A SOUTH-AFRICAN WOMAN APPOINTED AS THE NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF UN WOMEN

 

The Women from the what is considered the Africa´s last colony, Western Sahara, would like to express their warmest congratulations to Mrs. Mlanbo-Ngucka, for her appointment as the new Executive Director of United Nations Women (UN Women).

 

The Women from Western Sahara felt very happy  when in early August 2013 the United Nations Secretary General’s announcement that Ms. Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, former Deputy President of South Africa, was appointed as the new Executive Director of UN Women.

 

When the whole people from the Africa´s last colony, Western Sahara, and particularly the Saharawi Women knew about the official designation of the South-African leader Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka were very satisfied because it would be a great honnour for the all african women that a woman from our continent take this important place at the United Nations Orgaization.

 

Saharawi women wish you, dear south-african sister a lot of success in your new mission and not forget your sisters in Western Sahara who are still struggling por freedom and justice because of the ilegal moroccan occupation of their homeland.

THE WASHINGTON POST: SAHARAWI WOMEN PLAY AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE

The famous american newspaper The Washington Post has recently published an interesting article on the forgotten conflicto in Western Sahara. The american journalist Loveday Morris has visited the occupied Saharawi capital, Laayoune, and has written the following article in which has underlined the important role are playing the saharawi women in the struggle for freedom and justice in what is known as the Africa´s last colony: Western Sahara.

      

LAAYOUNE, Western Sahara — As dusk enveloped the salmon-pink houses of this capital city, the brightly colored robes of women stood out in a mass of protesters chanting for independence from Moroccan rule.

While other colonies in Africa threw off occupiers one by one, this rocky desert expanse on the continent’s northwestern coast remains a disputed territory controlled primarily by next-door Morocco and locked in a nearly 40-year-old forgotten struggle for the right to choose its fate. And in a Muslim-majority region where women are often marginalized from politics, women have taken an unusually prominent role in Western Sahara’s independence movement.

 

  Their involvement has spanned a guerrilla war with Morocco and, for the past two decades, a mostly peaceful protest movement. Female activists in the former Spanish colony attribute the phenomenon to a combination of the indigenous Sahrawi population’s moderate interpretation of Islam and the freedom they derived from their nomadic roots — but also, perhaps counterintuitively, to the prevalence of traditional gender roles, which they say give women the time to demonstrate.

“This is a pride for us, that this is led by women,” said Aminatou Haidar, a Nobel Peace Prize nominee and the most recognizable face of Western Sahara’s nationalist movement.
But as its duration shows, the campaign is an uphill battle that has so far been won by Morocco, which annexed most of Western Sahara after the Spanish withdrawal in 1976. Morocco argues that Western Sahara — home to abundant fishing grounds, lucrative phosphate mines and offshore oil — is an integral part of its territory and that separatists represent just a fraction of the population of about 500,000.
That is now probably the case, because Moroccan citizens — whom the Moroccan government entices to the area with tax breaks — are thought to outnumber the remaining 150,000 or so Sahrawis inside the territory by at least two to one.
The United States, like most nations, does not recognize Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara, but calls by the Sahrawi people for a referendum on independence have made little headway. Experts attribute that to a combination of Moroccan lobbying against the proposal, lack of international will to upset one of the region’s most stable countries and arguments between Morocco and the Sahrawis’ rebel-movement-turned-government-in-exile, the Polisario Front, over who should vote.
Moroccan officials argue that an independent Western Sahara is not viable and that longtime enemy Algeria is backing the cause to stir problems.
“There is no room for a failed state in the region,” Moroccan Deputy Foreign Minister Youssef Amrani told reporters in May. “It will fall into the hands of extremists.”
Despite the independence movement’s regular protests, the victories are small. Still, it appears to have brought about a shift in Moroccan government policy, which now officially supports making Western Sahara an autonomous region within the Moroccan state.
“Even if I don’t reach that day when the Sahara is independent, I am completely convinced that the next generation is going to live the day of independence,” Haidar said.  

