[Sahara-Update] : growing uprising & repression in occupied Western Sahara
Boris Ryser
1: Blind repression in El Aaiun under complete silence of the
international community, regret Saharawis
2: Uprising of the Saharawi population on a bigger scale this evening
3: (Latest news)
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SPS
OCCUPIED TERRITORIES/DEMONSTRATIONS
Blind repression in El Aaiun under complete silence of the
international community, regret Saharawis
El Aaiun (occupied territories), 25/05/2005 (SPS) Under the sight of
the United Nations and under the complete silence of the international
community, a blind repression is striking Saharawis in El Aaiun these
three last days. Tens peoples were injured, kidnapped, arrested and
interrogated under torture for hours before been released, regretted
Saharawis in occupied territories.
Uprising against the occupant and against its "brutal ways of
repression against the local population", hundreds Saharawis
demonstrated Monday in front of the colonial administrative seat in
Zemla, a popular neighbourhood from where the first national popular
uprising broke in June 19, 1970 as well as the Intifada of September
1999.
The demonstration to which Saharawi human rights activists
participated was organised in commemoration of Polisario Front's 32nd
anniversary (20 May 1973) and an occasion to claim for the respect of
human right in Western Sahara Moroccan authorities do not stop
violating via torture, rape, arbitrary arrests, iniquitous trials and
deportations.
The demonstrators chanted slogans claiming for independence of Western
Sahara. They raised the flags of SADR and chanted "the inevitable
victory" against Moroccan colonialism and its servants.
Moroccan forces violently intervened to disperse the demonstrators
hurting tens of them, among whom two seriously, and arresting more
than 30 persons, whose fate is still unknown.
Demonstrators estimate that these persons are now subjected to torture
in the stations and headquarters of the different Moroccan military
and police corps: gendarmes, police of intervention, urban group of
security and others that collectively intervened to oppress the
demonstrators.
In this respect, Saharawi human rights NGOs regretted the "accomplice
silence" of the UN, which is present on the ground through its Mission
for the Western Sahara, as well as of the human rights international
organisations. They estimated that the international community must
"pressure Morocco open the territory to international Medias and
observers banned of the territory since the military occupation of the
territory by Morocco in 1975". (SPS)
010/090/100/TRD 251735 MAI 05 SPS
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SPS
OCCUPIED TERRITOIRES/INTIFADA
Uprising of the Saharawi population on a bigger scale this evening
El Aaiun, 25/05/2005 (SPS) The Intifada of the Saharawi population,
which started Tuesday, took back on a wider scale this evening about 7
o'clock GMT, after an uncertain calm day.
"Moroccan authorities, who surrounded the main neighbourhoods of El
Aaiun, especially 'Maatallah' and 'Zemla', engaged Moroccan settlers
organising them in militias armed with sticks and started attacking
anything that moves", reported our correspondent on the ground.
"The situation is worst than yesterday. The different corps of the
forces of occupation participate in the repression. There are news we
receive from everywhere about new victims, often without names.
Nonetheless, we had two names, Mr. Mleiha Hassan, 19 years and Mrs.
Dali Chreifa, 32 years, who was attacked in her house and beaten by
Moroccan agents", indicated the same source.
"At 9.30 GMT, gas bombs were launched against demonstrators in
Maatallah, Zemla, Skeikima Street, Bir Jdid Street, Rass el Khaima
Street, and Tan Tan Street. Everywhere in the city, things are raging.
The sequences of the events remind me of the Intifada of 1999. And the
developments are going more and more towards more violent
confrontations", he said. (SPS) -To be continued-
060/090/000 252248 May 05 SPS
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SPS
OCCUPIED TERRITOIRES/INTIFADA
Uprising of the Saharawi population on a bigger scale this evening (Latest
news)
El Aaiun, 25/05/2005 (SPS) The Intifada of the Saharawi population,
which started Tuesday, took back on a wider scale this evening about 7
o'clock GMT, after an uncertain calm day.
SPS correspondent on the ground affirmed that the situation in El
Aaiun is critical and may result on a real humanitarian tragedy.
"Moroccan militias composed of settlers and the different armed groups
are violating everything", he said.
"I have got names of serious injured persons. Mr. Zuebir Hammadi, 31
years, seriously injured in his head and it is impossible to take him
to the hospital because Maatallah neighbourhood where he is under
complete siege. Mr. El Aarbi Abdenabi, 28 years, ex-political
prisoners, his leg broken, he is under siege. Mr El Malih Dalil, 45
years seriously injured in his head. Mr. Ahmed Mahmoud KLhraibich, 32
years, kidnapped this evening by Moroccan agents", he reported.
"Tear-gas, everywhere. The roads are blocked, tyres on fire,
confrontations between Saharawis and Moroccan forces everywhere. We
receive news about confrontations even from the far western point of
the city, La Porco", he added. (SPS) -To be continued-
_______________________________________________
All news from SPS in English may be found at:
http://www.spsrasd.info/main3e.html
_______________________________________________
Forwarded by:
_______________________________________________
Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara
wsa...@online.no
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Boris Ryser
MADRID - Les manifestations qui se sont déroulées depuis le début de la
semaine à El Ayoun, chef lieu du Sahara occidental, ont fait une
cinquantaine de blessés et il y a eu quelques dizaines d'arrestations, écrit
vendredi la presse espagnole, citant des sources sahraouies.
Le quotidien El Pais indique que l'étendue réelle des troubles n'est pas
connue, mais qu'il s'agit des plus importantes manifestations
anti-marocaines depuis 1999 dans l'ancienne colonie espagnole. "Des drapeaux
marocains ont été brûlés, des slogans en faveur de l'indépendance ont été
lancés, des cocktails molotov ont été jetés sur les forces de sécurité et
des drapeaux du Front Polisario ont été brandis dans les rues",
précise-t-il.
Selon le quotidien ABC, il y a eu 57 blessés, dont sept grièvement atteints.
El Pais indique que jusqu'à jeudi, 30 personnes avaient été arrêtées, et le
quotidien El Mundo précise que 20 personnes ont disparu.
Selon un témoin contacté jeudi par l'AFP à El Ayoun, une des manifestations
a réuni mardi une centaine de personnes dans le quartier de Maatallah. Des
militants sahraouis s'étaient joints, selon cette source, a un groupe venu
protester contre le transfèrement d'un détenu de la prison d'El Ayoun vers
un centre de détention d'Agadir, 550 km plus au nord.
El Mundo et El Pais écrivent que les manifestations ont rapidement pris un
ton indépendantiste et ont été "durement réprimées" par les forces de
sécurité marocaines.
ABC ajoute que lors des manifestations de mercredi et jeudi, "dans
différents quartiers populaires d'El Ayoun, des policiers et des colons
marocains sont entrés dans plusieurs maisons et ont frappé les habitants.
Douze maisons ont été saccagées et 20 personnes sont portées disparues
depuis", précise-t-il.
La wilaya (super-préfecture) d'el Ayoun a indiqué jeudi que le calme est
revenu dans la ville et que "les habitants ont pu reprendre normalement
leurs occupations habituelles". "Des éléments incontrôlés ont créé de
l'agitation", mais la "situation est normale et aucune arrestation n'a eu
lieu", a pour sa part déclaré jeudi à l'AFP un responsable à la préfecture
de police d'El Ayoun.
Le conflit de souveraineté sur le Sahara occidental, annexé par Rabat en
1975, empoisonne depuis cette date les relations entre le Maroc et
l'Algérie.
L'ONU a réaffirmé en avril 2004 son soutien au plan Baker, du nom de
l'ancien secrétaire d'Etat américain James Baker, qui préconise une période
d'autonomie de cinq ans au Sahara occidental avant un référendum
d'autodétermination sur le sort de l'ancienne colonie espagnole.
Rabat a rejeté la perspective d'un référendum, considéré comme "obsolète" et
"inapplicable", et proposé une "large autonomie définitive" dans le cadre de
la souveraineté marocaine, jugée "non négociable". Alger et le Polisario
sont favorables au plan Baker.
Le premier sommet de l'Union du Maghreb arabe (UMA) depuis plus de dix ans,
prévu initialement cette semaine en Libye, a été annulé en raison du
problème du Sahara occidental qui divise les Etats membres de l'UMA.
(©AFP / 27 mai 2005 12h20)
http://www.romandie.com/ats/news/050527102004.0x7t6ayq.asp
Boris Ryser
2: Moroccan authorities engage their militias in the repression of Saharawi
demonstrators, Sahara Press Service (SPS), 25 May
3: Western Saharan protesters clash with Moroccan police - Algerian radio,
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, Text of report by Algerian radio on 26 May
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1:
Sahrawis talk of "new Intifada" in El Aaiun
afrol News, 25 May
- Shortly after Sahrawi President Mohamed Abdelaziz threatened to take up
arms
against the Moroccan occupation again, activists in Western Sahara claim to
have restarted a popular "Intifada" against Morocco. More than ten activist
in
El Aaiun were reportedly wounded and several arrested by Moroccan armed
forces.
According to SPS, a news agency controlled by the exiled Sahrawi government,
there has been "a huge Intifada in El Aaiun" this week, protesting against
Morocco's occupation of Western Sahara and against systematic human rights
violations. Hundreds of Sahrawi citizens reportedly had participated in the
demonstrations in the capital of Western Sahara.
The protesters in particular had demanded an end to human right violations
in
the occupied territory and carried banners in favour of the Sahrawi people's
right to independence and self-determination. According to SPS,
demonstrators
had raised Sahrawi national flags, and chanted slogans such as "independence
now", "no concessions, freedom or martyr".
Activist reported that they were met with armed units of the Moroccan
police,
in particular a recently constituted urban security unit (GUS - Groupes de
Securites Urbaines). This police unit reportedly has a reputation of
intimidating the city's Sahrawi population, causing the marching crowd to
intensify its protests.
On Tuesday, the protests had caused clashes between the Sahrawi activists
and
Moroccan police units, causing several protesters and by-passers to be
wounded. The clashes were reported to have lasted for ten hours, before the
protesters retreated. Some ten activists allegedly were arrested, some of
these were reportedly tortured.
The "Intifada", which started on Monday, is reported to be ongoing. The
latest
reports from El Aaiun speak of hundreds of protesters clashing with Moroccan
police troops, which are using teargas. Roadblocks and burning tyres are
dominating the Sahrawi capital, which has been sealed off. Some reports
indicate that Moroccan settlers were forming armed militias, fighting
Sahrawi
activists.
The demonstrations in El Aaiun had been organised in commemoration of the
32nd
anniversary of the Polisario, the Sahrawi pro-independence movement that
forms
an exile government in Algerian refugee camps. Polisario leader and Sahrawi
President Mohamed Abdelaziz had used the occasion on 20 May to visit an
armed
unit at Tifariti in the "liberated territories" along Western Sahara's
eastern
borders.
During his stay in Tifariti, Mr Abdelaziz warned that the 1991 ceasefire
between Polisario and Morocco was now in serious danger. The ceasefire was
to
lead to a UN-monitored referendum over Western Sahara's independence, but no
progress has however been made since 1991. Moroccan King Mohammed VI is now
rejecting any peace solution that could lead to the territory's
independence.
Polisario leader Abdelaziz therefore warned that that Sahrawi people could
not
"stay inactive eternally." He denounced Morocco's "dangerous position,"
which
was contrasting the 1991 ceasefire agreement. Polisario would fight to
defend
the Sahrawis' national rights "with all legitimate means, including armed
struggle," Mr Abdelaziz said.
By staff writer
© afrol News
------------------------------------------------
Source: http://www.afrol.com/articles/16424
------------------------------------------------
2:
Sahara Press Service (SPS)
OCCUPIED TERRITORIES/REPRESSION
Moroccan authorities engage their militias in the repression of Saharawi
demonstrators
El Aaiun, 25/05/2005 (SPS)
Moroccan authorities engaged militias composed of Moroccan settlers and
criminals in the repression of Saharawi demonstrations, which started
Tuesday
in the neighbourhoods of Zemla (El Aaiun), and which resumed on a wider
scale
Wednesday evening around 7 o'clock GMT, after an uncertain calm.
"The authorities of occupation engaged their militias composed of settlers
as
well as criminals, in the repression of the demonstrators", indicated an
eye-witness to SPS. He added that the different Moroccan units, which
surrounded the main neighbourhoods of the city of El Aaiun, effectively had
beside them militias of Moroccan settlers armed with clubs and other
weapons".
Contacted by SPS, a Saharawi human rights activist indicated that new
confrontations took place Wednesday evening around 19h GMT, and that "Hassan
Bel Mehdi" hospital in El Aaiun received injured people and victims of these
demonstrations among whom he named Mr. Mouloud Lehssen (25 years), injured
in
his head, Mr. Shegmar Abdellatif (30 years), has his leg broken, Mr. El
Haiba
Yeslem (40 years) and another person not yet identified is in this same
hospital in coma with 18 stitches put in his head. (SPS)
060/090/000 260958 MAI 05 SPS
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Source: http://www.spsrasd.info/sps-e260505.html
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3:
Western Saharan protesters clash with Moroccan police - Algerian radio
BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; May 26, 2005
Text of report by Algerian radio on 26 May
According to the [Western] Sahara news agency, since the day before
yesterday, the Laayoune City has been the scene of mass demonstrations by
hundreds of Saharans who staged a protest against the Moroccan authorities'
beaches of human rights in the Western Sahara.
The demonstrators clashed with the Moroccan police who resorted to
repression. A number of demonstrators were wounded and others were arrested.
The demonstrators staged a sit-in in front of the police station demanding
the release of detainees, including the political prisoner El Hadi Ahmed
Mahmoud, alias Al-Karnan.
This morning our colleague Louisa Hadj Moussa contacted [by phone] the
Western Saharan citizen Ibrahim Ahl Sidi who lives in Laayoune City and who
spoke about these demonstrations and how they were confronted by the
occupied Moroccan forces.
[Ahl Sidi - recording] The uprising of the Saharan people continued on
Wednesday evening during which there were clashes with the security forces.
There were a number of victims and random arrests. The storming of the
Mattallah District by the Moroccan occupation forces resulted in a number of
injuries and arrests. We still do not have precise information on the number
of arrests and abductions because the area was completely besieged.
Therefore, there is no possibility to know the fate of even the comrades who
were with us.
Source: Algerian radio, Algiers, in Arabic 0600 gmt 26 May 05
© BBC Monitoring
Boris Ryser
SADR/SECURITY COUNCIL
Saharawi President calls on the UN Security Council to protect the Saharawi
population repressed by Morocco
Bir Lehlu, 26/05/2005 (SPS) The President of the Saharawi Republic, Mohamed
Abdelaziz, asked the President of the UN Security Council, H.E. Ellen
Margrethe Loj, on Thursday to protect Saharawi civil population against the
violations perpetrated by Moroccan authorities against them in El Aaiun this
week.
Here is the complete text of the letter.
"
Her Excellency Ambassador Ellen Margrethe Loj,
President of the Security Council
United Nations
New York
Bir Lehlu, 26 May 2005
Excellency,
The question of Western Sahara has been, since the sixties, on the agenda of
the United Nations as a question of decolonisation. All resolutions adopted
successively by the General Assembly and the Security Council regarding
Western Sahara, including the latest one approved on 28 April 2005, called
for
its resolution on this basis through the exercise by the Saharawi people of
their inalienable right to self-determination and independence. However, all
the tremendous efforts, which the international community has deployed to
this
end during all those years, have been frustrated by the Moroccan
intransigent
position, which was blatantly made clear in April 2004.
Besides its obstruction of the implementation of the UN-OAU Settlement Plan,
which it had formally concluded with the Frente POLISARIO being the other
party to the conflict, Morocco has not only rejected the Peace plan for
Self-determination of the People of Western Sahara" (Baker's Plan) that was
a
result of remarkable efforts by the international community and which was
unanimously endorsed by the Security Council in its resolution 1495 (July
2003), but has also declared its rejection of any solution that would not
ensure its "sovereignty" over the territory of Western Sahara, which it
occupied militarily and illegally on 31 October 1975. By opting for
intransigence and defiance, Morocco has clearly shown its disregard for the
principle of self-determination and hence for all UN principles and
conventions.
More seriously, if left undeterred, this dangerous position of Morocco will
inevitably jeopardise peace and stability of the entire region, which makes
it
imperative for the Untied Nations, whose mission (MINURSO) is already on the
ground, to assume fully its responsibilities in brining about the
decolonisation of Western Sahara.
I am addressing to you this letter to draw your attention to the alarming
situation in the occupied territories of Western Sahara where Moroccan
forces
continue to date its brutal repression of Saharawi civilians who, in
peaceful
demonstrations, have taken to the streets to demand the respect for human
rights, for the Security Council resolutions regarding Western Sahara and
particularly for the right of the Saharawi people to self-determination.
Excellency,
On 21 May 2005, the Saharawi prisoner of conscience, Ahmed Mahmoud Hadi,
known
as Kainan, was transferred against his will by the Moroccan occupying
authorities from the "Dark Prison" in the occupied El Aaiun to the prison of
Ait Melloul, south of Agadir in the Moroccan Kingdom. According to many
sources, the transfer, of which the family of the prisoner was not notified,
took place under degrading conditions where the prisoner was ill-treated and
savagely tortured and even forcibly anesthetised in the process.
In response to this unjust situation, Kainan's family, together with a group
of Saharawi human rights activists, staged a sit-in in front of the "Dark
Prison" to protest against the inhuman treatment to which he was subjected
and
against his transfer into Morocco, which was conducted as part of a Moroccan
systematic policy aimed at emptying the Territory of its active forces. The
protestors also demanded that Kainan be returned immediately to his initial
place of imprisonment where his family could have access to him.
At noon, on 22 May 2005, the protestors were, without warning, attacked by
units of Moroccan intervention forces and police that instantly began
beating
them with truncheons and brutalising them, while causing numerous casualties
among the protestors of whom many had to be hospitalised.
Excellency,
Nor sooner had the Moroccan occupying authorities repressed the protestors
than they mobilised more of their security corps that were given orders to
place under siege all Saharawi neighbourhoods in El Aaiun such as Maatala
quarter, Zemla quarter, Smara street and the boulevards of Tan Tan,
Ras-el-Khaima, Skeikima, Boukraa, Smara as well as Sheila camp, among
others.
On 24 and 25 May 2005, in order to suppress and contain the Saharawi
population in those areas who only were demonstrating peacefully in order to
exercise their legitimate rights to free expression and movement, the
Moroccan
occupying forces intensified their repressive and brutal practices including
not only beating with truncheons and using tear gas but also violating the
sanctity of Saharawi houses, confiscating belongings, assaulting women and
children as well as arresting and kidnapping in addition to torture. All
these
repressive measures have already caused many casualties among Saharawi
civilians of whom some are still in serious conditions.
As the Saharawi civilians cannot, under whatever circumstances, be deprived
of
their right to demonstrate and express their opinions peacefully, we
energetically denounce this brutal repression to which many of our citizens
in
the occupied El Aaiun have been subjected as was the case of Ihssan Fadeli
El-Bar, known as Temim.
The Moroccan campaign of repression has already caused many casualties among
not only the Saharawi civilians who were demonstrating and protesting
peacefully but also many others who did not take part in the demonstrations.
The initial account of those who so far have been wounded, arrested, and of
the families whose houses were assaulted indicates the gravity of the
situation as shown below.
Among those who have been wounded are:
Shreifa Mint Adlil
Lemleiha Mint Adlil
El-Arbi Uld Abd-Anabi
Abdallah Uld Lehmad
Rais Hassana
Bebit Ali-Salem
Rashid Amidan
Omar Bedi
Mousaoui Tomanna Deida
Mbarka Boulahi Abdallah
El-Mafhoud
Mohamed Sidi Heiba
Mohamed Ali Hadad
Deikh Ali Beiba
Rashidi Aminatou
Rashidi Selma
Slek El-Athmi
Mohamed Ali Sid-Zein
Azokeni Slama
Azokeni Alamin
Azokeni El-Khalia
Sidna Adefli
Seghri Belal
Trufa Mohamed Mouloud Ammar
Ghalia Herbal
Baba El-Arbi (an adolescent)
Abd-el-Wahab Asseida (4 years)
Fatma Asedia (1 year)
Among those who have been arrested are:
Mohamed El-Arbi
Rabiaa (his spouse)
Mohamed Salem Mohamed El-Arbi
Mbarak Mohamed El-Arbi
Mohamed Mouloud Mohamed El-Arbi
El-Housein Al-Issaoui
The family Isseidi Al-Houssein (all of them remain disappeared)
Bousoula Mohamed
Ben Al-Houseein Mohamed
Houssein Al-Heiresh (a child)
Brahim Bou-Amoud
Sidi Mohamed Fadel Aami
Abba Uld Mouloud Uld Ahmed
Sidi Alwat
Uld Al-Karsh
As regards the families, whose members have been assaulted and their
properties ravaged, they include:
Ahel Mohamed El-Arbi
Ahel Ham Rashid
Ahel Adafli
Ahel Lehmada Deida
Ahel Mohamed Fadel Uld Lehbib Uld Daha
Ahel Al-Tarfaoui
Ahel Hassen Uld El-Heirish
Ahel Sidi Mohamed Lbeiraoui
Ahel Sid Ould Salek
Ahel Ismaļl Sidi Mohamed Omar
Ahel Mohamed Mouloud Uld El-Housein Uld Ammar
House of Salama Boutbaa
House of Amina Mint Belaoui
Excellency,
The Saharawi civilians who organised those peaceful demonstrations and
sit-ins
were fully acting in line with their legitimate demands as provided for in
international conventions. What they were demanding was the release of all
Saharawi prisoners of conscience and the accounting for all those who have
disappeared as well as the recovering of the remains of those who have
already
perished in detention; the respect for their fundamental rights to the
freedom
of expression and the freedom of movement as enshrined in international
conventions; and, in particular, the exercise by the Saharawi people of
their
inalienable right to self-determination and independence through the holding
of a free and fair referendum whereby the Saharawi people can choose their
future in a free, democratic and transparent manner and in accordance with
the
resolutions of the UN General Assembly and the Security Council.
We are firmly confident that, despite the oppressive practices pursued by
the
occupying Moroccan authorities, our citizens in the occupied territories
will
remain steadfastly attached to their inalienable right to assert their
national rights. As they were peacefully demonstrating and fully acting in
accordance with the dictates of international legality, the oppressive
campaign, which is being conducted by the Moroccan occupying forces under
the
eye of MINURSO, is an extremely serious matter that necessitates your
immediate intervention as to providing the UN mission with the necessary
mandate in order to protect the lives of the Saharawi citizens, to ensure
their safety and to provide them with the basic conditions for expressing
their opinions and political convictions in a peaceful and democratic way.
We avail ourselves of this opportunity to urgently call upon you to ensure
that the Security Council intervenes immediately in order to protect the
Saharawi citizens in the occupied territories of Western Sahara in general
and
in El Aaiun in particular. According to the latest information, the
situation
in those territories is deteriorating dramatically and may lead to further
tension owing to the persistence of the Moroccan occupying forces in their
campaign of oppression and terror against the Saharawi civilians who remain
attached to their legitimate rights to demonstrate and express their
opinions
peacefully.
Whilst facing the Moroccan terrorist and oppressive apparatus, the Saharawi
civilians have great faith and hope that the Untied Nations will assume its
full responsibilities as to providing them with protection pending the
completion of the decolonisation process. They also remain hopeful that the
Untied Nations will exert all necessary pressure on the Moroccan Government
in
order to abide by international legality and allow the Saharawi people to
exercise their inalienable right to self-determination and independence, so
that genuine peace and stability may be restored in the Maghreb and the
entire
region of North Africa.
Please accept, Excellency, the assurances of my highest consideration.
Mohamed Abdelaziz,
President of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic,
Secretary General of the Frente POLISARIO."
060/090/100 252350 Mayo 05 SPS
_______________________________________________
Source: http://www.spsrasd.info/main3e.html
Boris Ryser
SADR/SECURITY COUNCIL
United Nations
New York
Excellency,
Excellency,
Excellency,
Shreifa Mint Adlil
Lemleiha Mint Adlil
El-Arbi Uld Abd-Anabi
Abdallah Uld Lehmad
Rais Hassana
Bebit Ali-Salem
Rashid Amidan
Omar Bedi
Mousaoui Tomanna Deida
Mbarka Boulahi Abdallah
El-Mafhoud
Mohamed Sidi Heiba
Mohamed Ali Hadad
Deikh Ali Beiba
Rashidi Aminatou
Rashidi Selma
Slek El-Athmi
Mohamed Ali Sid-Zein
Azokeni Slama
Azokeni Alamin
Azokeni El-Khalia
Sidna Adefli
Seghri Belal
Trufa Mohamed Mouloud Ammar
Ghalia Herbal
Baba El-Arbi (an adolescent)
Abd-el-Wahab Asseida (4 years)
Fatma Asedia (1 year)
Mohamed El-Arbi
Rabiaa (his spouse)
Mohamed Salem Mohamed El-Arbi
Mbarak Mohamed El-Arbi
Mohamed Mouloud Mohamed El-Arbi
El-Housein Al-Issaoui
Bousoula Mohamed
Ben Al-Houseein Mohamed
Houssein Al-Heiresh (a child)
Brahim Bou-Amoud
Sidi Mohamed Fadel Aami
Sidi Alwat
Uld Al-Karsh
Ahel Mohamed El-Arbi
Ahel Ham Rashid
Ahel Adafli
Ahel Lehmada Deida
Ahel Al-Tarfaoui
Ahel Hassen Uld El-Heirish
Ahel Sidi Mohamed Lbeiraoui
Ahel Sid Ould Salek
House of Salama Boutbaa
Excellency,
Mohamed Abdelaziz,
_______________________________________________
Source: http://www.spsrasd.info/main3e.html
Boris Ryser
afrol News, 27 May
- The "new Intifada" in Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara, going on since
Monday, is gathering more and more protesters every day. Armed Moroccan
security forces have answered the demonstrators with tear gas and mass
arrests
of civilians. Military reinforcements are being sent in to El Aaiun from
southern Morocco as locally stationed troops fear the situation is getting
out
of control.
The new and large wave of riots in Western Sahara's capital El Aaiun started
small and peacefully on Monday, as well-known human rights activists
protested
against limited freedoms. For unknown reasons, however, the activists
suddenly
were joined by hundreds of ordinary Sahrawi citizens, protesting against the
Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara and calling for freedom.
On Monday, some 300 demonstrators reportedly had taken to the streets of El
Aaiun. As these were met by units of the Moroccan police, engaging them in
street battles, the protest immediately widened. Yesterday, Sahrawi sources
claim that over 1300 protesters filled the streets of El Aaiun, demanding a
Moroccan withdrawal. Saharawi national flags were carried, some protesters
set
tyres on fire and some engaged in street battles with Moroccan security
forces.
According to Brahim Noumria - a prominent Sahrawi human rights activist who
has spent several years in Moroccan prisons - the occupying power was
overwhelmed by the mass mobilisation. The rights activists, known to the
police and usually let in peace by them, had noted "the genuine fear" among
the Moroccan troops stationed in El Aaiun, faced by a new and surprising
rebellion.
According to Mr Noumria, security forces had mostly left the well-known
human
rights activists in peace - in some instances trying to negotiate with
them -
to avoid international headlines. Scared by the popular revolt, however, the
armed units had focused their reprisals on the "normal citizen and
housewives"
participating in the demonstrations.
According to other sources in El Aaiun, more than 20 civilians, including
children, have been arrested or "disappeared". More than 30 have been
wounded
in clashes with Moroccan security forces and around 15 private residences
have
been searched and looted.
Among the many examples named, the residence of the El Aarabi family had
been
found "full of blood" and with "signs of a violent struggle." The entire
family - including children - had been taken to an unknown site. Sahrawi
activists say that the only crime done by the family had been the nursing of
wounded demonstrators, which are not given treatment at the public hospital
of
El Aaiun.
According to sources contacted by Mr Noumria, the besieged security forces
of
El Aaiun are now getting reinforcements from Morocco. Some 600 additional
Moroccan forces were said to be on their way from Sidi Qasem, Assa and
Gouilimine and there was "considerable concern" over how these may behave.
The
majority of these troops were thought to be of the auxiliary military
forces,
and hundreds more were expected in the coming days if the protests continue.
While the protests in El Aaiun are intensifying from day by day, the Sahrawi
"Intifada" today also has spread to other cities and towns in Western Sahara
and Morocco. There have been several reports of confrontations in the
Sahrawi
towns of Smara and Dakhla and of protesting Sahrawis in the Moroccan cities
of
Tan Tan and Rabat.
At the Souissi II University in the Moroccan capital, Rabat, hundreds of
Sahrawi students today were reported to have thrown stones at Moroccan
police
units trying to stop the demonstrations. Anti-riot units of the police
engaged
in battles with the students that reportedly have left many wounded. An
unknown number of arrests were also to have been produced.
According to the exiled Sahrawi government, the riots in El Aaiun and Smara
are developing into a true Intifada based on the Palestinian model. The
Polisario independence movement - which forms the exiled government - has so
far not taken responsibility for the sudden outbreak of riots. Observers
also
believe that the riots have been produced autonomously out of frustration
over
the Moroccan occupation and the Kingdom's unwillingness to engage in the
UN-led peace process.
Sahrawi exiled President Mohamed Abdelaziz meanwhile is coming under double
pressure to resume the armed struggle against Morocco, which was halted by a
1991 ceasefire. The estimated 160,000 Sahrawi refugees in the Algerian
desert
and the population of the occupied territory have lost hope in a negotiated
settlement after Morocco's King Mohammed VI withdrew his agreement to a
referendum over independence - which was the pretext for the 1991 ceasefire.
So far, President Abdelaziz has limited his reaction to the riots in Western
Sahara to sending an appeal to the UN Security Council, asking the UN
peacekeepers in the territory to protect the Sahrawi demonstrators. The
Polisario leader however recently hinted that the ceasefire could not last
for
ever if the Moroccan part is not interested in continuing the peace process
on
the basis of earlier treaties.
The movement this weekend exposed its troops and weapons in a large military
parade, demonstrating its power and willingness to resume the armed
struggle.
By staff writers
© afrol News
_______________________________________________
Source: http://www.afrol.com/articles/16438
Boris Ryser
29 May 2005 15:26:00 GMT
Source: Reuters
RABAT, May 29 (Reuters) - Moroccan authorities have charged 33 youths for
taking part in riots last week in the main city of the disputed territory of
Western Sahara, a senior government official said on Sunday.
"The riots had been organised with a political agenda," provincial governor
Mohamed El Rharabi told reporters in the city of Laayoune.
The exiled Polisario Front, which seeks independence for the
Moroccan-controlled and mineral-rich territory, has called the riots an
"uprising". State media said they were limited to one or two suburbs and led
by dozens of mainly young protesters.
Polisario threatened earlier this month to resume its armed struggle against
Morocco if there is no breakthrough in U.N.-led peace talks in the next six
months.
El Rharabi said the 33 youths would be tried for criminal conspiracy,
disturbing public order and damage to public property during the riots,
which residents and local reporters said took place on Tuesday and
Wednesday.
Police were looking for other suspects for burning Moroccan flags and for
brandishing flags of Polisario's self-styled republic known by its acronym
RASD.
The riots were triggered by the transfer of a convict from a jail in
Laayoune to one in Morocco, the governor said.
The inmate, sentenced two years ago on charges including drug trafficking
and insulting the monarchy, has rejected the verdict, saying he was not a
Moroccan national and asked to be transferred to Polisario camps in Algeria,
legal sources said.
Algeria has traditionally backed the territory's independence movement based
in southwestern Algeria.
