EUROPEAN MPs VISIT THE SAHARAWI PEOPLE

The Women from Western Sahara express their satisfaction that an important delegation sent by the European Parliament has just visited the Saharawi Refugee Camps and also the Saharawi Republic´s liberated areas.

A delegation of the European Parliament has just finished its working visit to the  saharawi refugee camps and the liberated territories of Western Sahara to closely stop at the situation of the Saharawi refugees as to hold talks with SADR authorities.

The delegation composed of Mr. Ivo Vajgl, Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) and ex-Slovenian foreign minister, Mr. Pino Arlacchi, Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats and vice of the former UN secretary general, Ms. Isabella Lövin, Greens and reporter of the European Parliament’s Cooperation and Development Committee on the fisheries with Morocco, Mr. Mojca Kleva, Social Democrats, and Mr. Bernardo João Ferreir, United Left Party, informed source of the Saharawi Ministry in charge of European Affairs.

The three-day trip have featured a series of talks with leaders of the Saharawi state and Saharawi refugees and has visited Saharawi institutions and facilities.

Last year, Pino Arlacchi and Ivo Vajgl spoke out in favor of interrogations on the deteriorating situation in the occupied Western Sahara, asking the European Council to invite the Moroccan government to put an end to its policy of discrimination and violation of human rights against the Saharawi population, and to allow the population to self-determine its future with a free and fair referendum, as recommended by the UN Security Council resolutions.

SAHARAWI WOMEN CONDEMN AGGRESSION AGAINST A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT MEMBER

The Saharawi Women express their condemnation to the attitude of the moroccan police at the L´Aayoune´s Airport when the Member of the European Parliament, Mr. willy Meyer, was going to visit the occupied Western saharan capital.

The European Parliament Member was beaten and pushed by moroccan police last Sunday, October 31st,  when they banished him from the airport in the Western Sahara´s  capital, ilegally occupided by the Kingdom of Morocco since 36 year ago.

Mr. Meyer was on his way to Western Sahara to investigate the human rights situation in the capital El Aaiun and those of Morocco, the occupied territories of Western Sahara. Moroccan police met him on the stairs of the plane where they forbade him entrance into the country. In opposition, he sat down passively resisting their orders, where the police beat and push him.

Willy Meyer fell finally to the ground where he struck his neck and his wrists, reported the Spanish newspaper El Mundo Monday.

"I feel I have fallen off a horse. If this is what they do against an MP, imagine what they are doing to the Saharawi people," he told to the spanish newspaper El Mundo.

After the episode, Willy Meyer flew back to Gran Canaria where he came from. There he stated that he would lodge a complaint with the Spanish foreign ministry and try to get Morocco to a Spanish court for police violence at the airport. 

Saharawi Women launch an urgent appeal to the international community to put pressure on the moroccan government to stop its policy of repressión against not only the peaceful saharawi people in the occupied cities but also the international visiters who investigates the great violations of human rights perpetrated by the moroccan army in Western Sahara.

WE CONDEMN ENERGETICALLY THE EUROPEAN´S KIDNAPING IN THE SAHARAWI REFUGEE CAMPS

On behalf of the whole people of Western Sahara and particularly on their Women, we condemn energetically the week-end´s kidnaping of three european aid-workers in the peaceful refugee camps in sothern- algeria.

The Saharawi Women want to express their total solidarity with the families and friends of the aid workers kidnaped by the terrorists:Ms AINOA FERNADEZ DE RINCÓN, Spanish and member of the Association of Friends of the Sahrawi people in Extremadura, Spain, Mr. ENRIC GONYALONS, Spanish from the NGO, MUNDUBAT, Spain, and Ms. ROSSELLA URRU, Italian from the NGO, CISP, from Italy .

We underlines that such terrorist attack is not  aiming to terrorize the hundreds of foreigners and aid workers  but also for jeopardizing the international solidarity with the refugee people of Western sahara and their just struggle for peace and justice in the Africa´s last colony.

 “Since the treacherous kidnapping carried out by a terrorist group on three European cooperators working in the humanitarian field in the Saharawi refugee camps on Saturday October 22, the government of the Saharawi Republic and Polisario Front quickly made intensive efforts and contacted with countries of the Region to coordination and cooperation,” indicated a new statement issued Monday by the Saharawi Ministry of Information.

“While the Sahrawi Government reaffirms its strong condemnation to the cowardly abduction, it calls on states of the region and the world to continue and intensify the coordination, cooperation and working together in order to end this tragedy, as soon as possible,” the statement wrote.

Saharawi women launch an urgent appeal to the UN and the European Government to put pressure on the moroccan regime to implement the international resolutions on the problem of decolonization of Western Sahara which call for a free and fair referendum in Western Sahara.

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SAHARAWI PEOPLE CELEBRATES THE NATIONAL UNITY DAY

Saharawi Women express their deepest congratulations to the whole people of the Africa´s last colony for the celebration of the Saharawi National Day.

As every year, on October 12th, the whole people of Western Sahara has conmemorated yesterday one of his most important holidays: the National Unity Day.

