention centres. Abducted
on 12 November 1993 by the police in Smara, he was transferred to the
El Ayoun PC CMI only to emerge two months later, without being
sentenced, paralysed following cranial traumatism. Since his release,
the deceased, a bachelor, born in 1977, lived in a seroiusly
deteriorated physical and psychological state and never recovered.
25.09.06, corruption
The CID national brigade is said to have received the order to inquire
into several businessmen installed in occupied Western Sahara. Big
names figure on the list. Once before, in 1997, a ship transporting
sand coming from the Sahara was intercepted in the Canary Islands, full
of drugs.
[Tel quel 241 ]
27.09.06, victims of an anti-tank mine
A young Saharawi Saleh Salouk Lakhdar was mortally wounded by the
explosion of an anti-tank mine when his Land Rover drove over it, as he
was out with a friend El-Haj Laaichi, on his way to a tent set up in
the middle of the desert east of Smara. The victim died in hospital
following a haemorrhage. His passenger was also wounded. [Note French] [PHOTOS]
02.10.06, appointments
M'hammed Dryef has been appointed wali (governor) of the region of El
Aaiun-Bojador-Saguia El Hamra, governor of the “province” of El-Ayoun.
Hamid Charia, governor, is responsible for the secretariat general of
the wilaya of El-Ayoun-Bojador-Saguia El Hamra and El-Arbi Mrabet,
governor of coordination with MINURSO.
30.09.06,
British parliament
Early
Day Motion EDM 2188
Jeremy Corbyn , already signed by 74 MPs, calls on the British
government to seek an urgent amendment to “exclude the waters of the
occupied Western Sahara” from the European Union Moroccan Fishing
Agreement. [APS]
01-06.10.06, oil
SADR takes part in the international
Salon and the 76th international Conference on oil of the Society of
Exploration Geophysicists, organised in New Orleans (USA).
13.09.06, SG
daily Press conference
Q: Mr.
Secretary-General, you wrote a letter to the President of the Security
Council at the end of June, asking the Security Council to use the next
four months wisely before the mandate of MINURSO in the Western Sahara
is going to be renewed. You said that it couldn't - it shouldn't be at
a stalemate and that it shouldn't constantly be renewed. I want to
know: it hasn't been on the agenda for the past three months. Are you
disappointed in that? And do you think anything will happen next month?
SG: I don't know what they are doing with it - you know, they are
probably thinking about it; they're probably going to come with a
creative solution. And so I can't say I'm disappointed until I know
what they are going to do. But I think it is important. I did indicate
it shouldn't be business as usual: we should try and be creative. And
we've been down this road before. You remember when former Secretary of
State Jim Baker was working on this issue. At one point he came with
five options for the Council to choose one. We didn't get an answer.
And that's why I hope, if they themselves can come up with some ideas
as to how they would want to proceed, we may do better this time
around. But the time is not up yet; we still have a month or so. [English
text]
61th Session of the United Nations General Assembly
19-27.09.06, general debate
Several governments, through their Prime Minister or foreign affairs
minister, spoke on the question of Western Sahara calling for a speedy
settlement and the organisation of a referendum of self-determination:
the Spanish Minister for Foreign Affairs,Miguel Angel Moratinos [engl.] - [esp.]
, Président of the Union of the Comores, Ahmed Abdellah
Sambi, the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Lesotho, Pakalitha Bethuel
Mosisili [engl,] , the foreign affairs
minister of Niger, Aichatou Mindaoudou [français] , the Algerian Minister
of state for foreign affairs, Mohammed Bedjaoui [français]
, etc. A Saharawi delegation led by the Minister for Foreign Affairs,
Mohamed Salem Ould Salek, followed the proceedings of the General
Assembly.[SPS]
61th Session of the United Nations General Assembly
Special Political and Decolonization Committee , Fourth Committee
03.10.06, general debate on the implementation of the Declaration on
the granting of independence to colonial countries and peoples.
Several representatives of countries of the south, such as Botswana,
Uganda, Algeria, Namibia, South Africa, Caribbean Community and others
spoke in favour of the right to self-determination for the Saharawi
people.
04-06.10.06
The sessions of the 4, 5 and 6 October were devoted in part to the
question of Western Sahara. Numerous petitioners spoke including the
Polisario Front representative with the UN. Morocco had mobilised,
indicator of the growing nervousness at the approach of the debate in
the Security Council , a host of speakers intervened.