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/in-western-sahara-women-play-large-role-in-forgotten-struggle-for-independence/2013/07/07/f46f23ec-dd06-11e2-85de-c03ca84cb4ef_story.html

   

MINISTER KHADIDJA HAMDI IN AN IMPORTANT AFRICA´S EVENT HELD IN ABUJA - NIGERIA -

An important Saharawi Women´s delegation led by the Minister of Culture, Mrs. Khadidja Hamdi has atended the second High Level Meeting of the Global Power Women Network Africa (GPWNA) held in Abuja, Nigeria from June 24th to 25th.  The main theme of this importtant continental conclave was  accelerating the implementation of commitment for women and girls, Socio-economic development amongst other things.

After this event, The First Lady of Nigeria Ms Dame Patience Jonathan has received the saharawi women´s delegation led by Minister Hamdi who reaffirmed solidarity with the struggle of Saharawi women for freedom and independence, praising, on behalf of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the remarkable and effective presence of Saharawi women in the various feminist events organized by Nigeria in the recent years.

During a reception on honor of the Saharawi delegation that attended the Second High Level Meeting of GlobalPOWEr Women Network Africa, Mrs. Jonathan expressed her desire to further diversify, develop and deepen the relations of partnership between Nigerian and Saharawi women to serve the interests of both sides, as to reflect the aspiration of the African woman to play her full role in pushing forward the wheel of development, democracy and human rights in the continent. She, in this regard, stressed the need to maintain constant communication between women from different parts of the continent to exchange  their experience and to identify the common objectives consultatively.

From her part, Head of the Saharawi Delegation and Minister of Culture Ms Khadija Hamdi expressed the gratitude of Saharawi women, and through them the Saharawi people as a whole, to Nigeria's people and government, for their principle of support to the Saharawi people. She, in particular, praised the personal sympathy and solidarity shown by Nigeria’s First Lady with the Saharawi woman in particular and the African one in general.

The Saharawi delegation has been in Abuja since June 27, after taking part at the Second High Level Meeting of the GlobalPOWEr Women Network Africa, which had convened in Abuja. The delegation includes Ms Fatma Al-Maehdi, the Secretary General of the Saharawi Women Union, Ms Sukeina Larabas, as an Advisor to the Presidency of the Republic, Mr Abbi Bachraya Bachir, the SADR Ambassador in Nigeria, and Mr Wadad Mustapha, who is in charge of a mission in the SADR embassy in Abuja.

The Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic's Minister of Culture, Ms Khadija Hamdi has also highlighted from Abuja the leading role played by Africa in supporting the struggle of Saharawi people, in a speech delivered last Friday on the occasion of the High Level Meeting of the GlobalPOWEr Women Network Africa, in the Nigerian capital.

Ms Khadija Hamdi talked about the flagrant violations of human rights being committed by the Moroccan state against Saharawi women in the occupied territory of Western Sahara. “The completion of Africa’s sovereignty requires awareness from African women to the suffering of Saharawi women and to the importance of showing solidarity with them to achieve self-determination and national independence,” said the Minister.

Recalling the situation of women in Africa, the Saharawi official indicated that the vestiges of colonialism and apartheid remain the umbrella under which all diseases nest, including AIDS, ignorance, backwardness and violence, amongst others.

This, added Ms Hamdi, requires real participation by women in decision-making positions, hence they are closest to recognize the everyday problems of the family and the community, calling for the liberation of women and youth initiatives, especially those complementary to the governments’ efforts, and to benefit from African capabilities and competencies specialized in the fields of research and the support of sustainable development programmes.

The minister, therefore, urged to intensify sensitization campaigns in all mass media and make use of social networking websites effectively, in a way that deepens Africa’s unity and integration, economically and culturally.

SULTANA KHEYA´S INTERVIEW IN A FAMOUS AMERICAN NEWSPAPER

The famous american newspaer - USA TODAY - has published today,  june 9th 2013, a long interview with the saharawi human rights activist, Sultana Kheya. We invite you to read this interesting interview which was written by the american journalist Portia Walker.

 

Sultana Khaya is covered in bruises. The deep purple welts run up her legs and across her arms — the result of one of many beatings she says she's received from the police.

 

Her crime is calling for independence for Western Sahara, a Colorado-size territory in southwest Morocco, where many of the indigenous people have been fighting for self-determination for nearly four decades.