The Saharawi people has celebrated Wednesday the double anniversaries 36th of the Declaration of National Unity in 1975 and first of the establishment of Gdeim Izik camp on 2010, in the presence of the President of the Republic, Mr. Mohamed Abdelaziz, along with members of the National Secretariat and SADR government, in addition to national and foreign delegations.

In his speech on the occasion, Mr. Babia Shia, minister of transport and chairman of the preparatory committee, stressed that the celebration of the National Unity Day “is an opportunity to evoke the sacrifices of the parents in order to close ranks and abort the colonial attempts to split the Saharawi society, as well as to meet the legitimate demands of our people for freedom and independence.”

The ceremony was marked by presenting testimonies of eyewitnesses who attended the historic meeting in Ein Bentili on October 12, 1975. These testimonies confirmed the importance of the event in formulating the unity and cohesion of the Saharawi people in face of the colonial attempts aiming to suppress the Saharawi identity, reaffirming adherence of the Saharawis to the Frente Polisario “as a sole and legitimate representative of the Saharawi people.”

The event, which was held Wednesday morning at the February 27th School (Saharawi refugee camps), was attended by foreign delegations participating in the annual International Encounter of Art in Western Sahara (acronym ARTIFARITI), delegation comprising 40 human rights activists from the occupied Western Sahara and representatives of national, Algerian and Spanish media. (SPS)

It is important to remember that on October 12, 1975, the national liberation movement, Polisario Front gathered a large number of Saharawi tribal elders in a conference in Ain Ben Tili to rally the tribes against impending Moroccan and Mauritanian invasion. The timing was intended to predate the October 16 Green March that staked Morocco's claim to what was then Spanish Sahara. The meeting resulted in a declaration of support from the tribes to Polisario, including by many from the pro-Spanish PUNS party and the Djema'a. As a result of the Ain Ben Tili gathering, a conference by the Djema'a was organized in Guelta Zemmur on November 28, where the Djema'a dissolved itself after declaring support to Polisario.

Since 1976, the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic celebrates October 12 as National Unity Day.

A delegation of 40 Sahrawi human rights activists representing the Sahrawi occupied territories, south of Morocco and university arrived Tuesday in the Saharawi refugee camps to take part in the festivities commemorating the double anniversary of National Unity Day and the establishment of Gdeim Izik camp .

“This anniversary is being held this year under exceptional circumstances on the light of regional and international developments, which reiterated the adherence of the Saharawi people to the national unity and to the Polisario Front as “a sole legitimate representative of the Saharawi people,” the human rights activist and former Saharawi political prisoner, Hamadi Nasiri, told SPS.

“Our presence here is to reaffirm commitment to our people and their struggle for national liberation and to abort the Moroccan attempts aiming to divide the Sahrawi people,” added Nasiri.

The Saharawi female activist, Ghalia Joumani, noted that coincidence of the anniversary of National Unity and Gdeim Izik camp “is a strong message to the international community that there are people still determined to recover their usurped rights.”

THREE WOMEN WIN THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE

The Women from the Africa´s last colony: Western Sahara, express their warmest congratulations to the three women from developing countries for wining the Peace Nobel Prize 2011 and also would like to express  their deepest gratitude to the tnternational jury for chossing these three prominent women from developing countries, Liberia and Yemen.

The Nobel Peace Prize for 2011 was awarded on Friday, ocotber 7th, to three women from Africa and the Arab world in acknowledgment of their non-violent role in promoting peace, democracy and gender equality. The winners were President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia — the first woman to be elected president in modern Africa — her compatriot, the peace activist Leymah Gbowee, and Tawakkol Karman of Yemen, a pro-democracy campaigner.

 ELLEN JOHNSON SIRLEAF: -- Johnson-Sirleaf earned the nickname "Iron Lady" by challenging warlord Charles Taylor for the presidency in 1997 during Liberia's brutal civil war. She lost by a landslide, but that never shook her resolve.
-- She won the 2005 presidential runoff against soccer icon George Weah, who alleged fraud although the polls received a clean bill of health from observers. She was sworn in as Africa's first elected female head of state in January 2006.
-- Johnson-Sirleaf vowed to create a "government of inclusion" to heal the wounds of war and toured the streets to win over Liberia's poor youth, many of them former child soldiers who believe Weah was cheated.
-- In January 2010, she went back on her campaign promise to be president for only one term when she announced she would contest the 2011 presidential election, to be held on October 11.
-- She has won widespread international praise for her work rebuilding Liberia, but is still struggling to convince many in the country that change is coming fast enough.
-- Born Ellen Euphemia Johnson in October 1938, she grew up in Monrovia and attended Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government where she obtained a Master's Degree in Public Administration in 1971.
* LEYMAH GBOWEE:
-- Leymah Gbowee, 39, mobilized and organized women across ethnic and religious divides to help bring an end to the war in Liberia and to ensure women's participation in elections.
-- Following the 2003 peace treaty, her network mobilized women to vote and was instrumental in the victory of Johnson-Sirleaf.
-- Since 2004, Gbowee has served as a commissioner on Liberia's Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
-- Since 2006, Gbowee has been executive director of Women in Peace and Security Network - Africa, an organization that works with women in Liberia, the Ivory Coast, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone to promote peace, literacy, and electoral politics.
* TAWAKUL KARMAN:
-- Both before and during the "Arab Spring," Tawakul Karman, 32, has played a leading part in the struggle for women's rights and for democracy and peace in Yemen, the prize committee said.
-- Founder in 2005 and chairwoman of Women Journalists without Chains, Tawakul Karman is a Yemeni journalist and activist who has devoted herself to the fight for media freedom. She is also a member of the Islamist party Islah Was.
-- A thorn in the side of the government, she was briefly arrested early this year after leading protests against autocratic Arab rulers.
-- She vowed in February to galvanize a youth-led uprising against President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has ruled Yemen for 33 years.
-- "We started rallies before Tunisia's revolution and were demanding reforms and other rights. But after Tunisia, we realized the solution is for this regime to go," Karman said.
Sources: Reuters/
It is also very important to remember that the people of Western Sahara was the first arab and african people to begin the so-called now as the "Arab Spring", when more than 20.000 saharawis organized a peaceful camps near the Wesgtern Sahara´s capital, the occupied Laayoune (El-AAiun), for demanding their socual, economic and political rights and protesting against the illegal occupation of the moroccan troops in their country: Western sahara and they also ask to implement the United Nations´s resolution forWestern Sahara mainly demanding a free and fair referendum for the people of Western Sahara.