In Rabat on Friday, a dozen people were wounded when Moroccan police
dispersed a demonstration by student supporters of independence for Western
Sahara.
Thousands of students from Western Sahara study in Moroccan universities,
which had seen similar protests in the past.
Claiming historic right to the vast desert territory, Morocco seized it
after colonial power Spain withdrew in 1975.
Polisario conducted a low-intensity guerrilla war until the United Nations
brokered a ceasefire in 1991, with the promise of holding a referendum to
decide the territory's fate. Disagreements over who is eligible to vote have
prevented it from taking place.
_______________________________________________
Source: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L29346977.htm
Boris Ryser
Morocco/Western Sahara
31 May 2005
Covering events from January - December 2004
An Equity and Reconciliation Commission was inaugurated to look into
hundreds
of cases of "disappearance" and arbitrary detention in previous decades. The
authorities continued their clampdown on suspected Islamist activists,
sentencing more than 200 people to prison terms. Several of those sentenced
had allegedly been tortured during questioning by the security forces. Other
breaches of the right to a fair trial were reported. The authorities drafted
a
law to combat torture and said in July that allegations of torture reported
in
2002 and 2003 would be investigated. The legal framework for women's rights
was significantly improved. A royal pardon was granted to 33 people,
including
political prisoners and prisoners of conscience.
Background
The USA accorded Morocco the status of "major non-NATO ally" in June,
apparently in acknowledgement of what a senior administration official
described as "Morocco's steadfast support in the global war on terror". The
status lifted restrictions on arms sales. The USA also signed a free-trade
agreement with Morocco.
The Personal Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for Western Sahara, James
Baker, resigned in June after seven years of failed efforts to resolve the
dispute over the territory's status. Morocco's efforts to convince the
international community of its sovereign rights over Western Sahara suffered
a
setback in September when South Africa formally established diplomatic ties
with the Polisario Front, which calls for an independent state in Western
Sahara and operates a self-proclaimed government-in-exile in refugee camps
near Tindouf, south-western Algeria. A new war of words subsequently flared
up
between Morocco and neighbouring Algeria.
Equity and Reconciliation Commission
On 7 January an Equity and Reconciliation Commission was inaugurated by King
Mohamed VI to "close the file on past human rights violations". One of its
tasks is to complete payment of compensation to victims of "disappearances"
and arbitrary detention that occurred between the 1950s and 1990s. The
Commission is also charged with providing other forms of reparation to
enable
victims to be rehabilitated and reintegrated into society, and with
proposing
measures to prevent recurrence of such human rights violations. To this end,
it consulted with victims and associations representing them on a range of
ideas. By December the Commission had received requests for reparations
concerning more than 16,000 victims.
Another main task of the Commission is to establish the fate of hundreds of
people who "disappeared" in previous decades and, in the case of those who
died in detention, to locate their remains. During the year the Commission
collected testimonies from relatives of the "disappeared" and began
preparing
a report, due in April 2005, that would set out the reasons and
institutional
responsibilities for grave violations up to 1999. In December it began
organizing public hearings, broadcast on radio and television, in which
dozens
of witnesses and victims would present their testimonies.
However, the Commission's statutes categorically excluded the identification
of individual perpetrators and rejected criminal prosecutions, prompting the
UN Human Rights Committee in November to express concern that no steps were
planned to bring to justice those responsible for "disappearances". Some
perpetrators were alleged to remain members or even high-ranking officials
of
the security forces.
Abuses during the 'counter-terrorism'campaign
The authorities continued their clampdown on suspected Islamist activists, a
campaign that began in 2002 and intensified following the killing of 45
people
in bomb attacks in Casablanca on 16 May 2003. Over 200 people were sentenced
to prison terms ranging from several months to life imprisonment, convicted
of
belonging to "criminal gangs" or of involvement in planning violent acts.
Those sentenced to death in 2003 remained in custody at the end of the year.
No executions have taken place in Morocco/Western Sahara since 1993. Several
of those sentenced in 2004 were allegedly tortured to extract confessions or
to force them to sign or thumbprint statements they rejected. Other breaches
of the right to a fair trial were reported, such as the frequent rejection
by
courts of requests by defence lawyers to call defence witnesses.
In February, AI sent a memorandum to the authorities detailing the findings
of
its research into the alleged torture in 2002 and 2003 of dozens of suspects
held in secret detention by the Directorate for the Surveillance of the
Territory (the internal intelligence service), allegations the authorities
had
dismissed as baseless at the time. Subsequently, the authorities
acknowledged
that a limited number of abuses may have occurred, and in July the Prime
Minister declared that investigations would be carried out and "appropriate
measures" taken against those responsible. Several investigations were
started
and a law to combat torture was drafted.
The UN Human Rights Committee expressed concern in November about the large
number of alleged cases of torture or ill-treatment in detention and the
lack
of independent investigations into them.
Women's rights
On 3 February a new Family Code was promulgated which significantly improved
the legal framework for women's rights. Husbands and wives were accorded
equal
and joint responsibility for running the family home and bringing up
children,
and the wife's duty of obedience to her husband was rescinded. The minimum
age
of marriage for women was raised from 15 to 18, the same as for men, and the
requirement of a male marital tutor (wali) for women to marry was
eliminated.
Severe restrictions were imposed on male polygamy. The right to divorce by
mutual consent was established and unilateral divorce by the husband was
placed under strict judicial control. However, provisions governing
inheritance rights, which widely discriminate against women, remained almost
entirely unchanged.
Confirming the findings of local women's rights organizations, the UN Human
Rights Committee expressed its concern in November about the high level of
domestic violence against women.
Pardon of political prisoners
On 7 January a royal pardon was granted to 33 people, including political
prisoners and prisoners of conscience. Among them were human rights
defenders,
journalists and Islamist activists, including Ali Lmrabet, a Moroccan
journalist sentenced to three years' imprisonment in June 2003, and Ali
Salem
Tamek, a human rights defender from Western Sahara sentenced to two years'
imprisonment in October 2002.
Rights of migrants
Hundreds of migrants, most from sub-Saharan Africa, were arrested and
deported. Several alleged that the security forces used excessive force
during
arrest or tortured or ill-treated them in custody. In April, two Nigerian
nationals died reportedly after being shot by the security forces near the
border with the Spanish enclave of Melilla. The authorities launched an
investigation into the incident.
The UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants published a report
in January following a visit to Morocco in October 2003. She expressed
particular concern about the situation of sub-Saharan migrants who often
"live
in the most appalling conditions". She noted that "many of them, fleeing
from
conflict in their own countries, have no assurance that they will be granted
refugee status or that their asylum applications will be considered before
they are escorted to the border" for deportation. The Special Rapporteur
reported that "neither the authorities responsible for law and order and for
control of air, sea and land borders, nor the judicial authorities, have
clear
information regarding refugee status". She recommended, among other things,
that "a plan of action be drawn up to protect migrants' rights through
training for judicial authorities, access to appeal procedures,
awareness-raising and information campaigns.
Expulsion of journalists
At least five foreign journalists reporting on Western Sahara were expelled,
apparently as part of an attempt by the authorities to prevent independent
reporting on the territory. The expulsions were not preceded by judicial
rulings and the journalists were not allowed to submit reasons against their
expulsion or to have their cases reviewed by a judicial authority.
Catherine Graciet and Nadia Ferroukhi, respectively a French journalist and
a
French-Algerian photographer, were arrested at a police roadblock by men in
plain clothes on 27 January as they were travelling to Western Sahara to
report on living conditions there. They were detained overnight in a hotel
and
then taken to Agadir, where they were reportedly questioned by police in
plain
clothes and then obliged to take a flight to France. They said that the
authorities accused them of not having notified the Moroccan authorities
that
they planned to report on Western Sahara before travelling to the region.
Official sources said that they were expelled because they were suspected of
undertaking "propaganda" activities in favour of the Polisario Front and
were
found in possession of "large amounts of documentation" favourable to the
Polisario Front's position.
Polisario camps
The Polisario Front freed 200 Moroccan prisoners of war whom it had captured
between 1975 and 1991 and detained ever since in its camps near Tindouf,
south-western Algeria. One hundred were released in February and another 100
in June. They were then repatriated under the auspices of the International
Committee of the Red Cross. However, 412 remained in detention at the end of
the year. Under international humanitarian law, the Polisario Front was
obliged to release the prisoners without delay after the end of armed
hostilities in 1991 following a ceasefire brokered by the UN.
Those responsible for human rights abuses in the camps in previous years
continued to enjoy impunity. The Polisario authorities failed to hand over
perpetrators still resident in the camps to the Algerian authorities to be
brought to justice, and the Moroccan government failed to bring to justice
perpetrators of abuses in the Polisario camps who had left the camps and
were
present on its territory.
_______________________________________________
Source: http://web.amnesty.org/report2005/mar-summary-eng
Boris Ryser
Source: Reuters
_______________________________________________
Source: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L29346977.htm
_______________________________________________
Forwarded by:
_______________________________________________
Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara
wsa...@online.no
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Boris Ryser
Tuesday, May 31 2005 @ 01:16 PM PDT
Contributed by: Oread Daily
A struggle for national liberation has been ongoing in the Western Sahara
for
decades. Largely unnoticed here in the US of A. An intifada has been going
on
for days, even more unnoticed.
The "new Intifada" began just over a week ago in the Moroccan occupied
territory. According to "Afrol News" Moroccan security forces have answered
the demonstrators with tear gas and mass arrests of civilians.
The Intifada began peacefully in Western Sahara's capital El Aaiun where
human
rights activists protested against limited freedom. The activists were soon
joined by hundreds Saharawi (Western Sahara) citizens. The new arrivals took
the human rights folks demands a step farther. They wanted the Moroccans
out.
They wanted real freedom. Saharawi national flags were carried, some
protesters set tires on fire and some engaged in street battles with
Moroccan
security forces.
According to Brahim Noumria - a prominent Saharawi human rights activist who
has spent several years in Moroccan prisons - the occupying power was
overwhelmed by the mass mobilization. The rights activists, known to the
police and usually let in peace by them, had noted "the genuine fear" among
the Moroccan troops stationed in El Aaiun, faced by a new and surprising
rebellion.
According to a variety of sources, many involved in the El Aaiun uprising
have
been disappeared or taken into custody.
But instead of shutting down the uprising, people across the nation rose up
in
defiance. Within 24 hours Intifada had spread to other cities and towns in
Western Sahara and Morocco. There have been several reports of
confrontations
in the Saharawi towns including Smara and Dakhla and of protesting Saharawis
in the Moroccan cities including Tan Tan and Rabat.
Students at Souissi II University in the Moroccan capital, Rabat, pelted
police with stones in response to attempts to break up their demonstration
of
support. "Around 100 policemen came in backup and raided the campus
restaurant, rooms and other facilities. We all had to run," said one
student,
who asked to be identified only as HS. According to Reuters at least a dozen
students were wounded.
In Agadir and Fez, Saharawi students also organized marches of solidarity
and
support for the Intifada and read releases condemning the repression against
their people in the occupied territories of Western Sahara.
The amazing thing is that none of this appears to be coordinated by the
Polisario who have long led the liberation movement. Rather it seems that
Intifada has developed autonomously out of frustration over the Moroccan
occupation and the Kingdom's unwillingness to engage in the UN-led peace
process.
Internationally there has been some been some strong opposition to the
repressive response of the occupying Moroccan forces.
Protestors staged demonstrations in the Spanish cities of Seville and
Almeria
to urge an end to the "violent repression" in the Western Sahara and to
support what they term the Saharawi people's right to independence. The
associations organizing the protests have repeatedly accused the Zapatero
government of "passiveness" in the face of the Moroccan authorities'
continuing clampdown on the territory's separatist movement.
On Sunday the 3rd Congress of Canaries Coalition (CC) adopted a resolution
which condemned "the strong oppression" and which expressed "solidarity with
the legitimate aspiration of the Saharawi people struggle for
self-determination."
The Spanish Human Rights League (SHRL), according to the Sahara Press
Service
(SPS) also strongly »condemned the violation by Morocco "of the most
fundamental human rights, the right to demonstrate" in Western Sahara "at a
moment when the international community recognizes to the Saharawi people
its
rights on the basis of an arsenal of resolutions and many settlement plans,
all of which Morocco accepted". SHRL asked for "the immediate release of the
political prisoner EL Keinan and the 33 detainees of the Intifada", and to
"immediately undertake measures against the persons who bears the
responsibility of the repression."
Meanwhile, Polisario accused the Moroccan government of terrible repression.
"The repression by the Moroccan authorities which is still going on has left
57 people injured, seven of them seriously, dozens of people under arrest,
many others missing... and dozens of houses completely sacked," the
Polisario
said in a letter to the United Nations written on Sunday.
"The violation of civil and political rights... demands a firm reaction from
the whole international community," said the letter, a copy of which was
obtained by IRIN. "Every day that the world delays means added suffering for
the civilian population."
Agence France Presse reported that Morocco was opening an inquiry into the
clashes. But the Polisario said it wanted an international probe into the
recent disturbances and foreign observers and journalists to come to the
territory.
Still the Moroccan government is doing what it can to keep the latest
uprising
a secret. According to "Western Sahara On Line", Moroccan authorities have
expelled the journalist Abdessalam Razzak from the Arabic channel television
'Al Jazeera'. The journalist had just arrived to cover a report on the
situation in Western Sahara. Also, two journalists upon their arrival at the
airport in El Aaiun, two journalists from the Moroccan weekly "Assahifa";
Lahcen Aouad and Mourad Bourja, were held for more than three hours before
being released. In addition, members of the Spanish television channel TVE
team, who reached El Aaiun, were prevented from leaving the hotel. However,
they were able to give an account of the situation and on their forced
confinement by using their cell phones.
Even before the outbreak of the new Intifada tensions had been rising in the
region. A summit of North African Heads of State which was abruptly scrapped
when, according to IRIN, Morocco reacted angrily to Algeria's reiteration of
its support for the Polisario.
Earlier in the month the Polisario's chief negotiator, Emhamed Khadad, had
told Reuters that the liberation forces were considering resuming armed
struggle if UN led peace talks continued to stagnate. The current deal on
the
table provides for Western Sahara to be given self-rule for a period of four
to five years. After that, its long-term residents and the refugees in
Algerian camps would vote in a referendum to choose whether the territory is
to be fully integrated with Morocco, continue to have autonomy within the
Moroccan state, or become independent. The plan has been accepted by the
Polisario movement, but rejected by Morocco.
Less then one month ago, the government-in-exile of Saharawi Arab Democratic
Republic (SADR) outmaneuvered the Moroccans when it invited international
oil
companies to bid for 12 offshore exploration licenses at a meeting in
London.
The London meeting comes a week after Texan oil giant Kerr McGee announced
it
was renewing its reconnaissance agreement to work in the disputed country
for
only six months, but on Moroccan terms. Morocco which invaded Western Sahara
over thirty years ago is eager to offer big business the chance to operate
in
Western Sahara in the hope that Western operations will help legitimize the
occupation.
Tom Marchbanks of the Western Sahara Campaign UK said: "It is important for
oil companies to approach SADR when seeking approval to operate in Western
Sahara. By operating in the territory solely with Moroccan approval they are
legitimizing the occupation, potentially exhausting the valuable resources
of
the Saharawi refugees and showing a disregard and ignorance for
international
law and corporate social responsibility."
Only one major oil company seems to be completely dissing the SADR. Kerr
McGee
appears largely alone in its oil dealings with Rabat on Western Sahara
following the pullout from the territory of Norwegian, Dutch and Danish
seismic firms in 2003 and mid-2004 and then Total - which had a similar
agreement with Rabat - last November.
"For KMG to renew their contract flies in the face of attempts by the wider
petroleum industry to instill greater moral and ethical best practice," says
Tom Marchbanks of campaigners Western Sahara Resource Watch. "By continuing
its activities in Western Sahara,. KMG is legitimizing the Moroccan
occupation
while actively seeking to exhaust valuable potential resources..."
"Under international laws decreeing the treatment of non-self-governing
territories, Morocc's granting of rights in Western Sahara to Kerr McGee
holds
no more sway than if those rights had been granted by Luxembourg or Ireland,
says political scientist and lawyer Raphael Fisera.
Sources: IRIN, Aljazeera, Sahara Press Service (SPS), Reuters, Adnkronos
International (AKI), Afrol News, Oilbarrel, Finanacial Times, Western Sahara
Campaign, Reporters Without Borders
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Source: http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story= 05053113164878
Boris Ryser
Number 45
2nd June 2005
"Intifada" erupts in Western Sahara
The capital of occupied Western Sahara, El Ayoun (Laayoune in the Moroccan
spelling), has been the site of a week of demonstrations and clashes between
protestors and Moroccan security forces. Saharawi students in Moroccan
towns, and Saharawis in other parts of Western Sahara, have also staged
public pro-independence rallies, generally meeting with a violent response
from the Moroccan forces. 33 demonstrators are apparently about to be tried
by Moroccan courts for offences relating to the protests, and the list of
injured is over 60. Saharawi activists are calling this the "second
Saharawi intifada": the first took place over the autumn of 1999, following
the violent break up of a peaceful sit-in in El Ayoun.
A week of demonstrations and repression in El Ayoun
In the last issue of Sahara Analysis we mentioned the case of the Saharawi
prisoner Haddi Ahmed Mahmoud El Kainnan, held in El Ayoun's prison for drugs
offences and "insulting the monarchy". He had renounced Moroccan
nationality, and was demanding that he be sent to the Saharawi refugee
camps, in southern Algeria. It is alleged he was assaulted in his cell by
prison officers, and he was rumoured to be about to be transferred to
another prison hundreds of miles inside Morocco. Saharawi human rights
activists organised a sit-in protest outside the prison, to demand that he
be kept inside Western Sahara, near his family. However, the Moroccan
security forces violently broke up the sit-in.
So far, business as usual. But that afternoon and evening, large crowds of
Saharawis took to the streets of El Ayoun, calling not only for the release
of arrested demonstrators but also shouting pro-independence slogans, "viva
Polisario", etc. Large numbers of Moroccan security personnel, from the
police and the "auxiliary forces" (i.e. paramilitary riot police) confronted
them on the streets, leading to clashes between truncheon-wielding police
and young Saharawis. That night several Saharawi neighbourhoods were
surrounded by police: phone lines and street lights were cut off, and
Moroccan forces then raided many homes.
The following day, up to 1400 people are said to have demonstrated in the
city. They were successful in obtaining the release of a young Saharawi man
who says he was raped in police custody overnight. But security force
reinforcements arrived, clashes broke out again, and have continued to do so
on and off for the last few days.
A particulary serious feature of the arrests is the disappearance of entire
families. Both the El Aarabi family (minus, Baba, aged 8) and the Saaidi El
Houssein family have been arrested, according to Saharawi reports.
Photographs of the demonstrations are available at
http://www.arso.org/intifada2005.htm#imge .
Saharawi students protest across Morocco
In Rabat, Saharawi students demonstrated and there were violent clashes with
Moroccan security forces, with several people injured. A large
demonstration was also reported in Marrakech, where Saharawi students
recently released from prison were greeted by a crowd of their colleagues
who paraded them through the town to the City University, and in Casablanca
and Agadir. Students in Marrakech and Agadir were reportedly spending the
night on the streets to avoid a wave of police raids on their homes.
Video footage of the Rabat demonstration, showing students shouting "viva
Polisario" and the clashes, is available at
http://www.rtva.es/Informativos/-ArchivoNoticias/2005/05.Mayo/28/280505-sf-017-INT.htm .
Action spreads across Saharawi cities
In Smara 24 high school students were allegedly arrested ahead of a planned
public sit-in on May 31st. Pro-independence grafitti appeard in Dakhla -
meanwhile, in Boujdour, 2 Saharawi citizens were arrested and allegedly
tortured. Latest reports on 1st June indicate clashes and arrests in Smara,
and in Tan-Tan, a Moroccan town close to the border with Western Sahara with
a large Saharawi population.
Media coverage
Saharawi refugees in the camps in Algeria have been able to hear eyewitness
reports relayed live on Saharawi radio, from activists in the occupied
territories calling on their mobile phones. In contrast, the Moroccan media
have largely limited themselves to repeating the official line that the
demonstrations have been small and the the authorities have made minor
interventions to "restore order".
Foreign media have found it difficult to cover the protests. Spanish agency
EFE were able to visit El Ayoun and meet long-term human rights activists
including Brahim Noumria and Aminatou Haidar, and visited some of the
injured. But Morocco has attempted to block or divert other foreign
journalists from covering the protests. One report relates how a group
including Agence France Presse (AFP) and Al Jazeera were taken to an empty
street in El Ayoun as proof that "the situation is under control": but a
group of Saharawis heard of this and hurried to the street to mount a new
demonstration there. According to AFP, a Moroccan officer dismissed this
with the words "this is an improvised demonstration" - as if a spontaneous
demonstration was not meaningful.
Political Impact - Where is MINURSO?
These events put pressure on the UN to generate some movement on Western
Sahara. It is nearly a year since James Baker resigned as Kofi Annan's
Personal Envoy, and over a month since Alvaro de Soto left his post as head
of MINURSO. Neither has been replaced. Meanwhile, Saharawi demonstrators
are beaten in the streets and human rights activists arrested: the UN
"peacekeepers" remain passive. This is a desperately embarassing situation
for the UN to find itself in.
They also demonstrate how the struggle for independence is now being waged
on more than one front. In the earlier years, the armed struggle fought by
the population of the refugee camps was the clear focus of the Saharawi
movement. But since the ceasefire, while the Saharawi leadership still
lobby diplomats continously, the struggle is also taken up by activists
inside the territory, and through other angles, for example oil (see below).
Finally, they also put pressure on Morocco. Saharawi activists, accustomed
to dealing with the security forces on smaller demonstrations, have spoken
of noticing "real fear" in the troops confronted with the anger and
frustration of the Saharawi population in general. The Moroccan governor of
El Ayoun has said the demonstrations were organised with "a political
agenda". On this at least he seems to agree with Saharawi activists, who
are also at pains to stress that these are pro-independence demonstrations.
One wonders how the Moroccan regime would react if the 150,000 Saharawi
refugees returned - as it claims they are welcome to do. The regime's
strategy seems to be sending in the riot police and hoping the Saharawis
give up. Thirty years of this has hardly won them over to Moroccan rule.
The Moroccan government must work out its exit strategy from a struggle it
cannot win.
Oil: Saharawi Republic's Oil Licensing Round launched in London
On 17th May, the Wellington Arch on Hyde Park corner in London was the scene
for the launch of an oil licencing round for Western Sahara by the exiled
government, the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR). Emhamed Khaddad,
Polisario Front representative to MINURSO, and Kamal Fadel, Polisario Front
representative to Australia, announced that the SADR would be open for bids
from oil companies to start exploration work offshore and onshore Western
Sahara - the work to start when the territory gains its independence.
The event was well attended, by oil companies including Premier of the UK,
and Woodside and Ophir of Australia, and a good number of oil industry
journalists. There was a generally positive atmosphere among those present,
which appeared to be undampened by the small delegation of "protestors" from
the Moroccan embassy outside the building at the beginning of the event.
Questioned about how the SADR proposed to persuade companies that agreements
made now would still be honoured on independence in the future, Mr Khaddad
pointed to the Saharawi movement's history of holding to its UN agreements
and it's undoubted record for patience.
It may be asked, what is the point of launching a round for bids when the
SADR does not have physical control of most of the territory at the moment?
The licencing round serves several purposes: firstly, it shows the oil
industry and others that an independent Western Sahara would be "open for
business". Morocco tries to paint the Saharawi government as alternately
communists, Islamicists or mercenaries: this initiative helps international
business figures get past this propaganda and see the SADR as a government
in waiting. Secondly, it shows that the dispute over sovereignty is very
much alive. Some oil companies have in the past been told by Morocco that
the dispute is all but over: this, quite apart from the recent developments
on the streets in Western Sahara, shows that it is not! It demonstrates the
Saharawi movement's seriousness about preparing for independence. It also
creates some momentum, something sadly lacking from the diplomatic process
at the moment.
Moroccan response has been quiet, with just two short stories in the entire
Moroccan press in the following week, a marked contrast to the wave of spin
and defamation that usually greets any Saharawi initiative. With
Moroccan-sponsored oil exploration falling off, perhaps Morocco's rulers are
not so keen just now to talk about oil.
Full information on the licensing round can be found on
www.sadroilandgas.com .
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Boris Ryser
BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Jun 02, 2005
Text of report by Algerian radio on 2 June
About 200 people demonstrated yesterday evening in front of the Moroccan
Consulate in Madrid in protest against abuse of human rights in the occupied
Western Saharan territories and demanding the right of the Saharan people to
self-determination.
The demonstrations were in response to a call by the Saharan people's
friendship associations in the Madrid region, supported by political parties
and social organizations which, on the occasion, urged the Spanish
government
to promptly intervene with the Moroccan authorities to release the people
detained during the recent demonstration in the occupied Saharan territories
and all Saharan political detainees.
Insisting on preferring a peaceful settlement of the Western Sahara issue
and
on consolidating democracy, Saharan Arab Democratic Republic [SADR]
President
Mohamed Abdelaziz addressed a message to all Moroccan intellectuals,
politicians and journalists in which he urged them, and through them the
Moroccan people, to support the effort in order to avoid the spectre of war
in
the region in the face of the persistence of the authorities in Rabat in
ignoring international law.
The Saharan president's message was published by [Algerian Arabic] El Khabar
newspaper today. The following is a summary of the message by Mohamed
Lamsan.
[Lamsan - recording] In the message, the Saharan president spoke about the
recent bloody confrontations in the occupied Saharan territories between
unarmed Saharans demanding their right to self-determination and the various
Moroccan security forces. A great number of demonstrators were injured and
others were arrested. President Mohamed Abdelaziz said such scenes had a
profound effect on every peace-loving people and supporters of justice and
international law all over the world. In messages of support and solidarity,
they condemned the oppression against peaceful demonstrations. He added that
the most important message for which the Saharan people are waiting has not
arrived yet. This is the message of solidarity by the brotherly Moroccan
people who, despite being subjected to pressure in the name of the outdated
past dreams, cannot remain silent in the face of the bleak prospect of
murdering the future. How can a great people such as the Moroccan people,
the
president added, who gave to the world heroes who include [late King]
Mohamed
V, Mohamed Abdelkrim el Khattabi, Hammou Ziani, Faqih Basri and others.
The Saharan president said that the recent Moroccan position which rejected
the principle of the right of the Saharan people to self-determination is a
severe blow to the efforts of settlement and to a just and lasting solution.
It is a position which contradicts Moroccan government's international
obligations. He added that this position is completely irresponsible and
unacceptable and may take the conflict back to what it was before the 1981
Nairobi African [Organization of African Unity] summit, when late King
Hassan
II said Morocco was willing to hold a referendum on the self-determination
of
the Saharan people under the UN auspices.
In his message, the Saharan president put forward the question: After all
the
concessions made by the Polisario Front, will the Moroccan people accept to
return to fighting and squandering money in order to provide death? Will
they
accept to return to the time when the plans to finance expensive war
projects
were stealing bread in the hands of Moroccan children?
The president then wondered until when the elite of the brotherly Moroccan
people accepts the use of Algeria and its position as a pretext to hide the
failure of all Moroccan official positions over the conflict.
Source: Algerian radio, Algiers, in Arabic 1200 gmt 2 Jun 05
_______________________________________________
Forwarded by:
_______________________________________________
Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara
wsa...@online.no
*** Referendum now! ***
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Sahara-update
_______________________________________________
Tip: search the message archive by key words, poster or date at
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Boris Ryser
BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Jun 02, 2005
Text of editorial by Abdelkrim Ghezali entitled "A people rises up"
published by Algerian newspaper La Tribune website on 2 June
For the past week, the Sahrawi peoples of Laayoune and Dakhla [Western
Sahara] have been stirring and reminding anyone who wanted to listen to them
about their status as occupied people. For the past week, the Moroccan
response to the Sahrawis' revolt has been fierce. Eloquent pictures have
been seen of a harsh repression that has not spared women. The Royal Palace
does not like to be reminded of its status as an occupier in the "useful"
Sahrawi territories. Yet it is this coastal strip cut off from the sandy,
rocky, desert and uninteresting rest of the Western Sahara that Morocco is
noisily claiming.
The Moroccan authorities have found the ideal guilty parties for this crime
of high treason that has been going on for the past week in the communities
of Western Sahara: Algeria, which supports the right of the Sahrawis to
choose between their independence and becoming part of Morocco; and the
Spanish press, which has been exposing the violent Moroccan acts against the
peoples demanding their right to self-determination.
Those same peoples are also criticizing the United Nations and the Security
Council, who are prevaricating and fleeing their responsibility to arbitrate
in a conflict that has dragged on for 30 years. The Polisario, that "gang of
mercenaries", has abided by its commitments to the Moroccan cease-fire which
followed Hassan II's involvement in the peace process that was signed with
the same "gang of mercenaries" in Houston in 1992.
Algeria, which Morocco has accused of having invented a people, invented a
cause and invented the Polisario and the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic
[SADR], supports the Houston accords and the UN peace plan and has
continually repeated that if the referendum result favours that Western
Sahara becomes part of Morocco, she would be the first to congratulate
Morocco and recognize the kingdom's new border.
But Algeria cannot decide in the place of a people that wants to speak out
freely, without pressure, following the total alteration of the voter lists
and following the separation of the good Sahrawi wheat from the chaff, which
was introduced since the 1975 Green March and through all the stages of
population colonization aimed at altering the social map of the Western
Sahara. Did Morocco accept the principle of the referendum in 1992 after
having assured herself that the outcome would be favourable to her following
the peopling of the occupied territories? Was Morocco sorry about that
option when she realized that her plan failed at the very time she believed
that Algeria was on her knees vis-a-vis barbarous terrorism, a part of which
was financed and armed by Morocco, which served as a base for the El Ahouel
hordes and the El Maout battalion? Last of all, does Morocco believe that
the Maghreb Union [as published] can serve as a blackmail method so that
Algeria will swap a principle for the profits of an integrated Maghreb
market?
There has been the Royal Palace's blind anger, which committed two fatal
mistakes towards the Arab Maghreb Union [UMA] in 1994, when it called for
its freeze and in 2005, when it caused the Tripoli summit meeting to fail.
Isn't Algeria right to refuse to open up the land borders and to mistrust
covert Moroccan advances and speeches oozing with insincerity?
Source: La Tribune website, Algiers, in French 2 Jun 05
© BBC Monitoring
_______________________________________________
For further background, please see:
- http://www.arso.org/intifada2005.htm#e
- http://www.sahara-libre.blogspot.com/
Boris Ryser
SPAIN/MOROCCO/OCCUPIED TERRITORIES
Moroccan authorities of occupation expel a Spanish delegation from the El
Aaiun airport
El Aaiun (occupied territories), 05/06/2005 (SPS)
A delegation, composed of Spanish local officials, representatives of social
organisations and Spanish journalists, was expelled towards the Canary
Islands
Sunday from the Saharawi Capital, El Aaiun, by Moroccan authorities of
occupation. They were thus forbidden from investigating on the human rights
situation in the Saharawi territory, where demonstrations that took place
last
week were violently repressed, according to Spanish agencies and newspapers.
Composed of 11 persons, who took the flight from Canary Island on board of a
plane of the Binter company, the delegation includes the Mayor of San
Fernando
de Henares, Municipal Counsellors of many Mayoralties (Madrid, Fuenlabrada,
Torrejón de Ardoz, ....), the President of Spanish League for Human Rights,
a
representative of the CEAS-Sahara and the President of the Federation of the
Institutions supporting Western Sahara (FEDISSAH in Spanish), it was
indicated.
