Monday, November 28, 2005

Time for Sanction against Morocco

SADR/MOROCCO
Polisario asks for sanctions against Morocco to compel it comply with the international legality

Bir Lehlu (liberated territories), 28/11/2005 (SPS) Polisario Front's National Secretariat (NS)called on the international community to impose sanctions against Morocco in order to compel it comply with the international legality, underlining that any approach outside the self-determination referendum of the Saharawi people will fail, indicated a press release publicised by the SN on Saturday.

"the National Secretariat calls on the international community to assume its responsibility by imposing severe sanctions on the Moroccan Government in order that it complies with the dictates of international legality by engaging in the immediate implementation either of the UN-OAU original plan approved in 1991, or the "peace plan for self-determination of the people of Western Sahara" that was approved by the Security Council in its resolution 1495 (July 2003)", the press release underlined.

Reiterating the Saharawi party's willingness to continue cooperating with the UN, the NS reaffirmed tat the solution to the conflict of Western Sahara "must be brought about solely on the basis of the respect for and implementation of the plans that have been approved by the Security Council, and, as a decolonisation issue, the Saharawi question can only be settled through the holding of a free, fair and transparent referendum for the self-determination of the Saharawi people".
And thus, "any proposal or approach to the solution, which places itself outside this framework, will always be doomed to failure and will only lead to protracting the conflict and thus to prolonging the sufferings of the brotherly Saharawi and Moroccan peoples alike", stressed the press release issued after the holding of an extraordinary session of the highest Saharawi political body, under the presidency of the Head of the Saharawi State, Mohamed Abdelaziz.
Concerning the last developments in the occupied territories of Western Sahara, the NS hailed the "steadfastness of the Saharawi people and their determination to carry on the peaceful Intifada for independence and to continuously widen its scope in the framework of a peaceful, civilised activist movement defending legitimate demands that are enshrined in all international laws and conventions".
It also paid tribute to "the high spirit of patriotism and unreserved sacrifice exhibited by our citizens in those territories as well as their heroic commitment to the defence of the right of our people to self-determination and independence".
On another hand, the NS expressed anew its condemnation to "the brutal, repressive policy pursued by the Moroccan authorities against the defenceless Saharawi citizens, which has led to tragic consequences one of which was the death of the young Martyr Lembarki Hamdi Salek Mahdjub", denouncing "strongly the violations of human rights and the practices of torture, terrorisation, abduction, detention that are employed by the Moroccan Government against our people. The toll of victims includes dozens of political prisoners of conscience, hundreds of injured persons comprising women, children and elderly as well as ravaged houses of many Saharawi families".
Paying a deserved tribute to Saharawi political prisoners " unjustly being detained in the Moroccan jails", the NS demanded "the immediate and unconditional release of the detainees; the lifting of the military siege and information blackout imposed on the occupied territories; and allowing access to the Territory by delegations of international observers, organisations and media. It equally calls on the international community to embark immediately on bringing to court the Moroccans responsible for perpetrating the gross violations of human rights in Western Sahara".
Discussing the commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the proclamation of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic, this February the 27th 2006, the NS designated a national preparatory committee and decided to postpone local conferences. The national event will be thus celebrated in Tifariti at the same moment of e holding of th European annual conference of coordination of the support to the Saharawi people (EUCOCO), the press release added.

The NS "expressed its satisfaction at the success of the Sixth Congress of the UJSARIO, Congress of Martyr Lembarki Hamdi Salek Mahdjub, and at the high spirit of responsibility and democracy, which has characterised it", besides the success of the 13th Festival of Saharawi Culture and Arts as well as the annual conference of Saharawi community in Mauritania that coincided with these two important events.
Finally, a special motion was dedicated to Algeria, under the leadership of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, in which the NS expressed its gratitude to Algerian people and State for "the principled positions of support and solidarity constantly exhibited by her in consonance with international legality and the tenets of opposing injustice and ensuring respect for human rights and peoples' rights, a prime right of which is the right of the Saharawi people to self-determination and independence". (SPS)
28 1100 nov 05 SPS


© Sahara Press Service

After Stockholm Brussels -Seminar on the legality of the EU-Morocco's fishing Accords