 

 

AFRICAN WOMEN EXPRESS THEIR SOLIDARITY WITH THE SAHARAWI WOMEN

On behalf of the Saharawi Women´s Association in Spain (AMSE) we would like to express our deepest gratitude to the the organizers of the first International Conference of Solidarity with the struggle of the Saharawi Women which taken place in the capital of Nigeria, Abuja, from September 27th to 29th 2011.

This important event has been a golden opportunity for the participants that have arrived from different countries to express their total support and solidarity with the women of the Africa´s last colony whom still suffering injustice and lack of freedom due to the criminal occupation of the moroccan army since more than three decades ago.

One of the main nigerian newspaper online, NEWSDIARY, has published:

The 2011 International Conference on the Struggle of Saharawi Women for Freedom opened in Abuja Nigeria Tuesday September 27, with a yellow card to Moroccan authorities that their time is up in the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic, where the government of the North African Arab nation has continued to oppress, torture imprison and assassinate Saharawi people, especially the heroic women, veterans and survivors of the Polissario war spear-heading the dogged struggle to end domination of an African country by another. The day before the opening of the confab, a mass of women from all walks of life and many African and non-African countries from the Civil Society, the professions and variegated groups, had converged in the city on a huge road show which culminated in a picketing of the Embassy of Morocco with placards asking for a stop to the atrocities in the Western Sahara, which have subsisted for 35 years unabated. Addressing the opening of the confab which ends Wednesday September 28 with a Communiqué, WAELE/ARCELFA’s Founder/President and Chief Hostess of the event, Otunba (Dr.) Basirat Nahibi, recalled how the world pressurized Sudanese President Oumar Al Bashir to respect the January 9, 2005 Peace Agreement and hold a Referendum in Southern Sudan against all odds January 9, 2010, which led to the emergence of Southern Sudan as the 193rd member of the United Nations, and wondered: “Why then is the case of Western Sahara different? Is it because they do not have oil as in the case of Southern Sudan?” Underscoring the significance of this continent-wide and even global boost for the Saharawi Women’s struggle for freedom, being spear-headed this time around by women, Otunba Nahibi declared: “Gone are the days when African women (were) indifferent to the suffering of our Saharawi brothers and sisters in bondage. Let this conference be the catalyst that the international community needs to galvanize global action in heralding the death knell of the last colony (on) our beloved continent.” The conference is being attended by no less than two prominent martyrs and leaders of the Sahrawi Women’s Struggle for Freedom, Mrs. Fatma Mehdi, Secretary-General of the Saharawi Women Union and Aminatou Haidar, Saharawi Human Rights Defender and Political Activist, who said she was ashamed to even state the manner of indignities to which Saharawi women were subjected by Morocco’s agents, while the Saharawi President was represented by Mohammed Khaddan. The keynote address at the opening was given by no other than former Representative of the United Nations’ Secretary-General to the Western Sahara, American diplomat Ambassador Frank Ruddy, 50-year of diplomatic work in African and the one who conducted a Referendum on Western Sahara (he was also new envoy just posted to Malabo when Nigeria reared to act against reported slave labour by her citizens on the island!) Apologetic on behalf of past Republican administrations in the US, Ruddy let drop the confession as to where his heart was, even as he conducted the referendum which was botched with the connivance of the UN (“what is the UN Charter among friends?”) and while the Moroccan King was a great friend of his (American) President! Nigeria’s ASUU leader Prof. Ukachukwu Awuzie and NLC President Waheed Omar renewed their know support for the Saharawis, while in signature, unequivocal terms, immediate past WABA President, activist Lagos lawyer Femi Falana, announced that time was out for hypocritical statements and positions on the Saharawi issue, adding that his colleagues in the law were ready to collaborate with others, even as they are already preparing to appoint a Special Prosecutor “to file a case against all other criminals against humanity, as Morocco will be fought in and outside Abuja until the S.A.D.R people are free.” Re-echoing the Pan – Africanist late President Nkrumah of Ghana as did NLC President Omar earlier, Falana said Africa and indeed the world could not be said to be free if any part of it was still in bondage.

