|
WEEKS 49 - 50 : 03.12.- 16.12.2006 |
04-07.12.06, African Union, Summit on Food Security in Africa
The President of the Saharawi Republic spoke during a debate on the
subject of food security and the fight against desertification in
Africa. Mohamed Abdelaziz
drew attention to the situation of the Saharawi refugees, who today
find themselves facing an acute food crisis, through lack of food aid
from donor countries”. The Nigerian President Olesegun Obasanjo called
on Africa to “pay special attention to the Saharawi refugees”, and to
include this topic “on the agenda of the next summit”.
10.12.06, Saharawi Consultative Committee
M'Barek Lehdeib, vice-president of the Consultative Committee, was
designated by presidential decree the head of this assembly of
notables, replacing Annat Ali Menna, who died recently. Mohamed Ali
Ould Sidi El Bachir takes up the position of Vice-President.
OCCUPIED
TERRITORIES AND SOUTH MOROCCO
30.11.06, Ali Salem Tamek’s visit to South Africa, continued.
The South African Committee for Human Rights organised a seminar on
“The human rights situation in the occupied territories of Western
Sahara” in the presence of representatives of the diplomatic corps,
political party officials, NGOs, researchers and journalists. Mtselsio
Thipanyane, Executive Director of the Committee, Eddy Makue, Secretary
General of the South African Council of Churches, Oubbi Bouchraya
Bachir, Saharawi Ambassador to South Africa, Timothey Othieno of the
Global Dialogue Institute and Ali Salem Tamek, member of the Collective
of Saharawi Human Rights Defenders took part, as well as Ebrahim Saley,
Director of the North African department at the South African Ministry
of Foreign Affairs, who declared that “South Africa will spare no
effort to enlarge MINURSO’s mandate for the protection of the rights of
Saharawi citizens”.
30.11.-05.12.06, Aminatou Haidar’s visit to Austria
The Saharawi human rights activist met the director of the
International Institute for Peace, Erwin Lanc, former minister of
the Interior and Foreign Affairs, who reaffirmed his support for the
struggle of the Saharawi people for self-determination and
independence. In Vienna, Aminatou Haidar participated in a round table
on attacks on human rights in Western Sahara in the company of Barbara
Prammer, President of the Parliament, of Karin Scheele, MEP and Norman
Spitzegger, director of the North-South Institute for Cooperation and
Development.[more] A. Haidar also took part in press conferences, organised by the Austrian Socialist party and the Greens. [résumé deutsch]
01.12.06, arrests
Arrest of six people in Smara (released thanks to the intervention of a
number of demonstrators), questioning of a person in El Ayoun, in
Dakhla and Agadir.
03.12.06 El-Ayoun
Arrest of a Saharawi former political prisoner, Bouamoud Mohamed Salem,
tortured in public because he was wearing a T-shirt celebrating the
Saharawi Intifada. Several police vehicles prevented Saharawi citizens
from expressing solidarity with him.
04.12.06, landmine accident
A Saharawi family driving in a car was the victim of an anti-tank mine
explosion in the region of Bir Nzarane, in the south of occupied
Western Sahara. Salek Mohamed Lamine Oussiboua, born 1986, and a man
accompanying the family were killed. The father and the mother as well
as a daughter and another son were injured. [ASVDH]
06.12.06
According to a statement from the Rafto Foundation, the Moroccan
authorities have returned Mohamed Daddach’s passport following a
campaign begun by the Foundation and about thirty Norwegian NGOs.
Daddach was thus able to visit his mother at the end of November. She
is 91 years old and lives in a refugee camp near Tindouf. [press release]
08.12.06, arrests
In Smara the arrest of the president of the Saharawi Committee for the Defence of Human Rights, Ivekou Selma Dedi. [SPS]
Arrest in El-Ayoun of Saharawi students, Louloud Mohamed and Mohamed
Lamine Ahmed Boujemaa Hamid from the lycée Lissan Eddine
El-Khattib, on the grounds of “having distributed leaflets demanding
the immediate withdrawal of the Moroccan occupation and the inalienable
right of the Saharawi people to self-determination and independence”. [SPS]
10.12.06, International Day for Human Rights
On this occasion, demonstrations took place in El-Ayoun, Smara and
Boujdour, among others, as well as in southern Morocco, in Assa,
Goulimine, Zak and Asrir.
