Monday, November 07, 2005

The Saharawi students continue their protest against the Moroccan occupation

In English:Seville/aaiأ؛n. Important forces of the Moroccan Police have been unfolded for days in the Aaiأ؛n, capital of the Western Sahara, when anniversary of the Green March approaches the 30 that marked the beginning of the annexation by Morocco of the territory administered by Spain. For one week, skirmishes when coming out of the schools between the minors have been taking place and the adolescents who send independentist slogans and the Police that disperse them with cudgels, indicated inhabitants and people in charge of organisms of human rights. Last Saturday the situation acquired dramatic contours with the death of a man, when a group of saharahuis shouted hostile slogans to Morocco, in the avenue Smara, main artery of the city. According to the version given by the Police, Hamdi Lambarki died, "apparently, by effect of throw of stones of the demonstrators", when confrontations with the forces of the order took place. On the contrary, according to testimonies obtained by the family of the victim, the man was attacked by a vehicle of the Police and soon the occupants struck it in the head. Left unconscious by the forces of the order, he was lead to the hospital that he rejected to enter it and he died Sunday in the morning. This agitation takes place three days before thirtieth anniversary of the Green March, sent by king Hassan II in 1975 in the direction of the old Spanish colony. In that occasion, about 350,000 Moroccans went, the 6 of November of 1975, towards the border with the Western Sahara, to demand the sovereignty of Morocco on this territory. From end of the month of September to now, multitude of saharauis has been jailed and arrested in the territories occupied after pronouncing itself demanding the liberation of all the political prisoners and the right to the celebration of the self-determination referendum. Many of them are activists of human rights saharauis were locked up in the different jails and finally regrouped in the Black jail from the Aaiأ؛n, as they demanded the shut in ones and that Morocco yielded due to the international pressure. One of the prisoners has been Ali Salem Tamek, activist of the human rights, that the sanitary absence in the Moroccan jails and the continuous violations to the human rights of Morocco by its "systematic policy of repression denounces, tortures, unjust judgments and of bad treatments inside the jails". In the same way, it made a call for "the rise of the blockade of security in mass media in the cities of the Western Sahara, in addition to an opening from the territory to the missions of international observers". At the moment 27 Morocco saharauis in the Black jail of the Aaiأ؛n has jailed to and 3 in the one of Agadir (Morocco) after distributing panfletos and flags of the Polisario in which they demanded the liberation of the political prisoners and the immediate retired of the forces of occupation in the Sahara.Pero the arbitrary haltings are not the only scandal in which it has been surrounded the alaui Government. The past 9 of October were discovered common graves with corpses of some disappear saharauis. An official organism Moroccan called Instance of Fairness and Reconciliation (IER), informed about the exhumation of 50 corpses of people disappeared during the reign of Hassan II in different cemeteries located near the secret centers from halting. Between these 43 corpses were saharauis that they were kidnapped in the decade of the 70, 80 and 90 by the Moroccan regime and that died during the halting in secret prisons that are in mountainous zones of the south of Morocco, like Agdez, Kalat Magunna and Tagunit. At the moment, the relatives of deads have rejected to negotiate with the delegation of the Moroccan Magzen IER, which tried to take to the relatives with the objective to close this file for end of November, date top in which the prorogation of the existence of the own IER finishes. For some members of the Polisario, the Moroccan regime "uses this tactics to elude responsibilities before the crimes committed against the humanity and to pass page, rejecting all the legitimate vindications of the relatives".In French:

