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WEEKLY NEWS |
original french
28.10.-03.11.2001
24.10.01
In a statement the Action Committee for the Liberation of Sidi
Mohamed Daddach and all Saharawi political detainees announces that
the authorities have refused to acknowledge its request for
recognition. This committee was inaugurated on 9 September last in El
Ayoun, it denounces the "illegal act" of the authorities, calls for
the support of human rights organisations and decides to continue its
activities. (Statement from the Action Committee for the
liberation of Sidi Mohamed Daddach and all Saharawi political
detainees, El Ayoun , french)
30.10.01
Nearly 200 Saharawi students from Agadir organised a peaceful march
for the liberation of Mohamed Daddach in the arts faculty in
Agadir.
The collection of signatures will continue until the end of the month. They will be handed to the Moroccan authorities in December. Sign the appeal on line ! or download and print out petition forms for the collection of signatures.
The updated list of the Saharawi political prisoners is now in HTML formate.
28.10.01
Resistance
To remember the anniversary of the Moroccan invasion of Western
Sahara on 31 October 1975, tracts were distributed by night in El
Ayoun, Smara and Goulimine. They denounce the colonial occupation and
call for "the intensification of the struggle to expel the invader".
(SPS)
29.10.-01.11.01
Visit of ad hoc delegation from the European Parliament to Western
Sahara
The delegation, composed of 12 MEPs, was received on 29 October in
Algiers by the President of the Senate and the Minister of Foreign
Affairs, the next day by the President of the Parliament. Mrs
Lalumière,, leader of the delegation, explained to the media
that the commission has as its aim to "investigate and inform itself
on the question of Western Sahara (...) and to understand exactly
what the situation is on the ground". Mrs
Lalumière, indicated that the European Parliament is
"extremely concerned to see that no solution attracts the consent of
the parties concerned" in the peace process in Western Sahara. She
added that the delegation was set up to "try to get a clearer
picture of the problem of Western Sahara and the future of the
Saharawi people".
Arriving on 30 October in the Saharawi refugee camps, the delegation was received by the Prime Minister, Bouchraya Beyoune, and had talks with officials of the Polisario Front and SADR. They visited three wilayas and talked with members of the National Council (Parliament), with the Consultative Council as well as with representatives of the community. They visited social and political institutions and were received by the President of the National Council and the Coordinator with Minurso.
Representatives of Saharawi civil society made a statement asking the European Union to put an end to "systematic blockages by Morocco, with the connivance of several international players", to the peace plan in Western Sahara. They also demanded that there should be an end to human rights abuses in the occupied zones of Western Sahara and to "the plunder of natural wealth and resources of the territory by the Moroccan occupier".
At the end of her interview with the Saharawi President, Mrs Lalumière stressed the necessity of respecting the will of the Saharawi people in the search for a peaceful solution to the conflict. She declared herself convinced that the solution "must certainly include a referendum", adding that "the situation cannot last", for "the status quo is very dangerous". She also emphasised that her delegation was leaving "with a will to use our influence as European parliamentarians so that the problem is not left without a solution." (SPS)
Back in Algiers, European deputy Catherine Lalumiere said in a meeting with the press: "The status quo cannot last forever. We have to find a solution to this conflict and resolve it correctly to avoid it degenerating,". That solution should be balanced and acceptable for the Polisario Front and Morocco, Lalumiere added. "It's difficult but not impossible," she stressed, adding that ending the long-running dispute in the region was in the interest of both Morocco and Algeria. (news24)
01.11.01
Saharawi parliament
The autumn parliamentary session opened in the presence of the
delegation from the European Parliament. In his opening speech, the
Saharawi President declared that an independent Saharawi state would
be an element "creating stability" in the Maghreb region, while a
solution based on the "denial" of the right of the Saharawi people
would be doomed to "failure". The parliamentarians have to evaluate
the work of the government team for the past year and adopt a
programme for the year 2002. (SPS)
Spanish-Moroccan
crisis
On 28 October, Morocco recalled its ambassador in Spain "for
consultations" for an indeterminate period, on the pretext that
"certain Spanish attitudes and positions concern Morocco".
On 31, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mohamed Benaïssa
declared before parliament that the decision of Morocco to recall its
ambassador in Madrid is based on the Spanish position on illegal
immigration and on the "fuzzy-minded and contradictory attitudes of
Spain towards our national sacred cause (Western Sahara)". He
points out that "the position of Madrid coincides with the growth of
hostile activities in the sphere of so-called campaigns of sympathy
with the enemies of our territorial integrity, and who ended up
organising in one of the Spanish regions a trivial referendum
on the subject of territorial integrity."
Benaïssa alluded to the referendum organised in 150 Andalusian
municipalities, in which 125,000 people took part. In the parliament
of Andalusia, of 394 people who voted, including the staff and
journalists, 381 voted in favour of independence for Western Sahara,
with 372 in favour of the accreditation of the Polisario Front in
Spain. (El
Pais,
The position of Spain,in favour of the referendum and against the draft Framework-Agreement, during the work of the UN 4th Committee, is certainly at the origin of the Moroccan discontent. According to analyses appearing in the Spanish press, the French and American governments are supposedly supporting Morocco in this strategy of tension, which has already expressed itself through the oil contracts and the impromptu visit of the King to the Sahara, in order to make Madrid rally to the plan for autonomy.
