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original french
10.03.01
El Ayoun
The Moroccan Prime Minister on a visit to El Ayoun on the occasion of
International Women's Day, raised the project of autonomy for the
Sahara that Morocco is working on for the UN. He made clear that they
were willing to negotiate a statute with "our compatriots in
Tindouf". This brought a reaction from Aboubakr Jamai in the weekly,
Le Journal: "It is frankly a redefinition of the Moroccan Nation
which is being drawn up without the country's political or
intellectual élite rising up against this confiscation of one
of the Moroccan people's most inalienable prerogatives..." Approached
by a group of Saharawi women, who wanted to put before him their
problems of unemployment and marginalisation, Youssoufi refused any
meeting.
14-16.03.01
El Ayoun, Trades Union congress
The Democratic Confederation of Work, a Moroccan trades union close
to USFP, held its 4th congress in El Ayoun. The invited foreign union
partners boycotted the meeting, such as the CGT of Portugal and the
CC.OO of Spain. The congress took place, according to a correspondent
on the ground, under impressive police surveillance, Polisario Front
flags having been discovered nearby. The government had made
available significant logistical support, the participants traveled
in military planes. In his speech, the general secretary Amaoui
roundly criticised the deputy mayor of El Ayoun, Khalihenna ould
Rachid, and his initiatives in favour of autonomy for the Sahara (see
week
10). The significance of
the holding of this congress in El Ayoun was emphasised by many
speakers as "testimony to Moroccans' attachment to their unity and
territorial integrity" and the town of El Ayoun was described as "a
symbol of national unity".
The discriminatory remarks of Amaoui, describing the Saharawis as
"keepers of goats and camels", provoked reactions among the Saharawi
workers present, who left the congress. Protests increased and
several petitions circulated among the participants in the congress,
the notables and Saharawi civil society. They collected hundreds of
signatures denouncing the provocation and the insult and asked for
apologies from Amaoui and the government, represented by Prime
Minister Youssoufi. (corr.,
SPS)
14.03.01
Export of arms to Morocco
The British parliamentary committees of inquiry on the granting of an
arms export licence to Morocco destined for Western Sahara, published
their report. It notes that the government misled parliament and
should have refused to deliver arms to this conflict zone.
(week
10, WSC UK press
release)
Meanwhile, AVN agency (Moscow) announced that Morocco had passed a
contract to purchase 48 T-72 tanks from Belarus. France, for its part
and in the context of its traditional military cooperation with
Morocco, has just given the green light to the delivery to Morocco of
its Janus software , ultramodern simulator for training in war
tactics.
On the ground, a Saharawi military official stated, according to
SPS, that the Moroccan army for some weeks has
been undertaking offensive preparations on the defensive wall in
Western Sahara.
14.03.01
Spain - twinning arrangements
The Spanish government called three municipalities of the autonomous
region of Madrid to cancel their twinning agreements with Saharawi
municipalities, arguing that Spain does not recognise SADR.
Over 250 Spanish cities over recent years have concluded such
twinning pacts or cooperation agreements with communes (daïra)
in the refugee camps.
The European Parliamentary intergroup "Peace for the Saharawi People"
reacted strongly and expressed its indignation in a statement sent to
Spanish media. It called for the twin towns of other countries to
indicate their disapproval to the Spanish government.
An MP for Spanish Cortès called upon the Minister of the
Interior and the Spanish League for Human Rights protested in a
statement .
The Plataforma Pro Referendum Libre en el Sahara Occidental and
the Asociacion Amigos del Pueblo Saharaui de Madrid called for a
street demonstration on Saturday 17 March, demanding the
resignation of whoever was responsible for this decision.
Elsewhere, mayors of seven communes of the province of Grenada have
just ratified twinning arrangements with their cities with a Saharawi
commune during a stay in the camps: Tichla with Iznalloz, Zoug with
Maracena, La Guera with Guadix, Chederia with Salar, Bir Lehlou with
Benalua de la Villas, Gleibat el Foula with Guadahortuna and
Mahbès with Villanueva.