The Saharawi Association for the victims of grave violations of human
rights committed by the Moroccan state (ASVDH) warned the authorities,
in accordance with the law, that a demonstration would be held at place
Dcheira, opposite Hotel Nakjir in El-Ayoun, where members of MINURSO
live. Members of the Committee of Support for Self-determination, of
CODESA (Collective of human rights defenders) and the Committee for the
Peace Plan and the Preservation of Natural Resources joined this
demonstration. While vehicles of demonstrators were intercepted by
police, a large police deployment at the gathering place were
preventing, with brutality, the demonstrators from meeting. Leaders of
ASVDH, such as Brahim Dahane, its president, El-Ghalia Djimmi, its
vice-president, leaders of the Committee of Support for
Self-determination such as Hammad Hmad, vice-president, and a dozen
other human rights defenders were injured. Three people were questioned.
In Smara, unemployed graduates organised a march in favour of dignified
conditions of life and the withdrawal of the Moroccan occupier. The
march was violently broken up, causing 23 people to be injured. Two
people were arrested. [resumen + fotos] [autres info, témoignages --> ASVDH]
A demonstration of
inhabitants of Asrir on the occasion of the international day for human
rights was dedicated to the young people from Asrir who died during the
shipwreck of two boats at sea off Boujdour, including Mohamed Salem
Boukhatem, a human rights defender and member of ASVDH. [Photos]
CODESA, the Collective of Saharawi Human Rights Defenders, Saharawi
students in Agadir and Rabat expressed their solidarity with the
victims. In Marrakech on 12 December, 39 Saharawi students were wounded
in the course of confrontations between Saharawi students who were
organising a sit-in of solidarity with the victims of repression on 10
December and Moroccan students. [SPS]
The President of the Saharawi Republic called once again on the UN SG
to “intervene urgently to protect Saharawis in the occupied territories
of Western Sahara”. [SPS]
Shipwreck – Illegal Immigration (continued)
03.12.06, Statement from CODESA,
The Collective of Saharawi Defenders of Human Rights considers that the
Moroccan government is responsible for the increase in the number of
illegal emigrants, calls for an international commission of inquiry to
be set up, asks for those responsible to be brought to justice and
calls on human rights organisations to put pressure on Morocco to put
an end to this.
03.12.06, letter to the UN
In a letter sent to Kofi Annan, Mohamed Abdelaziz asks for an urgent
international inquiry into the role of the Moroccan colonial
authorities in the death of young Saharawis who perished when two boats
capsized. (see weeks 47/48) [full text SPS]
On 23 November the Green MEP, Raoul Romeva, put down a written question
to the Council and to the European Commission asking what measures were
envisaged towards making Morocco put an end to the repression of the
Saharawi population, which is forcing hundreds of young people to
abandon their land. [question]
10.12.06
After his investigations in the Canaries on the Saharawi asylum seekers arriving by sea (see week 47/48),
the Spanish journalist,Tomas Barbulo made inquiries with families of
the 31 young Saharawis drowned or disappeared during the shipwreck, on
26 October last, of two boats near Boujdour. Among 14 victims whose
bodies have been recovered, the majority originate from southern
Morocco, Goulimine, Assa, Asrir. They are people displaced in 1991 from
southern Morocco to Western Sahara by the Moroccans for the referendum
(second green march). These young people have defected to the
independence movement. Boukhatem for example, was a member of the
Committee for the Peace Plan and the Protection of the Natural
Resources of Western Sahara. [El Pais, 11.12.06]
As for the
Moroccan authorities, they require Spain to treat Saharawi immigrants
as Moroccan economic migrants and to return them to Morocco. According
to the Moroccan Consul in the Canary Islands, the Saharawis have no
problems with the Moroccan authorities in Western Sahara. [ EP/IP, 08.12.06]
13.12.06, visit of Ali Salem Tamek to Ireland
The Saharawi activist, Ali Salem Tamek is carrying out a visit to the
Republic of Ireland at the invitation of the international foundation
for the protection of human rights, Front Line, who have done important
work in raising awareness over the past few years. During the hunger
strikes observed in 2005, Ali Salem Tamek received each week from
Ireland some 150 letters of support. [SPS]
Ali Salem Tamek had talks with the deputy director of this NGO, Andrew
Anderson, who led a mission of inquiry in Morocco and Western Sahara in
May of this year.
