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WEEKS 15-16 : 09.04.-22.04.2006 |
07-09.04.06, Big success for the third International Cinema Festival of the Sahara (FISAHRA), [see SPS] [ Algerian press] and Spanish: [El Mundo]- [EFE]
10. - 19.04.06: Messages from the Saharawi President were given to the Angolan [see SPS] and Namibian [see SPS] presidents, who took the opportunity to express their support for the right to self-determination of the Saharawi people.
19.04.06,
Oubi Bouchraya Bachir presented his credentials to President Thabo
Mbeki as Ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of the
Saharawi Republic, accredited in South Africa.
OCCUPIED TERRITORIES AND SOUTH MOROCCO
Sporadic demonstrations are still taking place in El Ayoun, where young Saharawis display SADR flags, such as Loumadi Said on 7 April, Khalihenna Ndour on 8, the latter was arrested and tortured. Independence leaflets are regularly distributed. Two demonstrators were registered in the Black Prison: Hossein Mohamed El-Isaoui and Hossein Al-Yalawi.
In Smara distribution of leaflets during the night of the 8th, the next day Hamada Ould Dadi and Ahmed El Moussawi (Dadi Mahmoud Hmada and Ahmed Sidi Moussaoui) are arrested and imprisoned in El Ayoun's Black Prison.
In Boujdour students demonstrate on 12 and 17 (High Schools of Naasr and Ahmed Mohamed Rachid, Omar Ben Khatab School).
In Dakhla police forces keep watch day and night on the houses of Saharawi activists, in particular, that of Oulad Cheikh El Mahjoub.
In Assa dozens of young Saharawis take advantage of a musical soirée organised by the authorities to hand out leaflets calling for the withdrawal of Moroccan occupiers from the Sahara and the release of Saharawi political prisoners. The evening was a pretext to present the autonomy proposal. Following the intervention of police forces, several persons were arrested.
17.03.06,
European Union
Raül Romeva i Rueda (Greens/ALE), Ana Gomes (PSE) and Iratxe
García Pérez (PSE) put a written question to the
Council of the European Commission about the situation of Sidi
Sayeli, still imprisoned in the Black Prison of El Ayoun (questions
1040/06 et 1041/06).
10.04.06
Moustapha Tamek, a human rights activist, was questioned on arrival
from Agadir in Goulimin. He was interrogated about his political and
human rights activities. Tamek is a student at the University of
Rabat, a member of the Moroccan Association for Human Rights (AMDH),
Assa branch. He had already been prevented from going to Dakhla and
Boujdour at the end of December 2005 [weeks
51-52/2005]
10.04.06
A Spanish parliamentary delegation, made up of members of the group,
Peace for the Saharawi People from the region of Murcia, travelled by
plane to El Ayoun in the aim of finding out about the situation on
the ground. The delegation was not authorised to disembark and its
plane was re-directed to Agadir.
11.04.06
Saharawi prisoners of opinion expressed, in the face of the
persistence of attacks on human rights in the occupied territories,
their solidarity with the victims, and asked for urgent intervention
by by the international community, the opening of an inquiry into the
actions which took place in El Ayoun during the transfer of accused
prisoners to court and decided on a 48-hour hunger strike from 13
April.
11.04.06
The Saharawi member of the African Parliament, Brahi Salem Zroug,
denounced the "serious violations" of human rights suffered by
Saharawis in the occupied territories of Western Sahara at the hands
of the Moroccan colonial forces before the Committee of Justice and
Human Rights of the African Parliament, which met recently in Mid
Rand, South Africa.[SPS]
11.04.06
The Association of Saharawi families of prisoners and disappeared
(AFAPREDESA) and the Saharawi Union of Lawyers (UJS) called on
international human rights organisations for the "protection of
Saharawi civilians against the flagrant violations of human rights,
committed by the Moroccan state which have been going on since its
military invasion of Saharawi territory in 1975 until this day".
[SPS]
11.04.06
The National Algerian Committee of Solidarity with the Saharawi
People (CNASPS) called on the Security Council to implement
"international law" in Western Sahara and to prevent a "further
denial of justice" from happening in this territory.
[APS].
14.04.06
In an interview for the Arabic language Moroccan weekly,
Assahifa,
the Saharawi former political prisoner Mohamed El Moutaouakil
declared that the Polisario Front is the "only legitimate
representative of the Saharawi people" recognised by the
international community. He added that the optimal solution for the
conflict in Western Sahara, accepted until now by the UN, must
include the Baker Plan II, which allows for a period of transition
ending in a referendum.
22.04.06
King Mohammed pardoned 48 Sahrawi prisoners jailed in the prison of
El Ayoun, Agadir (Ait Melloul and Inzegane), Tiznit and Nador.
According to official sources all Saharawi political prisoners should
now be free.
07.04.06,
EU-Moroccan Fishing Agreement
The ambassadors of the 25 member states of the European Union decided
on the distribution of fishing licences, 80% will go to Spain.
The Swedish ambassador Petersson insisted that the agreement should
be accompanied by a declaration of the 25 underlining that the
revenues from fishing in the waters of Western Sahara should benefit
the Saharawi people. Spain, France and Portugal consider such a
proposal "inopportune".
09-12.04.06,oil
The SADR was able to showcase the oil and gas exploration potential
of its onshore and offshore territories at the prestigious annual
convention of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
held in Houston this year on 9-12 April 2006. The record of 8,400
delegates attending the AAPG convention, many of whom represent the
international upstream (exploration and production) oil industry,
were able to obtain a good appreciation of the geology, geophysics
and fiscal attractiveness of the SADR. After failing to prevent the
participation of the SADR, the Moroccan regime organised a
demonstration of 10 Moroccans outside the Convention for one
hour.