 

In 2011, the Arab Spring revolutions swept away many of the rulers in North Africa. But the royal regime of Morocco is firmly in place because of reforms that have made an uprising less likely and independence for the disputed desert people of Western Sahara even less so.

"We are protesting here for independence and the return of the refugees around the world in order to construct a country," says the prominent Western Saharan human rights activist Mohammed Daddach.

 

Advocates for independence say the Arab Spring began not in Tunisia as is commonly reported but at the Gdeim Izik protest camp in Western Sahara in 2010 when thousands of pro-independence activists gathered to voice objections to discrimination, human rights abuses and poverty. Mass protests hit the rest of the country in February 2011.

 

The difference here is that the demonstrations failed to gain momentum.

Morocco is unlike the deposed rulers of those countries, whose regimes were foisted upon the people in recent history. The royal family of Morocco first came to power nearly 500 years ago and its past has much to do with Morocco's present.

 

"The Moroccan monarchy has been around for hundreds of years and that goes a long way," says Alexis Arieff, analyst in African affairs at the Library of Congress. "Many Moroccans fear that without the monarchy, Morocco would fall apart and be divided tribally and ethnically."

 

Moroccans trace their lineages back to Arab invaders, Berber tribesman and indigenous Africans, all brought under the Alaouite Dynasty in the 17th century. Its Barbary pirates were feared the world over, and it was the first to recognize the United States as a nation independent from England.

 

The monarchy resisted colonization by the French and Spanish and in the 1950s won independence for the country. The current king, Mohammed VI, is thus part of a dynasty that has ruled Morocco since the 1600s and that traces its origins to the Islamic prophet Mohammed, meaning the king is not just head of state but an important religious leader.

Arab kingdoms such as Morocco, Jordan and Saudi Arabia have proved much more durable than republics, and Morocco's combination of reform and credibility seems to have succeeded.

"The monarchy goes both ways: They can claim religious legitimacy and they can claim modernization legitimacy," Arieff says.

 

Some experts credit the king's deft handling of the first signs of dissent for his resilience. When protesters took the streets in February 2011, he drafted a new constitution and called elections. When the moderately Islamist Justice and Development Party won the elections, the king appointed its leader, Abdelilah Benkirane, prime minister.

 

Moroccan officials say changes in response to the citizenry date back even further.

"We have started our reform process more than 10 years ago. Today we are consolidating," explains Youssef Amrani, minister-delegate for foreign affairs. "We were listening to our people. We have political parties, we have trade unions, we have civil society. We have the leadership and the legitimacy — nobody was putting into question the role of the king."

 

Geography also plays a part in the survival of the current system. Morocco is 12 miles from Spain and thousands of miles from the unrest of the Middle East. Dividing it from the revolutionary fervor of Libya and Egypt is Algeria, a closed and secretive nation that went through a grim and violent civil war in the 1990s and whose government appears to have crushed the revolutionary impulses in its society.

 

However, despite reforms, the Moroccan king still retains charge of the military and religious authorities, and dissent continues to be punished.

Seventy of the activists who protested against the regime during the 2011 demonstrations remain in prison and a popular rapper, "El Haqed," recently spent a year in jail for penning a song about police corruption.

 

But there is comparatively little pressure on the regime to change, and even in volatile Western Sahara people are calling for independence not revolution.

Daddach says the people here don't wish to sweep away the rulers as has happened in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt to their east.

 

"What we work for is peaceful demonstrations with no violence, no stone-throwing and with no words that would touch the dignity of the Moroccan sacred elements — God, the homeland and the king," he says.

 

Some simply want better working conditions. One of the greatest grievances of the Western Saharan people, known as the Saharawi, is that their land's resources such as ample fishing reserves and valuable phosphorus mines are exploited by the Moroccan state with little benefit for the native residents.

 

But there is little high-level international interest in pressing the Western Sahara issue.

"Morocco is a very close ally of France and the United States; Paris and Washington don't want to jeopardize their excellent security and economic cooperation with Rabat, which could be the cost of forcing peace in Western Sahara," says Jacob Mundy, assistant professor at Colgate University and author of Western Sahara: War, Nationalism and Conflict Irresolution.

"It's not going to be resolved until there is a crisis. Something major has to happen to shake things up."

Sultana Khaya still refuses to give up hope.