[Front Line Western Sahara Mission report, 21.06.06]
14.12.06, visit of Ali Salem Tamek to Ireland, continued
Tamek was received
in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs by the officer responsible for the
Middle East and North Africa, Stephen Dawson, as well as by the
Director of the human rights department, Gavan G. O'Leary. Tamek talked
about the situation in the occupied territories and spoke of the forced
emigration, unfair sentences and political prisoners. He also met Irish
members of the European Parliament, who opposed the adoption by the
latter of the fishing agreement between Morocco and the EU. Meetings
with Irish humanitarian and human rights organisations are also planned.
NATURAL RESOURCES
17.08.06, oil
The American company based in Dallas, Kosmos Energy Offshore Morocco HC
concluded an agreement with Morocco “for exploration and exploitation
of hydrocarbons in the zone of interest called "Boujdour
offshore"», within Saharawi territorial waters. [source mensual note Bank Al-Maghrib (p. 74)]
05.12.06, Another illegal oil exploration contract granted by Morocco
An Irish company, "Island Oil and Gas PLC.", with "San Leon (Morocco)
Ltd" and another partner company "GB Oil and Gas Ventures
Limited" (registered in Jersey) signed a contract for oil
reconnaissance with Morocco for a year in the Zag basin, mostly
situated in Western Sahara.
Western Sahara Resource Watch (WSRW) sent an open letter to the Irish
company to inform it of the illegal and geopolitical context and the
dangers in this conflict zone. [Open letter to Island Oil & Gas plc by Western Sahara Resource Watch, 13.12.06]
After the withdrawal of Total in December 2004 and of Kerr McGee in May
2006, Morocco has granted new oil contracts in violation of
international law. [see the dossier on Natural Resources in Western Sahara]
14.12.06, UN
The General Assembly adopted by 70 votes and 91 abstentions, resolution A/61/415. The text was proposed by the 4th Committee, who accepted it in October by 76 votes with 72 abstentions.
Numerous delegations regretted that this text, practically identical to
last year’s resolution, had not been able to be adopted consensually as
had been the case previously. This vote should in no way be regarded as
an expression of a position in favour of one or the other of the two
interested parties, the majority of delegations warned, while pleading
for the speeding up of the settlement of this dispute. Several
delegations alluded to the autonomy plan announced by Morocco.
[UN press release] [communiqué ONU] (both versions are a little different and complementary)
“The Polisario Front and the Saharawi Government welcome the adoption
of such a resolution and consider that this constitutes a new success
for international law”, affirmed the Saharawi minister for Foreign
Affairs, Mohamed Salem Ould Salek, in a statement made public in New
York. [SPS]
The spokesman of the Algerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs declared that
“the General Assembly strongly reaffirmed the right of the people of
Western Sahara to self-determination and recalled that it is a question
of decolonization, thus confirming the responsibility of the UN in
effecting its solution”. [SPS]
04-06.12.06, autonomy
CORCAS met for two days in Rabat to examine the autonomy proposal for Western Sahara, which has been submitted to the king. [agencies]
Comments/articles in french: "Le Maroc leurre avec son plan d’autonomie". Driss Basri, Liberté Alger, 07.12.06, "Une mascarade nommée Corcas",
Omar Brousky, Le Journal Hebdo, No 281, 09.12.06, and the Proposal presented by Morocco to James Baker in 2003 (refused), with analysis and comment (french-spanish).
Morocco-France
11.12.06, VIIIth Franco-Moroccan heads of government meetings
Following talks of the Moroccan Prime Minister, Driss Jettou with
Jacques Chirac, the latter declared, on the subject of Western Sahara:
that this conflict requires a lasting political solution and one which
encourages “the Moroccan authorities to present proposals which will
permit the start of negotiations with a view to a just and lasting
political solution, acceptable by all the parties”. The French Prime
Minister, Dominique de Villepin, for his part, welcomed the “reaffirmed
willingness of Morocco to negotiate a political solution and settle the
Sahara question”. [AFP/Elysée] ALGERIA - SPAIN
12.12.06, 3rd Spanish-Algerian bilateral meeting
On the occasion of the working visit of the Head of the Spanish
government, Rodriguez Zapatero, Algerian President Bouteflika proposed
a toast during a lunch, declaring: “We hope that Spain will engage
itself in a more resolute manner to bring the Kingdom of Morocco and
the Polisario Front to accept the finalisation of the means of holding
a free and fair referendum of self-determination [...] Spain cannot
remain indifferent to the present fate of the Saharawi people which you
colonized from 1895 until 1975”.
In a final declaration, the two parties reaffirmed their “attachment to
a just and definitive solution to the conflict in Western Sahara within
the framework of international law and the relevant resolutions of the
United Nations [...]".
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