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WE CONDEMN THE BRUTAL INTERVENTION IN THE OCCUPIED CITY OF DAKHLA

The Women and the whole people of Western Sahara express their deep condemnation to the brutal intervention of the moroccan army and settlers in the occupied city of Dakhla and also would like to express their condolence to the Mohamed-Lamin Lehbib´s family.

Last sunday,  September 25th, a group of sahrawis organized a peaceful demonstration in the occupied saharawi city of Dakhla for  protesting against the savage attack carried out by a moroccan settler on a sahrawi fan during a football match between a local team and a team coming from Morocco.
Saharawi Women strongly condemn this new brutal intervention of the moroccan oppressive forces and hundreds of settlers which has caused the death of the young sahrawi called: Maichan Ould Mohamed Lamine Ould Lehbib, while a lot of other saharawis were seriously injured and many Saharawi houses and properties were ransacked and vandalised.
Saharawi Women launch an urgent appeal to the European Union and the United Nations to put pressure on the moroccan government to stop the great violations of human rights in the occupied cities of Western Sahara and on the face of this new and repeated terrorising act, it is imperative that the United Nations proceeds immediately to the establishment of a UN mechanism to enable the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) to protect monitor and report on the human rights in the territory. The protection of civilians as an international obligation should not be subjected to double standards and discrimination in terms of what is happening in Western Sahara and in other parts of the world.

WESTERN SAHARA PEOPLE WAS THE FIRST ONE IN THE SO-CALLED "ARAB SPRING"

There is no dout that the small and peaceful people of Western Sahara was the first one to begin with the peaceful demostrations that we have witnessed these great changings in the arab countries particularly in the northern part the african continent.

However and unfortunatelly, in the case of the Western Sahara People´s demands were brutally repressed and violently dismantled when the moroccan army fiercely intervened against the peaceful Camps in Gdeim Izik, 15 kilometers from El-AAiun.

The famous spanish newspaper has recently published an interesting article on the so-called "Arab Spring". The North-African expert journalist, Ignacio Cembrero has publishes a long interview with a well-known saharawi whom live in the occupided citties of Western Sahara.

On 4 November, 2010, Elabadila Chbihna Maaelaynine left his home in Casablanca to fly to Laâyoune, the capital of Western Sahara. Although he is well integrated into Moroccan society, with a well-paid job as a computer programmer, as a Sahrawi he says he felt he had to see the Agdaym Izik camp set up by some 12,000 refugees a month earlier in the outskirts of the city. Five days later, Moroccan police forcibly dismantled the camp, leaving at least 12 people dead, among them several police officers.

Just under three months later, on February 20, Maaelaynine was among the thousands attending a peaceful demonstration in the Moroccan capital of Rabat calling for constitutional and political reform in Morocco that would include a solution to the conflict in Western Sahara.

"Western Sahara was where the first Arab revolts took place, but unlike in Tunisia and Egypt, there has been no happy ending," says the 46-year-old, whose great-grandfather[A1]  was Sheikh Maaelaynine, a local tribal leader who stood up to the French and Spanish colonizers a century ago, and who founded the former Spanish colony's religious capital Smara.

The Western Sahara conflict is both one of the world's oldest and one of its most neglected. More than 30 years after the war began, following Spain's hasty departure and Morocco's land grab, the displacement of large numbers of people and a ceasefire in 1991 that froze military positions, its end remains remote.

Maaelaynine has been campaigning discreetly for reform in Morocco for several years: in 2003, shortly before Rabat offered limited autonomy to Western Sahara, he published an article in the weekly Le Journal calling for greater political independence, along with a bigger share of the revenue from the region's vast mineral wealth. He is now one of the leaders of the February 20 movement, which continues to hold peaceful protests every Sunday in cities throughout Morocco. He blames the Moroccan authorities for the violence that ensued when the police raided the camp.

Mohammed Ghalous, the government representative for the Laâyoune region, said the gendarmerie and auxiliary forces had moved in "to end a situation which had exhausted all means of dialogue," by dismantling the camp.

The Polisario Front movement, which seeks independence for the Western Sahara, accused the security forces of injuring hundreds of people in the dawn raid on the camp. The security forces raided the camp by ground and air, using helicopters.

Maaelaynine condemns the violence, and says that the organizers of the protest camp were extremely careful not to provoke the Moroccan authorities, and imposed careful checks on who entered the camp, banning Polisario flags, for example. He says that those responsible for the deaths of the Moroccan police officers should be brought to justice. "But I have no respect for a regime that cracked down in this way on people who were staging a peaceful protest," he adds.

The unrest in November came ahead of yet another failed round of talks between Morocco and the Polisario Front. The latter wants a UN-organized self-determination referendum, with independence as one of the options. Morocco has so far rejected any proposal that goes beyond greater autonomy.