29.10.01
Letter to the Security Council
Mohamed Abdelaziz informed the President of the Security Council that
the actions undertaken by Morocco, "are creating extremely serious
difficulties for the peace process". The Saharawi President mentioned
the visit of Mohamed VI to Western Sahara, calling it a "gratuitous
provocation", as well as the signing of contracts for oil exploration
with an American and a French firm, considering it "an illegal act".
The Saharawi President called for the Council to intervene urgently
with Morocco in order to avoid a serious deterioration in the peace
and stability of the region. (SPS)
29.10.01
Statement
The Saharawi Minister of Foreign Affairs in a statement expressed the
view that the visit of Mohamed VI "constitutes an affront and a
flagrant violation of United Nations resolutions appealing to the
parties to the conflict to abstain from any action or initiative
which could create obstacles to attempts to bring about a just and
definitive solution to the conflict(...) This visit illustrates the
lack of political will in Morocco and shows a bellicose escalation
with dangerous consequences for peace and the stability of the
region. It is above all a return to political inertia, which is the
principle characteristic of the era of Mohamed VI." (Statement
of
the SADR Minister of Foreign Affairs)
30.10.01
UN
The UN Secretary General received the personal envoy of the Saharawi
President, Boukhari Ahmed, Polisario Front representative in New
York, who presented him with a message from President Abdelaziz on
the subject of contracts for oil prospecting in Western Sahara.
Boukhari made it clear that the Polisario Front was asking the
UN to intervene to "cancel these contracts and to stop the visit of
the King of Morocco to Western Sahara".(SPS)
01.-02.11.01
Visit of the King of Morocco to Western Sahara
This visit planned for Tuesday 30, finally took place on Thursday 1
November "for organisational reasons". The King went first to Dakhla,
where he inspected the new port and opened several projects for road
network improvement, housing, drinking water and electricity
projects. In the afternoon he went to El Ayoun where he again
inaugurated several socio-economic projects. The whole visit
took place under tight security measures. Foreign journalists
were not authorised to make contact with the local population. The El
Mundo journalist, Javier Espinosa, was expelled from El Ayoun on
Monday 30, the other representatives of the Spanish media, were
forbidden access to Western Sahara. In solidarity, AFP and AP decided
to refrain from covering the king's visit to occupied Sahara. The
Spanish government protested at the Moroccan attitude as well as RSF.
The ban was lifted on 31.
During their presence in El Ayoun for the cover of the King's visit,
the spanish journalists Javier Espinosa (El
Mundo
) and Tomas Barbulo (El
Pais)
had an encounter in hiding with members of the Human Rights
organisations Forum Vérité et Justice Section Sahara
and the Comité d'action pour la libération de Mohamed
Daddach. They have been reported that most of the people who
acclaimed the king in the streets were Moroccans; people who work as
civil servants were forced to be present as well as the poor who
survive on government aid. The Saharawi opponents explained that in
El Ayoun now there are hardly 20 thousands Saharawi. Protests are
impossible because of the police terror. The hard passed sufferings,
torture, disappearance, imprisonment, have broken the spirit of
resistance. "Our only hope is the Polisario", the participants, most
of them former political prisoners or disapeared, told the
journalists.
02.11.01
Demonstrations
In Smara, the day before the visit of Mohamed VI, cancelled because
of "unfavorable weather conditions for traffic", the police tried to
disperse a sit-in by force which had been going on for three days to
express discontent and to protest about the King's visit. In a
statement, the SADR Minister of Information announced that several
people including Khdeija Mint Ahmed Boumrah, Sdigua Mint
Mohamed Saleh and Sidati Ould Youcef, have suffered serious injuries.
Labeid Mahfoud, a Saharawi citizen, had been savagely tortured and
imprisoned. A second statement dated 3 November, indicates that "the
forces of the Moroccan army of occupation, the police and special
services continue to patrol the principal quarters of the town."
(Statements
from the SADR Ministry of Information, french, Spanish
press)
COMING UP...
Danielle
Mitterrand, President of the Fondation France Libertés will
travel to Algeria from 5th to 10th November 2001, so as to express
her support to the Saharawi population living in exile since
1975.
The purpose of this journey is to evaluate the contribution of France
Libertés to the educational, health, and development projects
that are run with the Saharawi refugees. At a political level, this
visit wants to re-assert the obligation of the international
community to implement the right to self-determination of the
Saharawi people whether colonised or in exile, and consequently to
prevent the spoliation of this people from the natural resources of
its territory.
Danielle Mitterrand will also travel to Morocco and Occupied Western
Sahara from 12th to 19th November 2001. She will meet with the
Moroccan partners of France Libertés working in areas of
development such as education, and Human Rights, more particularly in
relation with forced disappearances. Mrs Mitterrand will complete her
journey in Laayoune, capital of Western Sahara, and will express her
solidarity and support of the Saharawis whose expression is treated
as a minority and suppressed by the occupying Moroccan
authorities.
SOLIDARITY
05-09.12.01,
Charter flight "Catalunya amb el sahara " desembre del 2001
The Associació Catalana d'Amics del Poble Sahrauí
organizes a charter flight to Tindouf from 5 to 9 of December. Info:
ACAPS Vilanova i la Geltrú, Rbla. Samà, 58, 4t,
2ª, 08800 Vilanova i la Geltrú, tels. 649 82 51 60, 610
65 69 65, fax 93 814 37 76, e-mail: afont@pie.xtec.es
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