WEEKLY NEWS

WEEK 40, 30.09-06.10.1996

Headlines

51th session of UN General Assembly
South African business delegation visits Western Sahara
ACP/EU Joint Assembly
Intoxications
Meeting between Mauritanian President and SADR responsible
Humanitarian support
Regionalization
Fourth national congress of the Youth Union of Western Sahara UJSARIO



51th session of UN General Assembly
The Sahrawi delegation is leaded by Mohamed Salem ould Salek, Minister Councelor at the Presidence of SADR. Several delegations reaffirmed in their speaches their support to the UN-OAU Peace Plan and to the right of selfdetermination for the Sahrawi people: Algeria, Morocco, Angola, Niger, Zimbabwe, Spain, Botswana, Guinea, Mali, etc. The European Union published a memorandum in the same sense.

25.09.96
South African business delegation visits Western Sahara.
A South African business delegation visiting Morocco went also to El Ayoun where it met officials and local businessmen.(South African radio, AFP).

27.09.96
ACP/EU Joint Assembly
The plenary session of the 23rd of the Joint Assembly of the African, Caribean and Pacific States with the European Union ended in Luxembourg with voting resolutions. On Western Sahara the Assembly demands that the Kingdom of Morocco should apply the UN-OAU Peace Plan as accepted by both parties to the conflict. It also invites Morocco and the Polisario Front to resume direct negotiations. The Union and its Member States are invited to take into account the "inalienable rights of the Sahrawi people" in the agreements concluded with Morocco. The Assembly decided to send an information mission to Western Sahara and to the Kingdom of Morocco.

30.09.96
Intoxications
About tens of young Sahrawi women should have been intoxicated while working in textile plants. The toxic agents responsible for the injuries seem to provide from wool imported from Saudi Arabia. Some women are seriously ill like Taghla Mohamed El Hassan, an ex-prisoner of Kalaat MGouna. Theese young women have been took on for very little salary, about 130$, after the manifestations of young Sahrawis at Rabat last month. (AFAPREDESA)

02.10.96
Meeting between Mauritanian President and SADR responsible
The President ould Taya received at Noukchott Mohamed Haddad who brought him a message from the President of SADR. The Sahrawi ambassador declared the message evoques the bilateral relations and the latest developments in the region.

02.10.96
Humanitarian support
The European Commission has made available funding worth ECU 6.45 million (8,4 millions $) for refugees from Western Sahara. The grant, to be channelled via the European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO), will provide aid for about 150,000 people living in refugee camps. Most of the money will be spent on food aid (ECU five million), but the package includes basic medical aid, provision of clean water and sanitation, as well as help with repairing public buildings such as schools and hospitals damaged in recent flooding.
Humanitarian professionals working with NGOs based in Belgium, Italy, Spain, France and Germany will implement the programmes in the field. The programme is scheduled to last six months. The food aid part of it will cover the purchase, transport and distribution of rice, lentils, powdered milk, oil, fish, sugar, barley and other basic food products, in close cooperation with local Red Crescent organisations. Oxfam (Belgium), Solidaridad International (Spain), Red Cross (Spain), Caritas (Belgium), Cimade (France), Medico International (Germany), Secours Populaire Français (France), CISP (Comitato Internazionale per lo Sviluppo e la Pace, Italy) are the NGOs working on food aid. The rest of the work will be divided among NGOs involved as follows: CISP and MPDL (Spain) - supply and distribution of personal hygiene products; Medico International - basic medical supplies; Action contre la Faim (France) - sanitation, provision of clean drinking water; Paz y Tercer Mundo (Spain) - intensive feeding programme for children; Secours Populaire - urgent rehabilitation of schools.
In 1995, ECHO spent ECU 10.9 million on programmes to help these refugees, including food aid worth ECU 10.4 million.

02.10.96
Regionalization
Morocco is studying a new concept of administrativ regionalization of the country.They should be 14 regions in spite of 7 actually. Western Sahara would form 2 parts in spite of 4 actually. The provinces of El Ayoun, Boujdour and Dakhla would be one region with El Ayoun as capital, while Smara would be integrated in the region of Tan Tan in South Moroccco.
During the contacts between Morocco and the Polisario of last September the Moroccan part proposed a large internal autonomy to the Sahrawis if they renoumce to their exigence of independance. The Polisario denied this proposal but declared that other reunions will take place and that the climate of the encounters was much better than before.
According to the newspaper Jeune Afrique the next meeting is scheduled on October 15th in Morocco.

08-13.10.96
Fourth national congress of the Youth Union of Western Sahara UJSARIO
The preparatory committee of UJSARIO writes: "We would like to inform that the Youth Union of Western Sahara, known in its Spanish acronym as UJSARIO, is due to hold its fourth national congress in the Sahrawi refugee camps on 8 to 13 October 1996. In the course of the congress, a large number of informative and culture programmes are to be arranged. We would like therefore to inform youth organizations worldwide as well as those interested in the question of Western Sahara in general that they may use E-Mail to communicate with us here in the refugee camps in all that is related to the congress. "
E-Mail address: cosar@w-sahara.eus.gn.apc.org

NEW PUBLICATIONS

  • Nouvelles sahraouies, No 81, octobre 1996, Genève, 16 p.
  • Sahara Occidental / Provocation ? El Watan, Alger, 26.9.96
  • A quand la décolonisation ?, A Ratiba., Le Matin, Alger, 28.9.96
  • Sahara: Silence, on discute! Soudan F., Jeune Afrique, 2.10.96, pp 6+7
  • Sahara: les Français optimistes. Jeune Afrique, 2.10.96, p. 16
  • Seinen Frieden hat im Maghreb nur, wer gruene Schuhe traegt, Altmann A., Frankfurter Allgemeine, 27.09.96, pp. 24-34
    • EXHIBITION:
    [Summary Weekly News,] [Western Sahara Homepage]