Thursday, April 05, 2007

Colombia SADR

SADR/COLOMBIA
The Senate of Colombia adopts a resolution in favour of the Saharawi people

Chahid El Hafed, 29/03/2007 (SPS) The Senate of the Republic of Colombia adopted on Tuesday a resolution unanimously approved on Tuesday by the two chambers of the Parliament reaffirming the support of the two Colombian Chambers to the Saharawi people’s right to self-determination and independence.

The Colombian Senate estimated that the conflict of the Western Sahara is a "question of decolonisation", according to the UN General Assembly’s 4th Commission. The UN stressed the Saharawi people’s inalienable right to self-determination in all its resolutions.

The draft resolution was presented the same day by Senator Gustavo Petro, who is also the Spokesperson of the Democratic Pole. The resolution was consequently adopted by all the members of the Senate.

On his side, the Spokesperson of the Colombian Conservative Party submitted the text of the draft resolution to the plenary session of the Chamber of Representatives, who expressed adopted the text by consensus.

The Colombian Parliament reaffirm through the adoption of this resolution its support of the Saharawi people’s right to self-determination and denounced the human rights violations in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara. (SPS)

020/090/000/TRD 291240 MAR 07 SPS

urgent appeal from the Saharawi Red Crescent

RASD/HCR
The Saharawi Red Crescent underlines the seriousness of the food situation of the Saharawi people

Chahid El Hafed, 31/03/2007 (SPS) The President of the Saharawi Red Crescent (CRS), Mr. Yahia Bouhebeini, stressed, in a letter to the High Commissioner for Refugees (HCR), the seriousness of the food situation of the Saharawi refugees, as well as the rupture, since September 2006, of the "Special programme" for the Saharawi children and women who suffer from malnutrition.

This special programme was elaborated, Mr. Bouhebeini indicates in a letter he addresses to the highest official of the HCR, Mr. Antonio Gutierrez, following recommendations included in the report of the specialised Italian Nutrition Institute (INRAN).

The President of the CRS recalled that the study undertook in March 2005 concluded that "76,5% of the pregnant women, 66,4% of breast-feeding women as well as 68,5% of the children who are under 5 years and victims to anaemia".

Mr. Bouhebeini indicated, on another hand, that the annual budget dedicated to 2007 "has diminished by 12% in comparison with the last year, by 31% in comparison to 2005 and by 50% in comparison to 2004".

The President of the CRS related the seriousness of the humanitarian situation to the "arbitrary and unilateral decision adopted by the regional director of the HCR (...), in the 22 of August 2005, when he decided to reduce to number of the beneficiaries from the Saharawi refugees from 158.000 persons to 90.000 "most vulnerable refugees!!".(SPS)

The 5th Congress of the Saharawi Woman

SADR/WOMEN/CONGRESS
The 5th Congress of the UNFS opens tomorrow in the 27th of February

Chahid El Hafed, 04/04/2007 (SPS) The 5th Congress of the Saharawi Women National Union (UNFS- in Spanish abbreviation) will open on Thursday in the women’s School of 27 February in the Saharawi refugee camps with the presence of foreign delegations, indicated a press release published by the UNFS n Tuesday.

Hundreds delegates of the UNFS, representing the Wilayas and institutions of the Saharawi Republic, the occupied territories and abroad will participate to this fifth congress that will take place between the 5th to the 7th of April.

The Congress will be an opportunity for the Saharawi women to reaffirm its unshakable determination to continue the struggle to get the Saharawi people’s legitimate rights to freedom and independence.

During three days, the delegates will elect a new Secretary General, an executive bureau and adopt a short time and a long time programmes of action of the organisation, as well as the exchange of experiences with the other Saharawi women coming from foreign countries to participate in the struggle of the Saharawi women for a just and egalitarian world.