"The trip coincides with an extremely tense moment in the zone, caused by
the
brutal repression Moroccan police led against Saharawi population in El
Aaiun
and in other cities of Western Sahara under Moroccan occupation", underlined
a
press release by FEDISSAH, which was the organiser of the trip.
Moroccan colonial authorities stopped the delegation from getting out of the
plane, they were surrounded by a group of police agents and gendarmes for
the
two hours they spent there before been expelled back to Canary Islands, it
was
indicated.
"We can not understand this situation. We came here to do a duty in a
completely peaceful way with all permissions and official papers", said the
spokesperson of the Unified Left (IU-in Spanish) of the Mayoralty of Madrid,
Montserrat Mu?oz, who claimed for explanations from Spanish Ministry for
Foreign Affairs through the intermediate of the IU's Coordinator, Gaspar
Llamazares.
A Spanish political delegation was denied the entry to the occupied Saharawi
capital, in the beginning of June 2002, and was expelled from the airport of
El Aaiun where it had had to spend more than 3 hours in a strong heat
without
any help, it should be recalled.
On April the 18, 2005, at 17.00 p.m GMT, two Norwegian journalists, Miss.
Anne
Torhild Nilsen Skuland and Mr. Radmund Steinsvag, were arrested by the
Moroccan authorities while they were trying to get into the headquarters of
the Minurso in El Aaiun to interview some of its officers.
Norwegian freelance, Erik Hagen, was expulsed on April the 5th, 2004 by the
Moroccan colonial authorities, who drove him out by force to the
neighbouring
Mauritania, after having interrogated him for many hours in the police
station.
Two other Norwegian journalists, Tor Dagfinn Dommersnes and Fredrik Refvem,
were expulsed in June the 16th 2004 by the Moroccan authorities because they
planning to interview Ali Salem Tamek, former Saharawi political prisoner
and
human rights activist.
On another hand, French freelance journalist Catherine Graciet and her
compatriot photographer Nadia Ferroukhi, were deported to Agadir while they
were planning to visit El Aaiun for the same above mentioned reasons, and
were
questioned at length by Moroccan authorities, then deported to France in
January the 28, 2004, it should be recalled. (SPS)
010/090/666/TRD 051624 June 05 SPS
_______________________________________________
Source: http://www.spsrasd.info/sps-e050605.html
Boris Ryser
No.: 38/2005
Date: 06.06.05
Contacts: Runar Malkenes, telephone +47 22 24 41 09 / mobile +47 95 21 42
83,
Anders Lande, telephone +47 22 24 41 05 / mobile +47 48 05 33 51
Company Excluded from the Government Petroleum Fund
The Ministry of Finance has excluded Kerr-McGee Corporation from the
Petroleum
Fund's investment universe under the new ethical guidelines. - The decision
to
exclude the company is based on a recommendation from the Advisory Council
on
Ethics for the Government Petroleum Fund, says Finance Minister Per-Kristian
Foss.
In December last year the exile government of the Saharawi Arab Democratic
Republic (SADR) and the Western Sahara Support Committee requested that the
Ministry of Finance exclude Kerr-McGee Corporation from the Government
Petroleum Fund because of the company's exploration of the continental shelf
off shore Western Sahara. According to the Ethical Guidelines, the Ministry
of
Finance shall make decisions on exclusion of companies based on
recommendations from the Advisory Council on Ethics for the Government
Petroleum Fund. The Ministry of Finance asked the Advisory Council to assess
whether the investment in Kerr-McGee might be inconsistent with the ethical
guidelines. This was the first request from the Ministry to the Advisory
Council.
- Obtaining and verifying information on all aspects of companies'
activities
is an exacting task. Decisions to exclude companies must be well
substantiated, emphasises Finance Minister Per-Kristian Foss.
According to the Ethical Guidelines of 19 November 2004, the Fund should not
invest in companies that produce weapons that may violate fundamental
humanitarian principles. Moreover, the Fund may not invest in companies if
such investments constitute an unacceptable risk of contributing to:
Serious or systematic human rights violations, such as murder, torture,
deprivation of liberty, forced labour, the worst forms of child labour and
other forms of child exploitation
Grave breeches of individual rights in situations of war or conflict
Severe environmental degradation
Gross corruption
Other particularly serious violations of fundamental ethical norms.
In its letter of 12 April 2005, the Advisory Council on Ethics for the
Government Petroleum Fund recommended that Kerr-McGee Corporation should be
excluded from the Fund's investment universe. The Council based its
recommendation on the fact that the company through its subsidiary
Kerr-McGee
du Maroc Ltd. has entered into an agreement with the state owned Moroccan
oil
company ONAREP regarding petroleum exploration on the continental shelf off
shore Western Sahara. Morocco has for a number of years occupied Western
Sahara despite strong UN condemnation. The Council found that Kerr-McGee
through its exploration activities most likely will enable Morocco to
exploit
petroleum resources in the area. The Council regarded this as "a
particularly
serious violation of fundamental ethical norms" e.g. because it may
strengthen
Morocco's sovereignty claims and thus contribute to undermining the UN peace
process.
According to the guidelines, the Council submitted its recommendation to the
company for comment. The company maintained that its activity was not in
violation of international law. The Advisory Council did not change its
conclusion as it did not base its recommendation on an assessment of
international law, but on an assessment of whether the activities in
question
are inconsistent with the Ethical Guidelines.
Based on the recommendation, the Ministry of Finance has excluded Kerr-McGee
from the investment universe of the Government Petroleum Fund. The Central
Bank (Norges Bank) as the manager of the Fund was informed about this
decision
in a letter from the Ministry on 29 April. The disinvestment has now been
completed. At the end of the year 2004 approximately NOK 337 million
[approx. 52 million USD] of the
Petroleum Fund was invested in stocks and bonds in Kerr-McGee Corporation.
The
decision to exclude the company is made public after the disinvestment has
taken place in order to secure a financially sound disposal of the
securities.
The Ministry of Finance may request the Council to assess if investments in
individual companies meet the ethical guidelines. In addition it is also
within the mandate of the Council to initiate analysis of other companies.
The
Ministry has asked the Council to assess whether it is in violation of the
guidelines to invest in Total because of the company's activity in Burma.
The
Council is also assessing other issues such as cluster weapons. It is likely
that the Ministry of Finance will be able to make decisions on these issues
in
the course of the autumn.
Read more about the Advisory Council on Ethics for the Government Petroleum
Fund here: http://odin.dep.no/etikkradet/english/bn.html
Read the Ethical Guidelines of 19 November 2004 here:
http://www.odin.dep.no/fin/english/topics/p10001617/p10002777/guidelines/bn.html
Read the recommendation from the Petroleum Fund's Council on Ethics, dated
12
April 2005, here:
http://www.odin.dep.no/fin/english/topics/p10001617/p10002777/screening/recommendations/006071-110246/dok-bn.html
_______________________________________________
Source:
http://www.odin.dep.no/fin/english/news/news/006071-070639/dok-bn.html
See also: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Sahara-Update/message/1511
Boris Ryser
Jun 06, 2005 (M2 PRESSWIRE via COMTEX) --
* Serious or systematic human rights violations, such as murder, torture,
deprivation of liberty, forced labour, the worst forms of child labour and
other forms of child exploitation
* Grave breeches of individual rights in situations of war or conflict
* Severe environmental degradation
* Gross corruption
* Other particularly serious violations of fundamental ethical norms.
completed. At the end of the year 2004 approximately NOK 337 million of the
Petroleum Fund was invested in stocks and bonds in Kerr-McGee Corporation.
The
decision to exclude the company is made public after the disinvestment has
taken place in order to secure a financially sound disposal of the
securities.
The Ministry of Finance may request the Council to assess if investments in
individual companies meet the ethical guidelines. In addition it is also
within the mandate of the Council to initiate analysis of other companies.
The
Ministry has asked the Council to assess whether it is in violation of the
guidelines to invest in Total because of the company's activity in Burma.
The
Council is also assessing other issues such as cluster weapons. It is likely
that the Ministry of Finance will be able to make decisions on these issues
in
the course of the autumn.
M2 Communications Ltd disclaims all liability for information provided
within
M2 PressWIRE. Data supplied by named party/parties. Further information on
M2
PressWIRE can be obtained at http://www.presswire.net on the world wide web.
Inquiries to in...@m2.com.
(C)1994-2005 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD
_______________________________________________
http://www.stockhouse.com/news/news.asp?tick=KMG&newsid=2794832
tuareg
No.: 38/2005
Date: 06.06.05
Contacts: Runar Malkenes, telephone +47 22 24 41 09 / mobile +47 95 21 42
83,
Anders Lande, telephone +47 22 24 41 05 / mobile +47 48 05 33 51
Company Excluded from the Government Petroleum Fund
Serious or systematic human rights violations, such as murder, torture,
deprivation of liberty, forced labour, the worst forms of child labour and
other forms of child exploitation
Grave breeches of individual rights in situations of war or conflict
Severe environmental degradation
Gross corruption
[approx. 52
million USD] of the
Petroleum Fund was invested in stocks and bonds in Kerr-McGee Corporation.
The
decision to exclude the company is made public after the disinvestment has
taken place in order to secure a financially sound disposal of the
securities.
The Ministry of Finance may request the Council to assess if investments in
individual companies meet the ethical guidelines. In addition it is also
within the mandate of the Council to initiate analysis of other companies.
The
Ministry has asked the Council to assess whether it is in violation of the
guidelines to invest in Total because of the company's activity in Burma.
The
Council is also assessing other issues such as cluster weapons. It is likely
that the Ministry of Finance will be able to make decisions on these issues
in
the course of the autumn.
Read more about the Advisory Council on Ethics for the Government Petroleum
Fund here: http://odin.dep.no/etikkradet/english/bn.html
Read the Ethical Guidelines of 19 November 2004 here:
http://www.odin.dep.no/fin/english/topics/p10001617/p10002777/guidelines/bn.html
Read the recommendation from the Petroleum Fund's Council on Ethics, dated
12
April 2005, here:
http://www.odin.dep.no/fin/english/topics/p10001617/p10002777/screening/recommen\
dations/006071-110246/dok-bn.html
_______________________________________________
Source:
http://www.odin.dep.no/fin/english/news/news/006071-070639/dok-bn.html
See also: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Sahara-Update/message/1511
_______________________________________________
Forwarded by:
_______________________________________________
Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara
wsahara@...
*** Referendum now! ***
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Sahara-update
_______________________________________________
"Boris Ryser" <fdcc...@netVIRUSplus.ch> escribió en el mensaje
news:429c89f8$1...@news.vsnet.ch...
Boris Ryser
GA/COL/3120
08/06/2005
Special Committee on Decolonization
5th Meeting (AM)
DECOLONIZATION COMMITTEE APPROVES DRAFT RESOLUTION ON INFORMATION, CONSIDERS
QUESTION OF WESTERN SAHARA
The Special Committee on Decolonization this morning approved a draft
resolution by which the General Assembly would approve the activities of the
Department of Public Information (DPI) and the Department of Political
Affairs
(DPA) in the dissemination of information on decolonization.
Prior to taking that action, the Special Committee took up the question of
Western Sahara and heard a statement by a petitioner on behalf of the Frente
POLISARIO (Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Rio de Oro). It
also acceded to additional requests for hearing submitted by organizations
from Puerto Rico, as well as to requests for hearing on the questions of the
FalklandsIslands (Malvinas) and the United States Virgin Islands.
By the draft resolution entitled "Dissemination of information on
decolonization" (document A/AC.109/2005/L.4/ Rev.1), which was approved
without a vote, the General Assembly would consider it important to continue
and expand the Special Committee's efforts to ensure the widest possible
dissemination of information on decolonization, with particular emphasis on
the options of self-determination available for the peoples of
Non-Self-Governing Territories.
The Assembly would request DPA and DPI to implement the recommendations of
the
Special Committee to continue their efforts to take measures through all the
available media, including publications, radio and television, as well as
the
Internet, to give publicity to the work of the United Nations in the
decolonization field.
Among other things, the two Departments would be requested: to develop
procedures to collect, prepare and disseminate, particularly to the
Territories, basic material on the issue of self-determination; to seek the
full cooperation of the administering Powers in the discharge of the above
tasks; to develop a working relationship with the appropriate regional and
intergovernmental organizations, particularly in the Pacific and Caribbean
regions, by holding periodic consultations and exchanging information; to
encourage the involvement of non-governmental organizations, as well as the
Non-Self-Governing Territories in the dissemination of information on
decolonization; and to report to the Special Committee on measures taken in
the implementation of the present resolution.
Before taking action on the text, the Special Committee agreed to waive the
24-hour rule under which no proposal shall be discussed or put to the vote
at
any meeting unless copies of it have been circulated to all delegations not
later than the day preceding the meeting.
Regarding the question of Western Sahara, the Special Committee had before
it
a working paper prepared by the Secretariat (document A/AC.109/2005/2)
containing information on the report and good offices of the
Secretary-General, as well as consideration of that question by the Security
Council and the General Assembly.
The Special Committee will meet again at a time and date to be announced.
Statements
MOULOUD SAID, representative of Frente POLISARIO, said the discussions on
the
question of the Western Sahara during the recent seminar in Saint Vincent
and
the Grenadines had shed light on the actual situation regarding the
decolonization process of the Territory. That process was characterized by
a
serious deadlock as a consequence of Morocco's rejection of the Baker Plan.
Through that unjustified rejection, Morocco had tried to force the hand of
the
international community in giving its blessing to continued colonization of
the Territory. Morocco's presence in the territory was a violation of
international law, and its tactics implied bad faith as Morocco had rejected
the settlement plan and the Houston accords, which had been approved by the
Security Council.
He said Morocco continued with its policy of systematically violating the
human rights of the people in the territory and of pillaging the territory's
natural resources -- a policy typical of any colonial, occupying Power. The
recent wave of repression in response to the 23 May peaceful demonstration
of
Saharawi people showed the true face of colonial occupation. Moreover,
close
to 600 civilians and 150 prisoners of war continued to be unaccounted for
since 1975. Atrocities had been perpetrated under the eyes of the United
Nations Mission, which preferred to look the other way. Moroccan
authorities
were also trying to attract foreign investors to exploit the natural
resources
of the Western Sahara in an attempt to legitimize the Territory's
occupation.
He appealed to the Government of Spain to see to it that the Binta Airline
cancel its recently started flights to El Aaiun, the Territory's capital.
The case of Western Sahara was a challenge to the United Nations' and the
Special Committee's attempts to eradicate colonialism, he said. It was
unacceptable to close the eyes any longer to the three-decades-long
suffering
of the Saharawi people. The situation was a constant threat to peace and
security in the region. The Special Committee must reaffirm its interest in
bringing to completion the process of self-determination for the Saharawi
people.
ORLANDO REQUEIJO GUAL (Cuba) said that the situation in Western Sahara was
indeed a cause for shame and sadness involving violations of the rights of
the
Territory's people, including their right to self-determination. The
Western
Sahara question had been on the Special Committee's agenda for a long time
and
there was a lack of action on the part of the United Nations leadership to
end
the situation, perhaps by sending an appropriately empowered emissary to
bring
the process to a good conclusion, thus ensuring that the Saharawi people
achieved true self-determination. In light of the Secretary-General's
report,
"In Larger Freedom", particularly its reference to the freedom from fear,
and
the General Assembly President's report to Member States, the lack of action
reflected a double standard and a twofold morality.
JULIAN R. HUNTE (Saint Lucia), Chairman of the Special Committee, asked the
petitioner what effect the Security Council's intervention in the Western
Sahara question had had on the political process.
Mr. SAID, recalling that the Council's intervention had come about after the
1991 signing of the peace settlement between the Frente POLISARIO and
Morocco,
said it had then become the Council's responsibility to set up the
Settlement
Plan. It had been thought that the establishment of the United Nations
Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) in 1991 would lead to
the self-determination referendum in January 1992, but the Moroccans had
prevented it and then had dragged their feet for many years. Later, the
Secretary-General had appointed James Baker III as his Personal Envoy, and
he
had held that position until his resignation last year because Morocco had
rejected his proposal and certain Security Council members did not want the
referendum to take place. The situation had now changed and there was a
real
threat to peace in the region owing to recent developments.
* *** *
_______________________________________________
Source: http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2005/gacol3120.doc.htm
Boris Ryser
GMT+02:00, Reuters
2: Spanish Foreign Minister regrets turning away of planes, EITB24, 9 June
2005 - 12:38
---------------------------------------------------
1:
Morocco bars Spanish delegation from W. Sahara
Thu June 9, 2005 8:39 AM GMT+02:00
MADRID (Reuters) - Morocco refused to allow a group of Spanish politicians
to
visit the disputed territory of Western Sahara on Wednesday, the second
Spanish delegation turned back this week, a member of the group said.
Four politicians from Spain's Catalonia region flew to Laayoune, Western
Sahara's main city, to look into the human rights situation in the former
Spanish colony that was hit by riots late last month.
The politicians and two members of a support group for the Sahrawi people
were
not allowed to get off the plane in Laayoune and had to fly back to Spain's
Canary Islands, according to Spanish press reports.
"It is surprising that four deputies who represent four parties who simply
wanted to hear what was happening in the Sahara have not been allowed to
enter," Joan Herrera, a left-wing national lawmaker, told Cadena Ser radio.
The other politicians were members of the regional Catalan parliament.
Morocco's official news agency MAP said the Catalan group were activists
supporting the Polisario Front, which seeks independence for Western Sahara.
They had "made clear their intention to show their hostility towards Morocco
and its territorial integrity," MAP said.
"The Foreign Ministry told them yesterday they were not welcome, but they
have
chosen to defy our sovereignty," said a Moroccan government source, who
declined to be named.
"I don't know how the Spaniards would feel if a group of our
parliamentarians
visited the Basque territory to show support for ETA," the source said,
referring to the armed Basque guerrilla group that seeks independence from
Spain.
Morocco had already on Sunday sent home 11 Spanish politicians and
journalists
who wanted to visit Western Sahara.
After that incident, Spain and Morocco agreed that a delegation from Spain's
national parliament would visit Western Sahara in the next few days,
according
to a Spanish Foreign Ministry spokesman.
Claiming historic rights to the vast desert territory, Morocco seized
Western
Sahara after Spain withdrew in 1975. Polisario conducted a low-intensity
guerrilla war for independence until the United Nations brokered a ceasefire
in 1991.
-----------------------------------------------
Source:
http://www.reuters.co.za/locales/c_newsArticle.jsp;:42a7e4c9:6abf772afdd251?type=topNews&localeKey=en_ZA&storyID=8740225
-----------------------------------------------
2:
Spanish Foreign Minister regrets turning away of planes
EITB24
06/09/2005 - 12:38
Moratinos said he lamented the turning away of the delegations but was
confident Morocco would allow an all-party Spanish delegation to visit the
region soon.
Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos on Thursday said he
regretted
Morocco's turning away of a second planeload of politicians trying to visit
the Western Sahara this week and denied Spain favored any side in the
30-year-old dispute over the region.
"The Spanish government is neither pro-Moroccan, pro-Polisario nor
pro-Algerian," the minister told Spanish National Radio. The Spanish
government "wants to put an end to a conflict that has already gone on for
too
many years and help the parties involved find a solution."
Morocco annexed the vast mineral-rich territory after Spain abandoned the
colony in 1975. Polisario Front people, who began battling Morocco after the
annexation, have stopped fighting and are now based in camps in southern
Algeria.
Years of U.N. efforts to organize a referendum on self-determination have so
far been fruitless, largely because Morocco and the Polisario have failed to
agree on who could vote, maily Morocco wanting all its citizens to vote.
On Wednesday, a delegation of politicians from Catalonia were not allowed
off
their plane in the Western Sahara capital of Laayounde. A delegation from
Madrid met with similar treatment on Sunday.
Both groups had gone to the former Spanish colony to check on human rights
conditions after riots there last month led to the arrest of several dozen
people.
On Wednesday, Moratinos reiterated a call for the United Nations to name a
new
special representative to the Western Sahara. Meanwhile, Moratinos' top
aide,
Bernadino Leon told Spain's Onda Cero radio that the U.N. observers' mission
in the Western Sahara, MINURSO, said it would draw up a report on riots last
month.
-----------------------------------------------
Source: http://www.eitb24.com/noticia_en.php?id=67189
Boris Ryser
1: Polisario raises the Saharan stakes with licensing round play [p.23]
2: Max moves north [p. 22- 24]
----------------------------------------------------------------
1:
AFRICAN ENERGY . ISSUE 87 . JUNE 2005
Polisario raises the Saharan stakes with licensing round play [p.23]
The Polisario Front's government-in-exile, the Sahrawi Arab Democratic
Republic (SADR), has launched a licensing round, offering oil companies the
chance to stake a claim to exploration acreage in a future independent
state.
Twelve blocks are on offer, lying offshore between Morocco - which is
sticking
to its historic claim on the former Spanish colony - and Mauritania, which
retired hurt from the conflict in 1979. Sizes range from about 15,500km2 to
23,000km2, in water depths of up to 3,600 metres.
Morocco, which occupies the territory, has yet to make a significant oil
find
of its own, and Total's departure from the Dakhla Offshore permit - the one
closer to Mauritania of the Saharan blocks awarded by Morocco's state Office
National de Recherches et d'Exploitations Petrolières (Onarep, now mutating
into Onhym) - suggests this acreage might not be all that prospective -
although political considerations also weigh heavy on every decision about
the
Sahara. But the possibility of hydrocarbons gives the Polisario independence
movement the bargaining chip to set against Morocco's influence that some
analysts believe they have never had in the past (especially given that the
lure of the Sahara's phosphate reserves are not what they were in the
1970s).
While there are hopes that Mauritania's success can be replicated in the
disputed territory, no exploration can be carried out on the ground until
its
status is resolved. Companies are invited to sign a production-sharing
contract, plus an assurance agreement covering the period between the
signing
of a PSC and what the government-in-exile hopes will be the SADR's formal
recognition.
The area has already been licensed by Morocco, which claims the territory as
its own. Total has let its agreement for the 114,500km2 Dakhla Offshore
permit
lapse, but Kerr-McGee Corporation has renewed its reconnaissance agreement
for
the 110,400km2 Boujdour Offshore permit, and industry sources say the
company
is planning a 3D seismic survey, despite a campaign by Polisario supporters
to
force the Oklahoma City-based indie to relinquish its acreage (AE 84/29).
Max
de
Vietri's Baraka Petroleum has just signed a deal to carry out preliminary
work
on the Cap Juby licence, which includes 400km2 of the disputed territory.
Meanwhile, Vanco Energy Company's dry hole on the supposedly promising and
gas-prone Shark prospect is the latest indication that Morocco itself may
not
be all that prospective.
Licence fees
A plan put forward by former US Secretary of State James Baker III, during
his
period as the United Nations special envoy to the Western Sahara, has failed
to shift the impasse over the territory's status. But in the meantime,
companies signing with the SADR will pay fees of at least $25,000/yr for
each
block, providing the government-in-exile with a useful revenue stream.
Emhamed
Khadad, advisor to the SADR President Mohammed Abdelaziz, said his
government
would follow the principles of the UK-led Extractive Industries Transparency
Initiative.
"My government is inviting oil companies to open discussions with us to
agree
licenses to explore the potential for oil and gas in our waters," Khadad
told
a presentation in the Wellington Arch at London's Hyde Park Corner. "This
initiative is to prepare for the day when the SADR will enjoy sovereignty
over
all its rightful territory, including offshore waters; the day when at last
justice will have been done.
Fusion Oil & Gas signed a technical co-operation agreement with the SADR in
2002. When Fusion was taken over by UK indepedent Sterling Energy, the
agreement was not pursued. Polisario's representative in Australia, Kamal
Fadel, said Fusion's technical report had been "quite encouraging and
positive
". He added: "We have been getting some interest from oil companies.
Fusion's old management team, now reborn as Ophir Energy Company, attended
the
London presentation. Managing director Alan Stein has, in the past, spoken
bullishly about taking over the Saharan acreage (AE 80/5). Ophir's 50%
partner, black economic empowerment powerhouse Mvelaphanda Holdings, might
help exploit South Africa's closer relations with the SADR to some effect.
South Africa formally recognised the SADR in September 2004.
Also present at the London roadshow were Premier Oil - which was involved
with
Fusion in the old deal, and is still looking to build up its West Coast
portfolio - as well as Woodside, which is taking a lead role in Mauritania,
and South Africa's Sasol. The PSC, which offers standard industry terms, was
drawn up with the help of Guy Allinson, a consultant from the Petroleum
Engineering Department at the University of New South Wales, and of an
Australian legal firm.
Polisario gets round its lack of a capital city headquarters by inviting
applications via the licensing round website, www.sadroilandgas.com. They
can
also be sent to a post office box in Australia. SADR representatives will be
publicising the licensing round at industry conferences, and hope to make
awards by year-end.
Polisario officials said they had tried to open a dialogue with Kerr-McGee,
but without success. The US company has been the target of campaigners
against
Morocco's occupation of the territory, who note that Washington's
ground-breaking free trade agreement with Morocco notes that the US
government
does not recognise Rabat's sovereignty over the Western Sahara.
The question of Western Sahara has hampered regional relations for decades.
A
summit of the moribund Arab Maghreb Union (UMA), scheduled for Tripoli in
late
May, which had hoped to revive the regional body after more than a decade,
was
the latest to be cancelled over the apparently intractable issue.
-THALIA GRIFFITHS with JON MARKS
----------------------------------------------------------------
2:
AFRICAN ENERGY . ISSUE 87 . JUNE 2005
Max moves north
[p. 22-24]
Australian entrepreneur geologist Max de Vietri's newly floated Baraka
Petroleum has signed a memorandum of understanding for exploration of the
offshore Cap Juby permit, which crosses the maritime border into the
disputed
Western Sahara.
The 3,591km2 permit, in water depths up to 200 metres, is mainly in Moroccan
national waters, with less than 400km2 in Saharan territory. The agreement
gives Baraka the exclusive right to evaluate the field for six months, and
then the option to negotiate a full exploration agreement.
Unlike US operator Kerr-McGee, which has resolutely pretended there is no
problem with exploring the disputed territory, Baraka - in typical Max
style -
is being upfront about the potential for controversy presented by its
acquisition. "The company is aware of the perceived risk associated with
working in the region, but believes that through an understanding of local
customs and continued growth of existing long-term relationships with
governments at all levels in the region, it is able to manage and greatly
minimise such risk. A further example of this is presence of other major
petroleum companies who continue to expand their presence in West Africa,"
Baraka said in a statement.
According to Baraka, the Cap Juby heavy oil accumulation has estimated
reserves of 40m-70m barrels. The Winnow Lead has a potential for up to 300m
bbls oil in place and the Shazam Lead potential for up to 450m bbls OIP.
Baraka plans a $200,000 programme, including a reevaluation of available 2D
and 3D seismic data, to determine the Cap Juby heavy oil reservoir's
structural complexities. The work will be carried out by Perth-based RISC,
who
will present a recommendation by end-August.
"Given the advances in technology and the improving market conditions, not
least the increase in oil prices, believe that the Cap Juby offshore
tenement
is an opportunity that we cannot pass up," Max de Vietri said. Roc Oil held
a
portion of the area, covering the Cap Juby heavy oil discovery and the
Winnow
and Shazam Leads, from 1998 until 2000, but opted not to proceed with the
acreage, which also included areas now in the hands of Danish
conglomerate AP Møller-Maersk Group's Mærsk Olie og Gas. Baraka said Roc's
assessment was made amidst relatively poorer market conditions, with oil
prices below $15/bbl. Baraka's shares fell in their first week of trading on
Australian Stock Exchange (ASX). They listed on 25 May A$0.175, but were
trading around A$0.0155 as African Energy went to press. The ASX listing
followed an initial public offering to raise A$17m, which closed
over-subscribed.
_______________________________________________
African Energy online: http://www.africa-energy.com/
_______________________________________________
Forwarded by:
_______________________________________________
Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara
wsa...@online.no
*** Referendum now! ***
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Sahara-update
_______________________________________________
Tip: search the message archive by key words, poster or date at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Sahara-Update/messages
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Sahara-Update/
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
Sahara-Updat...@yahoogroups.com
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Boris Ryser
AlJazeera.net
Saturday 11 June 2005, 15:03 Makka Time, 12:03 GMT
Aljazeera's correspondent in Western Sahara says relatives of detainees in
al-Ayoun city are still demanding that Moroccan authorities release their
relatives.
Relatives of those detained staged a sit-in on Friday demanding the release
of
those taken into custody more than 10 days ago during the demonstrations
that
took place in al-Ayoun in Western Sahara.
Moroccan police and soldiers have held a tight grip on al-Ayoun since
Thursday, the scene of a violent crackdown following a series of
pro-independence rallies last month, according to an AFP photographer.
The Moroccan authorities also recently turned back journalists and rights
campaigners as well as a Spanish parliamentary delegation who travelled to
investigate the reports of a crackdown on demonstrators.
Security forces were on every street corner, watching over a desolate scene
of
shuttered windows, deserted streets, while intimidated residents said they
feared for their safety and were reluctant to talk to the press.
Doors smashed
Some residents agreed to show a news agency the wrecked insides of their
homes, which they said were looted during the police and military raids
launched in response to the demonstrations on 24-29 May.
Smashing doors and windows, television sets and beds, many families claimed
the security forces robbed them of their jewellery and household goods.
They claimed that several dozen homes in their neighbourhood were stripped
bare.
Several women claimed to have been beaten during the crackdown, showing
bruises and cuts they claimed were inflicted by the security forces.
The al-Ayoun regional administrator, Mohamed Rharradi, said the raids had
targeted homes that had been used to stash stones and petrol used to make
Molotov cocktails during the recent unrest.
The unrest began as a protest against the removal of a prisoner from a local
jail to Morocco.
Moroccan forces cracked down on the series of demonstrations that followed,
prompting the Algerian-backed Polisario Front, which seeks independence for
the Western Sahara, to ask the African Union to intervene.
Referendum
Sahrawi sources have said 50 people were injured and dozens arrested in the
protests in late May in the huge desert region, which Morocco annexed after
Spain pulled out in 1975.
Moroccan authorities have denied there had been a crackdown but said 32
people
had been arrested for vandalism.
Morocco has described the events as an uprising by Polisario, which
threatened
last month to resume its armed struggle against Morocco if there was no
breakthrough in UN-led peace talks in the next six months.
Polisario conducted a low-intensity guerrilla war until the UN brokered a
ceasefire in 1991, with the promise of a referendum to decide the
territory's
fate.
Disagreements over who is eligible to vote have prevented the referendum
from
taking place.
Aljazeera + Agencies
_______________________________________________
Source:
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/59580916-76F7-402F-AEC4-0CE3BD4A25F3.htm
_______________________________________________
Forwarded by:
_______________________________________________
Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara
wsa...@online.no
*** Referendum now! ***
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Sahara-update
_______________________________________________
Tip: search the message archive by key words, poster or date at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Sahara-Update/messages
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Sahara-Update/
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
Sahara-Updat...@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
Boris Ryser
11 Jun 2005 16:38:32 GMT
Source: Reuters
ALGIERS, June 11 (Reuters) - Western Sahara's independence movement, based
in
exile in Algeria, wants a peaceful solution to one of Africa's
longest-running
conflicts, its leader said on Saturday.
"We won't opt for violence. We will continue to fight through peaceful
means,"
Polisario Front leader Mohamed Abdelaziz told a news conference in the
Algerian capital.
