|
Résumé August 2007 WEEKS 31 - 35 : 01.08 - 31.08.2007 |
The Saharawi
president, Mohamed Abdelaziz protested to the UN Secretary General, Ban
Ki Moon, at the holding of legislative elections in the occupied
territories and and asked him to put pressure on the Moroccan
government “only to hold them within their own internationally
recognised borders”...
[Full
text]
29.08.07
The Council of Ministers exhorted the UN Secretary General in a similar
vein.
Saharawi popular and trade union movements, and also two Moroccan
political parties, have called for a boycott of the legislative
elections, leaflets were distributed in various localities.
OCCUPIED
TERRITORIES AND SOUTH MOROCCO
Human rights defenders victims of
repression
Two founding members of the movement to defend human rights in Western
Sahara were called in for questioning:
Sadik Boullahi, a member of the executive of ASVDH was arrested on
27.07. in Goulimine, accused and released on bail on 29.07 until the
date of his trial, fixed for 11.10. He is accused of “creating an
unauthorised association”. Boullahi spent ten years in the secret jail
of Kalaat M'gouna and was released in 1991. The Italian judge,
Nicola Quatrano intervened with the public prosecutor of El Ayoun in
his favour and for freedom of expression. [ASVDH]
Daha Rahmouni, member of the executive of ASVDH, a former disappeared
survivor of secret prisons, was questioned a second time on 06.08. in
El Ayoun. [ASVDH]
A former political detainee, Sidi
Mohamed Alouate was briefly detained in El Ayoun on 20.08.
The relentless pursuit deserves mention of another human rights
defender, Hassanna Douihi, who accompanied Judge Quattrano during a
trial. His car and his papers are confiscated on 3.08, [ASVDH] after taking various
steps, the papers and car are returned on 8, [read] but he is arrested for
attacking territorial integrity on 22, released and re-arrested two
weeks later. [ASVDH]
In Smara, attempted arrest on 16.08. of human rights defender, Sid
Ahmed Lemjeyid, president of the Saharawi Committee for the Support of
the UN plan and for the Protection of Natural Resources in Western
Sahara. Subsequently, his house is ransacked.
Questionnings and arrests
31.07.07
Arrest in Daoura to the north of El Ayoun of Lidrisi Taoubali Boujemaa,
sentence announced for 02.08., postponed until 07.08., no information.[CODESA]
04.08.07
Independence demonstration at Foum El-Oued, with the arrest and
incarceration in the Black Prison of a young Saharawi, Ahmed Lyaaich
[Sidahmed Liichi], 1991, coming from Mhamid El Ghizlan on holiday. [CODESA]
The police proceeded in Foum el-Oued (El Ayoun’s beach) to several
arrests of young Saharawis and held them in custody for several days.
Foum el-Oued, a summer holiday resort enjoyed by the Saharawis, has
become each year a theatre of independence demonstrations.
Other questionings take place in Smara and on the Saharawi-Mauritanian
border. [ASVDH]
30.08.07
Another Saharawi citizen arrested in El Ayoun, Abdelghani Kabdani, and
incarcerated in the Black Prison. It is not known of what he is
accused. [ASVDH]
Foreign visitors mistreated
03.08.07, El Ayoun
The Italian judge, Nicola Quatrano, who was driving with his family on
the road between Foum El Oued and El Ayoun, was stopped and checked by
police, his papers and car were confiscated on a meaningless pretext.
Quatrano had attended the day before the trial of the students in
Marrakech. [CODESA] [Testimonianza] [Italian
press]
On 21 August, two young Norwegian politicians, who were accompanying
Rabab Amidane back from Norway, are questioned in El Ayoun and advised
to leave the region.[Aftenposten/NTB, 21.08.07] [English
transl. from Norwegian by the
Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara]
Rabab Amidane visited Norway and Sweden from 21.07. to 06.08.07. She
had made many contacts with youth and student political organisations
and met the Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and several
parliamentarians. [Summary]
Sentences
31.07.07, El Ayoun
Four Saharawis are sentenced in the court of first instance to
punishments of 8-10 years imprisonment on the false accusation of
trafficking cocaine.
[CODESA]
09.08.07, Marrakech
Sentence on appeal of eight Saharawi students in Marrakech. Their
sentences are reduced from eight to four months’ prison. Sultana Khaya,
seriously injured in one eye, is given a suspended sentence of three
months. [ASVDH]
Reports, testimonies
08.08.07, Publication of a detailed report on human rights violations
against Saharawi citizens by CODESA for the period
01.05.-08.08.07. [CODESA]
10.08.07, Testimony of human rights defender, Yahdih Ettarouzi,
imprisoned in the Black Prison of El Ayoun for 10 months:
"Black Jail"
of El Aaiún/Western Sahara, "A grave for alive people", [ English, arabic ]
23.08.07, Report on sexual exactions on detainees in Dakhla.