Saharawi Women launch an urgent appeal to the United Nations and the European Union and all the peace-loving countries and persons all over the world for puting presure on the government of Morocco to respetct the democratic demands of the saharawi people, to respect the human rights in the saharawi occupided cities and to implement the UN resolutions on the Africa´s last colony: Western Sahara.

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MOROCCAN PROPAGANDA, AS USUALLY

The Saharawi Women express their strongest condemnation to the continous moroccan propaganda against the just struggle for peace and justice of the people of Western Sahara.

The moroccan goverment is always trying to confuse the international public opinion about what the United Nations Organization has called as a problem of decolonization of Western sahara due to the continuous illegal occupation of the moroccan troops of Western Sahara.

Saharawi Women totally support the official statement made by the Saharawi Government related to the last propaganda launched by the moroccan regime agains the peaceful people of Western Sahara and its sole representative: POLISARIO Front . The statement  was published by the Saharawi Press agency which says:

"The Sahrawi Government and the Polisario Front denied Friday categorically allegations that “about 556 mercenaries from the Polisario Front have been brought in to support Gaddafi troops, have been arrested by the guerrillas of the Transitional National Council,” as was reported Thursday by Moroccan news agency, in a statement issued by the Ministry of Information.

“The Government of the Sahrawi Republic and the Polisario Front deny categorically these lies, aimed at compromising the nobility of the cause of the Saharawi people and its just national struggle for freedom and self-determination, and confirm that the fighters of the brave Sahrawi People Liberation Army, did not and will not participate in any conflict outside the borders of the Sahrawi Republic and that their exclusive mission was and will remain the national sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Sahrawi Republic,” the statement said.

“The Kingdom of Morocco is seeking, through the dissemination of these lies, to distort the facts that are clearly known to the international public opinion and all governments that are closely following the developments of the conflict in Western Sahara and the situation in the Maghreb.”

“The whole world is aware that the Qaddafi regime has suspended all forms of support for the Saharawi people's struggle against Moroccan expansion since July 1982, and later signed with the Kingdom of Morocco the Convention of what is known as the Arab-African Unionin 1984.”

“The Rabat – Tripoli center engaged in the course of trading and bartering on the basis of multi-faceted Libyan support to Morocco with money and weapons in its expansionist war against the Sahrawi people. In contrast, the Kingdom of Morocco proceeded to hand over Libyan opponents refugees in Morocco, such as Colonel Mahiashi and his colleagues, track and follow up Libyan dissidents in Europeand the United States in addition to permanent efforts to puff Colonelin some capitals.”

“Since that date, Kingdom of Morocco and the Qaddafi regime did not spare of any effort to destroy the Sahrawi resistance militarily and diplomatically, especially on the African scene,” the statement added.

Finally the statement called for an urgent independent inquiry into these allegations which were reported by the Moroccan news agency.

It also invited the new Libyan authorities, represented by the Transitional National Council, to issue a denial urgently to the charges fabricated by the Moroccan occupier, for the benefit of the Libyan and Sahrawi peoples as well as all peoples of the region.
 

SAHARAWI WOMEN CONDEMN THE NORWAY´S CRIMINAL ATTACK

The Women and the whole people from the Africa´s last colony: Western Sahara, want to express their total solidarity with the people of the peaceful Norway and reaffirm their strongest condemnation to the  the acts of terrorism perpetrated against the peace loving people of Norway on the sadest Friday´s, July 22nd 2011.

Saharawi Women express their most deepest and sincere condolences for the great loss of innocent lives mainly young peolpe from this scandinavian  country.

The Saharawi Women  condemn vigorously the vicious deadly attacks that targeted the norwegian government buildings and the peaceful Youth Camp at Utoeya, and we would like to extend the most heartfelt condolences and sympathy with the families of the victims of these criminal attacts and express its total solidarity with the whole Norwagian Women´s organizations and and also with the government and people of the peaceful Norway.

Sahrawi Women say to you that our hearts go out to the people of Norway and reaffirm our will on continuing struggling agains all kind of terrorisms and all the acts of the religious extremism.

We, the saharawi women, are convinced that the peace loving people of Norway will quickly overpass this difficult and painful moment and that it will defeat violence and the sowing of fear and terror among the innocent, the rationality will overcome insanity and love will, inevitably, overcome hatred and that justice will eventually prevail.

We are sure that the whole people of Norway will not be intimated by this mean act of terrorism, and will continue its undeterred advocacy for peace, freedom and prosperity for all the peoples of the world and mainly in their example of a democratic and solidarity country.

MOROCCAN KING´S DANGEROUS INTENTIONS IN WESTERN SAHARA

Saharawi Women also express their deep concern on the moroccan´s king dangerous intentions on what is known the Africa´s last colony: Western Sahara.

We, the Western Saharan women totally support the letter sent recently by the Saharawi President, Mr. Abdelaziz, to the United Nations Organization Secretary General, Mr. Ban Ki Moon.