Morocco seized most of Western Sahara after the colonial power Spain
withdrew
in 1975, claiming historic rights to the vast, mineral-rich, desert
territory.
Abdelaziz's comments suggested there was an effort to calm tensions in the
region, after Polisario in May threatened to resume its armed struggle
unless
there was a breakthrough in United Nations-led peace talks before the end of
the year.
Polisario conducted a low-intensity guerrilla war for independence until the
United Nations brokered a ceasefire in 1991, with the promise to hold a
referendum to decide the territory's fate.
Abdelaziz called on the international community to investigate the
detentions
of dozens of people in recent pro-Polisario demonstrations in Western Sahara
and in the Moroccan capital Rabat.
"The situation is explosive. Tens of our students are behind bars. Some of
them were tortured. It is quite urgent to let international observers and
journalists get into the territory to report on that," said Abdelaziz, who
has
led the Polisario since 1976.
Morocco has twice in a week refused to allow Spanish politicians to visit
the
disputed territory, turning them back when their planes landed in Laayoune.
After more than a decade of U.N. efforts to secure an agreement over a
referendum, talks reached deadlock last year following Rabat's rejection of
the latest plan.
Rabat says it wants to settle the Western Sahara issue through the United
Nations but insists that the territory belongs to Morocco.
_______________________________________________
Source: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L11201583.htm
Boris Ryser
Sahara
Des ennemis de trente ans
par Dominique Lagarde
Déclenché en 1975 avec la «Marche verte», le conflit entre le Maroc et le
Front Polisario - soutenu par l'Algérie - est dans l'impasse. Malgré les
efforts déployés par l'ONU, les plans de règlement successifs se heurtent à
l'intransigeance de l'une ou l'autre partie
http://www.lexpress.fr/info/monde/dossier/maroc/dossier.asp?ida=433482
C'est une guerre vieille de trente ans qui pourrait bien continuer à
s'ensabler longtemps encore. Le 28 avril dernier, le Conseil de sécurité de
l'ONU a, comme il le fait deux fois par an depuis 1991, prorogé pour six
mois le mandat de la Minurso (Mission des Nations unies pour l'organisation
d'un référendum au Sahara occidental). Personne ne sait quand se déroulera
ce scrutin, ni même s'il pourra un jour se tenir. Mais les quelque 250
observateurs de la Minurso surveillent une trêve que nul, heureusement, ne
menace sérieusement de rompre, du moins tant qu'ils sont là. Et les Nations
unies préfèrent continuer à payer - elles déboursent tous les mois 3,7
millions de dollars - plutôt que de courir le risque de voir le conflit
réactivé. Car les efforts entrepris pour tenter de parvenir à une amorce de
règlement ont jusqu'ici échoué.
Chargé en 1996 par les Nations unies de relancer un processus de paix au
point mort, l'ancien secrétaire d'Etat américain James Baker a multiplié,
pendant sept ans, les rencontres et les réunions, élaboré deux projets de
règlement et, finalement, jeté l'éponge. Soutenu par Washington et Paris,
son premier plan organisait, pour une période de cinq ans, une autonomie
sous souveraineté marocaine et prévoyait ensuite un référendum «sur le
statut définitif du territoire». Accepté du bout des lèvres par les
Marocains, il fut aussitôt rejeté par le Polisario et son mentor algérien.
Deux ans plus tard, le même James Baker présentait une nouvelle mouture de
son plan, avec une période transitoire réaménagée pour donner plus
d'autonomie aux Sahraouis.
Une «solution politique»
Ceux-ci y étaient appelés à gérer le territoire avec l'aide de l'ONU, y
compris la sécurité qui, dans le premier projet, restait aux mains des
Marocains. Le Polisario donnait, cette fois, son accord. mais le Maroc
opposait une fin de non-recevoir à un scénario impliquant le retrait de ses
forces de sécurité. Soucieux de ne pas heurter Rabat, le Conseil de sécurité
de l'ONU se contentait, le 31 juillet, d'adopter une résolution (la 1495)
«appuyant» et demandant aux parties de travailler à son «acceptation» et à
son «application». «Les parties, constatait James Baker dans son ultime
rapport-bilan, manquent toujours de la volonté nécessaire pour parvenir à
une solution politique du conflit.» Avant de rendre, le 11 juin 2004, son
tablier à Kofi Annan.
Un an plus tard, rien n'a changé. «Il n'existe pas d'accord quant aux
mesures qui pourraient être prises pour surmonter l'impasse actuelle»,
déplorait le secrétaire général de l'ONU, le 22 octobre dernier, dans un
énième rapport au Conseil de sécurité. Quelques jours plus tard, le Conseil
adoptait, comme il le fera de nouveau le 28 avril, une résolution prorogeant
le mandat de la Minurso et réaffirmant son attachement à «un règlement
juste, durable et mutuellement acceptable qui permette l'autodétermination
du peuple du Sahara occidental». Sans illusions.
En réalité, ni le Maroc ni le Polisario ne sont prêts à accepter un
référendum qu'ils ne seraient pas assurés de gagner. «Ni moi ni le peuple
marocain n'accepterons jamais de renoncer à notre souveraineté sur ces
provinces», réaffirmait le roi Mohammed VI à la mi-janvier dans une
interview au quotidien espagnol El Pais, avant de prôner une «solution
politique» qui «consisterait à permettre à la population concernée de gérer
ses affaires dans le cadre de la souveraineté du Maroc».
Une sorte d'accord tacite
Soutenu par l'Algérie, le Polisario, de son côté, exige toujours un
référendum d' «autodétermination». Il espère que celui-ci puisse déboucher
sur l'indépendance du territoire. Alors, de temps à autre, la polémique
enfle entre Alger et Rabat, qui s'accusent mutuellement d'être responsables
de l'impasse. Puis le soufflé retombe. jusqu'à la prochaine crise.
La visite à Alger du roi Mohammed VI, à l'occasion du Sommet arabe des 22 et
23 mars derniers, semble avoir amorcé un dégel entre les deux pays. Le 2
avril, le président Abdelaziz Bouteflika a, en effet, annoncé que les
ressortissants marocains pourraient désormais se rendre en Algérie sans
visa, répondant ainsi à une mesure similaire prise au début de l'année par
le souverain chérifien. En revanche, la rencontre d'Alger ne semble pas
avoir permis d'avancer sur le dossier du Sahara. Sinon une sorte d'accord
tacite pour que cette question reste du domaine des Nations unies et qu'elle
n'entrave pas la reprise de la coopération bilatérale. Comme si chacun
avait, finalement, intérêt au statu quo.
Fin 2001, L'Express s'était rendu dans les provinces sahariennes (1),
c'est-à-dire dans la région contrôlée par le Maroc - 80% du territoire -
entre l'océan et la ligne de défense érigée par les forces armées royales.
Cette fois, notre correspondante en Algérie, Baya Gacemi, a visité les camps
de réfugiés du Polisario, où de nombreux militants associatifs, notamment
espagnols, apportent leur aide aux Sahraouis. Nous avons également
rencontré, à Alger, Mohamed Yeslem Bissat, ambassadeur de la République
arabe sahraouie démocratique et, à Rabat, Ahmed Snoussi, ancien représentant
permanent du Maroc à l'ONU.
(1) Voir L'Express du 18 octobre 2001.
Boris Ryser
Juncker), to the President of the European Parliament (Josep Borrell
Fontelles), and to Madame Benita Ferrero-Waldner (EU Commisioner for
External
Relations).
[Original in French]
8 June 2005
Mr. President,
The serious events that have taken place in the territories of Western
Sahara
occupied by Morocco compel me to write to you as a matter of urgency.
Indeed,
since 21 May 2005, the Moroccan authorities have been engaged in a ferocious
and indiscriminate repression against civilian and defenceless Saharawi
people. These people only wanted to demonstrate peacefully to demand the
respect for the right of the Saharawi people to self-determination, and
their
right to the freedom of expression and the freedom of movement.
The toll of the repression is heavy: casualties of which several are grave,
several dozens of arrests, cases of disappearance. Moreover, torture became
a
current and systematic practice in those territories, houses were violated,
properties ransacked or destroyed and their Saharawi owners expelled.
The appalling images of gagged women and of young people trampled underfoot
by
the Moroccan police force transmitted by European televisions are the
irrefutable proof of the magnitude of this repression which did not spared
any
category of the saharawi population wherever they are.
It is obvious that such a situation is destined to last and unfortunately to
worsen, as it is true that these demonstrations, apart from the frustration
and disappointment that they convey vis-à-vis the passivity of the
International Community and the abdication of the UN, are, above all, the
expression of a clear rejection of three decades of occupation and
accomplished facts by Moroccan colonisation. It will never be enough to say
that the conflict of Western Sahara is a problem of colonisation inherent in
the exercise by the Saharawi people of their inalienable right to
self-determination, and that Morocco, by its intransigence and its declared
refusal to respect and implement the relevant resolutions of the UN and the
Security Council in particular the Settlement Plan of 1991, and the peace
plan
for self-determination of the people of Western Sahara, called "Plan Baker",
has undermined the important efforts made by the International Community.
Morocco has thus hindere! d the bringing about of a democratic, just and
peaceful solution to the conflict.
The European Union cannot and should not have to remain indifferent to the
tragedy undergone by the Saharawi people and the crimes perpetrated by
Morocco
against them. This is especially relevant as Morocco of all the Maghreb
countries is the one that receives the most of the European aid, and
maintains
ready an army of more than 150,000 soldiers in Western Sahara.
Will the European Union indefinitely let Morocco take a free hand in what it
is doing, while it is related to this country by agreements of association
of
which terms this country violates in particular those related to the respect
for human rights and democracy, by repressing people that are demonstrating
peacefully and by undermining with impunity the right of the Saharawi people
to self-determination as enshrined in the UN Charter and resolutions?
Will the European Union still continue its co-operation with Morocco while
turning a blind eye to its policy of violation of international law and
legality by signing new fishing agreements and encouraging investment
activities involving the territory of Western Sahara that it illegally
occupies?
It is an open secret that the aid of the European Union is being diverted by
Morocco to reinforce its military arsenal in Western Sahara with radars and
sophisticated electronic equipment.
It goes without saying that the continuation of this conflict fuels
instability and insecurity in the Maghreb, and obstructs any eventual
inter-Maghribian cooperation. The European Union can always have a positive
and active contribution in the peaceful and just solution of this conflict
on
the basis of the respect for the right of the Saharawi people to
self-determination.
The gravity of the situation in the Western Sahara requires from the
European
Union an urgent action to avoid the worst and to ward off the dangers:
The European Union must condemn the policy of repression and oppression
carried out by Morocco against the civilians in Western Sahara.
The European Union must demand Morocco to cease its acts of violence and
persecutions against those people. It must also demand Morocco to release
all
the prisoners of conscience, to cease the practices of torture, and to
declare
void the unjust lawsuits against Saharawis.
The European Union must demand from Morocco the respect for the freedom of
movement and the freedom of expression and to lift the state of siege
imposed
on the occupied territories of Western Sahara, and to allow free access to
those territories by media and independent observers.
We have all right to hope that the European Union will conduct an
investigation in order to bring the truth about the tragic events that took
place in Western Sahara.
Please accept, Mr. President, the expression of my highest consideration.
Mohamed Abdelaziz
Secretary-General of POLISARIO Front
President of the Arab Republic Democratic Saharawi
N.B. Please forward the content of this letter to the Member States of the
European Union.
Mohamed SIDATI
Contact:+ 0032 4 77706233 / +0034 630406322
email: mohame...@yahoo.com
_______________________________________________
For the French original, please see:
http://www.arso.org/lettreabdelUE080605.htm
Boris Ryser
Australia Western Sahara Association
The Victorian Branch of the Australia Western Sahara Association (AWSA) was
established at a meeting in Melbourne, Thursday, 9 June 2005.
When Spain pulled out of its North African colony, Western Sahara, in 1975,
Morocco invaded forcing many of the local people, the Saharawis, to flee and
set up refugee camps in neighbouring Algeria. Since 1990 the UN has been
trying to hold a referendum on self-determination in the Western Sahara, but
Morocco has refused to allow this to happen. The Saharawis have their own
democratically elected government in exile which runs the refugee camps with
a
great deal of support from the UN Food Program and other humanitarian
agencies, both government and non-government.
AWSA is now established in Sydney and Melbourne. It has two major goals.
First
to press the Australian Government to use its influence in the UN and
elsewhere to get the referendum to happen and to provide whatever
humanitarian
support it can, through fund-raising and other means, until the Saharawi
people are back running their own country.
The rights of the Saharawis still in the Western Sahara to demonstrate
peacefully against how they are treated have always been denied. However, in
the last few weeks peaceful and spontaneous demonstrations against the
recent
actions of the Moroccan invaders have been forcefully put down by the
Moroccan
occupying forces. This situation led the Melbourne meeting of AWSA to
endorse
the following statement:
Statement on the crisis in occupied Western Sahara
1: Following brutal repression by Moroccan occupying forces of peaceful
demonstrations by Saharawis in El Ayoun, the capital of Western Sahara, on
23
May and for many days afterwards, and Morocco's attempt at enforcing a news
blackout by refusing to allow entry to the Western Sahara of a delegation of
Spanish politicians, journalists and members of the solidarity movement to
El
Ayoun on Sunday 5 June and another on Wednesday 8 June:
AWSA calls on the Australian Government to ask Morocco to open its border
with
Western Sahara to allow international observers and press in to see for
themselves how the Saharawi demonstrators in El Ayoun and other parts of
occupied Western Sahara have been treated.
2: AWSA notes that these events demonstrate the lack of legitimacy of
Morocco's occupation of Western Sahara and that they also show that the
Saharawi people will not accept Morocco attempting to gain sovereignty over
Western Sahara either by fait accompli or by force. Sovereignty of the
territory can only be established by a referendum of self-determination by
the
Saharawi people.
For the sake of the Saharawi people, for the development of good relations
in
the region and for the social and economic development of the people of the
Greater Maghreb region of North Africa, it is time to move on to
implementing
the Baker peace plan, which is endorsed by the UN Security Council.
AWSA therefore calls on the African Union to play a greater role in
persuading
the UN to enforce its resolutions concerning the decolonization of Western
Sahara and to press for the speedy implementation of the referendum to put
an
end to the last colony of Africa and open the way to positive development in
the Greater Maghreb region of North Africa.
AWSA also asks Australia, as a member of the international community, to
play
an active role in the UN and other international forums to ensure that the
Saharawi people are granted their right to a free and fair referendum of
self-determination as soon as possible.
Contact: Nick O'Neill, President AWSA, (02)9810 8603.
Boris Ryser
Journalists working in Western Sahara face assaults, arrests and harassment
16 June 2005
Reporters Without Borders has called on the Moroccan authorities to put an
end
to harassment of local and foreign media in Western Sahara and allow them to
work normally.
At least ten journalists have been attacked, arrested or even expelled from
the city of Laayoune, 1,263 kilometres south of Rabat, since the beginning
of
April 2005.
"It is essential that the Moroccan authorities set out a clear framework for
journalists covering Western Sahara, avoiding indirect control methods such
as
having to inform the interior ministry prior to their arrival in Laayoune",
the organisation said.
"The Moroccan authorities swing from one extreme to the other by banning
coverage of all demonstrations in Laayoune then chartering a plane two days
later to take journalists to lunch with the governor.
"Moreover, the security argument is not enough to ban access to the city to
reporters. This is a decision for the journalists and their editorial
offices.
Even in Iraq, the government does not ban journalists from the country or
travelling to a particular region," Reporters Without Borders added.
Large numbers of journalists went to Laayoune to cover demonstrations from
24-29 May between Sahrawis and security forces. They were treated in a
variety
of different ways.
Salama Zoukani, a technician with Laayoune regional television was brutally
beaten by security forces on 25 May, who took no notice of his press card.
He
needed several stitches to a head wound. Police officers also damaged his
vehicle.
Several journalists were initially prevented from entering the city between
27
May and 5 June, while the authorities organised guided visits and a lunch
with
the governor to accompany their coverage of the demonstrations.
Correspondent in Morocco for satellite Arabic television al-Jazeera,
Abdessalam Razzak, was turned back at the airport without explanation on 27
May. He was only able to return two days later as part of the official visit
organised by the governor.
At the start of June two more journalists were stopped at Layyoune airport.
They were Lahcen Aouad, of the Arabic-language daily Assahifa, and Murad
Burja, a freelance photographer. After checking their papers, the airport
authorities told them that they were "banned" from the city. They had to
wait
respectively six hours and two hours before being allowed to enter.
Journalist Miguel Ángel Idígoras Urrezola and his cameraman from Spanish
television TVE arrived in Laayoune on 28 May. On that day they were
prevented
from freely filming demonstrations and could not send their report from
Moroccan television studios because of "technical problems". But the next
day,
after taking part in the visit organised by the governor, they were able to
work and send their footage without difficulty.
A journalist expelled
Journalist on the Basque-language daily Berria, Maria Cristina Berasain, was
refused entry to Laayoune on 2 June. Since she had not given her reasons for
her visit to the south of the country, she was expelled and police
frog-marched her to a plane headed for Agadir some 649 kilometres from
Laayoune. Having obtained permission from the information ministry a few
days
later, she was then refused access to a plane for Laayoune. She said that
the
Moroccan authorities' control of news showed that they had things to hide.
Two journalists prevented from working independently
Freelance Norwegian journalists, Anne Torhild Nilsen and Radmund Steinsvag,
travelled to Western Sahara in April to make a documentary on human rights
in
the region. They did not disclose their profession to the authorities so
they
could work independently. On 17 April they wanted to film a peaceful
demonstration. "I crossed the barricades around the demonstrators and
started
to film," Steinsvag told Reporters Without Borders. "Less than a minute
later
several police officers surrounded me and told me to go elsewhere. Another
police officer then arrived and asked to see what I had filmed. I refused
and
he moved on.
"I was looking for a bus when I saw plain-clothes police who were
transporting
injured people on stretchers. When they realised I was there, they told me
to
leave. When I refused they dragged me 100 metres and took me to a police
post
for interrogation before releasing me," she added.
"The next day we went to the offices of the United Nations Mission for the
Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) to do an interview. We had started
filming 250 metres away, when police intervened and told us to stop. After
taking our papers they told us to follow them to the police post. We were
questioned there separately for more than hour hours.
"After the questioning, they suggested that we change our programme to meet
other people Sidi Mohammed Daddach whom they presented as the real spokesman
for the Sahrawi people. Daddach along with leaders of other pro-Moroccan
human
rights organisations is seen by local people, as puppet organisations since
they only appear at the behest of the authorities.
"We met three chairmen of organisations in one of the most luxurious local
hotels. They tried to persuade use that local people were no longer either
harassed or tortured, that the street demonstrations had been authorised and
that most Sahrawis wanted to be part of Morocco.
It was somewhat strange to hear this discourse, after being followed all
week
by secret police in Laayoune and having been arrested twice. The Moroccan
authorities did treat us well and never seized our equipment but they did
control our two last days there and prevented us from working
independently,"
the two Norwegian journalists said.
_______________________________________________
Source: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=14119
_______________________________________________
Forwarded by:
_______________________________________________
Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara
wsa...@online.no
*** Referendum now! ***
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Sahara-update
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Boris Ryser
Sahara is not recognized by any country
------------------------------------------- Boris Ryser
Western Sahara's quest for self-determination
Author: Martin Frazier
People's Weekly World Newspaper, 06/16/05 12:22
News Analysis
Recent developments in northwestern Africa, along with worldwide observances
of African Liberation Day, provide occasion to reflect on the continent's
last
remaining colony, Western Sahara. The politics of oil, a repressive
occupation, and a long-deferred referendum on self-determination are once
again thrusting the territory into the world spotlight.
Sandwiched between Mauritania and Morocco and bordering on the Atlantic,
this
Colorado-sized desert territory has been at the center of an international
dispute since Spain was forced to relinquish its colonial grip on the region
in 1976.
Following Spain's withdrawal, Western Sahara was immediately occupied by
both
Mauritania and Morocco. While an indigenous resistance ultimately repelled
the
Mauritanians, Morocco increased its domination, occupying 80 percent of
Western Sahara in defiance of international law. The Saharawi liberation
movement, the Polisario Front, founded in the struggle against the Spanish
occupation, continued to press for freedom. A long, low-intensity war
ensued.
In 1982, after seven years of war, Polisario was on the verge of liberating
Western Sahara when large-scale U.S. and French military assistance -
including counter-insurgency equipment and training - changed the equation
of
the conflict in Morocco's favor.
Morocco's allies, including the U.S., also helped erect a wall that still
separates most of Western Sahara from a large group of Saharawis in exile.
While the Saharawi population is just over 300,000, more than 100,000 others
live as refugees from the conflict in neighboring Algeria.
It wasn't until 1991 that a ceasefire agreement was established with the
help
of the United Nations. That agreement is now in danger of collapsing, as the
territory's long-suffering people are growing increasingly impatient with
their plight.
Their yearning for self-determination, their history of resistance to
occupation, the plight of their refugees, and their denial of justice
because
of long-neglected UN resolutions have led many to call the Saharawi people
"The Palestinians of Africa.
Many observers believe that exploitation of the territory's rich natural
resources is a primary reason for U.S. and French support for Morocco's
intransigent occupation. Western Sahara has tremendous fishing, phosphate
and
mineral resources and is believed to have significant offshore oil deposits.
U.S. oil and gas giant Kerr- McGee recently signed a potentially lucrative
agreement with the Moroccan government to map Western Sahara's offshore oil
resources. Its current exploration contract runs until Oct. 29, which
coincides with the next UN Security Council debate on the territory's
status.
Significantly, the UN has ruled that exploitation of oil without the consent
of the Saharawis is illegal.
Kerr-McGee is the only major multinational remaining in the territory.
European oil interests withdrew under pressure from world human rights
groups.
Western Sahara Resource Watch (WSRW), an international coalition of 20
organizations on four continents, is now mobilizing the world community
against Kerr-McGee's role. It says the company "puts profits before
principles
and directly undermines the UN peace process.
"People should urge their organizations, churches, colleges, pension fund,
or
public employees union, holding stocks, etc., in Kerr-McGee to divest,"
Richard Knight of the WRSW told the World. "It is exactly like the case with
South Africa, where many people from all walks of life pressured companies
to
divest.
As the world was observing African Liberation Day on May 25, unrest broke
out
in Western Sahara's main city, Laayoune. The turmoil was reportedly
triggered
by the transfer of a prisoner from a jail in Laayoune to Morocco rather than
to a Polisario camp, as the prisoner had requested. The occupation forces
responded to the protests with tear gas and arrests, leaving at least 57
persons injured, seven of them seriously, and many dozen in jail. Some
demonstrators are still reported missing.
Mohamed Ould Salek, a spokesman for Polisario, told an Algerian news agency,
"The United Nations and the Security Council must intervene rapidly to put
an
end to the repressive practices of Moroccan authorities against the
defenseless Saharawi people.
In an upsurge that many observers are calling a "Saharawi intifada,"
thousands
have been demonstrating against the Moroccan occupation in various cities
across the Western Sahara, calling for the implementation of a long overdue,
UN-mandated referendum on self-determination.
A member of the African Union, the Polisario Front is the Saharawi Arab
Democratic Republic's government in exile. Moroccan sovereignty over Western
Sahara is not recognized by any country. SADR is recognized by more than 70
countries, including South Africa.
_______________________________________________
Source: http://www.pww.org/article/articleview/7237/1/274/
Boris Ryser
Geneva Call's mission in disputed Western Sahara:
New progress in the fight against landmines
The President of the "Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic" and Secretary
General
of the Polisario Front, Mohamed Abdelaziz, informed Geneva Call that the
authorities were willing to commit to a total mine ban and to destroy
stockpiles of anti-personnel mines.
The authorities had invited Geneva Call to send a delegation to mine
affected
areas in the Western Sahara and refugee camps in neighbouring Algeria.
Between
3 and 10 June 2005, the delegation met with Sahrawi political and military
authorities, the UN mission in Western Sahara (MINURSO), NGOs and mine
survivors. During its tour of the territory, east of the Separation Wall,
the
delegation was received by local military commanders, investigated mine and
UXO pollution, and interviewed the nomadic population which must deal with
these dangers on a daily basis. With the President, the Minister of Defence,
and other personalities, the implications of a mine ban, mine/UXO clearance,
mine-risk education, and victim assistance were all thoroughly discussed.
The
Polisario Front showed Geneva Call a stock of mines which it said was taken
from Moroccan army positions during the conflict, and stated its intention
to
destroy all mines in its possession. The positive outcome of the mission was
the culmination of several months of efforts by Geneva Call and the Sahrawi
Campaign to Ban Landmines.
Geneva Call hopes that Morocco, a non-signatory State to the Ottawa
Convention, will also support mine action activities in the Western Sahara.
The territory is divided by defensive walls (or "berms") built by the
Moroccan
army, which are fortified with millions of anti-personnel and anti-vehicle
mines. Tens of thousands of people live in mine affected areas on both sides
of the berms. It is urgent and crucial that Morocco adhere to the Ottawa
Convention.
Geneva Call is an international humanitarian organisation dedicated to
engaging actors which are not eligible to sign the Ottawa Convention in the
fight against anti-personnel mines. Geneva Call's "Deed of Commitment" is a
mechanism, complementary to the Ottawa Convention, by which these actors can
adhere to the mine ban norm. Signatories solemnly commit themselves to ban
all
use of anti-personnel mines, to destroy stockpiles, to facilitate mine
clearance and to allow mine risk education, and to accept international
verification. The Government of the Republic and Canton of Geneva is the
official custodian of these documents. To date, 27 such Deeds of Commitment
have been deposited with the Geneva authorities.
For further information, please contact Pascal Bongard, +41 22 879 10 50 /
+41
76 58 81 968 or in...@genevacall.org
_______________________________________________
Source: http://www.genevacall.org/news/testi-press-releases/gc-15jun05.htm
Boris Ryser
Morocco/Western Sahara: Justice must begin with torture inquiries
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
AI Index: MDE 29/003/2005 (Public)
News Service No: 167
22 June 2005
Morocco/Western Sahara: Justice must begin with torture inquiries
With trials of Sahrawi demonstrators beginning this week in Laayoune,
Amnesty International today called on the Moroccan government to ensure
that all reports of torture and ill-treatment of detainees held in
connection with recent disturbances in Western Sahara are fully and
impartially investigated and that all those charged are guaranteed fair
trials.
Amnesty International said it was greatly disturbed by reports of torture
and excessive use of force by Moroccan security personnel when dispersing
Sahrawi protestors during demonstrations in Laayoune and several other
cities in Morocco and Western Sahara in late May and early June. The
protests began peacefully, according to independent observers, but became
violent in Laayoune on 24 May and in the next two days when demonstrators
reportedly burned Moroccan flags and threw stones and petrol bombs as
security forces used strong arm tactics to disperse them. On the one side,
unofficial sources allege that Moroccan security forces used excessive
force, wading into still peaceful demonstrators and beating them with
batons, injuring more than a hundred. Several dozen required hospital
treatment but were then reportedly refused medical certificates after
treatment at the local state hospital. The authorities, on the other hand,
accuse the demonstrators of sparking the violence and say 10 members of
the security forces were hurt during the Laayoune protests and still
others at a demonstration mounted by Sahrawi students on 27 May 2005 in
Rabat.
This latest wave of unrest in Western Sahara, which Morocco
controversially annexed in 1975, appears to have been set off by the
transfer of a Sahrawi prisoner, Ahmed Haddi, on 21 May 2005 from Laayoune
to Agadir, 550km to the north in Morocco, and allegations that he was
ill-treated. He had been jailed in 2003 on charges including drug
trafficking and insulting the monarchy, apparently on the basis of a
pre-trial confession that he alleges was extracted under torture - a claim
that, according to Amnesty International's information, has not been
investigated. When members of Haddi's family and local activists protested
against the move, they were reportedly dispersed violently by security
forces, sparking new demonstrations which lasted several days.
Between 24 and 26 May, hundreds of protesters took to the streets in
Laayoune to denounce perceived heavy-handed policing and to call for the
independence of Western Sahara. Some brandished flags of the Sahrawi Arab
Democratic Republic, the state proclaimed by the Polisario Front. Protests
then spread at the end of May and in early June to other towns in Western
Sahara, such as Smara and Dakhla, and were accompanied by demonstrations
by Sahrawi students living in Moroccan cities such as Agadir, Casablanca,
Fes, Marrakech and Rabat.
Over a hundred were detained during or as a result of the demonstrations.
Around 90 were released without charge after being held for between
several hours and several days but around 25, some of whose trials begin
this week, were charged with criminal conspiracy, disturbing public order,
damaging public property and other offences. Many of those detained allege
that they were tortured or ill-treated, either to force them to sign
confessions, to intimidate them from protesting further or to punish them
for advocating Western Sahara's independence from Morocco. Alleged methods
used include being beaten with batons, kicked and denounced as "traitors"
to Morocco, suspended in contorted positions, having dirty rags placed
over the mouth and nose to induce partial suffocation, being urinated upon
and being threatened with the insertion of objects into the anus.
Amnesty International said it was vital that these allegations are
urgently and rigorously investigated by the Moroccan authorities and that
any officials found to have ordered, used or condoned torture are
identified and promptly brought to justice.
In the wake of the unrest, Moroccan authorities prevented Spanish
parliamentarians and others seeking to investigate what occurred from
visiting Western Sahara. Amnesty International said it was concerned too
by reports that local human rights defenders and journalists had been
assaulted, harassed or intimidated by officials, and in some cases briefly
detained. It is urging the Moroccan authorities to look into these
allegations and to respect the rights of local human rights defenders to
report on what occurred.
Background
Amnesty International has researched reports of human rights violations
during and subsequent to other politically charged demonstrations which
have taken place in recent years in Laayoune and Smara. It has raised
similar allegations of excessive use of force against protesters and of
torture or ill-treatment against those charged with conducting or inciting
violence. While the Moroccan authorities have taken the positive step of
responding in detail to Amnesty International's concerns, they have
usually explained the lack of investigations opened by the absence of
formal complaints, despite repeated reports and complaints made by the
alleged victims, their families and lawyers, and local and international
human rights organizations.
Under the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment, Morocco is required to ensure that all
allegations of torture are investigated promptly, impartially,
independently and thoroughly, and that the perpetrators are brought to
justice. The state's obligation to investigate allegations applies
wherever there is reasonable ground to believe that torture or
ill-treatment has been inflicted, even if there has been no formal
complaint by the alleged victim.
According to the UN Committee against Torture, such an investigation must
be made "whatever the origin of the suspicion", including on the basis of
information supplied by non-governmental organizations. The Committee
against Torture has clarified the obligation of the state in this respect
by stating: "It is sufficient for torture only to have been alleged by the
victim for the state to be under an obligation promptly and impartially to
examine the allegation".
----
Source:
http://www.amnestyusa.org/news/document.do?id=80256DD400782B8480257026005C463F
________________________________________________________
Forwarded by:
___________________________________________
Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara
*** Referendum now! ***
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Sahara-update
___________________________________________
Boris Ryser
NAIROBI - Le Kenya a reconnu officiellement la République arabe sahraouie
démocratique (RASD), a annoncé samedi le porte-parole du gouvernement kényan
Alfred Mutua.
(©AFP / 25 juin 2005 15h22)
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Boris Ryser
Le Maroc décide de rappeler son ambassadeur à Nairobi
RABAT - Le Maroc a décidé de rappeler en consultation son ambassadeur à
Nairobi après la reconnaissance samedi par le Kenya de la République arabe
sahraouie démocratique (RASD), auto-proclamée par le Front Polisario, a
indiqué le ministère marocain des Affaires étrangères.