Dakhla: Human rights NGO: Moroccan police exercise rape and sexual
harassment on Saharawi detainee. [English][arabic]
26.08.07, open
letter
Political prisoners in the Black Prison have called on the President of
the Security Council, Pascal Jayama, to “intervene urgently to make
Morocco stop its provocations aiming to involve Saharawi citizens in
the Moroccan elections, which do not interest them”.
Elsewhere independence demonstrations have taken place in Ausserd and
Tinguir, places which have not seen such events until now.
Phosphate
A ship called Akmi arrived in Northport New Zealand on 20.08., in
Tauranga on 21, Timaru on 25 and Bluff on 26.
A ship, Matilde Corrado, arrived on 14.08. in New Orleans, USA.
Another ship, the Elver sailing under a Cypriot flag, arrived in
Baranquilla, Colombia, on 15.02.07, followed by the Nepheli on
23.04.07, the Achilles 1 on 01.07. and the Maritime Alliance on
30.07.
All these boats were carrying phosphate mined in Western Sahara.
31.08.07
A delegation of the Jordanian group “International Resources” carried
out a visit to Dakhla-Villa Cisneros to investigate opportunities of
investment in the region. A convention is said to have been signed. [L’Economiste, 03.09.07]
10-11.08.07
Moroccan-Saharawi Negotiations [continued]
Before
07.08.07
Eight Saharawi associations from civil society in the occupied
territories sent a letter to the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon on
the eve of the second round of Moroccan-Saharawi negotiations. They
ask, among other things, that as a gesture of good will all the
Saharawi political prisoners should be released.
[Open letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon,
ASVDH, 07.08.07] [original arabic]
MANHASSET II
The delegations are identical to those of the first meeting, except the
Moroccan, filled out with several pro-Moroccan Saharawis and defectors.
Under the aegis of the Personal Envoy of the Secretary General for
Western Sahara, Peter van Walsum, assisted by the Special
Representative, Julian Harston, several working sessions brought the
two parties together. The Polisario Front as ever would defend the
principle of self-determination and asked that three options should be
offered for the Saharawi population to choose between: integration,
autonomy or independence, while Morocco maintained its proposal solely
for internal autonomy. United Nations experts presented to the parties
papers on specific issues relating to the political and economic future
of the territories of Western Sahara, questions of the refugees, the
political prisoners, and human rights. Confidence-building measures
were also proposed for discussion, such as the opening of a passage on
the ground which would allow for the exchange visits of Saharawi
families separated by the Moroccan wall, the sending of common
delegations to the holy places of Islam, collaboration between Morocco
and the Polisario Front in de-mining operations and the formation of a
mixed military mission. These were accepted by the Polisario Front but
refused by Morocco.
At the end of the negotiations van Walsum could announce that “the
process of negotiation will continue and that appropriate consultations
will be concluded at the date and place of the next round” [acccording to latest news third round
should take place next novemeber or december in Geneva]. [--> more]
28.08.07
In a speech at the opening of a debate in the Security Council on the
prevention of conflicts in Africa, Ban Ki-moon pointed out that the
settlement of the most difficult conflicts in Africa has come to the
top of his agenda, quoting Darfur, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of
Congo, Northern Uganda and Western Sahara.
30.08.07, France-Morocco
Taïeb Fassi-Fihri, Moroccan Minister delegate for Foreign Affairs,
was received in Paris by the president of the Republic, the Minister
for Foreign and European Affairs and the Secretary of State for
European Affairs. This visit is within the framework of preparations
for the State visit of Sarkozy to Morocco before the end of the year.
Concerning Western Sahara, “France welcomes the holding in June and
August last of two meetings between the parties under the aegis of the
United Nations. (...) we hope now that the process we’ve engaged upon
will end in a reasonable solution for each of the parties, at the end
of a negotiated process within the framework of the United
Nations.” [décl.
gouvernementale]
03.08.07, arms
Morocco is seeking to buy from the USA 60 self-propelled howitzers
M-109A5 155 mm as well as 30 HUMMVEE vehicles. [defense
aerospace.com]
Belgium sold in March 2007 40 M-109 howitzers to Morocco [weeks 11-12/2007]
JORNADA JURÍDICA INTERNACIONAL SOBRE
EL SAHARA OCCIDENTAL
Asociación Internacional de Juristas por el Sáhara
Occidental
Madrid: 21 de Septiembre de 2007
ARTIFARITI 2007 - 10 al 27 de
Octubre de 2007
http://artifariti.blogspot.com/
EUCOCO 2007 - ROMA 19-21.10.07
33ème Conférence européenne de solidarité
avec le Peuple Sahraoui
33th European Conference of Support To the Saharawi People
33a Conferencia Europea de apoyo al Pueblo Saharaui
http://www.arso.org/eucoco2007/
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
>>Artículos y reportajes sobre el Sáhara Occidental
en Espacios europeos:
http://www.espacioseuropeos.com/saharaoc.aspx
Italiano
Norsk
Deutsch
Português
[Summary
Weekly News,]
[Western
Sahara Homepage]