Due to its importance, we publish the whole text of the Saharawi President´s letter:

"I would like to address to you this letter to draw your attention to the intentions of the Moroccan Government to implement some political decisions concerning the constitutional reforms in Morocco, in which it also intends to include Western Sahara that is under the illegal occupation of the Kingdom of Morocco.

Western Sahara is not a Moroccan territory, and it is listed by the United Nations as a Non-Self-Governing Territory pending decolonization. Its final legal status can be determined only by the Sahrawi people themselves through a free, fair and just referendum on self-determination conducted under the supervision of the United Nations.

It is the Moroccan occupation that has so far impeded the exercise by the Sahrawi people of this inalienable and internationally recognized right. As you have pointed out in your latest report to the Security Council, there can be no solution to the Sahrawi-Moroccan conflict without full respect for the will and sentiments of the Sahrawi people, and that any agreement or settlement that does not take this into account will only engender more tension and instability in the region.

Mr. Secretary-General,

By engaging in such provocative operation, the Kingdom of Morocco only persists in its policy of intransigence and obstruction to the efforts deployed by the United Nations with a view to bringing to conclusion the decolonization of Western Sahara.

The Frente POLISARIO, the sole and legitimate representative of the Sahrawi people and the partner in the peace process negotiations, which are conducted under the auspices of your Personal Envoy, Mr. Christopher Ross, renews its categorical rejection of the arbitrary and forced involvement of the occupied territories of Western Sahara in a Moroccan internal exercise that does not concern the Sahrawis at all.

It also condemns these unilateral political decisions taken by the Kingdom of Morocco, which cannot have any legal implications that may affect directly or indirectly the final status of Western Sahara.

The Frente POLISARIO therefore calls on the United Nations to take all necessary measures to urge the Kingdom of Morocco to desist from making such move that constitutes an infringement on the internationally recognised borders and a flagrant violation of the Charter and resolution of the United Nations and international law.

I would appreciate it if Your Excellency would bring the present letter to the attention of all members of the Security Council.

Please accept, Mr Secretary-General, the assurances of my highest consideration.

Mohamed Abdelaziz,

Secretary-General of the Frente POLISARIO.

AMNISTY INTERNATIONAL CONDEMNS VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN OCCCUPIDED WESTERN SAHARA

Saharawi Women express their full support to the last Amnesty International´s Report in which once again has condemned the flagrant violations of human rights in the occupided cities of Western Sahara.

The Saharawi Women express their deeep concern on the constant violations of the most basics human rights of the saharawi populations in the occupided cities and towns of Western sahara, ilegally occupided by kingdom of Morocco since its military invasion at the end of the year 1.975.

Amnesty International (AI) has denounced, in its 2011 report on the state of human rights in the Middle East and North Africa, the repression practiced by the Moroccan forces in Western Sahara.

“The Freedom of expression, association and assembly has been restricted, especially on issues relating to political sensitivity, such as the question of Western Sahara,” the report asserted.

It noted that the Sahrawi human rights activists were harassed and persecuted for political reasons during 2011, adding “dozens of people suspected of security offenses were detained and some, held in communicate, reportedly been tortured or abused.”

“The arrests and collective expulsions of foreigners continued. Death sentences were imposed and no executions have taken place. No action has been taken to bring to justice the perpetrators of gross human rights violations committed in the past," the report said.

AI underlined the negotiations on the status of Western Sahara between the Polisario Front and Morocco “were still deadlocked”, adding the UN Security Council renewed the mandate of the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) on last April, without including “a mechanism to monitor the human rights situation.”

The report pointed that the Moroccan security forces dismantled on November 8, 2010 by using force a protest camp for the Saharawis in Gdeim Izik, near occupied city of El Aaiun, which settled to protest against marginalization policy as well as demand jobs and housing, confirming killings and injuries among the Saharawis.

WESTERN SAHARA´S INTERNATIONAL CINEMA FESTIVAL

The Saharawi Women are very thankful for the hundreds of actors, Film-makers, actrisses, producers and persons in general who are trying to give awareness on the injustice that is facing the saharawi pwople for over 35 years due the illegal occupation of the kingdom of Morocco to Western Sahara.

The Saharawi Minister of Culture, Mrs.Khadija Hamdi, affiemed in a press conference that the eighth edition of International Film Festival of Western Sahara (FISAHARA) brings a new vision of solidarity with the Saharawi people for the recovery of its legitimate rights to self-determination and independence.

Mrs. Khadija Hamdi, who hosted Monday a press conference at the offices of the Ministryof Culture on the eve of the opening of Fisahara, declared that "the objectives of the festival were designed to expand the solidarity movement with the Sahrawi cause and support the international network of artists and intellectuals, known as "Together with Sahara."

"Our action aim at finding new forms of art to give to the cinema the humanitarian and political spirit through the projection of movies in refugee camps, to enable the Saharawi youth to discover the cinematographic art," she added.

The eighth  edition of FISAHA which coincides with the regional festival of culture and folk art, is presenting long and short films from around the world, documentaries and a series of movies devoted specially to the theme of the Western Sahara, underlined the minister.