"Le royaume du Maroc déplore vivement la décision injustifiée et
injustifiable annoncée ce jour par le gouvernement du Kenya de reconnaître
la pseudo +RASD+ et d'établir avec elle de soi-disant +relations
diplomatiques+", indique le ministère dans un communiqué diffusé par
l'agence marocaine Map.
"Le royaume du Maroc a décidé de rappeler en consultation l'ambassadeur de
sa majesté le roi (Mohammed VI) à Nairobi", ajoute le ministère marocain en
qualifiant la RASD d'"entité virtuelle dénuée de tout attribut d'un Etat
souverain".
(©AFP / 25 juin 2005 19h21)
Boris Ryser
Sahara Presse Service (SPS)
Nairobi (Kenya)
25 June 2005
The Republic of Kenya and the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR)
announced the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two
countries at ambassadorial level, Saturday in a joint communiqué issued
from the Kenyan Capital Nairobi.
The Republic of Kenya, which has a prestigious figure among the African
family for its contribution in the liberation of the continent under the
leadership of the late Jomo Kenyata, is a country that plays an
important role in favour of peace and stability in Africa.
This recognition, that intervenes at a moment when the UN still is
hesitating in the implementation of its resolutions for the
decolonisation of Western Sahara because of the intransigence of
Morocco, "is a strong message from Africa to the international
community, especially to the Security Council, requiring positive
results out of the peace process the United Nations initiated 14 years
ago", officially underlined a diplomatic source to SPS.
It is also a fraternal solidarity and comfort from Africa to the
Saharawi people, especially in this moment when it suffers a pitiless
and sanguinary repression besides the bitterness of occupation", the
same source added, indicating that the independence of Western Sahara
"will enable the turning of the last page of colonisation in Africa".
(SPS)
060/090/100 251221 June 05 SPS
________________________________________________________
Forwarded by:
___________________________________________
Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara
Boris Ryser
ALGER - Quatre journalistes marocains arrivés samedi à Alger pour couvrir
les activités d'une Ong, l'Association le Sahara marocain, ont été refoulés
vers Rome après avoir été retenus plusieurs heures à l'aéroport d'Alger, a
confirmé une source diplomatique marocaine dans la capitale algérienne.
Aucune explication n'a été fournie par les autorités algériennes mais ce
refoulement de journalistes, le premier du genre, survient à la suite d'un
regain de tension dans les relations entre Alger et Rabat suscité par les
derniers développements de la crise du Sahara occidental.
Le Syndicat national de la presse marocaine (SNPM) a réclamé "la levée de la
séquestration des journalistes marocains et l'autorisation pour eux
d'accomplir leur travail en Algérie".
Selon l'agence marocaine MAP, les quatre journalistes, dont une femme, "ont
passé plusieurs heures en séquestration à l'aéroport où ils ont été
maltraités par les services de sécurité algériens".
Le conflit du Sahara occidental, ancienne colonie espagnole annexée par le
Maroc en 1975 et revendiquée par le Front Polisario soutenu par Alger, est à
l'origine d'une nouvelle crise diplomatique entre les deux pays.
Une récente réaffirmation par l'Algérie de son soutien au Polisario avait
conduit le roi du Maroc Mohammed VI à boycotter le sommet de l'Union du
Maghreb arabe (UMA, Algérie, Libye, Maroc, Mauritanie et Tunisie), prévu les
25 et 26 mai à Tripoli, et finalement reporté sine die.
Le Maroc a même rejeté une visite programmée à Rabat le 21 juin du chef du
gouvernement algérien Ahmed Ouyahia.
La visite envisagée au Maroc de M. Ouyahia est "inopportune" dans le
"contexte actuel", avait estimé le ministère marocain des Affaires
étrangères, dans une allusion au différend algéro-marocain sur le conflit du
Sahara occidental.
Alger avait rétorqué en affirmant que "l'Algérie soutient et continuera de
soutenir l'exigence du respect de la légalité internationale pour le
parachèvement juste et définitif de la décolonisation du Sahara Occidental",
qualifiant la décision marocaine de "nouvelle volte-face".
Alors que les deux pays avaient récemment supprimé les visas instaurés
depuis 1994, cette nouvelle crise renvoie aux calendes grecques la
normalisation de leurs relations, notamment l'ouverture de la frontière
terrestre fermée depuis la même date et tant espérée par les habitants des
zones frontalières.
Elle hypthèque également, encore plus, l'avenir de l'UMA, dont aucun sommet
n'a pu se tenir depuis plus de 10 ans en raison du différend entre Alger et
Rabat sur le Sahara occidental, le Maroc reprochant à l'Algérie son soutien
au mouvement indépendantiste du Polisario.
Après l'Afrique du sud en septembre 2004, le Kenya vient de reconnaître la
République arabe sahraouie démocratique (RASD) proclamée en 1976 par le
Front Polisario au Sahara occidental, entraînant le rappel dans son pays de
l'ambassadeur du Maroc à Nairobi.
(©AFP / 25 juin 2005 21h25)
Boris Ryser
Le chef de la diplomatie algérienne prône l'amélioration des relations avec
le Maroc
http://fr.news.yahoo.com/050625/5/4h7vg.html
ALGER (AP) - Le ministre algérien des affaires étrangères s'est prononcé
samedi pour l'amélioration des relations entre l'Algérie et le Maroc, qui
connaissent depuis quelques jours une vive tension.
"Nos peuples, qui ont les mêmes aspirations, méritent mieux que la situation
actuelle, au regard de la profondeur de leur histoires et des liens qui les
unissent", a déclaré Mohamed Bedjaoui lors d'une cérémonie de clôture du
séminaire de pré-affectation des agents diplomatiques et consulaires
algériens.
Le chef de la diplomatie algérienne ajoute que "l'Algérie nourrit des
sentiments de fraternel respect pour le Maroc et espère réellement bâtir
avec ce pays frère des relations fécondes et à l'abri d'une gestion
étroitement conjoncturelle".
Jeudi, en accompagnant à l'aéroport le ministre hollandais des Affaires
étrangères qui venait d'achever une visite à Alger, M. Bedjaoui avait
souhaité une "amélioration" des relation algéro-marocaines espérant que "les
deux pays frères puissent améliorer" leurs relations et "traiter
positivement les questions qui les concernent".
Les relations entre l'Algérie et le Maroc, prises au piège de la question du
Sahara occidental, traversent actuellement une nouvelle phase de crispation,
particulièrement depuis que le ministère marocain des Affaires étrangères a
jugé "inopportune" la visite à Rabat envisagée par le Premier ministre
algérien Ahmed Ouyahia. Le ministre d'Etat algérien auprès du Président de
la République, Abdelaziz Belkhadem, a ensuite parlé d'"incident
diplomatique". AP
oao/sb
Boris Ryser
Regain de tension au Sahara occidental
Pour protester contre la reconnaissance officielle par le Kenya de la
République arabe sahraouie démocratique, etat autoproclamé par le Front
Polisario, qui revendique le Sahara occidental, le Maroc a rappelé samedi
son ambassadeur à Nairobi.
Laâyoune : de notre envoyé spécial Thierry Oberlé
[27 juin 2005]
http://www.lefigaro.fr/international/20050627.FIG0178.html?085529
Assoupie le jour, Laâyoune se réveille la nuit lorsque l'air se rafraîchit.
A Maatalà, un quartier de courtes ruelles, les résidents flânent entre les
cars de police. Le fief des indépendantistes sahraouis est quadrillé par les
Gardes urbains de sécurité (GUS), les unités anti-émeute aux costumes de
science-fiction, et par des renforts des forces auxiliaires. La police est
partout depuis les émeutes du 29 mai au cours desquelles des centaines de
jeunes habitants du quartier s'étaient violemment heurtés aux forces de
l'ordre. Les manifestants avaient brûlé des drapeaux marocains en scandant
des slogans séparatistes. «Le Maroc dehors !», «Vive le Polisario !» Les
affrontements s'étaient soldés par des dizaines de blessés. Les policiers
avaient ensuite mené des expéditions punitives dévastant les maisons
d'activistes. Laâyoune n'avait pas connu un tel déferlement de violence
depuis six ans.
Le Front Polisario qualifie ces événements d'«intifada pacifique contre
l'occupation». Les autorités marocaines relativisent leur portée : elles
dénoncent une «poignée d'agitateurs» qui exploitent les «difficultés
sociales». «Il n'y a pas de forte mobilisation dans la population. Seule une
infime minorité d'habitants a participé aux troubles. Réunir 500 personnes
dans une ville de 150 000 habitants, ça n'a rien d'extraordinaire», commente
un officiel. Mais à en juger par le déploiement policier et la vigueur de la
riposte judiciaire, l'inquiétude est bien réelle. Vendredi, cinq émeutiers
ont été condamnés à des peines de un à cinq ans de prison ferme. Aminatou
Haidar, une des figures de proue de la mouvance sahraouie, passe demain
devant la cour d'appel.
Mohammed, un séparatiste, a réuni au milieu de la nuit dans un modeste
immeuble de Maatalà un groupe de militants âgés d'une quarantaine d'années.
«C'est un début de soulèvement», affirme-t-il d'emblée. «Les gens en ont
assez d'attendre un compromis qui ne vient pas. Ils sont exaspérés par le
Maroc qui refuse le référendum d'autodétermination et ne tient pas ses
engagements internationaux.» Allongé à ses côtés sur un tapis, Basih Salek,
un membre corpulent du comité de défense des détenus, exhibe ses ecchymoses.
«Les policiers m'ont tabassé la semaine dernière. Ils sont tombés sur moi à
une vingtaine et m'ont obligé à crier vive le Roi.» Hamoud Iguilid, un
responsable sahraoui de l'Association marocaine des droits de l'homme
(AMDH), dénonce, lui, des «tortures sur les prisonniers perpétrées jusque
dans les tribunaux».
La section locale de son mouvement a obtenu son agrément voici un an. «Après
quatre ans d'attente», s'agace-t-il. Il y a quelques années, il n'aurait
pourtant pas pu témoigner devant un journaliste, tant la surveillance
policière était étroite. Sous Driss Basri, l'inamovible ministre de
l'Intérieur de Hassan II, la presse ne se déplaçait qu'accompagnée et les
indépendantistes se taisaient. Sous Mohammed VI, les contrôles se sont
assouplis. Ses camarades conviennent du changement. «Le Maroc veut se donner
l'image d'un pays démocratique. Il reconnaît les erreurs du passé. On nous a
donné une petite marge de liberté, alors nous l'exploitons», explique
Mohammed. Et d'ajouter qu'il existe une «jeune génération qui ne baisse pas
les bras. Ils ne partagent pas le fatalisme de leurs parents qui acceptent
par lassitude la domination marocaine».
Il est difficile cependant de mesurer l'aura qu'ont les séparatistes parmi
les Sahraouis vivant dans les territoires contrôlés par le Maroc. Le
mouvement bénéficie d'un courant de sympathie mais la politisation, si elle
existe, est peu visible. Des tribus soutiennent en sourdine la cause
indépendantiste tandis que d'autres ont fait officiellement allégeance au
souverain marocain. Le regain de contestation rappelle cependant que le
conflit du Sahara occidental, vieux de trente ans, est plus que jamais
enlisé malgré les promesses d'un règlement. Les protagonistes ont signé un
cessez-le-feu il y a quatorze ans avec à la clé l'organisation d'un
référendum sur l'indépendance. Mais le Maroc et le Front Polisario, soutenu
par l'Algérie, ne sont pas parvenus à un accord sur la composition du corps
électoral. Le médiateur des Nations unies, l'Américain James Baker, a
proposé sans succès trois plans de paix successifs. Il a finalement jeté
l'éponge l'an dernier. Sa dernière proposition avait été rejetée par le
Maroc.
Ce refus isole Rabat qui n'a pas pris d'initiative diplomatique d'envergure
pour proposer une solution alternative. Mohammed VI parie plutôt sur une
régionalisation réussie pouvant conduire à un statut particulier pour les
«provinces du Sud». De son côté, l'Algérie est déterminée à ne pas lâcher le
Front Polisario. Abdelaziz Bouteflika ne rate pas une occasion de le
répéter. Les relations entre Rabat et Alger sont à nouveau gelées et le
projet d'union du Maghreb enterré. Le Sahara occidental pourrait redevenir
une zone de haute tension.
Boris Ryser
Since May 21st,2005, the Western Sahara, southern Morocco and some
Moroccan cities, where Sahrawi students are studying, have been fields of
peaceful demonstrations of the Saharawi people calling for their right to
self-determination and independence, and demanding the Moroccan state to
pull
out of the occupied territories of the Western Sahara.
The Moroccan state has excessively repressed the non-violent
demonstrators by different kinds of security forces such as the Urban
Security
Group (GUS), the Auxiliary Forces, the "National" security and the Mobile
Companies of Intervention (CMI).
The Sahrawi demonstrators were savagely tortured, some of them
disappeared and some others arrested. Up to the present, more than a hundred
injured people have been declared in El Ayun only, about 30 political
prisoners and about ten houses were looted by the Moroccan forces agents.
All
these crimes have been perpetrated in less than a month.
On June 17th, 2005, there was a new perilous tendency of the Moroccan
state to target the human rights activists in order to prevent them from
reporting the Moroccan atrocities committed against the Saharwis to the
outside world. These atrocities took place in El Ayun, the capital of the
Western Sahara, Smara, Dakhla, Assa (southern Morocco) and in some Moroccan
cities like Rabat, Casablanca, Fes, Marrakesh and Agadir. The Sahrawi
students
studying in these Moroccan university cities were barbarously tortured,
verbally abused and illegally arrested.
The human rights activists are particularly targeted by the savage
repression that is still increasing. Aminatou Haidar, an ex-disappeared and
courageous activist in the women's rights domain, was violently tortured in
public in Smara street, El Ayun on Friday, June 17th, 2005. She was
arrested
the same night as she was getting out of the hospital. The injuries on her
head and back are causing her health troubles as the Moroccan authorities
refused to seriously cure her (apart from some preliminary treatment) nor
give
her a medical certificate to prove the aggression.
The situation of the Sahrawi people is alarming, especially that there
are no political or media delegations to report the Moroccan atrocities.
Therefore, I appeal to the Norwegian human rights associations, NGOs and
especially the Rafto institution for human rights to exert pressure on the
Moroccan state to respect the Sahrawis' right to self-determination and
independence, and to allow an international delegation to investigate the
latest crimes committed by the Moroccan forces against the defenseless
Sahrawi
citizens.
I also appeal the Norwegian government to recognize the Saharwi Arab
Democratic Republic as a reaction to the Moroccan state's refusal to accept
the referendum as a free and fair solution to the Western Sahara issue.
Sidi Mohamed Dadach, The Rafto Prize winner 2002,
El Ayun, Western Sahara, June 24, 2005.
_______________________________________________
Forwarded by:
_______________________________________________
Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara
*** Referendum now! ***
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Sahara-update
Boris Ryser
Boris Ryser
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Appeal to the Norwegian Government to put pressure on Morocco
The situation for the Saharawi people in occupied Western Sahara is
alarming,
and the Kingdom of Morocco commits atrocities in the absence of
international
media and observers. Twelve Norwegian NGOs join the Rafto Foundation in
calling on the Norwegian Government to put pressure on Morocco to
immediately
stop the repression of the Saharawi people. The winner of the Bergen- based
Rafto award for 2002, Sidi Mohammed Daddach, yesterday sent an urgent appeal
to Norwegian NGOs, urging them to defend the rights of the Saharawis under
occupation.
Since May 21 2005, peaceful demonstrations have taken place in Western
Sahara
protesting against Moroccan oppression and calling for the implementation of
the relevant UN resolutions as the solution to the conflict over the status
of
Western Sahara.
The Moroccan authorities have responded to these peaceful demonstrations
with
brutal repression, thus violating the most fundamental human rights
principles
of the right to demonstrate and freedom of expression. According to reliable
sources more than 300 people have been wounded, and some of them are now
suffering from very serious injuries, struggling to survive and many are
denied any medical assistance in hospital. 85 people are imprisoned, and
more
than 30 people are missing. Protesting Saharawi students in Morocco have
been
subjected to violent reprisals, brutalised by Moroccan police, being
dismissed
from universities and having their dorms plundered.
Human rights activists are particularly targeted by the Moroccan security
forces. Aminatou Haidar, a prominent and courageous women's rights activist,
was tortured in public in Smara Street, El Ayun on Friday, June 17, 2005 .
She
was arrested the same night as she was leaving the hospital. The injuries on
her head and back are causing her health troubles. She has been denied
sufficient medical treatment. The Moroccan authorities also denied her a
medical certificate to prove the injuries from torture.
The undersigned non- governmental organizations firmly believe that this
serious situation must be dealt with urgently by the international
community,
using all available political and diplomatic means. We therefore appeal to
the
Norwegian Government to work with the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and
other governments to:
1. Put pressure on the Kingdom of Morocco to immediately stop the repression
of all civilians, inside occupied Western Sahara and in Morocco.
2. Ensure that national and international media have access to all relevant
territories and that they can operate freely, independently of the
Government
of Morocco, and not under the auspices of anyone, including the Moroccan
authorities.
3. Urgently establish an international commission of inquiry to investigate
the alleged atrocities committed against civilians in Western Sahara and
Morocco.
4. To authorise permanent international observers and human rights observers
with the aim of protecting the civilian Saharawi population, harassed by the
Moroccan army, police, and other representatives of the Moroccan Government.
With this appeal, we join a call from 104 European Parliamentarians on Mr.
Annan and the United Nations.
Signed:
The Rafto Foundation (Raftostiftelsen)
The Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara (Støttekomiteen for Vest-
Sahara)
The Norwegian Council for Africa (Fellesrådet for Afrika)
Norwegian People's Aid (Norsk Folkehjelp)
Norwegian Church Aid, (Kirkens Nødhjelp)
Norwegian Students' and Academics' International Assistance Fund (SAIH)
Attac Norway
Union of Education Norway (Utdanningsforbundet)
The Norwegian Committee for Solidarity with Latin America
(Latin-Amerikagruppene i Norge)
Norwegian Association of Students (Studentenes Landsforbund, StL)
Norwegian Labour Youth (Arbeidernes Ungdomsfylking, AUF)
The Socialist Left Party of Norway (Sosialistisk Venstreparti, SV)
Norwegian Center Youth (Senterungdommen)
For More Information, please contact:
. Arne Liljedahl Lynngård, Chairman of the Rafto Foundation, +47 951 52 290
. Ronny Hansen, Spokesman of the Norwegian Support Committee for Western
Sahara , +47 928 08 607
Background:
In 2002 Mr. Sidi Mohamed Daddach, a former Saharawi prisoner of conscience,
was awarded the Rafto Prize. Daddach is a strong symbol for the suffering
of
the Saharawi people and their struggle for self-determination. In spite of
having spent more than half his life as a prisoner of conscience, Daddach
has
never given up the struggle for the Saharawi people's basic rights and for
human dignity. He has pointed out serious violations of Human Rights, not
least the political prisoners' situation and the destiny of the many hundred
Saharawis who have "disappeared" since 1975. Daddach met with Prime Minister
Bondevik , the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Parliament in Oslo in
November 2002 during his visit to Norway to receive the Rafto award.
Boris Ryser
The US' Kerr-McGee is the only oil firm currently exploring the area with a
Moroccan license
El Pais Spain | María Carrión
At the beginning of the month, the Norwegian government announced that it
had
withdrawn its participation in the American company Kerr-McGee, the only
firm
prospecting for oil in the waters of the Western Sahara, considering that
this
company is guilty of "an especially serious violation of ethical norms."
According to Oslo, the presence of Kerr-McGee could reinforce Morocco's
claims
to control the territory, which it invaded in 1975, and thus hinder the UN's
efforts to solve the conflict in the Western Sahara.
Kerr-McGee's presence in the region is hardly surprising. The United States
badly wants to diversify its sources of oil and the regions of North and
West
Africa are particularly desirable. American interest in these areas is not
limited to petroleum, either: during the last few years, the United States
has
made numerous investments in Algeria, especially in the gas industry.
Washington also wants the economic integration of the Maghreb, in order to
create a fertile single market for US investment. These plans depend on the
resolution of the Saharan conflict.
Will the United States take action to solve the problem? Faced with a
diplomatic vacuum and growing desperation in the occupied territories, this
question is becoming more pressing every day. So far, Washington has been
Morocco's only unconditional ally and has guaranteed that it will not impose
an solution. But the September 11th, 2001 attacks changed American interests
in the Maghreb; the growing importance of Algeria in the fight against
terrorism, as well as growing economic interests, could tip the scales in
the
other direction. All eyes are also on the vacant US spot in the United
Nations.
Kerr-McGee has been operating in Saharan waters after obtaining in 2001 a
license from the Office National de Recherches et d'Exploitation Pétrolières
or ONAREP, the national Moroccan oil company, to carry out new
reconnaissance
projects and seismic studies. Kerr-McGee, based in Oklahoma, is also an
important contributor to the Republican party.
Interest in finding oil in Western Sahara is not new; studies have been
carried out since colonial times, although Spain never found any significant
reserves. Currently, exploration is being carried out all along the West
African coast from the Gulf of Guinea to Morocco. After the discovery in
2001
of important sites off the coast of Mauritania, the possibility that similar
deposits would be found nearby increased, particularly in the region of
Western Sahara.
According to Toby Shelley, author of the book Endgame in the Western Sahara
and a journalist for the Financial Times, drilling licenses granted in 2001
by
ONAREP practically cover all the waters of Western Sahara, around 90,000
nautical miles, which were distributed between the Moroccan office of the US
company Kerr-McGee and the French firm Total-Fina-Elf. The latter ceased its
activities in the area in December 2004, citing business motives. The
withdrawal of Total coincided with an international pressure campaign, led
by
a coalition of non-governmental organizations in 20 countries, which also
forced the Norwegian investment fund Skagenfondene to sell its stocks in
Kerr-McGee.
Last June 6, the Norwegian government announced that it had sold its stock
in
Kerr-McGee, valued at 337 million coroners (?42.5 million), an investment
that
was part of the country's National Pension Fund. The Norwegian finance
minister, Per-Kristian Foss, recognized that his government had been
contacted
in December 2004 by the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (RASD) and by the
NGO
Support Committee for Western Sahara, and asked to withdraw its investment
in
Kerr Mc-Gee.
Once they had made the decision to do so, the minister explained: "The
Ministry's ethics committee deemed that Kerr-McGee, via its exploration
activities, will probably make it possible for Morocco to exploit the
petroleum in the region and therefore, its activities constitute 'an
especially serious violation of ethical norms' because they can strengthen
Morocco's demands for sovereignty and harm the UN's peace efforts."
The legality of the contracts is at the source of the controversy. The
under-secretary-general for legal affairs at the United Nations, Hans
Corell,
sent a letter to the presidency of the Security Council in January 2002
clarifying that "even though the specific contracts are not illegal, if
exploration and exploitation activities continue without taking into account
the interests and will of the Western Saharan people, the principles of
International Law applicable to mineral resource activities in
Non-Self-Governed Territories would be violated."
Facts and speculation
There are many different ways to interpret that decision. The Polisario
Front
asserts that the fact that these activities are carried out without the
consent of the Saharan people means that they violate international law.
But John Christiansen, a spokesperson for Kerr-McGee, interprets the stance
of
the UN legal counsel quite differently. "The United Nations under-secretary
for legal affairs confirmed the legality of our contract with Morocco.
Neither
the US nor the UN recognize another administrative authority in this
territory."
And he confirmed that the company is carrying out "geological and
geophysical
studies based on two-dimensional seismic images obtained in 2003 to be able
to
assess the potential of the coastal region of Bojador." Christiansen did not
specify whether Kerr-McGee would wait for the conflict to be resolved before
proceeding to extracting the petroleum: "First we have to evaluate the
conclusions of the studies. Going any further would mean speculating about
future activities, something we do not do."
According to a source in the US Congress who is familiar with the peace
process: "if Kerr-McGee finds big quantities of oil in the Sahara, things
will
get more complicated, because a race will begin between the oil companies
and
certain governments to access the resources."
The region is especially attractive to the US. According to Peter Maas, from
the magazine Mother Jones - a publication specializing in investigative
reporting - who has reported on US interests in African oil, "America's goal
is to reduce its oil dependency on Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia and move
more activities to African countries like Equatorial Guinea."
Toby Shelley, of the Financial Times, says that Morocco could be negotiating
with other companies to continue with oil prospecting in Western Sahara. "It
seems that Morocco is most interested in attracting some of the companies
that
are already present in Mauritania and which, therefore, know about the
geology
of the area." Shelley cites the Australian firm Baraka, whose owner brought
about agreements between the Mauritanian government and the oil companies
that
work in the Chingetti region, which could also be negotiating with Morocco.
The strategy of drawing in companies with experience in Mauritania has been
used before by the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (RASD), which in 2001
signed an agreement with the Australian-British company Fusion, to evaluate
the oil reserves in Western Sahara. Fusion did not have access to Saharan
waters and the study was based on previously available data. The contract
with
the RASD would have allowed Fusion to work in Saharan waters six months
after
the Western Sahara joined the UN, but the company broke up last year.
Jon Taylor, director of exploration for Fusion, said at the time that "the
information that we have obtained gives us reason to believe that there
could
be a viable petroleum industry off the coast of Western Sahara." In early
May,
the RASD tendered oil and gas exploration licenses, and hopes to be able to
sign them at the end of this year.
Inaccessible to the Polisario
During a visit to Washington last May to meet with members of Congress,
Mohammed Abdelaziz, president of the Polisario Front, stated that his people
would "not lose hope that the Bush Administration will take an interest in
the
matter of the Sahara. Right now it has other concerns, but we hope that at
some point it will include the resolution of this conflict on its list of
priorities."
But another US Congress source points out that "to date, the Polisario has
had
a very hard time getting official meetings with the Bush administration. On
one occasion, there was an attempt to get the State Department to receive
Abdelaziz but in the end the meeting was canceled, probably because of
pressure from Morocco."
Mouloud Said, who represents the Polisario in Washington, admits that
contacts
with the State Department have always taken place in restaurants and other
places outside of US government buildings. Most analysts agree that the
successive US administrations have carried out a policy of tactical support
of
the Moroccan position. A change, if there is one, would not take place
overnight. "The US understands that Algeria is more and more essential to
the
fight against terrorism, but its capacity to react to the new situation is
slow," says Yahia Zoubir, professor of International Studies at Thunderbird
University and a specialist in relations between the US and the Maghreb.
"The
only thing we can see on the horizon is the explosive situation in the
occupied territories. I don't think the US will keep quiet if the repression
increases; in that case, it would intervene in the matter and step up
pressure
on Morocco to resolve the conflict."
In fact, in recent years, State Department reports on human rights express a
growing concern about the situation in the occupied territories.
Economic interests are, of course, crucial, although they generate even
slower
changes. "The US is interested in the economic integration of the Maghreb,
which will not be possible until the Western Saharan conflict is settled,"
says Zoubir. Last year, American investment in Algeria reached the
$4.1-billion mark, the largest in the oil sector. From 2002 to 2003, Algeria
doubled its exports to the US: from $2 to $4 billion in just a year.
New player in the UN
The American saying "politics creates strange bedfellows" sums up the
paradoxical situation of the Polisario Front in the UN. Faced with a lack of
allies on the Security Council, Saharan hopes are surprisingly focused on
one
person: the controversial John Bolton, nominated by the Bush administration
to
fill the post of US ambassador to the United Nations. Famous for his disdain
of the UN and accusations that he rigged intelligence data, Bolton was one
of
the former functionaries of the State Department that joined James Baker
when
the latter was the UN Special Envoy to Western Sahara, and became his
right-hand man.
Baker asserts that during the time he worked for the UN in Western Sahara,
Bolton was "a very important part of my team. Also, he worked without
getting
paid; out of conviction, like me."
In fact, during the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearings for his
confirmation as UN ambassador, Bolton mentioned his work with the UN in
Western Sahara on four occasions, as proof of his respect for the
international organization's work.Erik Jensen, who from 1994 to 1998 headed
the UN Mission in Western Sahara (MINURSO) and who also worked with Baker's
team, says that Bolton seemed to believe more in the US' effectiveness than
in
the UN when it came time to settling the conflict, an attitude that he seems
to still have. In a speech to a forum about foreign relations in the US
Congress in 1998, Bolton said that Baker was appointed because "only an
American could resolve that situation, if in fact it could be resolved."
"When we started tackling the problem of Western Sahara, we had the
impression
that it would be easy. After the Gulf War, we thought that it was a question
of going to the Security Council and with the same model we would settle the
conflict in the Sahara," says Bolton. But in the years that followed, "we
understood that the UN failed in the application phase. We have to avoid
that
habit of continuing negotiations with the UN once an agreement has been
reached."
Whether or not one agrees with Bolton's opinions, it's clear that if he
becomes US ambassador to the United Nations he could play a key role in the
Western Saharan situation. Bolton himself assured in 1998 that "it is very
important to find a resolution to the Saharan conflict because it would
contribute to the stability of the entire region. Now more than ever, with
the
number of investments the US is making in Algeria."
Bolton "is familiar with the situation in Western Sahara and could be of
great
use as UN ambassador," said the congressman Joseph Pitts, who supports the
idea of a referendum. Frank Ruddy, ex-US ambassador in Equatorial Guinea,
who
also worked with the UN in Western Sahara, thinks that "the post of UN
ambassador could influence US decisions in the UN." A source close to the
Bush
administration is not so sure that Bolton could tip the scales, reminding us
that "ambassadors to the UN follow Washington's instructions and do not have
much freedom to act on their own. What is needed is political will."
Dick Cheney's daughter
As of a few months ago, the new principal deputy assistant secretary of Near
Eastern Affairs in the State Department, which includes Morocco and Western
Sahara, is Elizabeth Cheney, the daughter of Dick Cheney, vice-president of
the United States. His daughter has been dubbed by the Bush administration
as
the "czarina of democracy" for her work in the Middle East. Before taking up
her new post, Cheney created the Middle East Partnership Initiative, a fund
administered by the State Department to promote democracy in the region,
with
dubious results.
Last week, the Foreign Relations Committee warned the Bush administration
that
the negative US image in the Near East is so strong that most
non-governmental
organizations in the region turn down State Department financing "out of
fear
that this will hurt their reputation among the people" and recommended that
the funds be administered by a private foundation. For the time being,
Cheney
limits herself to reiterating the official stance of the State Department
about the Western Saharan conflict: "The US is still actively involved in
finding a solution through the UN, and will not impose a solution on the
parties."
The White House recently had to clear up its position. With the signing in
2004 of the Free Trade Treaty, the US granted Morocco a status only granted
to
strong allies of Washington such Jordan and Israel. When the treaty was
subjected to voting in both houses, congressmen Joe Pitts and Donald Payne,
the first a conservative Republican and the second, a progressive Democrat -
and both, staunch defenders of a referendum in Western Sahara - sent a
letter
to the White House in which they placed a condition on their 'yes' vote: the
treaty had to explicitly exclude "both the Western Sahara territory as well
as
its resources." The White House responded that "neither the majority of
countries nor the US recognize Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara,"
adding that "the US will not grant preferential prices to products from the
Sahara."
Pitts adds: "I'm not against Morocco, which is a friend of the US. And I'm
in
favor of free trade because it is mutually beneficial to both of our people.