"This will not slow me down," she says. "I'm still determined to go on and to continue the struggle."

SAHARAWI WOMEN TAKE PART IN THE MAY 4TH HISTORICAL DEMONSTRATIONS

We, the women and the whole people from Western Sahara express our support and solidarity with the saharawi population which is living in the occupied cities mainly in the saharawi capital, L´Aayoun, where thousands of citizens carried out peaceful demonstrations on the occassion of the visit of the main international media such as CNN, The Washington Post, The New York Times etc.

 

The occupied city of El Aaiun, capital of Western Sahara, witnessed on saturday evening, May 4th,  huge mass demonstrations calling for the right of Saharawi people to self-determination and the extension of MINURSO´s prerrogatives to include the protection and monitoring of human rights in what is known as the Africa´s last colony: Western Sahara,

In Matalaa quarter, thousands of Saharawi demonstrators staged a peaceful protest, where they raised Saharawi flags and chanted a number of national slogans.

The protest was tightly besieged by different Moroccan repression and intelligence apparatus, in official and civil clothes. Similar demonstrations also took place at the streets of Sidi Mohamed Daddach, Ras Al-Khaima and Al-Inaach

 

Many saharawi women participated in the May 4th historical demosntrations where they peacefully demanded the legitimate right of their people to self-determination referendum, guaranteed by the Charter of the United Nations which the MINURSO was created for and to which both parties agreed upon, the release of Saharawi political prisoners, respect for human rights and stop the exploitation of their natural resources by the new colonizers.

SAHARAWI WOMEN CONMEMORATE THE WOMEN´S DAY

Saharawi Women as part of that huge movement that is struggling for peace, justice and iqual rights as men, have conmemorated the International Women´s Day organizing several activities not only in the Saharawi Refugee Camps but also in the occupied cities of Western Sahara and in overseas.

 

The Saharawi Women´s Association in Europe (AMSE) has invited the human rights activist, El-Ghalia Djimi, to a conference that was scheduled on this occassion where it has payed a great tribute to all those women and men who sacrificed their lives for freedom and justice in the Africa´s last colony: Western Sahara.

 

Mrs.Djimi has explained in her speech the genesis of the occupied Western Sahara conflict, expressing the serious problem of violations of human rights perpetrated by the Moroccan authorities against the Saharawi people.

She also expressed the brutal and bloody repression policy conducted by Morocco, through arbitrary arrests, beatings, incommunicado, torture, rape, extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances, ejecting of people from helicopters and burial of living Sahrawis.

 

The United Nations began celebrating International Women’s Day (IWD) on 8 March during International Women’s Year 1975.

 

Two years later, in December 1977, the General Assembly adopted a resolution proclaiming a United Nations Day for Women’s Rights and International Peace to be observed on any day of the year by Member States, in accordance with their historical and national traditions.

 

International Women’s Day first emerged from the activities of labour movements at the turn of the twentieth century in North America and across Europe. Since those early years, International Women’s Day has assumed a new global dimension for women in developed and developing countries alike. The growing international women’s movement, which has been strengthened by four global United Nations women’s conferences, has helped make the commemoration a rallying point to build support for women’s rights and participation in the political and economic arenas.

 

Increasingly, International Women’s Day is a time to reflect on progress made, to call for change and to celebrate acts of courage and determination by ordinary women who have played an extraordinary role in the history of their countries and communities.

SAHARAWI WOMEN CONDEMN THE MOROCCAN MILITARY TRIAL´S SENTENCES AGAINST 25 HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISTS

The Women from the Africa´s last colony: Western Sahara express strong condemnation to the veredict of the Moroccan Military Court  against the 25 saharawi human rights activists .

 

Last saturday night, February 17th, the Rabab Military Court issued the ignominious sentences which we consider as unfair and injust because it violates the international law and the most basic human rights principals and because they are civil citizens not militaries.

 

The Moroccan military court of Rabat issued Saturday night to Sunday unfair sentences against the 24 Saharawi political prisoners, known as Gdeim Izik group, ranging from two years to life in prison, informed the Saharawi activist Al-Mami Amar Salem from outside of Rabat military court.

