MRS. HAIDAR CANDIDATE FOR THE "SAKHAROV AWARD"

The women from Western Sahara would like to congratulate our compatriot Aminatou  Haidar for been candidate once again in one of the most important awards that the European Parliament gives to relevant personalities of human rights defenders from all over the world.

The Saharawi human rights activist, Aminatou Haidar, has nominated to the Sakharov Prize for human rights granted by the European Union for her commitment to defend human rights in Western Sahara, according to a source from the occupied city of El Aaiun.

The Saharawi activist was nominated within nine institutions and international figures for this Prize, to select one of them October 21 in a public meeting of the EU Parliament.

Aminatou Haidar won many awards in the field of human rights by international organizations, including Robert F. Kennedy Foundation of America, Juan Maria Bandres for Human Rights and Solidarity with the Refugees as well as Khobelano Prize of "resistance and freedom".

She also engaged in various indefinite hunger strikes which put her under the harassment and detained of the Moroccan authorities, where she adopted by many international organizations as a prisoner and political activist for defending the right of the Saharawi people to self-determination and independence.

It is note worthy that the Saharawi activist held November14, 2009 an indefinite hunger strike in the Spanish airport of Lanzarote for 32 days on the ground of her forcibly deportation by the Moroccan authorities from the occupied city of El Aaiun.

SAHARAWIS CELEBRATES THE INTERNATIONAL PEACE DAY

Today, September 21th, The Saharawi people celebrates the International Peace Day. The Saharawi Women express their total support to the Saharawi Government´s decision on conmemorating every year the date: september 21th, as the International Peace Day , as an expressión of the whole people of western Sahara to their peaceful will of solving the conflict of what is considered as the Africa´s last colony due to the illegal occupation of the moroccan army to Western Sahara.

The Saharawi Press Agency (SPS) informs: The Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic has decided on Sunday to commemorate the International Day of Peace declared by the United Nations which falls Sept 21, in accordance with its obligations as a founder member of the African Union, according to a statement of the SADR Presidency.

The statement asked all the national bodies and institutions as well as citizens to exert maximum efforts in order to create the best conditions of cooperation, seriousness and commitment for implementing all the activities, in line with the SADR standing and responsibility within the AU to contribute for security and peace in Africa and the world.

The SADR decided to mark this Day by a number of activities and events, including hosting the AU flag besides SADR flag on the national institutions and observe a minute of silent for peace at 10:00 am GMT, 11 o’clock on the local time, visit the Saharawi victims of war in center of Shraif Martyr, developments works by members of the armed forces and multiple voluntary campaigns

According to the same source, the Day will also be known the organization of a football game under the slogan “one day and one goal”, in addition to teaching a lesson of peace in all SADR national schools, ensure complete coverage to all day’s activities by the national media as well as organize lectures and media platforms.

The International Day of Peace was ratified in the AU decision on the year of peace and security in Africa by the XIV Ordinary Session of the AU Conference held February 2010 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and the conference of “make peace happen” which adopted by the XV Ordinary Session of the AU Conference July 2010 in Kampala, Uganda.

OUR SUPPORT TO ALI-SALEM TAMEK´S GROUP

The Women from western Sahara express their total supportt and solidarity with the so-called Ali-Salem Tamek´s Team who are a group of very well-known saharawi human rights activists who are in moroccan jails since nearly one yera ago.

We, the Saharawi Women support their just struggle and ask for their unconditioned release because we are sure that they haven´t committed any crime and they are  accussed by the moroccan government only because they have visited their family and their people in the Saharawi Refugee Camps.

Today, septermber 13th, the have published the following statement:

We, three Saharawi human rights activists who’ve been in jail for over 11 months without being charged nor tried, have decided to start a 48 hour hunger strike on 15 September 2010. We demand a either a fair trial or their unconditional release.

On April 28, 2010, we suspended our open-ended hunger strike which lasted forty-one days, as a response to the commitment of the Moroccan authorities to put an end to our emprisonment (the temporary release of three of our comrades was part of that commitment), which we considered as a positive sign and a first step towards ending our arrest for expressing our opinion in peaceful ways.

However, the continuation of our arrest against the urgent demand of all the Moroccan and international human rights organisations and international public opinion, which call for our release without any condition embodies the Moroccan authorities blind revenge of our group because of our opinions and our human rights and civil activities.