But I couldn't have supported that agreement if the Administration had not
protected the people of Western Sahara."
http://www.elpais.es
© 2005 El Pais
_______________________________________________
Source: http://www.iht.com/getina/files/257149.html
_______________________________________________
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Boris Ryser
Compiled by Daily Star staff
Monday, June 27, 2005
Algeria refused entry to four Moroccan journalists working for a
non-governmental organization and expelled them to Rome after holding them
in
custody for several hours, Moroccan officials said. The organization is
called
the Moroccan Sahara Association and the incident follows increased tension
between Algeria and Morocco over the Western Sahara, where the Polisario
Front
seeking independence from Morocco is actively backed by Algeria.
According to the Moroccan news agency, the four journalists, one of them a
woman, were held for several hours and mistreated by Algerian security
services.
Meanwhile, Kenya jolted stagnant diplomatic efforts to resolve the dispute
between Morocco and Algeria by formally recognizing the Western Sahara's
independence and drawing a sharp rebuke from Rabat.
The controversial move, that prompted Morocco to recall its ambassador to
Kenya, was sealed in Nairobi with representatives of the Polisario Front
which
has been fighting for the phosphate-rich desert region's independence since
the former Spanish colony was annexed by Morocco 30 years ago.
The Moroccan Foreign Ministry condemned as "unjustifiable" Kenya's decision
to
recognize "the pseudo 'RASD (Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic)' and to
establish with it so-called 'diplomatic relations.'" The move is "in
flagrant
contradiction of international law and of the appeal by the international
community for a negotiated political solution," it said in a statement
reported by official Moroccan news agency MAP.
But Mutua and other Kenyan officials insisted the decision was in keeping
with
recognition of Western Sahara by the African Union and its predecessor, the
Organization for African Unity.
The decision comes amid growing impatience over stalled UN mediations
efforts
to resolve the dispute and new concerns, particularly from Spain, about
recent
unrest in the vast region.
In May, the Polisario accused Moroccan authorities of mounting a harsh
crackdown on dissent in which it said 50 people were wounded and many more
arrested in pro-independence demonstrations in Al-Ayoun.
Morocco denied a crackdown but said 32 people had been arrested for
vandalism.
Spanish opposition politicians defied a government warning not to travel to
the Western Sahara, saying they would go to the regional capital of
Al-Ayoun.
Begona Chacon, a member of the conservative opposition Popular Party, said
she
and other deputies intended to go to the region because "we must know the
true
situation of the Sahrawi people." She said the deputies would meet
representatives of local human rights associations and UN officials.
Amnesty International last week said it was "very concerned" about
information
it had received regarding alleged torture and excessive use of force against
demonstrators in Al-Ayoun. - Agencies
_______________________________________________
Source:
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=16250
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The Nation (Kenya); Jun 28, 2005
Foreign minister Ali Mwakwere has defended Kenya's decision to open
diplomatic
relations with Western Sahara.
The move was greeted with hostility by the Kingdom of Morocco, which is yet
to
allow the country's 500,000 citizens to vote on self-determination.
Morocco seized the country in 1975 after the former colonial power, Spain,
pulled out, triggering a 16-year-long war. The UN brokered a peace agreement
between the two countries in 1991.
Speaking at a Mombasa court yesterday, Mr Mwakwere said Kenya would not be
dictated to on who to enter into diplomatic relations with.
Kenya was a sovereign State and was at liberty to establish full diplomatic
relations with any country, he said.
The minister was at the court for hearing of an election petition filed
against him by a Kanu candidate in the 2002 General Election, Mr Hassan
Mwanyoha.
He was reacting to reports that a diplomatic row had broken out between
Kenya
and Morocco over the decision which allowed Kenya to open an embassy in
Western Sahara. The country was also free to open an embassy in Kenya.
Mr Mwakwere also denied there was a diplomatic row between Kenya and
Morocco.
He said that he was not aware that the Moroccan ambassador had been recalled
over the incident.
"There is nothing peculiar about ambassadors being called back to their
countries because they have to go for consultations," he told the Nation.
The Moroccan government wrote to Kenyan authorities on Friday immediately
after Kenya signed the pact with Western Sahara.
Yesterday, Counsellor Jamal Maatougui said Kenya had soiled the good
relations
it had with Morocco. He said the decision by Nairobi was "a hostile pact".
-----------------------------------------------
See also: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Sahara-Update/message/1532
_______________________________________________
Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/200506271454.html
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BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Jun 28, 2005
Text of report by Algerian radio on 27 June
[Presenter] The occupied Sahrawi town of Dakhla today saw enormous
demonstrations in condemnation of the repressive measures that the Moroccan
security forces are using against the Sahrawi people in all areas of the
occupied towns.
The peaceful demonstration turned into stone-throwing clashes after the
Moroccan police used force to break up the groups of Sahrawi citizens. Three
people were injured, including two women. Mahmoud Brahim, a Sahrawi human
rights activist, said that the Moroccan security forces had arrested seven
people. He was speaking to us from Dakhla.
[Brahim] There was a demonstration in Dakhla today in solidarity with the
recent events in Asaa, Laayoune and all the Sahrawi areas. At noon today the
demonstrators were chanting slogans, including "Long live Mohamed
Abdelaziz",
"Long live the Saharan Arab Democratic Republic", "Long Live the Popular
Front", and "Long Live the Polisario Front".
After about half an hour, violent disputes erupted. The police intervened
with
all its different forces. The auxiliary forces supported this operation
until
1400 [local time] when the stone-throwing stopped. During these clashes
seven
people were wounded, including two women. A house was raided. One or two
people who were trying to take photographs were set upon and the police
confiscated their cameras.
From 1400 the confrontations calmed down to a point and there was no stone
throwing. But there were still confrontations between the youths and the
security forces. Three people have been arrested so far. There are several
people because the demonstration was big and could not be stopped. We are in
a
severe state of siege. We can't keep track of the situation and don't know
who's been arrested and who hasn't. But people have certainly been arrested
and abducted.
[Presenter] In the face of these repressive actions Sahrawi rights activists
have made an urgent plea to the international community to intervene to put
an
end to these practices before it's too late. Mahmoud Brahim again.
[Brahim] We implore the human rights groups, international organizations and
everyone on earth who is concerned with human rights to intervene to save
the
Sahrawi people who Morocco is besieging in the occupied areas. If they don't
then there will be a massacre more severe than the one in East Timor.
There's
no press, no photography, no media coverage. Nothing. The people are
marginalized, besieged and displaced. If the international organizations do
not intervene as soon as possible there will be grave massacres. They have
begun already since May. We are now at a cross-roads [and the situation will
worsen] if the international rights organizations do not intervene.
Source: Algerian radio, Algiers, in Arabic 1700 gmt 27 Jun 05
_______________________________________________
For further related news & info, see:
- http://www.arso.org/intifada2005e.htm
- http://www.arso.org/aminatoucamp.htm
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Norwegian investors out of Western Sahara
Aftenposten, Norway
30 June 2005
By Gunnar Kagge
The small Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara has won a great
victory: the last Norwegian investor is now selling its stocks in the
petroleum company Kerr-McGee.
Only six months ago, three major Norwegian investors owned stocks in the
company, which is searching for oil outside the coast of Western Sahara.
During spring, Storebrand Insurance and the Norwegian Petroleum Fund
gave in to public pressure, and decided to sell. Recently, KLP Insurance
made the same decision.
Behind this pressure is the Norwegian Support Committee for Western
Sahara, with 21 paying members. A core of 10-12 activists have kept
going since 1993, built network and spread information. Western Sahara
is occupied by Morocco, and was recently in the news when the Norwegian
Broadcasting Company sent a documentary showing how the Norwegian
Embassy in Morocco assisted Norwegian companies in exploiting the
fishing resources.
Searching for oil
Primarily, it is the search for oil which concerns the Norwegian
activists. The last year, pressure has been exerted against the US
company Kerr-McGee, which is the last company still searching for oil
outside the occupied territory. By the beginning of the year, three
Norwegian investment funds held stocks in the company, the Petroleum
Fund, Storebrand Insurance and KLP Insurance.
Now all are leaving. The first week of June, the Norwegian Finance
Ministry sent out a press release stating that the Petroleum Fund should
sell its stocks. This put pressure on the others.
-We will sell out, but we do not know precisely when, Cornelia Moseid
says. She is Advisor for Ethics and Social Relations in KLP Insurance.
Moseid does not deny that the Petroleum Fund is important for assessing
investments.
Already in April, Storbrand Insurance decided to sell.
- We usually do not comment individual companies in our portfolio. But
concerning Kerr-McGee, I can confirm that we are completely out. The
reason is that we do not find that their corporate conduct is
acceptable, Information Director Egil Thompson states.
----
Source: http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/okonomi/article1070814.ece
(Translation by Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara)
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MEDIA RELEASE
ICJ Australian Section calls for an end to human rights abuses in Western
Sahara by Morocco
International Commissions of Jurists (Australia)
Sydney
1 July 2005
President of the Australian Section of the International Commission of
Jurists (ICJ) Justice John Dowd (ret) QC AO has said in a statement from
Sydney today that The International Commission of Jurists (Australian
Section), expresses its deep concern for the situation in Western Sahara
which has been illegally occupied by Morocco for the last thirty years.
The tortures, arbitrary arrests and show trials must end and the UN
supervised referendum must take place.
Western Sahara is known as the last colony in Africa and has many striking
similarities to East Timor.
Justice Dowd who has visited the Saharawi refugee camps in Western Algeria
has said that an independent Western Sahara can play an important role in
that region.
I know from my visits to the camps and meetings with President Abdel Aziz
that the leadership would make every effort to normalise relations, with
Morocco after free and fair elections
Western Sahara is one of the few remaining countries on the UN list of
non-self-governing territories.
It is of note that in May and June this year the Moroccan army and police
have brutally suppressed peaceful demonstrations in the territory and that
hundreds of innocent Saharawis have been imprisoned, tortured and
kidnapped; we ask that the Moroccan authorities desist from these cruel
practices and go ahead with the referendum, Justice Dowd said.
The Saharawis are demanding their right to self-determination and
independence, and the show trials of those who participated in the
demonstrations the Moroccan authorities have sentenced Saharawis to up to
25 years imprisonment are unhelpful and will only hinder progress
Amnesty International and the UN have called for the end of the human
rights abuses in Western Sahara and the speedy organisation of a free and
fair referendum in the territory.
The ICJ therefore:
· Condemns the torture and inhuman treatment of the Saharawi civilians by
the Moroccan police and army.
· Deplores the show trials and the severe prison sentences handed to
Saharawis by Moroccan courts.
· Demands the release of the Saharawi human rights activist Aminatou
Haidar and all other Saharawi political detainees.
· Asks the Moroccan government to allow independent observers and the
media to visit the occupied areas of Western Sahara.
· Urges the UN and the African Union to redouble their efforts so th0at a
free and fair referendum is organised in Western Sahara as soon as
possible & also requests the UN to include human rights monitoring in the
mandate of its mission in the territory (MINURSO).
· Calls upon the Australian government to put pressure on Morocco to
respect human rights in the Western Sahara as well as to cooperate with
the UN and AU and allow the organisation a free, fair referendum of
self-determination in Western Sahara.
Media Enquiries: John Dowd QC AO + 61 2 9266 0950 +61 [0]439 625 077
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Boris Ryser
Statement of the Danish Red-Green Alliance on the situation in Western
Sahara
Copenhagen
30 June 2005
On behalf of Enhedslisten (Red-Green Alliance), Mr. Rune Lund, Member of
Parliament and spokesman for foreign policy of the Alliance, issued a
statement regarding the situation in Western Sahara.
Here is the translation from Danish of the full text of the statement.
"Red-Green Alliance notes with concern the developments in Western Sahara,
where the Moroccan occupying power has been engaged in brutal acts against
the peaceful intifada against the illegal occupation of Western Sahara.
Although the demonstrations were conducted with entirely peaceful means,
we are witnessing these days serious violations of human rights in the
form of brutal acts of violence by the police, oppression and torture
carried out by the Moroccan occupying power.
Red-Green Alliance supports the struggle of the Saharawi people for a free
and independent Western Sahara. Red-Green Alliance condemns the violations
of human rights and calls for the immediate release of all political
prisoners. At the same time, we demand an immediate opening of the
territory so that independent observers and media can report on the
violations committed there.
For a free and independent Western Sahara!
On behalf of Red-Green Alliance,
Rune Lund,
Member of Parliament and spokesman for foreign policy"
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Boris Ryser
US must demand that Morocco end its brutal occupation of Western Sahara
and allow the long-promised U.N. vote for self-determination to be held
June 30, 2005
The Honorable Condoleeza Rice
Secretary of State
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20520
Dear Secretary Rice:
I am writing on behalf of the U.S. Western Sahara Foundation, a
bipartisan foundation of American citizens from all walks to life, to
request your leadership regarding the current crisis in occupied Western
Sahara, where Moroccan authorities have initiated a brutal crackdown on
Sahrawi civilians peacefully advocating the right to self-determination.
Morocco has worked diligently to increase its ties with the United States
while hiding its brutal repression of the Sahrawi people by blocking any
access to the occupied territory and obstructing the United Nation's
referendum on self-determination. Most recently, two groups of Spanish
politicians attempting to investigate the human rights abuses were not
allowed off their plane when they landed in occupied Western Sahara. In
this sad chapter over the only country in Africa not yet de-colonized,
there is a long history of journalists and human rights activists being
blocked from visiting Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara. Most recently,
journalists from Norway and Spain were deported, while there are reports
that those in the area have been detained and harassed. What is it that
Morocco is afraid of the world to see? The beating of demonstrators
including children, women, and elderly; the breaking in and destruction
of homes of Sahrawi civilians; and the torturing of Sahrawis in Moroccan
custody.
Under President George W. Bush's leadership, we have seen the March for
Freedom grow around the world. Yet in North Africa, there is a stalemate
because of Morocco's continued obstruction of the United Nation's plan
for a referendum on self-determination.
As you boldly stated in your recent trip to the Middle East, "the fear of
free choices can no longer justify the denial of liberty. It is time to
abandon the excuses that are made to avoid the hard work of democracy."
It is time for our country to demand that Morocco end its brutal
occupation of Western Sahara and allow the long-promised U.N. vote for
self-determination to be held.
Had past United States administrations stood up for freedom and human
rights as this administration has pledged to do, we would have seen the
Sahrawi people, who have already established the Sahrawi Arab Democratic
Republic, fulfill their dream of a Muslim democracy, something we are
spending much blood, treasure and toil to successfully accomplish in
Iraq.
We are requesting that you use your leadership to call on Morocco:
1) to end its brutal repression of the Sahrawi people;
2) to allow international observers including journalist unimpeded access
to the territory; and
3) to call for the immediate holding of the referendum on Western Sahara
based on the plan put forth by former Secretary fo State James Baker.
Sincerely,
Suzanne Scholte
Chairman
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Human rights activist missing after Norwegian delegation visit to
Western Sahara.
Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara
Oslo, Norway
Laayoune, Western Sahara
05 July 2005 05:45 AM
At 2 AM this morning, a Norwegian delegation was expelled from Western
Sahara by Moroccan authorities. The delegation was lead by the chair of
the Rafto Foundation, Arne Lynngård. The other participants were
representatives of the Norwegian Labour Party, the Norwegian Union of
Municipal and General Employees, as well as the Norwegian Support
Committee for Western Sahara.
The Saharawi human rights activist, Mr. Allal Latif is still missing
after the Norwegian visit. Latif functioned as an interpreter for the
delegation, and several independent sources observed him being
apprehended by the Moroccan police yesterday at 6 PM local time. When he
was taken in, he was questioned on the agenda of his Norwegian guests.
The Norwegians immediately approached the police station in the Western
Sahara capital, El Aaioun, to demand his release. The Moroccan chief of
police denied to the delegation that they had him in their custody. Now,
the Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara fears for Latif's
safety and demands his immediate and unconditional release. Several
prisoners have been severely tortured during the last weeks. See photos
here: http://www.vastsahara.org/intifada.html.
The delegation resisted being expelled as long as possible, hoping for
Latif's reappearance. At 2 AM tonight, the chief of police personally
intervened, forcing the members of the delegation into the awaiting
taxis.
25 police officers participated in the expulsion. Some 200 police troops
were observed waiting in the area outside the hotel, probably expecting
subsequent demonstrations by the Saharawis. A Spanish photographer
working for the newspaper ABC documented the entire episode. His camera
was later confiscated.
Today at 4 AM, the delegation crossed the border to Morocco. The group
has police escort all the way to Agadir. They are expected to arrive
around 12 AM CET.
For a picture of missing Allal Latif, see
http://www.saih.no/cgi-bin/file.cgi?id=&11&action==download
For further comments, please contact the Norwegian Support Committee for
Western Sahara:
Ronny Hansen (on his way to Agadir) tel +47 92808607
Rolf Wermundsen (on his way to Agadir) tel +47 93041983.
Sigmund Valberg (in Norway) tel +47 41045637
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Norwegian delegation about to be expelled from Western Sahara
5 July 2005, 1 AM
Oslo, Norway
El Aaioun, Western Sahara
By the Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara
A high level Norwegian delegation is at this moment about to be expelled
from Western Sahara by Moroccan authorities.
The delegation arrived El Aaioun in Western Sahara this morning in order
to attend court proceedings that will commence tomorrow, Tuesday 5 July.
The court will decide the verdict of 15 civilian Saharawis who have
participated in the last weeks' demonstrations against the Moroccan
occupation of the former Spanish colony. Last week, similar cases ended
with sentences from 15 to 20 years of imprisonment.
The head of the delegation is the president of the Rafto Foundation,
Arne Lynngård. The foundation is a leading human rights organisation in
Norway that is highly recognised for their annual awards to human rights
activists worldwide. The winner of the 2002 price was the Saharawi Sidi
Mohammed Daddach, who was meant to host the delegation's stay in Western
Sahara.
Other participants in the delegation are a national board member of
Norwegian Labour Party, a board member of the Norwegian Union of
Municipal and General Employees, as well as two board members of the
Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara.
The delegation was told by the chief of police in El Aaioun that "You
have no right to ask anything. Since you have been so careless, you are
being expelled from Western Sahara". The three hours interrogation was
terminated one hour and 30 minutes ago.
At 1 AM CET, the delegation is still preparing for their departure that
will be carried out by taxi to Morocco.
The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been informed about the
episode. The Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara demands that
the Norwegian government condemns Morocco's behaviour towards both
Saharawi civilians and independent observers.
This is the fifth time during the last five weeks that an international
delegation has been expelled from Western Sahara.
-------
Pictures will be available in a few hours.
If you wish to speak with members of the delegation, please contact:
Ronny Hansen on +47 92808607 or
Rolf Wermundsen +47 93041983.
The
Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara can also be reached in
Norway on +47 41045637.
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Boris Ryser
TV2 Nettavisen
5 July 2005
By Mari Bangstad
[translated by the Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara]
The human rights activist Allal Latif (31) has supposedly been
mistreated by the police after meetings with the Norwegian Support
Committee for Western Sahara. The Norwegian government now asks for an
explanation.
Ronny Hansen, coordinator of the Norwegian Support Committee for Western
Sahara has received information that one of the leading human rights
activists in Western Sahara was mistreated after meetings with the
Norwegian activists.
- Interrogated regarding cooperation
- Allal Latif called us when he was arrested, and explained that he was
apprehended. He told that he was asked questions regarding our support
committee, and was told that he could say all that he knew about us to
the police, says Hansen to TV2 Nettavisen.
After Latif was set free from prison, Hansen has been told that he has
refused to talk about the Support Committee.
- Therefore he was tortured, Hansen says.
Allal Latif is professor in English language and literature.
- Allal was abducted from his own car after he had met with members of
the Norwegian delegation in Western Sahara capital Laayoune, tells
journalist and secretary-general Melainin Lakhal in the Saharawi
Journalist Association to TV2 Nettavisen.
Lakhal himself sought refuge from Western Sahara five years ago, after
having been added to a list of persons that the Moroccan authorities
wanted to arrest. Now, Melainin Lakhal coordinates activists from
Algeria.
Demands explanation
Tuesday, ambassador Arne Aasheim will present to the Moroccan
authorities the Norwegian government's worries over the situation in
Western Sahara.
-We would like to raise the information that the delegation has given
regarding the reprisals that human rights activists have faced after
meeting the group, and request a thorough explanation of this from the
Moroccan authorities, confirms information advisor Eirik Bergesen in the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs to TV2 Nettavisen.
Ambassador Arne Aasheim will furthermore ask for an explanation as to
why the Norwegian delegation that was to attend a court proceeding
against human rights activists in Western Sahara from Tuesday onwards,
was on expelled from the Moroccan occupied area on Monday.
TV2 Nettavisen has earlier written how the human rights activist Aminatu
Haidar, was imprisoned and tortured after demonstrations against the
occupation authorities in Western Sahara.
http://pub.tv2.no/nettavisen/verden/article418546.ece
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Boris Ryser
Dagens Næringsliv
6 July 2005
[Translated by the Norwegian Support Commitee for Western Sahara]
Norwegian fertilizer company Yara may have been engaged in illegal
importation of phosphates from the Western Sahara since 1999. Yara now
risks prosecution for this kind of import, but does not wish to comment
whether the company receives phosphates from the desert country.
The Oslo-listed company is called to state the origin of phosphate it buys
from the Moroccan Office Cherifien des Phosphates (OCP). The demand is made
by the Norwegian Support Commitee for Western Sahara, who suspects Yara to
carry out illegal trade with the Moroccan company. This would be in
violation of international law.
Sigmund Valberg, spokesman for the support committee said: "We have found
out that half of the phosphate exported from OCP comes from occupied Western
Sahara, and we demand an answer to whether the phosphate being purchased by
the company origins here. If it does, this trading is in violation of
international law."
Meeting in May - still no answer
The committee met with representatives from Yara already in May and the
company promised to find out the origin of the phosphate. According to
Valberg the deadline for answering was scheduled to mid June, but this was
later postponed until July 1st.
He commented: "We still have not heard from Yara, and my analysis is
therefore that if the phosphate did not origin in Western Sahara, this
should be easily clarified. The alternative is that the company is doing
something wrong, and actually has purchased stolen goods."
"Has not given priority to the matter"
When asked by www.dn.no, director of communications in Yara, Arne
Cartridge, said the corporation will have an internal meeting to discuss the
issue on Thursday.
"There we will try to answer the questions they have raised", says
Cartridge.
"Why has this taken so long?"
"We are being contacted for many different reasons, and in running our
company on a daily basis, we chose not to give priority to this matter."
"Can you document that the phosphate origins from Western Sahara?"
"I think that the group should get a reply before I answer to the media -
this is the normal way of practicing good business", Cartridge says, and
believes that the support committee will receive an answer by the end of the
week.
The Norwegian government is the biggest shareholder in Yara, with 36,2
percent of the shares, while the National Insurance Scheme Fund is the
second biggest, with 6,1 percent.
Norwegian delegation expelled
Valberg is pleased to hear that Yara will soon present an answer but adds
that he finds it strange the company has not prioritised the matter.
"Clearly it should be in their interest to find an answer to this as soon as
possible. They may be held economically and legally responsible for
illegally importing natural resources from an occupied country."
A Norwegian delegation present in the Western Sahara to observe a human
rights trial was last night expelled by Moroccan authorities.
The phosphate rich desert country of Western Sahara was a Spanish colony
until 1975, but was occupied by Morocco shortly after the liberation. The
liberation movement Polisario has been fighting for independence since then.
----
Source: http://www.dn.no/forsiden/naringsliv/article547859.ece
_________________________________
Forwarded by:
__________________________________
Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara
*** Referendum now! ***
Boris Ryser
Sahara Presse Service (SPS)
07 July 2005
Saragossa, 07/07/2005 (SPS) A Spanish delegation, composed of
parliamentarians and representatives of the civil society of Aragon, was
not allowed by Moroccan authorities to visit the occupied capital of
Western Sahara, El Aaiun, where it was planning to investigate on the
human rights situation widely abused by Moroccan colonial forces, reported
Spanish Press agencies.
Four members of Aragon's Parliament, representatives of the two main
Spanish Trade Unions (UGT and CC.OO), as well as members of the
Association "Um Draiga" for the support of the Saharawi people, formed the
group coming from Aragon. They could not get through to El aaiun, because
the air company, "Top Fly", which offers the flight from Las Palmas
(Canary Islands) to El Aaiun, informed them of the Moroccan colonial
authorities ban of the landing of their plane.
The President of the Popular Party (PP), the first Party of opposition in
Spain Gustavo Alcalde, estimated that the veto imposed by the Moroccan
Government against the visit of the members of Aragon's Parliament, is
"absolutely unacceptable". He called the Spanish Government to react
within the framework of the defence of Aragon deputies' rights.
The delegation was composed of the members of Aragon's Parliament, Adolfo
Barrena (IU), Yolanda Vallés (PP), Gonzalo Gonzalez (CHA) and Teresa
Perales (PAR), besides representatives of UGT and CC.OO and members of the
Association "Um Draiga". (SPS)
010/090/666/ALG/TRD 071130 Jul 05 SPS
Boris Ryser
intervene.
Dagens Naeringsliv (Norway)
7 July 2005
Mr. Bjørn Jacobsen, member of Socialist Left Party in the Foreign
Committee at the Norwegian Parliament means that Yara's trade with Western
Sahara is completely violating the norms that the politicians are insisting
upon.
Yara admits today that they have traded phosphates from the mines in the
Moroccan occupied Western Sahara.
Even though they now chose to terminate the trade, the company says in a
letter to the Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara, that they
"disagree with the juridical arguments of illegal trade".
Director of communications, Arne Cartridge said also to www.dn.no that
Yara does not exclude the possibility that the trade with Western Sahara
will resume.
Member of Parliament Bjørn Jacobsen reacts very strongly on that.
"Here, Yara makes themselves a guarantee that they can purchase in the
future. That is strongly diverging from the political direction we have
chosen to follow in this region", he says to www.dn.no
Jacobsen asks Minister of Commerce and Industry Mr. Børge Brende to tidy up
in this situation, as a majority owner.
"We do have a more strict policy in this region, after the statements from
the ambassador down there earlier this spring. Including the government
agrees with this policy", he says.
---
Source: http://www.dn.no/forsiden/utenriks/article549569.ece
_________________________________
Forwarded by:
__________________________________
Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara
*** Referendum now! ***
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Sahara-update
___________________________________________
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Boris Ryser
Dagens Naeringsliv (Norway)
7 July 2005
Yara admits having bought phosphates originating from mines in the
occupied Western Sahara, but does not believe they have done anything
illegal. "Yara is caught with the pants down, and I understand that it is
uncomfortable" says Sigmund Valberg in the Norwegian Support Committee for
Western Sahara.
The fertilizer company now terminates the trade of phosphates from the
area, but does not exclude the possibility that they resume the trade
after having made "a total assessment".
Grey zone
"We are happy that Yara terminates the trade, but we react strongly that
they completely rejects the political and legal aspects in this matter. They
minimize the serious situation in the region. I cannot understand that
strategy", Valberg says to www.dn.no
Valberg does not want to say that Yara's trade is illegal.
"But it is no doubt that they operate in a grey zone that is very risky for
the company. TGS-Nopec understood that when they withdrew two years ago,
after the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs had recommended Norwegian
companies to not trade in the region", he says.
Discouraged trade
In their letter, Yara calls the attention to the fact that they only have
traded 0,3 of their total phosphate volume from Western Sahara.
"They try to minimize the volume, but that has never been a topic to us.
That is not of our business. We underline that the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs has discouraged trade with the territory", says Valberg.
---
Source: http://www.dn.no/forsiden/utenriks/article549514.ece
Boris Ryser
Dagens Naeringsliv (Norway)
7 July 2005
Yara admits having bought phosphates from the occupied areas of Western
Sahara. Now the trade is terminated, but the company does not exclude that
the trade will be resumed. Yara has not informed its owners in the
Department of Trade and Industry of the illegal trade.
The Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara has for a long time had
a suspicion that Yara International has traded with phosphates in the
Moroccan occupied areas of Western Sahara - an area that the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs discourages Norwegian companies from trading with.
The committee has for months tried to have Yara's response to this, and
today, two days after www.dn.no wrote about the case, Yara sent a letter
that proves that the company over a period of ten years has traded with
phosphates from the occupied area.
27.000 tons.
"We have only bought and received three cargo vessels containing a total
of 27.000 tons of phosphates Bou Craa, Western Sahara. The phosphate from
the mines consists of less than 0,3 percent of Yara's total volume in the
period", writes Yara in a letter that www.dn.no has received a copy of.
Last month, the ethical council of the Norwegian Petroleum Fund divested
from the petroleum company Kerr-McGee, not because they traded directly
with Western Sahara, but because they laid the premises for Morocco's
possible exploitation of natural resources in the area.
The State is not informed.
Yara has not found it necessary to inform its biggest shareholder in the
Norwegian Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) about the phosphate trade,
despite strong signals from the Government to not trade with the area. The
government owns 36,2 percent of the Yara through the MTI, while the
National Insurance Scheme Fund owns 6,1 percent.
"No, we have not informed our owners about this case. It has not been a
topic", says Yara director of communications, Arne Cartridge to www.dn.no
Cartridge says the company now will terminate the phosphate trade in
Western Sahara.
"We have done a total assessment based on our internal business standards.
Therefore, we will seek to avoid trade now, but we do not exclude that we
will resume the trade after a new evaluation", he says.
----
Source: http://www.dn.no/forsiden/naringsliv/article549477.ece
Boris Ryser
Danish Socialist Youth demand the release of Saharawi political
prisoners
Sahara Presse Service (SPS)
Copenhagen
08 July 2005
The Secretary of the Danish Socialist Youth (Socialistisk Ungdoms), Mr.
Mads Lou Bendtsen, expressed Friday his organisation's support to
Saharawi people's right to self-determination demanding the immediate
release of all Saharawi political prisoners Morocco detains since the
popular uprising of the Saharawi people against Moroccan colonial
authorities last May and June, reported a source close to Saharawi
representation in Denmark.
In his statement regarding the recent "Intifada" (uprising) of the
Saharawi people in the occupied cities of Western Sahara, south of
Morocco and in Moroccan universities, Mr. Mads Lou Bendtsen declared
that his organisation considers that "the occupation of Western Sahara
must end", demanding "the release of Saharawi political prisoners so as
Saharawi people can finally live in peace".
Describing Saharawi people's demonstrations as "peaceful uprising
against the Moroccan occupation", the organisation criticised the
Moroccan reaction, which is "violent" and which engendered a harsh
repression of helpless civilians.
Last week, the spokesperson for foreign policy of the Danish Red-Green
Alliance (RGA- Enhedlisten), Mrs. Rune Lund, condemned the brutal
repression by Moroccan authorities of "the peaceful Intifada" of
Saharawi population in the occupied territories of Western Sahara and in
the south of Morocco, expressing its solidarity with Saharawi people's
struggle for independence, reported SPS's correspondent from Denmark.
In a statement to the press, publicised Thursday in Copenhagen, Mrs.
Lund indicated that her alliance "notes with concern the developments in
Western Sahara", where Moroccan forces engaged" in brutal acts against
the peaceful Intifada against the illegal occupation of Western Sahara",
which was invaded and put under Moroccan colonial siege since 1975.
Many political parties, international associations and organisations
calls to the raise of the military and media siege imposed on the
Western Sahara and demand the undertaking of an international
investigation, under the auspices of the UN, on the Moroccan human
rights violations, expressing their preoccupation about the prevailing
situation in the occupied zones of the non-self-governing territory, it
should be recalled. (SPS)
060/090/ALG 082215 Jul 05 SPS
_________________________________
Forwarded by:
__________________________________
Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara
*** Referendum now! ***
Boris Ryser
afrol News, 8 July
- Yara, the world leader in fertilizers, has pulled out of Western Sahara
after it was known that the Norway-based company had bought large quantities
of phosphates from the occupied territory. Yara's owners question the
ethical standards of trade with natural resources from the territory.