A wide numbers of artists and people from all over the world are these days in the Refugee Camp of Dakhla  taking part in this new FISARA´s edition, the minister affirmed, adding that the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is the guest of honor at the eighth edition of the International Cinema Festival in the Saharawi Refugee Camps.

SAHARAWI WOMEN IN THEIR SIXTH NATIONAL CONFERENCE

Hundreds of Women from Western Sahara have just finished the three days sessions of their Sixth National Conference (called also Congress) which was hold in the Saharawi Refugee Camps from 22 to 24 of April 2011. This important event for the Saharawi women is organized each four years. As in other ocassions, hundreds of Saharawi Women have taken part in this important gathering repressenting the females from the Refuggee Camps, and also from the occupided cities of Western Sahara and overseas and saharawi communities abroad.

The VI Congress of the National Union of Saharawi Women (NUSW) concluded on late hours of last sunday, April 24th, by renewing confidence in the ex-Secretary General, Ms. Fatma Almahdi, electing an Executive off of 8 members and delivering a number of messages and recommendations.

Once again, the saharawi women declared oppenly their support to the legitime struggle of the saharawi people for peace and justice and express their determination on continuing playing a vital role in the saharawi society and stressed the need of preparing our women in technical and professional skills.

In his concluding speech, the Saharawi Prime Minister, Ms. Abdelkader Taleb Omar, applauded degree of maturity and responsibility shown by the participants in the evaluation of work and chart the way for the orientations of the coming stage.

The final session marked by reading out messages, recommendations and programme of action, which the participants have been engaged to study during 3 days of deliberations.

The Congress, which started on April 22 in the Feb. 27 School, witnessed cultural, intellectual, science and sport workshops as well as workshops for educating elderly, voluntary work and human rights.

Foreign delegations from the African, american and european continents attended the important gathering of the saharawi women and express their solidarity and support to the saharawi women in their struggle for living in an independent and democratic country.

SOUTH-AFRICAN WOMEN REAFFIRM THEIR SUPPORT AND SOLIDARITY WITH THEIR SISTERS IN WESTERN SAHARA

The National Union of  Saharawi Women´s International Officer, Suelma Beiruk, has just been received in the South-African capital by the President of the ANC´s Women´s League who has reaffirmed their support and solidarity with the people and women óf the Africa´s last colony: Western Sahara.
The President of the ANC Women's League and Minister of the Basic Education, Ms. Angie Motshekga, renewed last friday the firm support of her country to the just cause of the Saharawi people, according to the Saharawi Embassy in South Africa.

During her meeting with a Saharawi delegation at headquarters of the SADR Embassy in Pretoria, Ms. Motshekga confirmed that the supporting position of her country “stayed in the past and will remain in the future”
She saluted struggle of the Saharawi women, considering it a “unique example of resistance in the world”
The president of the ANC Women's League welcomed her invitation to attend the Saharawi women´s  conference which is scheduled next April 20th to 24th, adding that it will certainly be an “occasion to strengthen the close ties between the ANC women's league and UNSW”
 Mrs. Suelma Beiruk briefed struggle of the Saharawi women in the refugee camps occupied territories of Western Sahara, as well as the next congress of Saharawi women.
The meeting also focused on the latest developments of the Saharawi cause and bilateral relations between the peoples and governments of both countries.

SAHARAWI WOMEN CONMEMORATE THE INTERNATIONAL WOMEN´S DAY

The Saharawi Women as the majority female all over the world have conmemorated the International Women´s Day with different activities.

Western Saharan Women not only those that are living in the refugee camps but also those whom are ressisting the moroccan military occupation and those who are living abroad have celebrated this important day not only because this year is the centenary of the official declaration of the International Women´s Day but also because in an anniversary of the first saharawi martyr: Bachir Lehlawi.

This pictures were taken in a conmemoration of the International Women´s Day celebrated in the spanish capital, Madrid, where the saharawi human rights activist, Digdja Lachgare, has been invited by a spanish NGO. In such event, Mrs. Lachgare has given her personal experience of suffering due to her more that twelve years of imprisonment in the moroccan prisons and she has spoken about the flagrant violations of human rights in the occupided cities of Western Sahara and she launched an urgent appeal to the international opinion to put pressure on the moroccan government for stopping in its repressive policy and to respect the international resolutions and the human rights in the occupided cities of Western sahara and to release all the saharawi prisoners of conciousness.

The Saharawi Women as the majority female all over the world have conmemorated the International Women´s Day with different activities.

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This year marks the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day. The day was commemorated for the first time on 19 March 1911 in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland, following its establishment during the Socialist International meeting the prior year. More than one million women and men attended rallies on that first commemoration.

Since then, International Women’s Day has been celebrated in many countries around the world. It is a day when women are recognized for their achievements without regard to divisions, whether national, ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic or political. It is an occasion for looking back on past struggles and accomplishments, and more importantly, for looking ahead to the untapped potential and opportunities that await future generations of women.

Saharawi women are known by her example of emanipation and empowerment in the arab and muslim world and they wish to strenghthen the ties and relationship with all the women´s organizations and all the peace loving countries for struggling together for a just a peaceful world.

