WEEKLY NEWS
WEEK 25, 17-23.06.1996
HEADLINES
NEW PUBLICATIONS
03.06.96
Testimony about the manifestations in El Ayoun of May 5th 1995
Through a testimony (french) transmitted by
AFAPREDESA, the Association of families of prisoners and disappeared Sahrawis,
we have now more informations about the student manifestation
which took place in occasion of the 22th anniversary of the SADR proclamation
in the city of El Ayoun occupied by Morocco. After only ten minutes the
students, who met before a hotel in which a great part of MINURSO staff
lived, were surrounded by Moroccan police forces and 50 young Sahrawis were
arrested. Hamma Jaid Mouissa, born 1979, was arrested and put in jail with
8 other young persons condamned one month later at Rabat to 15 - 20 years
of prison. Himself was condemned on July 6th to a 6 month suspended sentence
in a pseudo-trial. Worrying other problems he fled and joined the refugee
camps near Tindouf Algeria recently.
08.06.96
Declaration of the European United Left parties
The European United Left parties, which met in Madrid, declared their
"deep disagreement" with the last Security Council resolution
on Western Sahara. They consider that the international community must operate
in order to make that the self determination referendum takes place rapidly,
and that their respective governments must require from Morocco the opening
of a direct dialogue with the Polisario Front.
13.06.96
Interview of SADR President
The SADR President Mohamed Abdelaziz called on the UN and the Security Council
to be realistic and logical in dealing with the Western Sahara issue. He
pointed out that the Security Council resolution on reducing the number
of the individuals in the MINURSO was an obvious contradiction between the
organization's political rhetoric and its actions on the ground. The SADR
president expressed the fear that the efforts which the Security Council
had committed itself to would not lead to any result, even after six months.
He pointed to the need of using the method adopted by the UN in all cases
of decolonization in the world. Regarding the possibility of holding direct
negotiations with Morocco, President Abdelaziz stressed that the Sahrawi
side called for the holding of those talks because it was convinced that
they were a means for making the conditions and circumstances available
for solving the problems and overcoming all obstacles. In his news conference,
the president also touched on the flagrant violations of human rights in
the Western Sahara as a result of the acts o torture and punishment to which
the Saharans were being subjected in the occupied territories, in addition
to the arrest and kidnapping operations.
11.06.96
Letter of the President of ECOWAS to the Security Council's President
Ghanaian President Jerry Rawlings has asked the Security Council to
reconsider its recent decision to suspend voter identification and registration
in Western Sahara. In a letter in his capacity as chairman of the Economic
Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Rawlings alluded to the resolution
adopted by the council on May 29 . "On behalf of ECOWAS I strongly
appeal to you to revive the United Nations involvement in Western Sahara,"
Rawlings told council president Nabil Elaraby of Egypt in his letter. He
said ECOWAS's interest was "due to the fact that territory remains
the last vestige of colonialism on the African continent. The Western Sahara
issue also underscores the abhorrence we hold for an African country that
attempts to colonise another African country," he added, alluding to
Morocco. Referring to a West African peacekeeping force in civil war-torn
Liberia, Rawlings said just as the United Nations had urged ECOWAS not to
relent in its determination to bring peace to that country, "so do
we fervently urge the United Nations to reconsider its latest decision on
Western Sahara." "For the sake of the hundreds of innocent men,
women and children who could lose their lives if the ceasefire in the Spanish
Sahara were to be broken, we appeal to you to have the United Nations resume,
without any further delay, its involvement in the identification process,
he said.
16.06.96
Former Sahrawi prisoner joins the refugee camps
The AFAPREDESA, the Association of families of prisoners and disappeared
Sahrawis, announces in a communique (french) that
Mohamed BENOU has recently joined the Sahrawi refugee camps near Tindouf,
walking through the Moroccan defense berm and the mine fields. Benou is,
with Kheltoum Lounat, one of the AGADIR'S SIX, condemned
in July 1993 to 20 years of prison and recently liberated. He takes the
ICRC number 004081.
16.06.96
More unfair trials
In an other communique the AFAPREDESA announces numerous arrests in
the occupied territories of W.S. after manifestations on May 20th, the Polisario
foundation day. At BOUJDOUR leaflets were distributed and SADR flags brandished.
The AFAPREDESA publishes the name of ten arrested young Sahrawis. These
persons were transferred to a secret jail in El Ayoun and tortured. Some
of them were condemned to sentences of 18 monthes to 7 years of prison.
19.06.96
African trip of a Sahrawi Minister
Mohamed Salem Ould Salek, Minister Councelor at the Presidence of SADR,
special Ambassador of the SADR President, reached Yaounde (Cameroun) for
talks with representatives of the Cameroun President before the 32th summit
of OAU, which will take place from 8. -10.07.96 in this country. He visited
before Mali, Ghana, Benin and Nigeria.
19.06.96
Rumours about military confrontations between Mauritanian and Polisario
troops published by the Moroccan daily newspaper Liberation (close to the
Moroccan socialist party USFP), were denied by European diplomatic sources
in Mauritania (EFE).
21-23.06.96
Meeting concerning Public Health Cooperation with Sahrawi people
Organized by the Basque association of friends of the SADR, a meeting
took place at Vittoria (Spain), with the presence of the Sahrawi Minister
of Health, the Minister of Cooperation and some Sahrawi physicians and health
responsibles. Seven workshops analysed the problems of prevention in general,
primary prevention, specialised prevention, problems of organisation, equipment
and medicaments and also the risks of sanitary cooperation.
NEW PUBLICATIONS
- Nouvelles sahraouies No 80, juin 1996, bulletin du comité suisse-romand
de soutien au peuple sahraoui, 16 p.
- Boletin informativo No 4, Mayo 1996, Embajada de la RASD, Mexico,
8 p.
- Al Karama - Dignità, bulletin de l'Associazione di Solidarietà
con il Popolo Sahraui, I-Bologna, févr.-juin 1996, No 0, 8 p.
- Kinder der Wolken, Caratini Sophie, Droemer Knaur, D-Mchn, 1996, 464
p. (traduction allemande du livre de S. Caratini, Les enfants des nuages)
- Corrupt Morocco floods Europe with drugs, Huband Mark, The Observer,
London, 16.06.96
- Charter de la solidarité chez les Sahraouis, Centrale sanitaire
suisse, bulletin no 96, juin 1996, pp. 4-8
- Hassan II, entre complicité et cynisme, El-Gharbi Khemaïs,
Le nouvel Afrique Asie, No 81, juin 1986, pp. 45-46
- Boutros-Ghali s'aligne sur Rabat, Le nouvel Afrique Asie, No 81, juin
1986, p. 54
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