Phosphates are the main export goods from Western Sahara and from its
occupier, Morocco.
According to the Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara, Yara
International has now bowed into pressure to stop its imports of phosphates
from Western Sahara. Rolf Wermundsen of the Committee told afrol News that
one had suspected that Yara was buying phosphates from the occupied
territory for several years, but that the company had not wanted to inform
about this trade.
Yara's biggest shareholder is the Norwegian Ministry of Trade and Industry
(36.2 percent), with other Norwegian government institutions holding further
large share posts. The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs earlier has
urged restraints in trade with or investments in the natural resource
sectors of Western Sahara due to a UN legal opinion, denouncing resource
exploitation in the occupied territory.
According to Mr Wermundsen, long-lasting research by the Committee had
documented that Yara indeed had bought larger amounts of phosphates from the
mines in Boucraa, which are located in Western Sahara and controlled by a
Moroccan state company. Yara's shareholders, including the Oslo government,
were not informed of this trade, it was found. "Yara is caught with its
pants down," a representative of the Committee noted.
Yara this week indeed had to confirm its trade with Western Sahara
phosphates. In a letter, the Oslo-based fertilizer giant confirms the
purchase of "three shiploads totalling 27,000 tonnes of phosphates from the
mines in Boucraa." Yara however emphasises that it considers this a very
small quantity, amounting to only 0.3 percent of the company's phosphate
purchases in the period.
In the same letter, Yara announced that its phosphate trade in Western
Sahara is now "terminated", a decision celebrated by the Norwegian Support
Committee for Western Sahara. Mr Wermundsen however deplored that the
company will not guarantee that the trade will not be resumed and announced
the Committee would contact the Oslo parliament to increase pressure on
Yara.
Morocco controls two thirds of the world's phosphate production. The open
pit mining centre at Boucraa has an annual production capacity of more than
2 million tonnes, making it the third largest Moroccan controlled phosphate
mine. The Sahrawi mines are owned by Phosphates de Boucraa SA (PdB), where
the state-owned Office Chérifien des Phosphates (OCP) has a 65 percent
ownership.
OCP directly controls the two large phosphate mining centres in Morocco
proper and international traders deal with the state-owned giant when buying
Moroccan phosphates. Phosphates from Western Sahara are however sold by PdB,
making the dubious product relatively easy to identify. Major trade partners
such as the US also demand to know the origin of these goods as Western
Sahara products are excluded from the Morocco-USA free trade agreement.
The phosphate deposits in Boucraa, some 100 kilometres south-east of El
Aaiun, have been considered Western Sahara's main natural resources since
their discovery by Spanish colonial officers in the 1950s. Phosphate exports
began in 1973 and as Spain withdrew in 1975, Western Sahara had become the
sixth major phosphate exporter in the world. After falling under Moroccan
control, the processing plant has been the target of several sabotage acts.
The exiled Sahrawi government on several occasions strongly has protested
any kind of natural resource exploitation in the occupied territory, leaning
towards UN declarations. Lately, there has been a special focus on Western
Sahara's rich fishery resources and its potential of offshore oil
production. Norwegian investments in these two sectors earlier have caused
political controversy in Oslo and diplomatic protests from Sahrawi
officials.
Earlier this year, it was known that Norway's Ambassador in Rabat encouraged
private investments in the Moroccan-controlled fisheries sector in Western
Sahara, defying the official policy of the Oslo Foreign Ministry. The
Ambassador was called to Oslo for consultations, where he apologised his
behaviour and narrowly escaped dismissal.
Last month, the Norwegian Petroleum Fund - one of the world's largest
funds - divested from the US petroleum company Kerr-McGee due to that
company's "unethical" oil exploration activities off Western Sahara. This
was the first time ever that the state-controlled fund had divested in
accordance with its ethical guidelines, sending a clear message to
Kerr-McGee and other shareholders of the company.
So far, there has been a limited focus on the Moroccan phosphate
exploitation in Western Sahara. Activists however hold this could be a key
to put pressure on the occupying power. While the mines in Boucraa only are
Morocco's third largest, it is estimated that the phosphate sector generates
more than half of the Kingdom's national income.
By staff writers
© afrol News
_______________________________________________
Source: http://www.afrol.com/articles/16718
_______________________________________________
Forwarded by:
_______________________________________________
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Boris Ryser
Le correspondant d'Al Jazira au Maroc perd son accréditation
RABAT (AP) - Le journaliste Abdessalam Razak, correspondant au Maroc de la
chaîne Al Jazira, vient de se voir retirer son accréditation, a annoncé
mardi le ministère marocain de la Communication.
Selon un communiqué envoyé à l'agence officielle MAP, cette décision serait
motivée par "la diffusion par le journaliste d'informations mensongères" et
"son manquement à la déontologie et aux obligations professionnelles".
Les informations mises en cause concerneraient, toujours selon la MAP, les
récentes émeutes au Sahara-Occidental.
Son accréditation retirée, Abdessalam Razak n'est plus officiellement
autorisé à exercer son métier de journaliste au Maroc. AP
adh/cb
Boris Ryser
please find in attachment and below the latest issue of Sahara Analysis.
Please accept my apologies for its very late arrival!
The heavy clampdown on dissent in Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara is
developing daily. Today news has come that 5 more Saharawi human rights
activists - all of them middle-aged men who have already spent time in
prison for their beliefs - have been arrested. They are
Mohamed Elmoutaouakil
Mohamed Fadel Gaoudi
Noumria Brahim
Lidri Elhoucine
Larbi Massaoud
These men have publicly worked together with Moroccan human rights activists
also, helping build the foundations for long term inter-community peace.
Their arrests, and those of Aminatou Haidar and Ali Salem Tamek, suggest
that the Moroccan government is not interested in long-term peace, only in
short-term power.
Repression follows rebellion in occupied territories
The "intifada", or uprising, that shook occupied Western Sahara from the end
of May, has been met with arrests, torture and imprisonment of demonstrators
and Saharawi independence and human rights activists. Europeans visiting to
observe trials and meet activists have been deported or refused entry. Some
of the details are given below. Other stories include the arrest of M'Barek
Maainiya a Saharawi musician who wrote songs about the uprising, and of
Hamad Hmad, veteran human rights activist, who was seized while seeking
sanctuary in the former Spanish Cultural Centre in El Ayoun. However,
despite all this, protests continue.
International campaign to free Aminatou Haidar
Saharawi human rights activist Aminatou Haidar was one of hundreds of young
Saharawis who "disappeared" in 1987 and held in Morocco's secret prisons
until 1991. Since then she has worked for human rights and women's rights,
often alongside Moroccan human rights activists. She was recently
hospitalised after being badly beaten when a recent peaceful demonstration
in El Ayoun was broken up by Moroccan forces. While in hospital, more
security agents came and took her to prison. Now an international campaign
to free her and all Saharawi political prisoners has been launched by a
coalition of Saharawi activists in Western Sahara and supporters abroad.
Among other actions, 178 MEPs have signed a petition calling for her
release.
Ali Salem Tamek arrested on return to Western Sahara
If you have ever wonderd how many security services it takes to arrest one
unarmed Saharawi, there is now an answer. Prominent Saharawi activist and
former Amnesty International Prisoner of Conscience Ali Salem Tamek, who has
recently been in Europe, returned to Western Sahara on Monday 18th July and
was immediately arested at El Ayoun airport. He was met by an unwelcome
"welcoming committee" from 6 separate Moroccan security agencies: DST
(Territorial Security Directorate), D.A.G. (General Affairs Directorate),
D.G.E.D., (General Enquiries and Documentation Directorate), the Customs
Police, the Royal Gendarmerie and the Urban Security Group... Meanwhile,
Saharawi activists who had arrived intending to give him a genuine welcome
were barred from the airport. Tamek travelled to Spain earlier this year to
have hospital treatment for the debilitating after-effects of his hunger
strikes while imprisoned on political charges in 2003-04; on his recovery he
made a speaking tour of Europe. However, he decided to take the risk of
returning to El Ayoun.
Heavy sentences for young demonstrators
Fifteen Saharawis went on trial following the uprising of May-June, all
charged with "violence against officials in the exercise of their duties,
use of firearms and damage to private property". The Tribunal of El Ayoun
pronounced four sentences of 8 years in prison, two of 6 years, one of 4
years and two of 2 years, as well as 3 suspended sentences of 2 years. Three
prisoners were acquitted; however, one remains in prison.
European observers deported
Spanish and Norwegian delegations attempting to visit Western Sahara have
been deported by the Moroccan authorities. So far 8 delegations, composing
local politicians and others from the Canary Islands to the Basque country,
have been deported to Spain. The Basque delegation, of 27 people including
politicians from various parties, was not permitted to leave the plane that
brought them to El Ayoun. A delegation was due to travel from Aragon in
northern Spain, but the Moroccan authorities told the airline that they
would not allow the plane to land; the flight was cancelled. The Norwegian
delegation (included MPs, a trade unionist and Arne Lynngard, the head of
the Rafto Human Rights Foundation) arrived in Western Sahara on 4th July,
intending to observe the trials detailed above. They were deported within
36 hours of arrival, and activist Latif Allal who drove them around was
arrested and tortured.
Early Day Motion in UK parliament
Parliamentary Early Day Motion 515, calling for the UK government to and
to set Morocco a deadline of the next UN Security Council meeting in October
to accept the current UN peace plan, was put down in early July and has so
far been signed by 24 MPs from Labour, Liberal Democrat, and
Conservativeparties.
Polisario Front to free all remaining Moroccan POWs
"We have decided to settle as quickly as possible the problem of the
Moroccan prisoners who we are still holding. We must bring it to an end and
work towards their release. We will inform the ICRC [the International
Committee of the Red Cross & Red Crescent] and arrange with them the
technical details of their release", said Mohamed Abdelaziz, head of the
Polisario Front, in the French newspaper Le Monde on 14th July.
The Polisario Front currently holds 408 Moroccan soldiers as POWs. At the
ceasefire in 1991, the Front held over 2200 POWs, and has released 1800 in
groups since then. Throughout the 1990s the Moroccan government denied
their existence and several times refused to accept the return of its
soldiers on their release. However, since the new King Mohamed VI came to
power, the Moroccan regime has begun to aggressively campaign for the
release of the POWs and denouncing the Polisario for holding them. This
concern does not always extend as far as helping them settle back into
Moroccan society, and many have complained about the difficulties and
poverty they face on return from their ordeal. The strategy has merely been
to divert attention from the hundreds of "disappeared" and tortured
Saharawis whose existence it still denies by focussing on these prisoners,
whose existence the Polisario have always been quite open about.
Amnesty International and the ICRC have persistently asked for the release
of the POWs since the ceasefire. While some Saharawis have felt that the
holding of POWs should not be controversial while the conflict is
unresolved, and pointed out that had Morocco stuck to the timetable of the
original peace plan the POWs release would have come more than a decade ago,
others and many supporters of the Saharawi cause felt that they should be
released and returned to their families, whether as a gesture of
humanitarian goodwill or an obligation under human rights conventions. The
news of their imminent release should be welcomed by human rights activists
and all supporters of Saharawi independence; it is good that some of the
people who have suffered in the Western Sahara conflict will finally get to
return to their homes and families. But the struggle for the Saharawis to
also return to their homes and live in freedom goes on. Those around the
world who have campaigned for the POWs release should now focus their
efforts on ensuring justice is done for everyone.
Natural Resources
EU to negotiate new fishing agreement with Morocco
The European Union and Morocco are negotiating a new agreement to allow EU
boats to fish in Moroccan waters. Previous agreements were in force for
most of the 1990s, and EU boats are believed to have extensively and
illegally fished in Western Saharan waters under the cover of these
agreements. Enquiries as to the terms have been made to the European
Commission from, among others, Mohamed Sidati of the Polisario Front, Karin
Scheele MEP of the intergroup "Peace for the Saharawi People" and Struan
Stevenson MEP. The sustainability of opening up Moroccan waters to the
European fleet could be debated, but any agreement should at worst clearly
define the waters of Western Sahara as being out of bounds, just as the
US-Morocco Free Trade Agreement does: and then, of course, any agreement
should be properly policed and enforced.
Norwegian company Yara ceases involvement with Western Saharan phosphate
mining
A combination of journalistic research and work by members of the Western
Sahara Resource Watch coalition led to the fertiliser company Yara
international being named in the main Norwegian financial paper, Dagens
Næringsliv, on 5 July, as involved in the illegal export of phosphates from
the Boucraa mine in Western Sahara since 1999. Two days later, Yara issued
a statement admitting this and announcing the end of its activities in
Western Sahara.
In 2002 Hans Corell, UN Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs, gave a
Legal Opinion on the legality of the oil exploration contracts between
Morocco and the companies Total and Kerr-McGee. He based his ruling on the
principles covering mineral extraction in non-self-governing territories,
and concluded that exploitation without the consent of the people of the
territory would be illegal. While this has helped warn other oil companies
off operating in Western Sahara under Moroccan occupation, it also has
obvious implications for the continuing mining of phosphates at Boucraa in
the territory. These phosphates are exported around the world, and the case
of Yara International is expected to be the first of many. Morocco is the
world's largest exporter of phosphates (used in fertilisers and detergents)
and the Boucraa mine produces 10% of the Moroccan total.
In a deal done when Morocco invaded Western Sahara in 1975, the Spanish
government continues to hold a 35% stake in Phosboucraa, the Moroccan
state-controlled company which operates the mine. The Spanish government
has recently said that it defends "the right of the Saharawi people to
self-determination". Renouncing the illegal exploitation of Saharan
phosphates by giving up its share in Phosboucraa would be an important step
in defending that right.
Latest news is available, regularly updated, on http://www.arso.org . Here
you can also sign the online petition to free these Saharawi political
prisoners, and get more information about the campaign for their release.
As ever, please forward Sahara Analysis to anyone you think may be
interested (I know it reaches around the world in this manner) and let me
know of anyone who would like to receive it - or if you no longer wish to
receive it.
yours
Tim
-----------------------------------------------------------
SAHARA ANALYSIS
No. 46, 20th July 2005
------------ And now a word from our sponsor ------------------
Boris Ryser
OCCUPIED TERRITORIES/HUMAN RIGHTS/SOLIDARITY
The 16th World Youth and Students Festival demands the release of Tamek and
all Saharawi political prisoners
Caracas, (Venezuela), 25/07/2005 (SPS)
The International Organising Committee (IOC) of the 16th World Youth and
Students Festival demanded the immediate release of Saharawi human rights
activist, Ali Salem Tamek, recently arrested by Moroccan authorities upon
his return from Spain to his country last July the 18th, reported a press
release issued by the Committee last Friday.
The IOC "was shocked to learn of the arrest of Ali Salem Tamek by the
Moroccan forces of occupation" and demands "the immediate release of this
emblematic human rights activist", and all other Saharawi human rights
activists.
"Ali Salem Tamek is a special invitee and a member of the Saharawi
delegation that will participate in the 16th Festival, to be held in
Caracas, Venezuela, this coming August", the Committee further indicated.
Concerning the Saharawi political prisoners, the text expressed "profound
concern for their wellbeing" and "upholds the rights of people to
self-determination while condemning all forms of occupation". Thus it calls
"on all countries and progressive young people around the world to express
their solidarity towards and to support the Saharawi people in their
struggle" for freedom.
Five more Saharawi human rights activists were arrested by Moroccan colonial
forces in Casablanca and in El Aaiun last Wednesday the 20th of July in the
morning at about 06.00 GMT and 10.00 (GMT), it should be recalled.
Brahim Noumria, El Houssein Lidri and Laarbi Massoud, all of them
ex-political prisoners and members to many human rights organisations and
committees, were arrested in El Aaiun at 10.00 GMT. They were transferred to
criminal police station where they were tortured and interrogated, SPS's
correspondent reported.
Two other ex- Saharawi political prisoners and human rights activists were
arrested the same day in the early morning at about 06.00 GMT: El Gaudi
Mohamed Fadel and Mohamed El Moutawakil arrested in Casablanca while Mrs.
Aminatou Haidar was abducted from the hospital where she was having medical
care for the wounds she had after she was brutalised during a demonstration
in El Aaiun last June the 17th. She is still detained in prison since then
without trial, it should be recalled.
Mr. El Gaoudi Mohamed Fadel it should be recalled was released last Friday
while his other companions are still in the black prison waiting for the
colonial authorities to decide when they will be presented before of the
Moroccan colonial court. (SPS)
060/090/ALG 251032 Jul 05 SPS
_______________________________________________
Source: http://www.spsrasd.info/sps-e250705.html
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Boris Ryser
Western Sahara
Laâyoune, Western Sahara, 23/07/2005
Statement
We inform international public opinion that two Saharawi human rights
defenders, NOUMRI BRAHIM and LIDRI ELHOUCINE, abducted by the Moroccan
authorities in Laâyoune in the occupied territories of Western Sahara on
20/07/2005, have been tortured and treated badly with the aim of extracting
confessions from them in the secret gaols of the PC of CMI in Laâyoune for
many hours of interrogation supervised by the senior staff of the Moroccan
police in Laâyoune. The two Saharawi human rights defenders, suffering from
the effects of barbarous corporal punishment, have lost consciousness
several times, necessitating their transfer Laâyoune hospital for
resuscitation.
We wish also to inform international public opinion that another Saharawi
human rights defender
ELMOUTAOIKIL MOHAMMED, arrested in Casablanca and transferred to Laâyoune,
has been subjected to interrogation at the headquarters of the national
brigade of the Moroccan criminal investigation police by the Director
General of Moroccan National Security, General HAMIDOU LAANIGRI, who
continually, during the interrogation in question, issued threats against
Saharawi human rights defenders and made racist remarks against the Saharawi
people.
These practices come at a time when the UN Committee against Torture is
still waiting for the official commitment of Morocco to respect the
international convention against torture after hearings in the last two
years, by this same Committee on the implementation of the provisions of the
United Nations Convention against Torture and other punishment or cruel or
degrading treatment. In the course of these hearings, the torture of
Saharawis in the occupied territories of Western Sahara was one of the
subjects for which Morocco had been asked to offer clarification. [see
below]
In reaction to these repeated practices of the Moroccan authorities, the
Collective of Saharawi Human Rights Defenders in the Occupied Territories of
Western Sahara communicates to international public opinion the following:
? it strongly condemns the Moroccan authorities? recourse to torture against
Saharawi human rights defenders;
? it calls on the UN Committee against Torture to seize Morocco on these
cases of the practice of torture and to take the necessary measures which
arise from it;
? it asks for the intervention of the World Organisation against Torture and
all international human rights organisations to react and take it up with
Morocco so that these practices of torture stop;
? it calls on the International Bureau for the protection of human rights
defenders and Mrs HINA JILANI, the UN Secretary General?s representative for
human rights defenders, to intervene with the Moroccan authorities in order
to require them to protect Saharawi human rights defenders;
? it calls on the Moroccan state to release unconditionally all Saharawi
human rights defenders and all Saharawi political detainees;
? it launches a solemn appeal to all Moroccan democrats to express their
support for the arrested Saharawi human rights defenders and to denounce the
barbarous acts of torture practised against them;
? it launches a solemn appeal to all the active forces everywhere in the
world, to become mobilised and launch campaigns of support and solidarity
for the Saharawi human rights defenders in the occupied territories of
Western Sahara;
? it renews its commitment in principle to continue its fight to demand
respect for human rights in the occupied territories of Western Sahara;
? it renews its appeal to the UN for the appointment of a special
representative on the situation of human rights in the occupied territories
of Western Sahara and the constitution of an international commission
charged with establishing the truth on the serious human rights abuses
committed by Morocco against the Saharawi civil population.
delivered in Laâyoune on 23/07/2005
The Committee against Torture last examined Morocco?s case in November 2003
and adopted conclusions and recommendations:
* Conclusions et recommandations du Comité contre la torture : Morocco.
05/02/2004. CAT/C/CR/31/2. (Concluding Observations/Comments)
http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/(Symbol)/CAT.C.CR.31.2.Fr?OpenDocument
* Amnesty international: Index AI: MDE 29/011/2003:MAROC ET SAHARA
OCCIDENTAL : Observations au Comité contre la torture (novembre 2003)
http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/FRAMDE290112003?open&of==FRA-MAR
* Info sur le Comité contre la torture
http://www.ohchr.org/french/bodies/cat/
English
* Conclusions and recommendations of the Committee against Torture :
Morocco. 05/02/2004. CAT/C/CR/31/2. (Concluding Observations/Comments)
http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/(Symbol)/CAT.C.CR.31.2.En?OpenDocument
Español
* Conclusiones y recomendaciones del Comité contra la Tortura : Morocco.
05/02/2004. CAT/C/CR/31/2. (Concluding Observations/Comments)
http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/(Symbol)/CAT.C.CR.31.2.Sp?OpenDocument
--
Further information on www.arso.org.
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Boris Ryser
SADR Oil and Gas
29 July 2005
Baraka and ROC Study of Cap Juby area
The SADR government takes note of the announcement made on 29 July by
Baraka Petroleum Limited that it "has agreed to conduct a joint study
with Roc Oil Company Limited (ROC)" to evaluate the Cap Juby prospect in
offshore Morocco. Baraka's statement mentions that "Baraka and ROC will
concentrate their study on the Cap Juby heavy oil discovery and
previously identified target areas" and that their immediate areas of
interest are in Moroccan waters.
The SADR government has been assured by the companies involved that the
area to be evaluated does not lie in the offshore territory of the SADR.
Furthermore, this license does not overlay or impact any of the license
areas offered in the SADR Licensing Round announced in May this year.
The SADR government would like to emphasise that Morocco has no
sovereignty over the territory of Western Sahara. On 16 October 1975 the
International Court of Justice confirmed that Morocco had no sovereignty
over any part of Western Sahara.
On 29 January 2002, The Under-Secretary-General of Legal Affairs at the
UN, Mr Hans Correll, reaffirmed the ICJ verdict in a legal opinion to
the Security Council on the matter of the resources of Western Sahara
and added that if exploration and exploitation of the oil resources of
the Territory "were to proceed in disregard of the interests and wishes
of the people of Western Sahara, they would be in violation of the
international law principles applicable to mineral resource activities
in Non-Self-Governing Territories".
On 20 July 2004 Robert Zoellick the United States Trade Representative,
stated in reference to the recent Free Trade Agreement between the USA
and Morocco that: "the United States and many other countries do not
recognise Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara and have consistently
urged the parties to work with the United Nations to resolve the
conflict by peaceful means. The Free Trade Agreement (FTA) will cover
trade and investment in the territory of Morocco as recognised
internationally and will not include Western Sahara."
The SADR government takes this opportunity to remind all foreign
companies that any agreement involving Western Sahara that is entered
into with the occupying Moroccan regime is illegal and unethical, will
be resisted by the SADR Government and its supporters and will
inevitably harm the companies' reputation and shareholders interests.
For further information please check: www.sadroilandgas.com
E-mail: in...@sadroilandgas.com
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Boris Ryser
Reuters (IRIN)
27 Jul 2005
DAKAR, 27 July (IRIN) - UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has confirmed
Dutch Ambassador Peter Van Walsum as his personal envoy for the Western
Sahara where a territorial dispute has raged for nearly 30 years.
Van Walsum's appointment was confirmed in New York on Tuesday. He
replaces American James Baker who resigned from the post over a year ago
frustrated by a lack of progress.
The Polisario movement has been fighting for Western Sahara to be
recognised as an independent state since Spain withdrew from the
territory in 1976.
In 1991, the UN established a peacekeeping force, the United Nations
Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), with plans for a
referendum to decide sovereignty in 1992.
But timetables have repeatedly slipped and nearly 15 years after the UN
force was set up, a definitive peace appears some way off.
It will fall to Van Walsum to resuscitate negotiations between Polisario
and Western Sahara's neighbouring states.
Northern neighbour Morocco maintains territorial claims on the West
Sahara though Mauritania, to the south, relinquished its claims in 1979.
In the most recent plan put forward by Baker in 2003, the former Spanish
colony was to be given self-rule for four to five years. After that,
long-term residents and 165,000 Western Sahara refugees who have spent
nearly 30 years living in camps in neighbouring Algeria, which has
backed Polisario, would be able to vote in a referendum.
The referendum options would have included full integration with
Morocco, continued autonomy within the framework of the Moroccan state
or independence.
Polisario had accepted Baker's plan but Morocco rejected it.
According to diplomats, Morocco is reluctant to agree to any solution
that may bring about a loss of sovereignty.
Mohamed Bennouna, Morocco's Ambassador and Permanent Representative to
the United Nations, told IRIN from New York, that Morocco welcomed Van
Walsum's appointment.
"We consider the nomination of Mr Van Walsum. will without a doubt help
the parties and the states of the region break out of the impasse and
progress towards a mutually acceptable definitive political solution,"
Bennouna said in a statement read to IRIN.
Van Walsum represented the Netherlands on the UN Security Council in
1999 and 2000. During that time he was chairman of the Iraq sanctions
committee.
One of the instructions Van Walsum received from the Dutch Foreign
Ministry before serving on the Council was to raise Africa's profile.
----
Source: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/
702ab218986f9c83e85cbb951cda3cb8.htm
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Boris Ryser
Middle East International
Issue 755
21 July 2005
From a correspondent
The civil society movement nurtured by Sahrawi activists in the
Moroccan-controlled bulk of Western Sahara faces its toughest test yet
in the wake of demonstrations that began in late May and continue
sporadically (MEI 753). Morocco's security apparatus has cracked down on
run-of-the-mill protestors and committed civil rights activists alike,
with extraordinary sentences being handed down by the courts and the
detention and harassment of activists stepped up. Meanwhile, foreign
delegations attempting to monitor the situation in the territory are
being routinely turned back. At the same time, Rabat is beginning to
face a concerted challenge to its exploitation of Western Sahara's
natural resources and as MEI went to press, it seemed Polisario was
about to make the astute move of releasing the 400 Moroccan prisoners of
war it still holds. On 23 June a group of five men received sentences of
between one and five years for participating in the unrest. They were
tried without lawyers, say Sahrawi activists. If these sentences looked
harsh, five days later three more detainees were jailed for 15-20 years.
The charges on which they were convicted, despite no witnesses being
presented, included taking part in armed gatherings. The only evidence
produced was confessions, which the prisoners renounced. In early July a
further batch of 16 went for trial. One prisoner was too badly injured
to attend court. The hearing was adjourned when the prisoners refused to
recognize the authority of a Moroccan court operating in Western Sahara
and then their lawyers walked out, complaining of lack of due process. A
week later three were acquitted but the rest received sentences of up to
eight years. During the demonstrations, civil rights activists, who
began to organize systematically and openly after an upsurge of protests
in Laayoune in autumn 1999, had been busy attending protests and
transmitting news to the outside world and trying to safeguard the
injured and arrested. Their success in building a Sahrawi political
force in the territory and in southern Morocco has long worried Rabat
and the security forces have taken into custody several leading figures,
including Aminatou Haidar. Haidar was one of the Sahrawi "disappeared",
held for four years in the late 1980s and early 90s. Her seizure from
hospital in June and detention in Laayoune's "Black Prison" prompted a
48-hour hunger strike by Sahrawi prisoners in several jails in the
territory and Morocco. Another well known figure, Hmad Hamad, was
snatched from his refuge in a Spanish cultural centre but released after
two days, the case having been covered by the Spanish press.
Spanish repercussions
Meanwhile, by mid-July the Moroccan authorities had refused entry to no
less than six delegations, comprising Spanish regional politicians,
representatives of human rights organizations and Sahrawi solidarity
groups. When a Norwegian delegation managed to gain access by flying to
Agadir then using road transport to Laayoune its members were rounded up
and expelled. On 6 July the Spanish parliament embarrassed the Zapatero
government by refusing to countenance sending an official delegation to
the territory. The parliamentarians said they had not been offered
sufficient guarantees of freedom of movement or access by Rabat. Spain's
Socialist government is facing intense criticism at home for its
tolerance of Morocco. Not only has Spain, as former colonial power in
the Western Sahara, not pressed Rabat to accept the UN peace plan but it
has stressed its "confidence" in the Moroccan government, criticized
organizers of delegations to the territory and blessed Rabat's
suggestion of a sanitized, official visit.
Fish and phosphates
The European Union has been negotiating a fishing agreement with Morocco
in recent weeks. The last such agreement expired in acrimony several
years ago. That deal, a successor to arrangements between Spain and
Morocco made when Madrid handed Western Sahara over to Morocco and
Mauritania in 1976, allowed by default fishing in Saharan waters by
European vessels. As this could be construed as de facto recognition of
Moroccan sovereignty, Polisario has been anxious to prevent it happening
again. The independence movement received a fillip when the European
Commission stated that any agreement will only cover waters over which
Morocco has sovereignty or jurisdiction. That development came just
after a clutch of Norwegian investment funds followed a state fund in
selling their shares in Kerr McGee, the US oil company, because it is
operating in Western Saharan waters under a Moroccan reconnaissance
licence. At the same time, campaigners in Europe have begun to target
importers of Saharan phosphate rock marketed by Morocco's Office
Cherifien des Phosphates. The Norwegian fertilizer company Yara has
imported small quantities of phosphate from the Bou Craa mine since 1999
but has now said it will cease doing so. Other companies are thought to
be in the firing line and campaigners now believe they can enlist the
support of the International Transport Workers Federation, opening the
possibility of international deliveries of Saharan phosphates being
blocked by industrial action.
Prisoners of war
During a political offensive in Spain, Polisario leader Mohamed
Abdelaziz told Le Monde the movement would soon repatriate its remaining
prisoners of war. This would be a politically wise move. Some of these
men have been held for almost three decades and their health is poor.
Polisario continued to hold them after the 1991 cease-fire, saying they
would be released as part of an overall political settlement which never
came. The movement also held them to try to press Morocco to provide
information on hundreds of disappeared" Sahrawis. However, the POWs have
been a millstone around Polisario's neck. For many years Morocco did not
acknowledge their existence, thus removing their currency in
negotiations. Latterly, Rabat has trumpeted their plight in an attempt
to deflect criticism of its own human rights record. Some 2,000 POWs
have been released over the years and, by letting go the final few
hundred, Polisario would free itself of a growing embarrassment and
distraction.
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Boris Ryser
Reuters
28 Jul 2005
GENEVA, July 28 (Reuters) - Western Sahara's exiled independence
movement said on Thursday the disputed desert territory risked slipping
into a cycle of violence following a Moroccan crackdown in May.
Mohamed Yeslem Bissat, Polisario Front's representative in Algeria,
called on the United Nations human rights officials in Geneva to
pressure Morocco into opening the mineral-rich region to media and
diplomatic observers.
"We don't want to find ourselves in another cycle of violence," he told
journalists. "We are seeking clear action from the United Nations to
open the area to representatives from the media and international
observers."
Morocco claims historical rights to the territory it seized after Spain
pulled out in 1975.
The territory has seen an escalation in clashes with the authorities in
recent months. An anti-Moroccan demonstration on May 29 turned violent
and resulted in dozens of arrests and accusations that Moroccan
authorities had used excessive force.
Rights group Amnesty International has said it was very concerned about
reports of the use of torture and force by Moroccan authorities to put
down the May demonstration.
The riots were described as an uprising by Polisario, which threatened
in May to resume its armed struggle against Morocco.
The U.N. named Dutch diplomat Peter van Walsum on Tuesday to renew
efforts to break a decades-long impasse over whether Western Sahara
should gain independence.