According to the source, the court sentenced Abdeljalil Lamgeimad, Abdallahi Lajfawni, Brahim Ismaili, Lamjaid Sidahmed, Boutangiza Mohamed Bachir, Sbaii Ahmed, Mohamed Bani, Abdalla Abbah to life imprisonment, while it sentenced Hasanna Alia to life in prison in absentia.

30-year prison terms against Annama Lasfari, Hasan Addah, Mohamed Bourial and Banga Sheikh.

25-year jail terms against Jouna Babit, Lafgir Mohamed Mbarek, Al-Bakay Al-Arabi, Lajdair Mohamed Mbarek, Al-Husein Azzawi, Haddi Mohamed Al-Amin, Toubali Abadallahi and Daf Deich.

20-year prison enforce against Mohamed Al-Ayubi, Jadda Al-Bachir and Mohamed Tahlil.

Abderhman Zaiu and Tagi Mashdufi sentenced to two years in jail, they have already served their terms in custody, so they were released.

In their last speeches during the trial, the group reaffirmed that they are political prisoners advocating for the right of the Saharawi people to self-determination, expressing thanks and recognition for lawyers, international observers and Saharawi families who have been rallying since the beginning of the trial outside the court, in Saharawi cities, south Morocco and in the Saharawi refugees.

To recall, the group was arrested following the Moroccan military attack on Gdeim Izik protest camp on 8 November 2010.

The 24 Saharawi political prisoners are accused of “hurting internal and external security of the state, forming a criminal group and assaulting public officials during the performance of their functions.”

These charges were categorically denied by the group during 4 days of the hearing.

Several international human rights organizations, intellectuals and lawyers called for the “unconditional release” of the group, and denounced the trying of civilians before a martial court.

The trial, opened on Feb 1st, attended by several international observers. It was highly condemned nationally, internationally and inside Morocco.

 

Saharawi women launch an urgent appeal to the international community and mainly the European Unión´s governments to put pressure on the moroccan government to release the 25 saharawi human rights activists and also to demend the UN Security Council to give MINURSO´s mandate to monitorize the human rights in the occupied Western Sahara, ilegally occupied by the Kingdom of Morocco sice more than 38 years ago.

PLEASE SIGN PETITION FOR ENDING VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN OCCUPIED WESTERN SAHARA

We, the women fromWestern Sahara ask every person to sign in the petition launched by the President of the Center for Justice and Human Rights, Mrs. Kerry Kennedy and the spanish Oscar-winning actor, Javier Bardem, in which both of them ask every person all ove the world to sign in the petition to the United Nations Security Council for giving MINURSO´s mandate to look after the respect of human rights in the occupied cities of Western Sahara.

Some international media have covered the petition luanched by the Mrs. Kennedy and Mr.Bardem for signing every peace-loving person all over the world for ending the violations in the saharawi occupied cities.

In just two months, the mandate of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) is up for renewal. Javier Bardem and I have teamed up to raise awareness for the need to include a human rights mandate in MINURSO.

Please watch the video below, see Javier's incredible documentary Sons of the Clouds, and visit www.rfkcenter.org to sign our petition to the UN.

Kerry Kennedy says in this video: "In August of last year, I led an international delegation to evaluate the human rights situation of the Sahrawi people in Moroccan-controlled Western Sahara and in the Sahrawi refugee camps near Tindouf, Algeria. We witnessed firsthand the overwhelming presence of security forces and violations of basic human and civil rights that Sahrawi citizens live with every day. Last week, these violations made news again as more than twenty Sahrawi civilians who have been in detention for two years since the dismantlement of the Gdeim Izik protest camp appeared before the military court in Rabat, Morocco. Their trial was postponed for the fourth time to February 8, 2013.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=CqDPHSBMQTc

THE SAHARAWI MINISTER OF CULTURE INAUGURATES THE NATIONAL LIBRARY

The Saharawi Minister of Culture, Khadija Hamdi, has supervised on January 17th the inauguration of the National Library, a project in collaboration between the Saharawi Ministry of Culture, the UNHCR and the Algerian Association for Media and communication among Youth.

The ceremony was attended by several saharawi authorities and the President of the Executive Office of UNHCR in Tindouf, Mrs,Zainab Shij Ali, President of the Algerian Association for Media and Communication , Farhat Mohamed Saaid.