Police beatings in a "repressive"crackdown

Sunday November 6, 12:47 AMAgence France-Presse (AFP)Police brutality claims on eve of Western Sahara anniversaryThis Sunday marks 30 years since Morocco's "Green March" into WesternSahara, and locals in the former Spanish colony's main city ofLaayoune are reporting police beatings in a "repressive" crackdownahead of the anniversary.Last week 24-year-old Hamdi Lembarki was killed in disputedcircumstances during days of clashes between separatist demonstratorsand Moroccan police in the town's main street, Smara.According to the police version of events, his head injuries werecaused by stones thrown by the demonstrators. But according to localsand one non-governmental organisation, he suffered a police beating.Today, Sidi Ahmed El Majid has a dozen visitors sitting on his floor.Ahmed, 45, says his forearm wounds and shoulder bruises stem from apolice beating."The police beat me up on October 30 and my friends treated me withgoat fat," he says. "Here there is only traditional medicine -- thehospital was under military police control".His visitors range in their political affiliations from supportingindependence or self-rule for Western Sahara, to simply wanting "theright to _expression".Among them, Salem Babouit, aged 60, is unequivocal: "I am firmly forindependence, I've shouted it from the rooftops and I call on theinternational community to hold a referendum on self-rule."His friend Lahbib Boussoufa, 67, is more troubled by the territory'ssocial problems."Neglect, unemployment and bad living conditions are behind the angerand rebellion of the people and the youth of Western Sahara.""If there is a democracy here, we want our share," Boussoufa says, ashe pours some traditionally strong and sweet local tea.On his way back from Eid-al-Fitr prayers on Friday in the Al Fathdistrict, local businessman Mbarek El Fakir, 53, also complains ofpolice violence in the past week."Beating people and bursting into their homes, where there are womenand children, is not good," he tells AFP adding that he hopes "thewhole nation, Western Sahara and the other regions, remains united andon an equal footing".Sunday marks the 30th anniversary of late Moroccan king Hassan II's"Green March", when some 350,000 Moroccans marched to the border withWestern Sahara in a show of support for Morocco's annexation of theterritory.Morocco's claim to the land is contested by the Polisario Front, anAlgerian-backed independence movement.But Ahmed Kher, a former Polisario member won over to the Moroccanview in 1995, wonders "whether Morocco still wants Western Sahara".In any case the government's relations with locals would be better "ifthe police in Laayoune were Western Saharans," Kher says."I strongly believe in Morocco's claim to Western Sahara and I thinkindependence unlikely, but Morocco should make a gesture towards thepeople here, in Laayoune, Smara and Dakhla, and not towards thePolisario Front," he says warning against secret negotiations with theseparatists.Kher also believes "the policy of marginalisation is leading people,especially the younger generation, to think that the Polisario Frontwill automatically meet hopes which have not been answered by Morocco."There are lobbies in Morocco who are benefiting from the policecrackdown," he says, just as it is in the interests of generals inAlgeria to block a solution to the Western Saharan conflict."Some blind and racist police operations suit the Polisario Front,"agrees the president of the Moroccan Association of Human Rights(AMDH), Abdelhamid Amine, who thinks it is up to King Mohammed VI,Hassan's son, to intervene and "find a solution to the tense situationin Western Sahara"._______________________________________________Source: http://sg.news.yahoo.com/051105/1/3w80o.html_______________________________________________Forwarded by:_______________________________________________Norwegian Support Committee for Western Saharawsahara@online.no*** Referendum now! ***

An important seminar on Western Sahara-Stockholm

Fِreningen fِr Utvecklingsfrهgor- Swedish Development Forum -inbjuder i samarbete med Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, ABF och Stiftelsen Global Kunskaptill ett seminarium:Vنstsahara i fokus- ett seminarium om naturresursernaspolitiska betydelse i Vنstsaharakonflikten
Under 2005 belyser FUF olika situationer av konflikthantering och deras mِjligheter att هstadkomma lهngsiktig fred och utveckling. Fokus fِr detta seminarium نr Vنstsahara. Vنstsaharakonflikten har pهgهtt sedan 1970-talet, fِrst som en vنpnad kamp mellan Marocko och den vنstsahariska befrielserِrelsen Polisario. 1991 slِt de stridande parterna en vapenvila och alltsedan dess har konflikten fortsatt vid fِrhandlingsbordet dنr parterna, trots intensiva anstrنngningar av FN, inte lyckats enas om principerna och tillvنgagهngssنttet fِr en folkomrِstning om territoriets framtid.
En mycket viktig orsak till att konflikten blivit sه lهngdragen نr att Vنstsahara, som har en mycket liten befolkning och ett geopolitiskt lنge som inte نr av en stِrre strategisk betydelse, besitter mycket stora naturresurser. Fِrutom fiskeresurser finns نven fosfater och, som framkommit i synnerhet under se senaste هren, mycket betydande oljefyndigheter.
Under seminariet kommer deltagarna utifrهn sina olika utgهngspunkter att belysa naturresursernas roll i Vنstsaharakonflikten. ؤven de utlنndska oljebolagens agerande inom territoriet och huruvida detta varit i ِverensstنmmelse med folkrنtten, en frهga som nyligen flitigt debatterats i Norge, kommer att belysas.
Medverkande:Hans Corell, ambassadِr; Pedro Pinto Leite, nederlنndsk folkrنttsjurist;Toby Shelley, brittisk journalist verksam vid Financial Times;En representanter fِr Utrikesdepartementet kommer ocksه att medverka.
Moderator: Lennart Wohlgemuth, direktِr vid Nordiska Afrikainstitutet (NAI).
Seminariet hهlls pه engelska.Tid: Torsdag 24 november, kl. 17.30?20.00Plats: Hedénsalen, ABF-huset, Sveavنgen 41, Stockholm (T-bana: Rهdmansgatan).
Vنlkommen att lyssna, diskutera och stنlla frهgor! Anmنl gنrna ditt deltagande till: http://us.f542.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=fuf@algonet.seeller tel: 08-643 42 75.
Fِreningen fِr UtvecklingsfrهgorTegelviksgatan 40 116 41 StockholmTel: 08-6434275E-post: http://us.f542.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=fuf@algonet.seHemsida: www.fuf.se

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