WEEKLY NEWS

WEEK 17, 22-28.04.1996

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General assembly of European Development NGOs

Representatives of more than 800 European non-governmental development organizations (NGDOs), meeting April 18 and 19 in Brussels, adopted a resolution concerning Western Sahara, which appeals the European Union and its members to promove a fair and free referendum in Western Sahara and also an international conference about Western Sahara with the participation of U. N., O.A.U., Spain, France and the Maghreb countries.

19.04.96
European Parliament

The European Parliament was unable to adopt the resolution submitted to it on Western Sahara by the Group of the United Left. This text called for the release of Mrs. Keltoum El Ouanat and of all Sahrawis prisoners of conscience, condemned human rights violations and once again called on the Moroccan Government to cease its manoeuvering intended to impede implementation of the United Nations peace plan. The approval of 5 amendments by the EPP Group and the Union for Europe having profoundly modified the structure of the resolution by playing down Moroccan responsibility, Parliament finally rejected the text. At the end of voting, of which he said he was satisfied, Jean-Claude Pasty (French Gaullist) noted the absence of a quorum but did not however ask for it to be checked.

On the same day the Parliament gives assent to fisheries agreement with Morocco, which includes the waters off the coast of Western Sahara.

23.04.96
COMMUNIQUE (french) of the Association of families of prisoners and disappeared Sahrawi peaople (AFAPREDESA)

The human rights organization announced the unfair sentence to eight years of jail for undefinite accusations, at least political, against the young Sahrawi Mr. Driss Houssein Khatari El Fakraoui, who was also tortured. He was transferred on April 4 to the Taza prison. His whole family is living under arrest in El Housseima since the beginning of the Western Sahara conflict in 1975.

24.04.96

Meeting at Nouakchott of the 11th session of the Algerian-Mauritanian Joint Commission.
Both parties discussed the current situation of the Arab Maghreb Union AMU and considered it as a strategic option and an instrument of development and stability in the region.
Regarding the Western Sahara problem, the two sides stressed the need for implementing the relevant UN resolutions in order to find a peaceful and just solution to the issue through a free referendum guaranteeing security and stability in the region.

26.04.96

"We want dialogue and we will work for a peaceful and political solution", Mohamed Abdelaziz, the Polisario Front leader, spoke during a stopover in Rome. "But if the U.N. is not able to organise a referendum and Morocco is still opposed to a free popular consultation, we will have no option but to continue defending our rights with all our forces and thus also a return to war," he said.

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