The Congress that takes place every five years, is the highest body in the UNFS. It usually bares the name of a woman Martyr, victim of the Moroccan repression. (SPS)

020/090/000/TRD 041710 AVR 07 SPS

SADR NORWAY

SADR/NORWAY/MEDIAS
The President of the Norwegian Parliament will raise the human rights situation in the Western Sahara with Rabat’s authorities

Oslo, 04/04/2007 (SPS) The President of the Norwegian Parliament, Thorbjorn Jagland, affirmed that he will raise, with the Moroccan authorities, the question of the human rights situation in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara, in an interview he had on Monday with the Norwegian newspaper, Verdensmagasinet X, reported the Saharawi Representative in the Nordic countries.

Mr. Jagland asserted that he "will exercise pressures on the Moroccan authorities so as it also a Nordic delegation to visit the occupied territories of the Western Sahara". He will also discuss about this question with the Norwegian Ambassador in Rabat.

Concerning the Moroccan proposition of autonomy or the Western Sahara, Mr. Jagland, estimated that this unilateral proposition "can only be part of the occupation policy of Morocco".

Comparing between the Palestinians and Saharawis, who wants to decide about their affairs, Mr. Jagland stressed that "the Saharawis are living in more hard conditions that the Palestinian". (SPS)

020/090/000/TRD 041130 AVR 07 SPS

SADR- ITALY

SADR/ITALY
An Italian Party reaffirms its engagement with the Saharawi people

Roma, 04/04/2007 (SPS) The Italian Party of the communist Reconstruction (PRC) reaffirmed its engagement an support to the Saharawi people’s struggle and called on the Italian Government to act in agreement with the international bodies, for the organisation of a self-determination referendum in Western Sahara, as defined in the Baker Plan.

In a press release published on Monday after the meeting that gathered members of the Italian party leadership with a POLISARIO Front’s delegation chaired by Mr. M'hamed Khadad, member of the National Secretariat and Coordinator with the UN Mission for the Western Sahara (MINURSO), the PRC renewed its "full engagement" to the Saharawi people.

He called on the Italian Government to support a "political solution based on the UN’s resolutions that provides for a self-determination referendum for the Saharawi people that is the only solution of the conflict". (SPS)

020/090/700/TRD 041245 AVR 07 SPS

The Saharawi president

SADR/POLITIC
Mohamed Abdelaziz: "Any solution that does not respect our right to self-determination is unacceptable"

Chahid El Hafed, 01/04/2007, (SPS) The President of the Republic, Mohamed Abdelaziz, underlined that "any solution that does not respect our right to self-determination is unacceptable", in a speech during a luncheon he offered on Saturday at the presidency on the occasion of the religious holyday of Iid El Maoulid with the presence of some hundred Saharawi personalities, notables, members of the Polisario Front’s leadership, members of the Saharawi Government, Parliament in addition to many national cadre.

"Any solution that does not respect our rights to self-determination and independence, is unacceptable", he underlined, indicating that the Moroccan dilatory manœuvre will only lead to the deterioration of the stability and security of the region.

The Head of the State, who tackled in his speech many subjects, "sources of legitimate preoccupation of all Saharawis", underlined that the Saharawi political direction "clearly informed the United Nations, the member States of the UN Security Council and many other government about the Saharawi people’s categorical refusal of any solution that does not respect the international legality, the Saharawi people’s right to self-determination and independence".

"We indicated to the UN Secretary General, Mr. Ban Ke-moon, during our recent visit to New York, that the big mistake that was committed in 1975 when Spain and Morocco aborted the efforts of the UN in the decolonisation of the Western Sahara, should not be committed again 30 years after. The Moroccan attempts to impose the colonial fait accompli through the so-called autonomy plan, in addition to be unilateral, illegal and unacceptable, will only submerge the region in a new period of instability, war and sufferings" for both Saharawi and Moroccan peoples, the President of the Republic said.

Mr. Abdelaziz stressed that the Saharawi State is an irreversible reality. We want the entire world to know that it is the choice of all Saharawis, starting from the children in schools in the occupied territories to the fighters in the Saharawi military regions, they are all unanimous around the Republic, the national flag and around their only and legitimate representative, POLISARIO Front, and they are all determined to defend their rights to freedom and independence by all legitimate means in their possession, without restriction".