The National Library includes a number of books dealing with the Saharawi cause in all its aspects and dimensions, novels highlight the Saharawi Heritage, as well as encyclopedias and books in literary, scientific, cultural and social fields, as well as reading rooms.

In her speech, the Minister of Culture, considered the National Library as a space which could lead to "enrich acknowledge of the Saharawi readers and researchers" thanking all contributors in this literature accomplishment in the Saharawi refugee camps. For her part the representative of UNHCR, Zainab Shij Ali, indicated that her Organization will work to promote the National Library for contribution in saving the Saharawi heritage and History.

SAHARAWI WOMEN´S MESSAGE

Saharawi women and the whole people of the Africa´s last colony: Western Sahara wish you Merry Chrismas and a very Happy New Year 2013 wishing that during this new year the Saharawi people can at last enjoy freedom and justice in a Free and Independent Western sahara.

SAHARAWI WOMEN CONMEMORATE HUMAN RIGHTS DAY

Western Sahara Women have conmemorated the Human Rights Day in everywhere not only those that are living in the occupied cities of our country but also those who are in the Refugee Camps and in oversea, abroad mainly in european countries.

 

The Saharawi Women´s Association in Spain has organized on December 10th an important event at the POLISARIO Front ´s Main Office in the spanish capital, Madrid, for celebrating this historic and crucial  date for the humanity by inviting the Secretary General of the International Association of Jurists for Western Sahara, Mr. Felipe Briones who has pronnounced and important speech on the decolonization problem of Western sahara from the legal and juridical point of view and also has reffered to the great abusses of human rights in the occupied cities of Western Sahara.

 

Mr. Briones underlined in his speech underlined that the moroccan regime has no jurisdiction over the Western Sahara and its people and that the governement of morocco systematically denied the basic elements of legal proceedings, preventing the right of the Saharawi defense, imprisoned for defending their status, identity and human rights of his people

Since the Universal Declaration of human Rights in 1948, every year, the historic date presents an opportunity to celebrate human rights, highlight a specific issue, and advocate for the full enjoyment of all human rights by everyone everywhere.

 

This year, the spotlight is on the rights of all people — women, youth, minorities, persons with disabilities, indigenous people, the poor and marginalized — to make their voices heard in public life and be included in political decision-making.

 

The rights to freedom of opinion and expression, to peaceful assembly and association, and to take part in government (articles 19, 20 and 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights have been at the centre of the historic changes in the Arab world over the past two years, in which millions have taken to the streets to demand change. In other parts of the world, the “99%” made their voices heard through the global Occupy movement protesting economic, political and social inequality.

PERSONAL ENVOY OF THE UNITED NATIONS´S SECRETARY GENERAL PRAISES THE SAHARAWI WOMEN´S ROLE

The Personal Envoy of the UN Secretary General, Ambassador Christopher Ross,  has praised the important role are playing in their society as said that they are an example of emancipation in the arab and muslim world. Mr. Ross is visiting several countries in north-west Africa and in Europe from october 27th to 12 November  2012.

The United Nations Secretary General´s Special Representative in Western Sahara, Mr. Ross, has hold several talks with important representatives of  saharawi women not only with those that are living in the occcupied Western sahara´s cities but also with those that are in the liberated areas and in the saharawi refugee camps.
The american diplomat has said that his talks with the Saharawi officials and civil society were "valuable contribution" in the search for a political settlement to enable the people of Western Sahara of self-determination, in a statement following a meeting with the Saharawi President on Sunday evening, november 3rd.

Here is complete text of the statement (translation):

"At the outset, I would like to extend my thanks for the POLISARIO Front and MINURSO office for arranging my programme in the Saharawi camps and UN bodies, in this part of Algeria.

Since January 2009, I have been working to facilitate the direct negotiations between the POLISARIO Front and Kingdom of Morocco with the help of the two neighbouring countries, Algeria and Mauritania, and with the support of the entire international community to reach a just, durable and mutually agreed upon political solution by the parties, ensuring self-determination for the people of Western Sahara.