[ links to UN statements on the special page]
02.10.06, Morocco
In its annual assessment of the situation in Western Sahara, «
Annahj Eddimocrati », the Moroccan opposition party, recalls that
“violence and repression have become the only means (of the state) to
face up to the problems that the region is experiencing”. The Moroccan
party, which recalled the demonstrations of Saharawi activists which
were violently repressed, massive arrests of activists, violations of
their homes, torture and arbitrary sentences during this year, calls
for “respect of freedoms in Western Sahara and the setting up of the
referendum of self-determination”. [El
Moudjahid, 02.10.06]
05.10.06,
analysis
Questioned by Le Journal hebdo, Philippe Moreau Defarges, Minister
plenipotentiary and researcher with IFRI and co-director of the report
Ramses, talked on the question of Western Sahara: “...the Spanish
Sahara should become independent even if Morocco considers it has some
rights...The International Court of Justice was clear since it said
that nobody can affirm to whom Western Sahara belongs and the only
means to know is to organise a referendum. It is therefore an absolute
imperative and if Morocco wants an international political settlement,
it has to go through this stage.” [Le
Journal Hebdo]
MAURITANIA
05.10.06, mines
Germany will contribute to the financing of a third de-mining mission
next December, around the locality of Tmeimichatt, in the north of the
country [local website].
The mines date from the time of the war which set Mauritania against
the Polisario Front. Germany has already paid for two earlier missions.
27.09.06, ONU,
Geneva, session of the Council of Human Rights
Aminatou Haidar spoke in the name of the Collective of Saharawi Human
Rights Defenders to a panel at the Palace of Nations in Geneva,
alongside the session of the Council of Human rights [statement french] . [EFE]
She again spoke before the Council the next day, but could not finish
her speech. [intervention]
[video on UN web]
Following her visit to the USA, 23 American parliamentarians indicated
to the Minister of Foreign Affairs Rice that the efforts to extend the
UN mandate in Western Sahara to respect human rights have been
countered by the French government. They demand another discussion with
France but also direct intervention by the American authorities with
Morocco to make it respect human rights in Western Sahara. [letter]
On 7 October
in
Viareggio (Tuscany) the prize of solidarity given by the jury of the
Premio Marenostrum is awarded to Aminatou Haidar in homage to her life
and career as a human rights activist in the territories of Western
Sahara under Moroccan domination.
02.10.06, Report
of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
Sidati
revealed in his press conference in Algiers that pressure had been
applied to prevent
the release of the report of the mission to Western Sahara and
Tindouf/Algeria in May/June this year.
Later the
agency Afrol news published a summary in English and Spanish on 5
October, and Le Monde (France) spoke about on 08.10.06.
[the original
text in English is now available
on Sahara update]
07.10.06: Morocco rejects the report. " The Moroccan governement does
not approve the contents of the report because its biased and openly
complacent towards Algeria and Polisario, Moroccan Foreign Minster
benaissa wrote in a letter sent to UN HR High Commissioner Louise
Arbour. [Agency]
04.10.06, European Union
Morocco refused, at less than 48 hours notice before departure, to
receive the European Parliament’s ad hoc delegation for Western Sahara,
planned and organised for over a year. Morocco invoked the unbalanced
composition of the delegation, of which three members out of five are
part of the intergroup “Peace for the Saharawi People”, while the
composition was fixed by the political groups of the parliament and had
been made known to Morocco from the beginning of the negotiations. The
leader of the delegation, Ioannis Kasoulides [PPE-DE, CY], points out
in a statement [French]
that “the Moroccan authorities persist in considering that they should
have a say in the designation of delegation members and explicitly
claim “agreement on [its] composition”. It recalls that “the delegation
is approaching the problem of the Sahara from a humanitarian and
regional perspective in a spirit of impartiality and that if it
travelled to Algiers and to the camps near Tindouf in mid-September, it
was with the conviction that Morocco would, in its turn, keep its word.”