06.04.06,
France
Friendship groups of the French Senate with Algeria and with Morocco
received a Saharawi delegation, comprising the Minister for Occupied
Territories, Khalil Sidi M'hamed and the Polisario Front
representative in France, Sadafa Bahia. The meeting, which took place
in a room at the Senate, was devoted to "informal exchanges from the
point of view of the situation in Western Sahara and the position of
the Polisario Front in the light of the latest developments in the
region", according to a statement from the Polisario Front in
France.
12.04.06,
Russia
The Russian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Sergeï Lavrov, raised
the question of Western Sahara during a telephone conversation with
the Special Envoy of the UN Secretary General for Western Sahara,
Peter Van Walsum. Lavrov reaffirmed the principled position of
Russia, favouring a political settlement to the conflict on the basis
of Security Council resolutions.
16.04.06
In an interview with the Algerian daily, L'Expression, the Saharawi
President declared that the French government is "frankly
pro-Moroccan". He added that "without this support, the conflict
would have been over long ago and the problem settled! This policy in
fact prevents the building of the Magreb. Observers go so far as to
affirm that France in fact considers this Maghreb zone as 'its
protectorate'."
20.04.06, UN,
Secretary General's Report [English version HTML
or PDF
]
The report covers the period from 14.10.05 to11.04.06. He surveys
recent events, mentioning the independence demonstrations in the
occupied territories, which have resulted, for the first time since
1999, a Moroccan military deployment. Concerning the Saharawi
refugees, Kofi Annan asks for particular effort to help in the
reconstruction following the recent floods and to enlarge the program
of family visits between the camps and the occupied territories. The
48 "illegal immigrants" from Bangladesh, looked after since 2004 as
well as numerous sub-Saharans, sheltered in October 2005, have
finally been able to be repatriated. There remain 35
sub-Sahararan "illegal immigrants" in Bir Lahlou, in the charge
of the Polisario Front.
The personal representative of Kofi Annan, Peter van Walsum, presents a precise diagnosis after various consultations: the positions of the two parties are irreconcilable.
In his observations, Kofi Annan notes that no country with close relations with Morocco has put any pressure on it to review its position of refusal to any plan which admits independence as an option. Besides, the United Nations cannot propose a solution which does not take account of self-determination.
In conclusion, the Secretary General recommends direct negotiations without preliminaries, in order to find a compromise between international law and the political reality, within the framework of the United Nations.
He makes clear further, that the problem of Western Sahara is a case of incomplete decolonization, which does not assume major importance for the great powers, who want to maintain good relations with both Algeria and Morocco. Allowing the present blockage in the process to continue can be seen as dangerous in the occupied territories, with its human rights abuses, violence and arrests, warns Annan. He announces that Morocco finally accepts a mission from the UN High Commission for Human Rights to go to the area around 15 May.
The Secretary
General asks the Council to extend the mandate of MINURSO for 6
months until 31.10.06.
The Security Council will meet in closed session on Tuesday 25 April
with the countries contributing troops to the UN Mission in Western
Sahara. Consultations will then take place on this question. On
Friday 28 April, the Council will hold a public session on the UN
Mission in Western Sahara, whose mandate must be renewed on 30
April.
21.04.06
In a written statement the Polisario Front representative at the UN
considers that "while Morocco resists accepting the
self-determination of the Saharawi people these negotiations have no
sense".
During a press conference in Madrid, the Saharawi Preisent, Mohamed Abdelaziz, declared that "the UN Secretary General should have been clear...in his recommendations. Faced with Morocco's obstruction to the efforts of the United Nations for 30 years, he should call on the Security Council to impose sanctions against Morocco until it accepts the implementation of resolutions 1495 and 690 approved by the Council". To a question on the "direct negotiations", Abdelaziz replied that the "problem is not a problem of negotiations, but, rather of Morocco's commitment to respect what is agreed in these negotiations". [for details see SPS]
21.04.06,
Madrid
Conference of solidarity with the Saharawi people with the
participation of the Saharawi President Mohamed Abdelaziz and an
intervention by telephone of a Saharawi human rights activist in the
occupied territories. [details see SPS 22.04.06
and more]
22.04.06
Demonstrations "for the decolonization and the independence of the
Saharawi people" took place in Madrid, Bilbao, Santander, Seville and
Palma de Majorca (on 27 April).
07.04.06,
Rabat
Permanent representatives of 26 member countries of the NATO Council
as well as political directors from foreign affairs ministries of
seven countries participating in the "Mediterranean Dialogue"
(Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and Mauritania) met
in closed session. [Liberté,
Algiers, 06.04.06].
[
RFI, 09.04.06].
16.04.06
The Moroccan Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mohamed Benaissa, travels
to Latin America, visiting in turn, Argentina, Mexico, Peru, Colombia
and Chile.
10.04.06,
A delegation from the National Union of Saharawi Women, invited by
the Scottish Trades Union Congress, took part in a seminar in Perth
devoted to the situation in Palestine, Iraq and Western Sahara. They
finished their visit to the United Kingdom by taking part in a
conference of War on Want in London on the question of Western
Sahara.
Amnesty
International's Human Rights Concerns for Morocco and W. Sahara:
Take Action : Protect Human Rights Defenders in the
Moroccan-Administered Western Sahara. Read
it and sign.
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