Despite several rounds of negotiations and talks between the parties, no progress has been achieved in this direction. So, I came to the region to contribute to the assessment of the last five years of direct negotiations, and get ideas on the best ways to achieve genuine and real progress on peace process, as to examine impact of the latest developments in North Africa and Sahel on Western Sahara issue.

My discussions with the Secretary General of the POLISARIO Front Mr. Mohamed Abdelaziz and other officials in the Front, as well as exchange of views with a wide range of Saharawi components, in social fields and others, have made a valuable contribution in the search for a more efficient way to move forward. I expect similar discussions in other stages of this tour.

On my return to New York, I will convey my findings to the Secretary General of the United Nations; I will also submit report to the Security Council by the end of November. Personally, I would like to contribute to a solution ending the conflict and suffering of families, separated for 37 years, a solution make it possible to complete the building of the Arab Maghreb Union and consolidate security and stability in North Africa and Sahel.
The situation in Western Sahara has continued enough, good people wherever they are must rally, sooner, for a honorable solution for all.

KERRY KENNEDY PRAISES THE SAHARAWI WOMEN´S ROLE

 

Saharawi Women are very pleased that several world-wide human rights organizations have organized a work-visiting tour to what is known as the Africa´s last colony: Western Sahara.

An important delegation of worldwide human rights organization has visited Western Sahara from August 25th  to 29th 2012. The international delegation has just been in both sides of the norther-african country: the moroccan occupied saharawi capital, El-Aayoune and the Saharawi Refugee camps (south-east of Algeria).

The delegation was led by of the President of the american foundation, RFK Center for Justice and Human Rights, Kerry Kennedy, and composed also by other relevant human rights defender leaders like Mary Lawlor, Director of Front Line Defenders; Margarette May Macaulay, Judge of the Inter American Court of Human Rights; Eric Sottas, former Secretary-General, World Organization Against Torture; Maria del Río, Board of Trustees of the Jose Saramago Foundation; and Marialina Marcucci, President of the RFK Center - Europe. RFK Partners for Human Rights Director Santiago A. Canton, Advocacy Director Marselha Gonçalves Margerin, and Advocacy Associate Stephanie Postar.

Before visiting the Sahrawi refugee camps, the U.S. delegation was arrived on Friday-night August 24th 2012 in the occupied territories of Western Sahara, where it had a series of interviews with representatives of associations of Saharawi human rights.

The interviews took place at the home of the Saharawi Human Rights activist, Ms. Aminatou Haidar, El Aaiun (occupied capital of Western Sahara) focused on the humanitarian situation of the Sahrawi population and violations of human rights, abuses committed by the Moroccan occupying forces.

The delegation met with, among others, members of the Saharawi Committee for defending the right of the Saharawi people to self-determination. The talks between the two sides focused on serious violations of human rights which is subject the Saharawi people.

The members of the delegation also met with representatives of the Support Committee for UN settlement plan and protection of natural resources of Western Sahara, who reiterated their call on this occasion to the protection of resources of Western Sahara from illegal exploitation by the Moroccan occupation.

The international delegation also met with the head of the section of the Moroccan Association of Human Rights in El Aaiun and the Saharawi collective of human rights Defenders (CODESA).

The arrival of Mrs. Kennedy in El Aaiun was marked by a "black out" and total "impressive device" characterized by "massive presence of officers in plainclothes of Moroccan intelligence".

It has also been an eyewitness to the police aggression against the human rights activist, former political prisoner, Soukeina Jeddehlou, who participated in a peaceful demonstration denouncing the gross violations of human rights in Western Sahara under Moroccan occupation.

Kennedy has declared that the delegation " will seek to assess the human rights situation on the ground by speaking to human rights defenders, government authorities, and ordinary families split apart by this conflict," said Kerry Kennedy.

"We hope to raise attention to this issue and support the establishment of a human rights mandate for the UN Mission." said the President of Kennedy´s Foundation.

