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WEEKS 01 - 02 : 01.01. - 13.01.2007 |
01.01.07, statement
M'hamed Khaddad, Saharawi coordinator with MINURSO, in his assessment
of the past year, recalled that the UN had reaffirmed its support for
the self-determination of the Saharawis and that the Polisario Front’s
strategy consists in “reinforcing political activity in the occupied
territories and to be ever ready on a military level”. [SPS]
03.01.07
The national secretariat of the Polisario Front, in a statement at the
end of its ordinary session, exhorted the French government to “stop
blocking Security Council resolutions on Western Sahara” and the
Spanish government to “undertake a clear policy supporting the exercise
of the Saharawi people of their legitimate rights”. [SPS]
04-05.01.07
The annual conference of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs brought
together Saharawi ambassadors and representatives abroad and the
Foreign Minister, Ould Salek. [SPS]
05.01.07, visits
A Senegalese delegation led by Ousmane Tanor Dieng, first secretary of
the Socialist Party and a candidate in the forthcoming presidential
elections in Senegal and president of the African Committee of the
Socialist Internationale, was received by the Saharawi president. Tanor
Dieng declared that the Senegalese Socialist Party, the first party of
opposition, is attached to the “decolonization” of Western Sahara
through a “referendum of self-determination". [SPS]
A Brazilian parliamentary delegation, led by Maria José Maninha
MP - of the PSOL-DF (party
of socialism and freedom) went to the camps too, as well as an
Italian delegation led by the President of the Italian Association of
Friendship and Solidarity with the Saharawi people, Luciano Ardesi. [SPS]
The President of the Republic, Mohamed Abdelaziz, also welcomed a
delegation from the Mauritanian Union of the Forces of Progress (UFP)
led by its first president Ba Boubacar Moussa. [SPS] He gave a speech during the last European Conference Coordinating support for the Saharawi people in Vitoria (EUCOCO):
10.01.07, Nicaragua
President Mohamed Abdelaziz took part in Managua in the investiture of
Daniel Ortega. Diplomatic relations between Nicaragua and SADR were
re-established, a joint statement indicated, published on 12 January in
the Nicaraguan capital. Nicaragua recognised SADR on 06.09.1979, but
froze relations on 21.07.00. [SPS]
Lisbon-Dakar Rally
Two Portuguese organisations, CGTP-IN and CPPC, protested against the
passage of the Lisbon-Dakar rally through occupied Western Sahara. [CGTP-IN - Confederação Geral dos Trabalhadores Portugueses – Intersindical Nacional (comunicado 05.01.07) ] [CPPC - Conselho Português para a Paz e Cooperação].
On the occasion of the stage crossing Western Sahara, journalists Anne
Torhild Nilsen and Rådmund Steinsvåg, point out in a
Norwegian paper ABC Startsiden, that despite the huge media coverage,
the situation in this occupied territory is completely blocked out. The
President of the Norwegian Committee of Support for Western Sahara,
explains how the organisers and media try to deal with sensitivities by
avoiding any allusion to the local geopolitical situation.["Rally Dakar gjennom okkupert land", ABC Startsiden/Neste klikk, Norway, 11.01.2007] - [English translation by Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara]
- [Traduction française par le Comité norvégien de soutien au Sahara Occidental]
See also the petition - Appel à la suppression du Rallye Dakar
OCCUPIED
TERRITORIES AND SOUTH MOROCCO
Arrests often
carried out by plain clothes police, accompanied with threats, beatings
and long interrogations, continue. Laaroussi Lamhidi and Mahfoud Maya
were arrested on 29.12.06 in El-Ayoun by police in plain clothes,
beaten up, interrogated and threatened with being buried alive. Still
in El Ayoun, Sidi El-Fakraoui was attacked by plain clothes police on
03.01.07. Fakraoui is
suffering after-effects of his fall on 12 June 2005. He was thrown off
a building by police. [ASVDH]
Five young
Saharawis were arrested on 05.01.07, and another, Jamal El Hasni,
abandoned, after being interrogated, near a cemetry called Khat Ramla.
In El-Ayoun Playa, a young Saharawi woman was arrested during a
marriage ceremony for having danced with a “Saharawi combatant”
well-known in the occupied territories of Western Sahara.