In a Declaration, European members of parliament, Raül Romeva
(Verts/ALE) and Karin Scheele (PSE), members of the delegation,
expressed their “deepest concern that a third party government should
intervene in the composition of a delegation from the European
Parliament, a serious act which should be taken into consideration in
future relations between the European Parliament and the
representatives of the Kingdom of Morocco.” [statement French or Spanish]
Local sources consider that the real motive for the refusal lies
in the fear of demonstrations by the Saharawi population in the
occupied territories, like the one produced during the visit of the
Mission from the High Commission for Human Rights last May.
Other
protests :
Parlacen (Central-american Parliament , the president of the European
United Left/Nordic Green Left group, ANSPS, National Association of
Solidarity with the Saharawi People, Italy..
21-22.09.06,
JORNADAS SOBRE LA VIOLACIÓN DE LOS DERECHOS HUMANOS EN EL
SÁHARA OCCIDENTAL
L'Associació d'Amics del Poble Sahrauí de les Illes
Balears, AAPSIB, con la colaboración de AFAPREDESA, ha
organizado unas jornadas sobre derechos humanos en Palma (Mallorca).
Los ponentes fueron el Sr. El Wassouli Abdelkrim, miembro de la Voie
Démocratique; el Sr. Mohamed Ahmed Laabeid, responsable de
relaciones internacionales de AFAPREDESA; el Sr. Abba Salek El Haissan,
secretario general de la Unión de Juristas Saharauis y el Sr.
Raül Romeva, eurodiputado del grupo Els Verds..
29.09.06- Semana saharaui en México
El 29 de septiembre se inauguraba la semana saharaui en la Casa de
Cultura Benemérito de las Américas Benito Juárez,
en la delegación de Coyoacán. La semana finalizará
el lunes próximo, y en ella destaca, entre otras muestras
culturales, una exposición de más de 50 fotos,
artesaníaa saharaui, presentación de documentales y
conferencias sobre la historia y la cultura saharaui, además de
poder degustar el plato saharaui, cuscus, y beber té.
02.10.06, London
A photographic exhibition on the Saharawi cause and conditions of life
for the Saharawi refugees was opened in City Hall, London as part of “Black
History Season 2007”. . On this occasion the Mayor of London, Ken
Livingstone, welcomed the initiative of the British foundation Sandblast
which organised the exhibition continuing until 31 October. These
photos were taken by Saharawis taking part in the Sora project living
in the refugee camps, as well as by three London-based photographers:
Kyna Gourley, Piera Bruzzo and Simon Thorpe.[APS]
13.10.06 à 18 heures, Conférence-débat sur la
situation dans les territoires occupés du Sahara Occidental avec
Aminatou Haïdar, défenseure sahraouie des droits humains,
à la mairie du 2e arrondissement, 8 rue de la Banque, Paris.
Information et contact : bur.aarasd@wanadoo.fr / corelso@yahoo.fr
17.10.06, Monterotondo, Lazio, Italia: 1° Festival di Altri Mondi,
"ONU, :la resistenza dei popoli e la loro autodeterminazione". Infos:
<roro3@libero.it>
MARIEM HASSAN PRÓXIMOS CONCIERTOS:
21 octubre: Teatro Principal, Burgos
4 noviembre: Fira de la Mediterranía, Manresa
Infos: NUBENEGRA www.nubenegra.com
The 32thEuropean Conference of support to the Saharawi people, EUCOCO
2006, will take place in
Vitoria-Gasteiz (Spain) on3, 4 et 5 novembre 2006. Informations:
http://www.eucoco2006.org
email: organizacion@eucoco2006.org
Documents
Interview
Revista
Web
NEW
PUBLICATIONS
[External
links to newspapers may not be valid after some days because the
servers are restarted]
Français
>> Revue de la presse internationale francophone
http://fr.groups.yahoo.com/group/revue-de-presse-sahara-occidental/messages
English
>> English publications on Sahara Update mailinglist: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Sahara-update/messages
Castellano
>> Revista de la prensa en español http://es.groups.yahoo.com/group/revista-de-prensa-sahara-occidental/messages
Italiano
Attualità in italiano: El Ouali Bologna
+ Radio for Peace
Oltre
il muro: la RASD. Violazioni dei Diritti Umani nei Territori
Occupati del Sahara Occidentale..Attualita' dall' 1 al 30
settembre 2006, N° 9, A cura di Jacqueline Philippe.
Arabe
[Summary
Weekly News,]
[Western
Sahara Homepage]