Walsum fills the post more than a year after the resignation of James
Baker, the former U.S. secretary of state, who left after seven years of
trying for an agreement on the status of the northwest African desert
territory of about 260,000 people.
"He has to address the explosive situation created by Moroccan
authorities," Bissat said. "People want to exercise their democratic
rights and determine their own destiny."
Last month, media-rights group Reporters Without Borders called on
Morocco to stop detaining and threatening journalists in the territory.
----
Source: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L28465393.htm
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Boris Ryser
Congressman denounces Moroccan human rights violations in Western Sahara
before of USA Congress
Sahara Presse Service (SPS)
30 July 2005
Washington D.C, 30/07/2005 (SPS) Representative of Texas, Judge Ted Poe,
denounced Moroccan human rights violations in the occupied territories
of Western Sahara, in a speech before of the USA Congress, Friday,
calling for the immediate release of human rights activists, Aminatou
Haidar, Ali Salem Tamek and other Saharawi human rights activists and
political prisoners.
"Recently, Moroccan police and security forces have arrested and
tortured peaceful protestors" in the occupied territories of Western,
said Mr. Poe, underlining that "the examples of human rights abuses that
Moroccan officials have exhibited against the Saharawi people and the
peaceful protestors is not the type of behaviour we expect from our
friends".
He denounced the abduction by Moroccan police of human rights activists
Ali Salem Tamek, Aminatou Haidar, Mohamed Elmoutaoikil, Noumria Brahim,
Elhoussin Lidri, Laarbi Massaoud, and Gaoudi Fdaili, who "suffered
psychological torture for long hours, humiliation, and threats of rape.
Unfortunately, this was all done due to their opinion concerning the
status of Western Sahara", he confirmed.
Considering that the resolution of the "conflict over Western Sahara is
long overdue", Congressman. Poe estimated that "both sides of the
conflict need to come together and implement the Settlement Plan
elaborated by Secretary James Baker", to resolve the conflict.
He underlined, however, that "a great step towards a peaceful resolution
would be for Morocco to release all their political prisoners, including
Mr. Tamek and Mrs. Haidar, to stop detaining and torturing peaceful
protestors and human rights activists, and to allow freedom of thought
and expression both in Morocco and in occupied Western Sahara".
Here is the complete text of the speech:
The following speech was delivered to Congress by Rep. Judge Poe of
Texas and will be official record by the end of today:
Recently, Moroccan police and security forces have arrested and tortured
peaceful protestors. For example, as recently as July 20th, reports
indicate that Moroccan security forces abducted five human rights
activists (Mohamed Elmoutaoikil, Noumria Brahim, Elhoucine Lidri, Larbi
Massaoud, and Gaoudi Fdaili). According to the reports, all five of
these people suffered psychological torture for long hours, humiliation,
and threats of rape. Unfortunately, this was all done due to their
opinion concerning the status of Western Sahara.
After this incident, reports indicate that both Noumria Brahim and
Lhoucine Lidri were subjected to further torture (including being
burned, handcuffed and blindfolded, and being brutally beaten). The
Moroccan officials that perpetrated these horrendous acts of torture are
reported to be the Wali of Security in El Ayun, Brahim Bensami, and the
Urban Security Group Chief Officer, Ichi Abou Hassan, and Abdelhap
Rabii, a security officer. When these torturers were finished, they
locked their victims in the Black Jail in El Ayun on July 23rd, 2005.
Reports indicate they are still being held captive.
Such acts of violence and abuse against peaceful protestors and human
rights activists have escalated in the last few weeks in Morocco. Other
reports indicate that on, July 21, 2005, a group of six Saharawi
political prisoners who were arrested during a protest in El Ayun, were
presented to the court of appeal in El Ayun. The report reveals the
group was tried in a show trial on June 23, 2005. They were sentenced to
up to five years imprisonment-one of the victims of this injustice is
human right activist, Bougarfa Abderrahmane. Mr. Abderrahmane is 53
years old and a father to ten children. The others were sentenced to
three years in prison ( Hamma Achrih, Chyahou Brahim )and two years in
prison (Mohamed Salem Essallami, Azlai Abdellah).
Sources say the Court of Appeal in El Ayun was firmly controlled by the
Moroccan security forces while the trial was taking place. Some Saharawi
citizens were forbidden to enter the court room. In addition, a French
journalist, Agata André, from the newspaper, Charle Hebdo, who came to
El Ayun to attend the trial of these political prisoners was put in a
separate room until the Saharawi political prisoners' trial was over.
Furthermore, it is reported that the families of the five activists
arrested were banned from bringing food to their relatives as well as
from seeing them. No telephone contact with them is possible.
Unfortunately, these reports of torture and injustice are commonplace
for the Saharawi people who are denied equal rights under the Moroccan
occupation of Western Sahara.
On one of Secretary Condoleezza Rice's trips overseas, Secretary Rice
delivered a strong message to the King of Morocco, Mohamed VI,
concerning the lack of civil liberties in the kingdom of Morocco. The
Spanish newspaper, La Razon, reported on June 30th that Ms. Rice
expressed her concerns regarding the Moroccan regime's continuous
violations of freedom of press and of expression. Amidst recent reports
of escalating repression by Morocco's intelligence and security services
against dissenting voices, and the repression perpetrated against
Saharawis, Ms. Rice is reportedly urged the King to bring an end to the
repression and allow progressive voices to be heard.
Other countries have expressed similar concerns about Morocco's human
rights record regarding the Saharawis. Earlier this month in Spain,
Spanish news sources reported that a Spanish delegation, composed of
parliamentarians and representatives of the civil society of Aragon, was
not allowed by Moroccan authorities to visit the occupied capital of
Western Sahara, El Aaiun. The delegation planned to investigate
allegations of human rights abuses by Moroccan forces. One of the
delegates was quoted as saying Morocco's denial of the visit was
absolutely unacceptable.
Morocco has been occupying Western Sahara for decades. The United
Nations Security Council has continued to uphold the right of Western
Sahara to self-determination. On April 29th, 2004, the Security Council
adopted Resolution No. 1541 which reaffirmed support for the Peace Plan
for Self-Determination of the People of Western Sahara devised by UN
Secretary General Kofi Annan's Special Envoy, James Baker. Two years
prior, the Security Council upheld the right to self-determination in a
meeting to discuss the conflict over Western Sahara. In this 2002
meeting, the Security Council rejected other proposed options and
clearly stated that the only viable resolution to this conflict must be
based on the Saharawi people's right to self-determination.
There is a long history of international consensus that supports Western
Sahara's right to self-determination. The International Court of
Justice, issued on October 16, 1975 the following decision concerning
the conflict over Western Sahara, "The Court's conclusion is that the
materials and information presented to it do not establish any tie of
territorial sovereignty between the territory of Western Sahara and the
Kingdom of Morocco or the Mauritanian entity. Thus the Court has not
found legal ties of such a nature as might affect the application of
General Assembly resolution 1514 (XV) in the decolonization of Western
Sahara, and in particular, of the principle of the self-determination
through the free and genuine expression of the will of the peoples of
the territory."
I agree with many of my colleagues that Morocco is an important partner
to the United States in our War on Terror and in international trade.
However, the examples of human rights abuses that Moroccan officials
have exhibited against the Saharawi people and the peaceful protestors
is not the type of behaviour we expect from our friends.
A conclusion for the conflict over Western Sahara is long overdue. Both
sides of the conflict need to come together and implement the Settlement
Plan elaborated by Secretary James Baker. A great step towards a
peaceful resolution would be for Morocco to release all their political
prisoners, including Mr. Tamek and Mrs. Haidar, to stop detaining and
torturing peaceful protestors and human rights activists, and to allow
freedom of thought and expression both in Morocco and in occupied
Western Sahara." (SPS)
060/090/ALG 300202 Jul 05 SPS
Boris Ryser
A Report on the Abduction and Arrest of a Group of Saharawi Human
Rights Activists on July 20, 2005
Saharawi Human Rights activists in occupied Western Sahara
31 July 2005
After the arrest of the human rights activist and the symbol of
national resistance, Ali Salem Tamek, on July 18, 2005 at the airport of
El Ayun, the Moroccan state has abducted two Saharawi human rights
activists in Casablanca and three others in El Ayun in its process of
the ferocious campaign against the Saharawi activists. This has the main
objective of deforming their humanitarian work and frightening the
Saharawi citizens after the break out of the peaceful demonstrations in
the Moroccan occupied territories of the Western Sahara, southern
Morocco and the university cities.
On July 20, 2005, the Moroccan authorities burst into the house of the
Saharawi human rights activist, former political prisoner and forcibly
deportee to Morocco, , Mohamed Elmoutaoikil, at six o'clock GMT,
arrested him together with the Saharawi rights activist and former
disappeared, Fdaili Gaoudi by a group of eight security agents from
Casablanca, Morocco. The Saharawi activists were interrogated for hours
upon the Western Sahara issue, their opinions concerning the issue and
concerning the peaceful demonstrations that took place in the Western
Sahara.
Mouhamed Elmoutaoikil was interrogated by the Moroccan General and the
Genral Security Director, Hamidou Laanigri personally, who tried to
bribe him in order to give up his defence of the Sahrawis' right to
self-determination, but the activist refused to change his convictions,
which made the Moroccan General very angry.The General ordered that
Elmoutaouakil should be transported to El Ayun to contionue the
interrogations together with Mohamed Fadel Gaoudi.
The interrogation of Mohamed Elmoutaouakil by a group of Moroccan
security officers continued from 11 a.m. until 01 a.m. of the next day.
Then both activists were transported to El Ayun at 04 a.m. in difficult
conditions. They were blind folded and hand cuffed, put in a police
car and
then transported to El Ayun guarded by two other police cars. They
reached
El Ayun at 21:00 GMT to resume interrogations again together with the
Sahrawi human rights activist Larbi Massou. The Sahrawi activists
Elhoucine Lidri and Brahim Noumria were found in a very critical state
because of the torture hey went through in the PC CMI, Poste de
Commandement des Companies Mobiles d'Intervention, conducted by the
Moroccan security services.
Before that, and on the same day at exactly 10:20, the house of the
Sahrawi activist, Fatma Ayache, was broken into by some eight secret
security agents. The activist Brahim Noumria, Elhoucine Lidri and Larbi
Massoud were taken to the Judicial Police center in 24 November street,
then the Moroccan authorities kidnapped Brahim Noumria and Elhoucine
Lidri who were hand cuffed and eye banded to the secret jail, PC CMI,
where they stayed until July 21, 2005. They were severely tortured,
hanged in the way that is called the "roasted chicken" for many hours,
beaten on feet and other parts of the body by the agents who sprayed an
unknown liquid on their bodies and burned them with fire that left clear
traces on their hands. As they were put down, they were forced to run in
a serious situation while their eyes are banded. They were also savagely
beaten on all parts of the body, tortured in the way called "Falaka" (
beaten while being tied up to a table), threatened of rape and deprived
of sleep. All the interrogation period, the activists were eye banded
and hand cuffed on the back.
On the next day, all the activists were transported to the public
prosecution in the court of appeal in El Ayun. They unveiled the
barbarous torture both Brahim Noumria and Elhoucine Lidri were subjected
to and called for a medical check-up in the presence of the defence. The
prosecutor ordered that they should go to hospital and prolonged their
custody for more than 24 hours. It was exploited by the Moroccan
investigators to break into the house of Noumria Brahim and fetch it all
to take some books and releases in the same way that Mohamed
Elmoutaoikil's house was broken into in Casablanca.
Elhoucine Lidri was taken to the PC CMI for a second time to be
interrogated and savagely tortured, beaten, insulted while handcuffed
and eye banded for long hours. He was tortured again in the way of
"Falaka" and "the roasted chicken". Meanwhile, Mohamed Elmoutaoikil, was
subjected to hard interrogations for more than 12 hours in the Judicial
Police center in El Ayun supervised by the Wali of Security in El Ayun,
Brahim Bensami, and a group of secret service members who had already
interrogated the Sahrawi activists, Fdaili Gaoudi and Larbi Massoud
without torturing them.
On July 23, 2005, the five activists were taken to the court of appeal
without having a look at their "proces verbales" and they did not even
know their accusations except the Sahrawi activist, Fdaili Gaoudi who
signed his "proces verbales" after reading it.
They waited until 17:00 in the court of appeal in El Ayun when the
prosecutor released Fdaili Gaoudi and sent the others to the judge of
investigation.
The latter accused the activists of false charges. They insisted that
they did not see their "process verbales" in the Judicial Police center
and showed the severe torture they were subjected to especially
Elhoucine Lidri and Brahim Noumria in the secret jail PCCMI in El Ayun.
Then they were put in the Black Jail to continue the preliminary
investigation.
The Sahrawi activists were subjected to different kinds of violations in
the Judicial Police center in the custody such as sleeping and sitting
on cold floor without any blankets,the activists' families were
prohibited from giving food and blankets to their relatives. In the
Black Jail, the prison administration tried to prevent them from seeing
the Sahrawi activist, Ali Salem Tamek who was there two days before and
tried also to separate them on different rooms in the prison and
exercise pressure on them in their relation with the Sahrawi political
prisoners. They refused all that kind of pressure and spent the night in
the room of visitors before they were transferred to a small 4 meters
room that does not have the least healthy conditions.
The Saharawi activists, who were supported by a group of lawyers of the
Agadir Body, called the lawyer of defence to make a complaint of the
torture they underwent on behalf of them to the public prosecutor,
calling for medical check-up and the chastise of those responsible for
the torture: the Wali of Security in El Ayun, Brahim Bensami, the Urban
Security Group chief-officer Ichi Abou Hassan, the General Infrormation
officer, Hassan Elghaffari, his assistant Abdelhaq Rabii, the Direction
of Territorial Security, Mbarek Arsalan, and his assistant in El Ayun,
Ahmed Salim, who tortured or supervised the torture of the Sahrawi
activists, Elhoucine Lidri and Brahim Noumria in the secret jail, the PC
CMI in El Ayun.
The Sahrawi political prisoners, the Saharawi activists and Aminatou
Haidar fear that the investigation continues in order to deceive the
world that there is really a fair investigation in the affair. The
activists insist that this is an illegal action taken by the Moroccan
secret services and the Moroccan Justice Ministry in a kind of
conspiracy to deform the activists' humanitarian work and prevent them
from unveiling the flagrant violations of human rights perpetrated by
the Moroccan state in the Western Sahara since October 31, 2005 and
during the peaceful pro-independence demonstrations in the few recent
months.
Boris Ryser
Front slams fisheries accord
News24.com
31 July 2005
Madrid - The Polisario Front, which seeks independence for Western
Sahara, a former Spanish colony to which Morocco lays claim, criticised
on Saturday a European Union fisheries accord signed two days earlier.
Brahim Ghali, a Madrid-based spokesperson for the Front, criticised the
accord, signed in Brussels, which allows EU fishermen back into Moroccan
waters for the first time since 1999, as "illegal and unjust" in
comments carried by the Sahara Press Service and quoted by the Spanish
news agency Europa Press.
According to Ghali, the accord violates an international understanding
that the natural resources of the region cannot be exploited by such an
agreement prior to a referendum on the status of Western Sahara.
The report quoted Ghali as having told Algerian media that the agreement
would not contribute to a political solution for the region.
The European Commission announced the accord, which comes into effect
next March and which would allow 120 EU vessels into Morocco's
territorial waters each year to catch up to 60 000 tonnes of small open
water fish species.
The agreement will cover a four-year period assuming it is ratified by
EU member states and the European parliament.
As part of the deal, the EU will pay Morocco ?36m annually. Around ?14m
of that sum will be used to help ensure the long-term future of fishing
in Morocco's waters.
---
Source: http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/
0,,2-11-1447_1746550,00.html
Boris Ryser
4. August 2005
After my illegal deportation together with the Sahrawi human rights
activists, Mohamed Elmotaoikil, Brahim Noumria, Elhoucine Lidri, and Larbi
Massaoud, on August 01, 2005 from the Black Jail in El Ayun, and the
continuous insults and verbal abuse by the Moroccan security services and
the Urban Security Group headed by Abderrahim, nicknamed Elbahja,
The Moroccan state has intensified its assault on my physical and mental
security by deciding to take me to a mental hospital in Agadir, Morocco on
Thursday, August 04, 2005 alleging that I am mentally sick, whereas I suffer
from other illnesses like rheumatism, asthma, stomachache, heart diseases
and other skin illnesses.
Thus, prior to my forcible illegal deportation, I declare:
1. my strong protest upon my transfer together with the other Sahrawi
activists in inhuman conditions from El Ayun to other prisons in Morocco.
2. that I am going on an open-ended hunger strike starting at 20:00 GMT on
Wednesday, August 03, 2005.
3. that the Moroccan authorities are responsible for whatever may threaten
or harm my physical or mental health if forcibly deported to a mental
hospital.
4. an appeal to the international human rights associations and
organizations to interfere immediately to stop this terrible crime that
threatens my personal security.
The human rights and trade union activist,
The political prisoner forcibly deported to the local prison of Ait Melloul,
Morocco,
Ali Salem Tamek,
Prison number: 6357
_______________________________________________
Forwarded by:
_______________________________________________
Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara
*** Referendum now! ***
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Sahara-update
_______________________________________________
Boris Ryser
FMVJ claims for the release of Mohamed El Moutawakil and his 4 Saharawi
co-detainees
Sahara Presse Service (SPS)
Casablanca (Morocco)
04 August 2005
The Executive Bureau of the Moroccan NGO Forum of Truth and Justice
(FMVJ-
in French) called on the Moroccan authorities to "set Mohammed El
Moutawakil free" along with 4 other Saharawi political detainees. It
criticised the way they were arrested and denounced the torture their
Moroccan torturers subjected them to in Casablanca and in El Aaiun,
reported a press release publicised Sunday by the Forum.
In its ordinary meeting last July the 30th in the seat of the Forum in
Casablanca, the Executive Bureau discussed "the arrest of Mohammed El
Moutawakil, member of the Bureau, with other members of the FMVJ and the
circumstances of their condemnation and presentation before of the
judge" of the :Moroccan colonial authorities. The Forum, on another hand
expressed its indignation "about the way with which it was proceeded to
their arrest: in the early morning of the 20 /07/2005, in a way that
terrorised the member of his (El Moutawakil's) family, including his
children".
The text protested against the search undertaken in the house of the
Saharawi political detainee "in his absence, without telling his family
or informing it legally of the order to such a proceeding, as well as
against the inhuman condition in which the detainees were transferred
from the police station in Casablanca to that of El Aaiun". It also
"denounced the torture inflicted to Houssein Lidri and Brahim Noumria"
claiming for the opening of an investigation on the subject.
The Executive Bureau of the FMVJ "doubts about the consistency of the
accusations" against El Moutawakil". It considers that the real motive
behind such procedure is no more than "the charges exercised by the
latter within the Executive Bureau of the FMVJ, his activities as a
human right defender" and his opinions expressed on the Western Sahara
question in the Moroccan press..
Last Monday the 1st of August, Moroccan colonial authorities abducted 5
Saharawi human rights activists, Ali Salem Tamek, Mohamed Elmoutawakil,
El Houssein Lidri, Brahim Noumria and Laarbi Massoud, who were detained
without judgment in the Black Prison in El Aaiun since the 18th and 20
th of July 2005.
Saharawi Government said to be seriously fearing "about the physical and
psychological integrity of the 5 Saharawi political prisoners", who were
brutally abducted by Moroccan forces of repression Monday from inside
their cells in the Carcel Negra (Black Prison) in El Aaiun and
transported without previous warning to their families or lawyers to an
unknown destination, declared a Saharawi authorised official source to
SPS yesterday (Tuesday 02 August 2005).
SADR "calls the international community, the UN and all NGOs of human
rights and of solidarity to denounce this act that aims at putting an
end to the life of Ali Salem Tamek. It also considers that the Moroccan
Government assume all responsibility of what may occur to Tamek and his
other compatriots, El Moutawakil, Noumria, Massoud and Lidri".
Saharawi political prisoner and human rights activist, Ali Salem Tamek,
declared Wednesday his intention to start an unlimited hunger strike to
denounce Moroccan colonial authorities' attempts to endanger his
physical and mental safety, reported a press release the activist
succeeded in getting out of his new cell in the prison of Ait Melloul.
On another hand, more than 29 Saharawi political prisoners, detained in
the Black Prison in El Aaiun, started Tuesday an unlimited hunger strike
to protest against the abduction of their compatriots by the Moroccan
authorities of repression.
The hunger strike, which intervenes as a first step in the protest
against the abduction of the 5 Saharawi human rights activists, enters
in its 3rd consecutive day. (SPS)
060/090/ALG 041924 Août 05 SPS
_________________________________
Forwarded by:
__________________________________
Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara
*** Referendum now! ***
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Sahara-update
___________________________________________
Tip: search the message archive by key words, poster or date at
Boris Ryser
UN News Centre
5 August 2005
- Secretary-General Kofi Annan today informed the Security Council that he
will appoint a seasoned United Nations diplomat, Francesco Bastagli of
Italy, to head up the 14-year-old UN mission responsible for organizing a
referendum for the Western Sahara.
Mr. Bastagli will head the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara
(MINURSO), which was deployed in September 1991 to monitor the ceasefire and
to organize and conduct a referendum which would allow the people of Western
Sahara to decide the Territory's future status following the agreement
between the Government of Morocco and the Frente POLISARIO (Popular Front
for the Liberation of the Saguia el-Hamra and Rio de Oro).
He will replace Alvaro de Soto, who is now UN Special Coordinator for the
Middle East Peace Process and the Secretary-General's Personal
Representative to the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian
Authority.
Mr. Bastagli has been with the UN since 1974 and is currently Deputy Special
Representative for Civil Administration for the UN Interim Administration
Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK).
Mr. Annan's spokesman said that the Security Council's response was expected
shortly.
_______________________________________________
Source:
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=15315&Cr=western&Cr1=sahara
_______________________________________________
Forwarded by:
_______________________________________________
Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara
*** Referendum now! ***
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Sahara-update
_______________________________________________
Boris Ryser
Annan remains hopeful that political solution will end Western Sahara
deadlock
United Nations News Centre
8 August 2005
Secretary-General Kofi Annan has for the past year kept up the hope that
the parties in the Western Sahara would break the current deadlock in
the peace process so that the 14-year-old United Nations mission
organizing a referendum for the territory could help them reach a
mutually acceptable political solution, according to a new report.
Summing up the work of the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western
Sahara (MINURSO), the report requested by the General Assembly covers
Mr. Annan's recommendations to the Security Council over the past year,
including the Council's routine renewals of MINURSO's mandate and
repeated calls on the parties and States of the region to cooperate with
the UN to end the current impasse there and make headway towards a
political solution.
The report picks up in October 2004, with Mr. Annan informing the
Council that the goal of enabling the people of Western Sahara to
exercise their right to self-determination "remains elusive," and there
had been no agreement on what could be done to overcome the existing
deadlock over the Peace Plan initially proposed in 2003 by his then
Personal Envoy James Baker, who has since resigned.
That plan envisaged a period of transition during which there would be a
division of responsibilities between Morocco and the Frente POLISARIO
before the holding of a referendum for self-determination.
Western Sahara, a territory on the north-west coast of Africa bordered
by Morocco, Mauritania and Algeria, was administered by Spain until
1976. Both Morocco and Mauritania affirmed their claim to the territory,
a claim opposed by the Popular Front for the Liberation of the Saguia
el-Hamra and Rio de Oro (POLISARIO).
The UN has been seeking a settlement since Spain's withdrawal and the
ensuing fighting between Morocco, which had "reintegrated" the
Territory, and the Frente POLISARIO, supported by Algeria. Mauritania
renounced all claims to Western Sahara in 1979. MINURSO was set up in
1991 to monitor the ceasefire and to organize and conduct a referendum
which would allow the people of Western Sahara to decide the Territory's
future status.
Reporting the continuing deadlock in January of this year, Mr Annan
said: "I remain prepared to help the parties find a solution to the
current impasse." He also welcomed the continuing success of the family
visits programme, which allowed refugees living in camps in southwestern
Algeria and residents of towns in Western Sahara to see each other,
sometimes for the first time in nearly three decades.
By April of this year, Mr. Annan reported that the stalemate in the
long-standing conflict had left tens of thousands of Saharan refugees
living in deplorable conditions, relying for their survival on the
generosity of the international community. Even though the political
climate had improved, given the prevailing conditions on the ground, he
argued that it would not be advisable to reduce MINURSO's size. He also
repeated his willingness to help the parties reach a just, lasting and
mutually acceptable political solution.
---
Source: http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?
NewsID=15332&Cr=western&Cr1=sahara#
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Boris Ryser
August 09, 2005.
We, the group of Sahrawi political prisoners in the Black Jail in El Ayun,
Western Sahara, the local prison in Ait Melloul and Oukacha prison in
Casablanca, Morocco, declare to the international public that we started an
open-ended hunger strike from today, Tuesday 9th August, 2005. Our group
consists of former disappeared, prisoners of conscience and human rights
activists adopted by Moroccan and international human rights organizations.
We were arrested in diffirent places because of our participation in the
peaceful demonstrations that took place in the Western Sahara cities and our
position on the Western Sahara issue.
On August 01, 2005, five of the human rights activists, Ali Salem Tamek,
Mohamed Elmoutaoikil, Brahim Noumria, elhoucine Lidri and Larbi Massaoud,
were very secretly abducted from the Black Jail in El Ayun to undisclosed
places for many days, to know at the end that they were transferred to the
local prison in Ait Melloul and Oukacha prison in Casablanca.
Although we wrote many letters and appeals to the Moroccan authorities to
respect our rights and improve our imprisonment conditions, they have not
paid attention to our terrible situation. Therefore, we find ourselves
obliged to go on an unlimited hunger strike calling the Moroccan state to :
1 - Cancel the verdicts sentenced against us and to immediately release all
the Sahrawi political prisoners and human rights activists without any
condition.
2 - Investigate the abduction of the human rights defenders from the Black
Jail in El Ayun, to the local prison in Ait Melloul and Oukacha prison in
Casablanca, and to punish those responsible for torturing two of them and
all the Sahrawi political prisoners.
3 - Lift the military and media siege on the Western Sahara and allowing the
international delegations to visit us in prison.
4 - Until our unconditional release is secured, we call on the Moroccan
state to respond to our demands presented to the Black Jail administration
in El Ayun which consist of :
a. Collecting all of us in the Black Jail in El Ayun which is the
nearest prison to our families.
b. Catering for our health needs by curing us of the consequences of
torture and the illnesses resulting from the bad conditions in the Moroccan
prisons, such as the lack of cleanness, bad nourishment and the previous
hunger strikes and arrests.
c. Allowing us daily open visits throughout the whole week and the
access to communication means such as mobile phones, newspapers, etc.
We appeal to all the international human rights associations, NGOs and all
the democratic people in the world to help us achieve our just and
legitimate demands.
The Sahrawi Sahrawi defenders of human rights and the political prisoners :
1. Ali Salem Tamek, prison number 63 57 , the local prison of Ait
Melloul, Morocco.
2. Mohamed Elmoutaoikil, prison number 99212, Oukacha prison,
Casablanca, Morocco.
3. Brahim Noumria, prison number 99210, Oukacha prison, Casablanca,
Morocco.
4. Elhoucine Lidri, prison number 99209 , Oukacha prison, Casablanca,
Morocco.
5. Larbi Massaoud, prison number 99211, Oukacha prison, Casablanca,
Morocco.
6. Aminatou Haidar, prison number 26232, the Black Prison, El Ayun,
Western Sahara.
7. Abdurrahman Bougarfa, prison number 26225, the Black Prison, El Ayun,
Western Sahara.
8. Hammadi Elkarcha, prison number 26140, the Black Prison, El Ayun,
Western Sahara.
9. Ennaffaa Bouchama, prison number 26144, the Black Prison, El Ayun,
Western Sahara.
10. Elbachir Yaya, prison number 26135, the Black Prison, El Ayun, Western
Sahara.
11. Elhafed Tawbbali, prison number, 26145, the Black Prison, El Ayun,
Western Sahara.
12. Mahmoud Haddad, prison number 25296, the Black Prison, El Ayun, Western
Sahara.
13. Lahcen Zraiguinat, prison number 26126, the Black Prison, El Ayun,
Western Sahara.
14. Mohamed Errachdi, prison number24617, the Black Prison, El Ayun, Western
Sahara.
15. Baba El Arabi, prison number 26160, the Black Prison, El Ayun, and
Western Sahara.
16. Sidi Mohamed Aalouate, prison number 26141, the Black Prison, El Ayun,
Western Sahara.
17. Abdelaziz Edday, prison number 26137, the Black Prison, El Ayun, Western
Sahara.
18. Mohamed Salem Bouaamoud, prison number 26230, the Black Prison, El Ayun,
Western Sahara.
19. Omar Eddaoudi, prison number 26230, the Black Prison, El Ayun, Western
Sahara.
20. Chrief Haddi, prison number24035, the Black Prison, El Ayun, Western
Sahara.
21. Hassanna Elhairach, prison number 26211, the Black Prison, El Ayun,
Western Sahara.
22. Hamma Achrih, prison number 26128, the Black Prison, El Ayun, Western
Sahara.
23. Elhoucine Ndour, prison number 26136, the Black Prison, El Ayun, Western
Sahara.
24. Mohamed Elfak, prison number 25616, the Black Prison, El Ayun, Western
Sahara.
25. Hassanna Elmakki, prison number 24373, the Black Prison, El Ayun,
Western Sahara
_______________________________________________
Forwarded by:
_______________________________________________
Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara
wsa...@online.no
*** Referendum now! ***
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Sahara-update
_______________________________________________
Boris Ryser
IP/05/1051
Brussels, 10 August 2005
Commission allocates ?9.3 million to aid Sahrawi refugees
The European Commission has adopted a further decision, worth
E 9.3 million, to assist Sahrawi refugees in south-west Algeria by improving
living conditions and, specifically, food security. Financing will be
provided via ECHO, the Commission's humanitarian aid service, under the
responsibility of Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid Louis
Michel.
The Sahrawi refugees have been living in four camps surrounding Tindouf in
south-west Algeria for several decades and depend on international aid for
their survival, the European Union being the largest donor. As a result of
today's decision, projects will be funded in the following areas:
Food sector
Refugees will continue to receive 2 100 Kcal per person per day thanks to
the replenishing of the buffer stock set up by the Commission and managed by
the World Food Programme since 2002. The diversity of the food basket will
be ensured, in particular by the supply of fresh products, including over
Ramadan. The financing of poultry feed will make it possible to increase egg
production for the whole of the refugee population, thus providing essential
proteins. A pilot project for livestock farming and a bread and
pastry-making project are also planned. These projects, whose primary
objective is to provide employment, will generate income and contribute to
efforts to ensure quality food intake for the refugees.
Water and sanitation, health, education, protection
The health situation should be significantly improved by an improved water
supply for the camps of Aļun and Auserd; health education; the supply of
consumables (syringes, bandages, etc.) to hospitals; proper storage
conditions for medicine; distribution of hygiene kits and more effective
management of household refuse.
Plans are also being made to create conditions more favourable to children?s
education, in particular by renovating and equipping schools and supplying
materials.
Since 1993, the Commission has provided more than E 108 million in aid to
the Sahrawi refugees, elegant testimony to the EU's attention to this still
forgotten crisis.
For further information, go to:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/echo/index_en.htm
_______________________________________________
Source:
http://europa.eu.int/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference==IP/05/1051&format==HTML&aged==0&language==EN&guiLanguage==en
_______________________________________________
Forwarded by:
_______________________________________________
Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara
wsa...@online.no
*** Referendum now! ***
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Sahara-update
_______________________________________________
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