WEEKLY NEWS

WEEK 37, 09-15.09.1996

Headlines

Polisario meetings with Moroccan officials
More clashes reported in Western Sahara and southern Morocco
Spanish Minister's visit to Algier
Security Council
Socialist International
Polisario meetings with Moroccan officials
It was UN Secretary General who revealed on September 6th meetings between Moroccan official delegations and the Polisario Front. A first encounter took place at Geneva in the second week of August , under the care of Mr. E. Jensen, between the Moroccan Minister of Interior Driss Basri and Bachir Mustafa Sayed, Sahrawi responsible of the referendum.
At the beginning of September an important delegation of the Polisario reached Tanger. Directed by B. Mustafa Sayed, it was made up by Mahfoud Ali Beiba, Prime Minister, Brahim Ghali, Minister of Defense, Mohamed Khaddad, responsible for the identification and Commanding Officer Ayoub. The crown prince Sidi Mohamed was leading the Moroccan delegation including the Interior Minister. The delegations met three times.
The discussions have neither been confirmed nor denied by Morocco. The objectives are, according to Ahmed Boukhari, Polisario representative at the UN, to find an issue to the actual deadlock. The Sahrawi Ambassador confirmed the meetings which results are actually not encouraging, but he declared that the Polisario is disposed to pursuie this way. The delegation should be received by King Hassan but this encounter was postponed.
According to the newspaper Al Sharq al Awsat of September 11th, B. Mustafa Sayd reached Rabat last week to meet high Moroccan responsibles.
The news agency AFP announced that a high level delegation of the Polisario staid in Rabat on 11th and 12 th of September for talks with Moroccan authorities. This delegation met also Minister Driss Basri. It was composed of Bachir Mustafa Sayed, Mahfoud Ali Beiba, Brahim Ghali, Seddik Malainine, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mohamed Bouhali, former Minister of Defense and Mohamed Ziyou, former Minister of Justice. The delegation is expected to be back in Tindouf on 12th.

03.09.96
More clashes reported in Western Sahara and southern Morocco
According to news of the National Radio of the SADR, the occupied towns of W.S.and cities in southern Moroco have been the scene of an ongoing popular uprising. The latest reports talk also about hundreds of Sahrawi youths staging protest demonstrations in Tan Tan and Goulimine. The police and militias intervened to disperse the demonstrators and this led to violent clashes which resulted in many demonstrators suffering injuries of varying degrees of seriousness. One of these demonstrators was the citizen Mohamed Said, who was arrested by the Moroccan troops, tortured and badly beaten up. In the occupied town of Laayoune, over 80 Sahrawi youths demonstrated outside the headquarters of the provincial administration. The demonstrators expressed their total rejection of the method used by the royal administration to address the issues which they are raising with vehemence. They also denounced the policy of deceit and contempt brought by the recent mission of Driss Basri to Laayoune. This mission was aimed only at making proposals to wipe out the Sahrawi identity.

09-10.09.96
Spanish Foreign Minister Abel Matutes arrived in Algiers for a two-day official visit during which he will meet Algerian President Liamine Zeroual. In a press conference Matutes reveals that a dialogue between Morocco and the Polisario Front has begun. "I am following it with my full attention, and we will always be ready to lend our support if the parties concerned ask us for it". He said Spain's position remains that of supporting the United Nations initiative calling for an independence referendum in the region.

11.09.96
The Security Council discussed the Secretary general's report.. The President of the Council, Alfredo Lopes Cabral (Guinea-Bissau), has been mandated to express the appreciation for the Secretary-General's report on Western Sahara. While saluting the fact that the cease-fire still held, the Council members wanted to express their concern over the lack of progress. The Security Council asked the Secretary-General to convey, once more, to the parties the necessity to find a solution which would allow the identification process to resume. The Secretary-General told the President of the Security Council that he was following the situation and was doing his utmost to bring the parties to an agreement.

11.09.96
Socialist International
This movement, which hold its 20th Congress at the U.N. in New York, asks Morocco and the Polisario Front for a new effort to create mecanisms of permanent and lasting negociations in order to resolve the Western Sahara problem with the renewed support of the international community .

13.09.96
A few days before an official visit of its Prime Minister to Morocco, the governement of Congo retired its recognition of SADR, given in 1978.

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