In this respect, the Head of the State paid "a vivid tribute to the Saharawi resistant, women, children and militants in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara, in the south of Morocco and even in the Moroccan cities and in the Diaspora, who give proof to the Moroccan government that it is impossible to break the will of unified and resolute people, who above all is peacefully defending his legitimate rights to dignity, freedom and independence by civilised ways".

In another subject, Mr. Abdelaziz informed the very attentive audience that the Saharawi government is facing these last years increasing pressures from the international humanitarian organisations, "which think that they can break the Saharawi people or force them to give political concessions".

For these organisations, Mr. Abdelaziz declared that "the Saharawi people will never cede its legitimate rights", and will never accept humiliation because of its needs, underlining that "the dignity of our people comes in the first place and for it the Saharawi people is ready for all sacrifices".

On another hand, the Head of the State criticised the position of France, "that scorns the international legality and provides Morocco with an unconditional support in its colonial adventure in the Western Sahara", regretting at the same time the position of the Spanish socialist government which I increasingly hostile to the Saharawi people’s legitimate rights. (SPS)

060/090/000/TRD 011980 APR 07 SPS

American Senators -Western Sahara

SADR/UNITED STATES
American Senators wrote to President Bush about the Western Sahara

Washington, 01/04/2007 (SPS) Members of the US Senate addressed a letter to the President of the USA, Mr. George W. Bush, asking him to support a fair and lasting solution to the conflict of Western Sahara that respects the international legality, and rejecting the Moroccan autonomy plan, which “represents a flagrant violation of international law and a denial of the right to self-determination for the Saharawi people”

Here is the complete text of the letter, of which SPS received a copy :

The Honourable George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvanian Ave.
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President,
We are writing to express our deep concern regarding the ongoing conflict in Western Sahara. Despite the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice denying Morocco any sovereignty over the territory and upholding the right of the people of Western Sahara to self-determination, international law continues to be ignored.

The United Nations (UN) has reaffirmed the right of the Saharawis to self-determination and established the UN’s mission for the referendum in the Western Sahara (MINURSO) in 1991 with the goal of organizing and conducting a referendum in which the people of Western Sahara will choose between independence or integration into Morocco. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent on MINURSO, but unfortunately, Morocco, with the support of the French government in the Security Council, has frustrated all efforts by the UN to carry out a free, fair and transparent referendum.

In 1997, former Secretary of State James Baker was appointed as Personal Envoy of the UN Secretary General. After seven long years of negotiations, he presented a compromise that was unanimously endorsed by the UN Security Council, accepted by the Polisario Front on behalf of the Saharawis, but was rejected by Morocco.

According to recent reports, there is an attempt to bring a so-called solution which claims to bring “autonomy to the territory”. This actually represents a flagrant violation of international law and a denial of the right to self-determination for the Saharawi people. The right to self-determination is a core value of the United States of America and we believe your administration should not associate itself with this violation of a fundamental human right.

MINURSO was entrusted by the international community with organizing the referendum and, if its responsibility is to be changed, we should reconsider whether the United States taxpayers should continue to finance a UN operation that violates international law. Furthermore, we regret that past attempts to include human rights monitoring as part of the MINURSO mandate, which were in reaction to the violence against the Saharawis by Moroccan authorities, were blocked by France at the UN Security Council, and we encourage the UN mission at the UN to pursue this objective at the next UN Security Council meeting regarding Western Sahara.

It is our hope that you and your Administration will uphold the right to self-determination in Western Sahara, and by doing so, will advance the just and lasting solution that will bring peace and stability to that part of the world.

Sincerely,

- James M. Inhofe
United States Senate
- Patrick Leahy
United States Senate
- Russell Feingold
United States Senate

Copies were also sent to:
Honourable Condoleezza Rice,
Secretary of State
Honourable Stephen Hadley,
Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs
Honourable Alejandro Wolff,
Acting US Ambassador to the United Nations”. (SPS)

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