14.03.01
Morocco - human rights
The families of disappeared and victims of forced disappearance
decided to start a hunger strike on Friday 23 and Saturday 24 March
at the seat of the OADP in Casablanca.
Their principal demands, namely the liberation of those detainees
still alive and the return of the bodies of the dead to their
families, have not been taken up.
15.03.01
Occupied territories- mines
A man was killed and two others seriously wounded after their car
drove over a mine near "Erbeib Bellaw" in the vicinity of
Smara. These people were travelling as nomads not far from the
defensive wall in a zone which had been declared safe by the Moroccan
authorities. (SPS)
15.03.01
Hunger strike
The Saharawi citizen, Salek Mahmoud Bahaha, who since the end of
September 2000 has been seeing out a prison sentence of four years
for endangering State security by having tried to join the Polisario
Front (week
40 and week
41), has been observing a
hunger strike in bed for the past week. He intends through this to
protest against the conditions of detention in the prison of
Marrakech, to ask for the review of his trial on grounds of incorrect
procedure and his return to the prison of Inzegan, where his three
compatriots Najem Laghzal, Khaya Cheikh and El-Arbi Messaoud, are
also sentenced to 4 years in prison. According to SPS his state of
health is precarious. Bahaha had already been on hunger strike last
November. (week
46)
INTERNET
- Sáhara: ¿dos meses para la paz? Reacciones al "Opinion" de Raimón Obiols en El Pais del 08.03.01.
- Sahara Marathon résultats complets
COMING UP
- Geneva, 19.03.-26.04.01 : The Commission on Human Rights will hold its 57th session in from 19 Mrach to April 26.
- Paris, 28 April 2001 : The question of Western Sahara in international right , Symposium organised by the International Association of Jurists for Western Sahara.
- Brussels, 17 and 18 May 2001, CONFERENCE: "Saharawi women : towards a new future in the Saharawi society".
- Florence, Tuscany, Italy, 28 - 30 September 2001. Meeting of the twinned cities with cities of Western Sahara.
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NEW PUBLICATIONS
[External links to newspapers
may not be valid after some days because the servers are
restarted]
english
- MPs attack ethical foreign policy, Robert Shrimsley, Chief Political Correspondent, Financial Times,13.03.01
- MPs criticise Cook over arms export licences , Nigel Morris, Political Correspondent, The Independent, 14.03.01
- MPs slate Cook on arms deals. Jenny Percival, Political Correspondent , The Scotsman, 14.03.01
- UK Parliamentary Committee attack British Government over arms licence for Moroccan guns in occupied Western Sahara, Press release of Western Sahara Campaign, 14.04.01
français
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- Sahara: le grain de sable, Cherif Ouazani, Jeune Afrique/L'Intelligent, No 2096, 13.03.2001, p 56.
Castellano
- Noticias de prensa, Recopilacion semanal de los articulos
- A Punto de Reanudarse la Guerra Entre el Frente Polisario e Invasores Marroquíes , entrevista del embajador saharaui en México Bachari Saleh, Luis Suarez, El Excélsior, México, 13.03.01.
- Ocupación que ya Dura 26 Años, Independencia al Sahara Occidental, Jesus Contreras Granguillhome, ibid.
- El Gobierno anula el hermanamiento de varios municipios con poblados saharauis, Á. ZAFRA, El Pais, 14.03.01.
- Críticas a Ansuátegui por anular los hermanamientos con poblados saharauis, Á. ZAFRA, El Pais, 15.03.01.
Deutsch
- Der vergessene Kampf der Sahraouis, Simon Inou, Wiener Zeitung, 13.03.01.
Svenska
- "Västsahara måste avkoloniseras", av Marianne Andersson riksdagsledamot (c), Cecilia Malmström (fp) EU-parlamentariker, Lena Thunberg, Saharabulletinen, Göteborgs-Posten 26.02.01.
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