In Smara, two former Saharawi political prisoners, Othman Tanakha and
Dedi Hmada, were arrested on 05.01.07, tortured and abandoned in an
oasis far away from the town. On 9 January three young Saharawis were
tortured and interrogated, five others were questioned, humiliated and
insulted. [SPS]
02.01.07, Goulimine
Saharawi students organised a sit-in of solidarity with the Intifada
and for the respect of their social rights. They denounced the release
at the beginning of December of the gendarme Hassan Oheira, sentenced
to 10 years’ prison for the assassination of the Saharawi citizen, Slimane Chouih at the Centre for the Royal Constabulary on 29 April 2004. [ see also weekly news 19-20/2004]
The sit-in started again on 5 January, followed by a march through the town. [SPS]
05.01.07, arrest
A French citizen of Saharawi origin, Asfari Ennaama, co-president of
CORELSO, Committee for the Respect of Human Liberties and Rights in
Western Sahara, was arrested in Smara, while visiting the town in the
company of his wife and his parents-in-law. His arrest was followed by
demonstrations of protest by the Saharawi population, and brutally
repressed by the police. [photos]
Asfari, imprisoned in Smara, was presented to the public prosecutor
accused of “outrage to the forces of order”. His trial was fixed for
Monday 15 January 2007. CORELSO and the Association des Amis de la RASD
(French Friends of SADR Association) launched an appeal [French]
to human rights organisations and those supporting the Saharawi
cause asking them to intervene with the Moroccan authorities and
governments of European Union countries and mandating lawyers to assure
the defence of the accused.
A delegation of AFASPA, of Amis de la RASD and CORELSO was received in the Moroccan embassy in Paris on 12 January.
[Statement French, 12.01.07 and letter (French) handed to the Ambassador of Morocco in France]
ACAT France
wrote to the Moroccan Minister for Justice [Letter French], BIRDHSO Italy and ANSPS to the Moroccan Minister for Foreign Affairs. [Letter French]
As a result of all this pressure, Ennaama was given provisional freedom on 12.01.07 until his trial.
09.01.07, El-Ayoun
Two Saharawi human rights defenders, Sabbar Brahim, secretary general
of ASVDH and Sbai Ahmed, a member of the coordinating coucil, as well
as a political detainee, Abdessalam Loumadi, called before the
court of appeal, refused to present themselves, their security not
being guaranteed while being transported from the prison to the court.
On several occasions, detainees have been beaten up in transit. The
trial was postponed until 23 January.
Phosphates
On 21.12.06 a ship, Sac Malaga arrived at the port of Huelva in Spain, where it discharged its phosphate from Western Sahara.
On 3 January a boat, Merlin arrived in the USA, probably at Baton
Rouge, Louisiana, likewise transporting phosphates coming from occupied
Western Sahara.
22.12.06
The Moroccan press announced that the claims of the Phosboucraa
workers, dating from 1976, had been settled following negotiations
between social partners. Each worker would receive a lump sum of
compensation of 34,000 DH (30,000 euros), would receive a plot of land
with services, and the promise of work for their children.
The Saharawi workers and retired workers, who were not represented in
these negotiations, refused this solution, considering that their
rights had not been respected and that the Cherifian Office of
Phosphates (OCP) and the Spanish Minister for Industry, through SEPI,
the owner at the time of Phosboucraa, remain responsible for this
situation. [communiqué, 28.12.06] - [website of the Boucraa Workers]
11.01.07, Australia, phosphate
A ship, Pilion, arrived at the port of Geelong (near Melbourne,
Australia) on 9 January 2007 with a cargo of phosphate from Western
Sahara for the fertiliser company Incitec Pivot. The Australia Western
Sahara Association AWSA , asked the Australian company to stop
the importation of phosphate sourced in the Saharawi occupied
territories, in accordance with international law. [press release, 09.01.07]
10.01.07, Nuclear
“The United States undertakes to support Morocco in the domain of the
development of civil nuclear energy”, declared Ambassador Greg Schulte,
permanent representative of the United States with the International
Agency for Atomic Energy in Vienna, on a visit to Morocco. [Le Matin du Sahara, Maroc]
09.01.07, danger of famine
The Saharawi Red Crescent launched a new urgent appeal to the
international community, the third in three months. “In the course of
the present month of January, the Saharawi refugees will not receive
the minimum daily food allowance, notably dried pulses, oil, sugar,
flour and milk; if new supplies do not arrive as soon as possible.” [Urgent Appeal, 09.01.07 French]
[Arabic]
Calendario: Con los
fondos de la venta de este calendario se ha puesto en marcha la primera
pastelería saharaui en los campamentos. Si queréis seguir
colaborando en éste y en próximos proyectos,
todavía queda algún calendario, camisetas, libros de
poesía y de fotografía.
Contacto: Carmen Giner <carmenginer@gmail.com>
Más información en: http://www.saharalibre.es/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=34
Jornadas de cooperación técnica con los campamentos
saharauis de Tindouf (Argelia): construir resistencia. 2 y 3 de
febrero. Antiguo Convento de Santa María de los Reyes. SEVILLA.
Organiza: Arquitectos Sin Fronteras, Demarcación de
Andalucía.
WEB: http://www.asfes.org
BLOG: http://construirresistencia.blogspot.com/
E-MAIL: asfeandaluciasahara@fidas.org
7. Sahara Marathon 26.2.07
New website
Nouveaux sites (arabophones)
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
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