SAHARAWI WOMEN CONDEMN THE MOROCCAN BRUTAL REPRESSION IN OCCUPIDED DAKHLA

The Association of Saharawi Women in Spain (AMSE) expresses its strongest condemnation of the acts of vandalism carried out by moroccan settlers against the Saharawi civilians in the occupied city of Dakhla. According to eyewitnesses who have been in telephone contact with AMSE, affirmed us that on the night of Saturday, February 26, thousands of Moroccan settlers, escorted by numerous Moroccan army vehicles have assaulted the neighborhoods where the Sahrawi population living mostly by burning private cars, burglarizing homes and businesses and creating a true chaos in the occupied city of Dakhla, generating a real situation of terror and forcing the helpless Saharawi population to leave the city, fleeing into the desert for protecting themselves against the brutal repression of the moroccan settlers.

While the Saharawi people was celebrating with joy and happiness the trirty-fith anniversary of the proclamation of the Saharawi State: the Saharawi Republic, the moroccan occupation authorities tried once again, undermines the cultural identity of Western Sahara and misrepresent the true social and political situation faced by Western Sahara. All this atrocity occurred while the Sahrawi people organized a festival in the city of Dakhla and at the end of the members of the Moroccan occupation launched this wave of settler violence against civilians Moroccan Sahara.

 Saharawi Women take the opportunity to make an urgent appeal to all the peace loving countries and the whole  international community, that under the new changes that are being generated against dictatorial regimes especially in North Africa, to put pressure on the Moroccan government to respect the international law and particularly human rights in occupied Western Sahara.

RFK CENTER REAFFIRMS GREAT VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS

The Women from the Africa´s last colony, Western Sahara, express their satistaction for the recent report of the prestigous R.F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights where the american institution reaffirmed that in the occupied cities of Western sahara the moroccan authorities still comiting human rights abuses persist in wake of November unrest.

Based on dozens of interviews, this report documents human rights abuses inflicted by Moroccan government forces against civilians during the dismantlement of the Gdaim Izik protest camp in November 2010, and in its aftermath.

In January 2011, a delegation of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights traveled to Western Sahara to visit 2008 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award Laureate, Aminatou Haidar. Led by Haidar, the delegation examined human rights violations allegedly committed by Moroccan security forces against Sahrawis. The delegation met with more than two dozen victims of abuse, torture, and imprisonment and their families, in addition to Moroccan government officials and representatives of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO).

According to the findings of the report, torture, arbitrary arrest and detention, failure to follow criminal procedures, and repression of civilians by Moroccan government forces are all too common in Western Sahara. This context, in concert with the violence that broke out on November 8, 2010, when Moroccan security forces dismantled the Gdaim Izik camp set up by residents of Western Sahara to protest social and economic discrimination, reinforces the need for impartial international human rights monitoring of the situation.

EOROPEAN TRADE UNIONS CONDEMS GREAT VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS

The Women from Western sahara express their total support to the report released these days of a mission of the European most representative trade unions where they have denounced the holding in the Moroccan prisons of hundreds of Saharawis have been arrested by the Moroccan occupying forces last November in Western Sahara.

Eight unions from different European countries, including Italy, who had stay in the capital city of Western Sahara, ilegally occupied by moroccan army, El-Aaiún, from 23 to 25 January, have published their report in which they denounce great abuses of human rights against the peaceful Saharawi population.

"The objectives of the mission were to show the international solidarity to Western Sahara workers and to the Sahrawi people, and be directly in touch with the current situation of the Sahrawi occupied territories by Morocco," the trade union´s report affirms in its joint communiqyé that have been published on monday, january 30th, in the italian capital, Rome.

Saharawi Women launch an urgent appeal to the international community and the European Union to put pressure on the moroccan government to respect the human rights in the occupied Western Sahara and the United Nations´s resolutions on this problem of decolonization.

MOROCCAN REGIME STILL VIOLATING HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE OCCUPIDED WESTERN SAHARA

The Saharawi Women express their deep concern about the continuing violation of human rights in the occupided cities of Western sahara as are a lot of the NGOs and Human Rights organizations like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International´s reports are confirming the great vilations of human rights in the oc saharawi cities occupided by the Kingdom of Morocco for over thirty-five years ago.

Sahrawi defender of human rights Izzana Amidan, 31, confirmed, in an audio testimony after she was provisionally released some weeks ago, she was tortured and ill-treated.

She was subjected to severe beatings, insults, verbal abuse and practices degrading to human dignity. She was also interrogated by various Moroccan intelligence services at the so-called prosecutor s office in the center of gendarmerie in the occupation city of El Aaiun, on charges of participation in the camp of Gdeim Izik.

The human rights activist had been arbitrarily arrested Saturday by the police officers of the Moroccan occupation, before being released temporarily pending her appearance again in front of the so-called investigating judge February 28, with a view to her interrogation.

On the other hand, two Sahrawi activists, Kaltoum Lebsir and Mariam Bourhim, arrested Sunday at the airport in Casablanca (Morocco) on their return from South Africa, have also been provisionally released Wednesday until March 24.