In contradiction to the international law that guarrantees the right to fair trial in logic and acceptable periods of time, the Moroccan authorities have neither started the preparations for our trial despite the 11 month-period of our emprisonment nor have they yet decided to release us.

Thus, we call all the democracy advocators, the human rights organisations in the world to support us in order to exert pressure on the Moroccan state to release all the human rights defenders and political prisoners in different Moroccan prisons.

The three Sahrawi prisoners of conscience, human rights defenders,

- Ali Salem Tamek, prison number 50010

- Brahim Dahane, prison number 50014

- Hammadi Naciri, Prison number 50015

September 13, 2010

The Local Prison of SaléSalem Tamek´s Group who

OUR TOTAL SOLIDARITY WITH PHOS-BOUCRÁA´S SAHARAWI WORKERS

Saharawi Women express their support and solidarity with PHOSBUCRÁA´s workers in their claims and peaceful demosntrations in the saharawi´s capital: L´Aayoune where these days have organized peaceceful demonstrations in front of MINURSO´s headquarters in the capital of Western Sahara.

The Saharawi Press Service (SPS) has published the following information:

Dozens of arrested and expelled Saharawis from FOS-Bukraa Company in the occupied city of El Aaiun have appealed to the UN mission in Western Sahara (MINURSO) to urgently intercede with the Moroccan Government for the actual settlement of their files.

In a statement on monday, september the 6th, the FOS-Bukraa Company workers denounced a violent repression of a protest that they organized in the occupied city of El Aaiun, holding the Moroccan administration responsible for the miserable situation which Saharawis live in the territory.

The Moroccan forces of occupation violently intervened to prevent the peaceful demonstration called for by Sahrawi Confederation for Saharawi Workers, which called on the UN Secretary General and the international community to urgently intervene to protect Saharawi workers and citizens and enable them to their confiscated rights.

The statement demanded the settlement of their seized rights according to the contract concluded between Saharawi workers and the Spanish company, involvement of the UN mission to facilitate settling the file and applying pressure on the Moroccan Government in this regard, and compelling Morocco to respect international treaties and conventions by the international community.

SAHARAWI WOMEN CONDEMN THE BRUTAL REPRESSION AGANIST THE 14 CANARIAN ACTIVISTS

The Saharawi Women express their most forceful comdenation to the brutal repressión of the moroccan occupied police and settlers against fourteen spanish activists from the Canary Island (located in front of Western Sahara) when they were participating in a peaceful demostration in the capital of our country: L´Aayoune, las week-end.

Last tuesday, August 30th, the 14 Spanish activists attacked in  El Aaiun made a press conference after their arrival to the Canary Islands and attested that the situation in the occupied territories of Western Sahara, under which the Saharawi people live, as a huge prison.

“Western Sahara is like a huge prison, where the people live under a climate of continued repression,” According to the testimony of one of the activists, Sara Mesa, upon arriving in Spain.

The activists arrived at the port of La Luz, where they were awaited by a group of 50 supporters with banners and posters for the Saharawi cause. The boat with 14 activists who were arrested and beaten by Moroccan police last Saturday arrived at the Port of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. The boat belongs to "Pro-Saharawi Sahara Acciones."

In the port waiting was a group of supporters who waved placards calling for the creation of a free and democratic referendum in what was the last colony of Spain in Africa and that has been occupied for more than 35 years by Morocco.

According to the testimony of Anselm Fariña "They attacked us without warning, individually administering straight punches to the kidneys and the face. They insulted us and spit on us without stopping. Some colleagues estimate that there were more than a hundred plainclothes police officers. Several of them followed us from our entry into the territory and even on the journey back."

"Nobody cared about what was happening in the occupied territories. Reports reached us that many Saharawi women and children were beaten and the result was many injuries and many faces bloodied. We wanted to denounce the repression suffered by the Saharawi people and we ended up surviving it in our own bodies," adds Anselmo Fariña, a professor from the island of Tenerife.

Members of the group announced their intention to denounce the brutal treatment by the Moroccan police in these incidents. The group of fifty militants who received them and the returning 14 activists shouted loudly: "Guilty Morocco, responsible Spain" and "Sahara Libre (free Sahara)."