SADR/EUROPEAN UNION/FISHING
Meeting-debate in Brussels on the legality of the EU-Morocco’s fishing Accords
Brussels, 27/11/2005 (SPS) The Belgium intergroup "Peace for he Saharawi people" organises, this Wednesday in Belgium, a debate on the fishing accords of about 144 millions Euros signed last July the 28 between the European Committee and Morocco, allowing European fishers access to Moroccan waters without any clause specifying the exclusion of the Saharawi territorial waters, announced the intergroup on Wednesday, Algerian Press Service reported.
Belgian Senator, Jacinta De Roeck, questioned in a press release "the legality of the accord taking into consideration the absence of any clause or statement that refers to the territorial waters of Wester Sahara, one of the latest non decolonised regions".
According to the press release, the intergroup, is planning to raise the awareness of the Belgian Parliament, which must decide over this accord before this March the 6th 2006, the date of its enforcement.
Representatives of political bodies and NGOs will express their points of view on the subject. Mrs. Among the expected interveners Mrs. Karin Scheele, European Parliament and member of the EP’s intergroup for the Western Sahara, Mr. Pedro Pinto Leite, Member of the Executive Bureau of the International Association of Jurists for Western Sahara, Mr. Erik Hagen, President of Western Sahara Resources Watch, the same source concluded. (SPS)

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL WILL SEND OBSERVERS TO THE TRIAL OF THE SAHARAWI HUMAN RIGHT ACTIVISTS

Morocco/Western Sahara: Human rights defenders on trial
AMNESTY INTERNATIONALPublic StatementAI Index: MDE 29/009/2005 (Public)News Service No: 31828 November 2005 Embargo Date: 28 November 2005 00:01 GMTAmnesty International announced today that it is sending a delegate to observe the trial this week of seven human rights defenders from Western Sahara who the organization believes may be prisoners of conscience. They are standing trial together with seven other accused who are beingprosecuted for participating in demonstrations against Moroccan rule.Tunisian lawyer Samir Ben Amor will be representing Amnesty Internationalat the trial proceedings, which are due to begin at the Court of Appeal inLaayoune on 30 November 2005. He is an experienced human rights advocatewho previously was Amnesty International’s observer at the October 2003trial of Algerian human rights activist Salaheddine Sidhoum in Algiers.Currently detained in Laayoune Civil Prison, the seven human rightsdefenders – Aminatou Haidar, Ali-Salem Tamek, Mohamed El-Moutaouakil,Houssein Lidri, Brahim Noumria, Larbi Messaoud and H’mad Hammad – werearrested between June and August 2005. They face charges of participatingin and inciting violent protest activities and belonging to anunauthorized association, charges which they deny. Two of them allege thatthey were tortured during questioning.Amnesty International is concerned that the seven and an eighth activist,Brahim Dahane, appear to have been targeted because of their leading rolesas human rights defenders, as well as their public advocacy ofself-determination for the people of Western Sahara. Most recently, alleight have been instrumental in collecting and disseminating informationabout human rights violations committed by Moroccan forces against Sahrawiprotesters in the context of demonstrations in Laayoune and other townsand cities in Morocco and Western Sahara since May 2005.Brahim Dahane, who was arrested on 30 October 2005, is also facing chargesrelated to his human rights activities but his case remains under judicialinvestigation and he is expected to be brought to trial separately.Amnesty International believes he too may be a prisoner of conscience.Amnesty International’s concerns and recommendations regarding these casesare the focus of a newly released report Morocco/Western Sahara: Sahrawihuman rights defenders under attack (AI Index: MDE 29/008/2005), which canbe consulted on Amnesty International’s website at the following address:http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGMDE290082005The report also details cases of other Sahrawi human rights defenders whohave been subject to harassment and intimidation by Moroccan securityforces in recent months and allegations of human rights violations againstdemonstrators, including the death in suspicious circumstances of aprotester in October 2005.BackgroundHuman rights activists in Western Sahara have repeatedly been targeted fortheir human rights work in recent years. Some have been prevented fromtravelling abroad to report on human rights violations, while others havebeen arbitrarily imprisoned.Since May 2005, the territory of Western Sahara, particularly the town ofLaayoune, has been rocked by a series of demonstrations. In many of them,demonstrators have expressed their support for the Polisario Front, whichcalls for an independent state in the territory and has set up aself-proclaimed government-in-exile in refugee camps in south-westernAlgeria, or called for independence from Morocco. These views are anathemato the Moroccan authorities, who have responded in a heavy-handed mannerto the protests, exacerbating tensions.Western Sahara is the subject of a territorial dispute between Morocco,which controversially annexed the territory in 1975 and claims sovereigntythere, and the Polisario Front. Both parties have agreed that a referendumon the future status of Western Sahara should be organized under UNauspices, but this has been repeatedly postponed and is yet to be held.---Source: http://www.amnestyusa.org/news/document.do?id=ENGMDE290092005

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