Head of the Robert-Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights Kerry Kennedy, who leads a delegation made up of international human rights defense organizations hailed Wednesday in the Wilaya of Boujdour "Sahrawi women determination and contribution", mainly in the organization of everyday life in refugee camps.
 "It is moving to see women who have too terrible stories on human rights violations committed against them or their relatives (in the occupied territories of Western Sahara) does not admit or broken and remain determined to build the institutions of their society and organize their lives in refugee camps, especially in the areas of education and health," said Kennedy during a meeting with Sahrawi women.
Kerry Kennedy has announced that she agreed during her stay in the occupied territories of Western Sahara, with the Saharawi activist Aminatu Haidar, to collect the testimonies of women who suffered from violations of human rights to which they are mentioned in mission final report.
In this sense, she urged the concerned women to send their testimony as soon as possible to Haidar. In addition, Kennedy said her center annually awards prize to a personality that defends human rights, noting that this distinction was granted a few years ago to Haidar.

"Haidar is a hero to all of us ," said the RFK Center for Justice and Human Rights, Kerry Kennedy in a meeting with more than a hundred women in the saharawi refugee camps las wednesday.

 

SAHARAWI WOMEN ATTEND PREMIÈRE OF BARDEM´S DOCUMENTARY-FILM

Several women from Western Sahara have been invited last wednesday, May 16th in the spanish capital, Madrid, to an interesting event: which was the official presentation of the documentary-film tittled: " Sons of the Clouds, the Las Colony".that is a feature documentary produced by and starring Javier Bardem, examines the current political turmoil in Northern Africa and the responsibility of Western powers (especially US and France) due to their applying of Realpolitik (policies driven by economic or geo-strategic motives rather than by ethics or law) in their foreign policies. These policies have generated tremendous instabilities that have finally erupted into appalling violence and chaos. The film focuses on Western Sahara, the last African colony according to the Unitrd Nations and in that country is also known by the first arab people who begun with the so-called the "Arab Spring"

The documentary-film is a personal journey in which Bardem leads the audience through the tortuous path of world diplomacy and the terrible reality of an abandoned people, in a quest to understand how this could happen and how another war in Africa might be prevented.

Using a dynamic mix of action, interviews and archive footage, the film analyses the past to look at the future. Sons of the Clouds, the last colony  tells the real story as it is today, following the major players as they attempt to negotiate their way through this intricate and crucially important game of diplomatic chess.

The President of the Saharawi Women´s Association in Spain, Zahra Ramdán, had the opportunity to greet the famous spanish actor and she expressed on behalf of the saharawi people her deepest thanks for this inniciative for giving awareness on the injustice that is suffering for over three decades and also for his support to the just struggle of the people of Western Sahara to live in a free and independent country: Western sahara, which is ileglly occupied by the kingdom of Morocco.

THE SONS OF THE CLOUDS WINS THE " WHITE CAMEL" AWARD

We, the Saharawi Women, want to express our warmest congratulations to the authors of the documentary-film called "the Sons of the Clouds: Last Colony" for been nominated and won the "White Camel" Award in the 9th edition of the Sahara International Film Festival which have concluded on May 6th in the Dakhla Refugee Camp.

Several saharawi women among them the famous Human Rights activist Aminetu Haidar have participated in this Documentary-Films directed by Javier Bardem where all of them have underlined the important role of the saharawi women in the struggle for peace and justice andrespect of human rights  in their homeland, Western Sahara.

The documentary film on Western Sahara “Sons of the Clouds: Last Colony” starring Oscar-winning actor Javier Bardem and directed by Alvaro Longoria has won the White Camel Award as best film in the famous Sahara International Film Festival which has been opened by the Saharawi Minister of Culture, Khadidja Hamdi, that has reaffirmed the will of the saharawi people to continue struggling for peace and justice and thanks the hundreds of artists and participants in the event for their solidarity.

White Camel is a symbolic award presented by administration of FiSahara to the winner film. This year White Camel has been provided by the Festival administration for the Saharawi security forces as recognition to efforts they did to ensure of this edition.

“Sons of the Clouds” explores the Western Sahara conflict: its historical roots, the reasons behind the political stalemate and the human rights and humanitarian crises it created.

“Gdeim Izik: Camp of Saharawi Resistance” by Mexican Antonio Velázquez and Spanish Isabel Terrazam, which documented with photos and videos the moments of the Camp dismantling by the Moroccan occupation forces, came second in the rank.

“Wilaya” by director Pedro Pérez Rosales, about young Saharawi woma, Fatimetu, (Nadhira Mohamed) who returned after the death of her mother to visit her family in the Saharawi refugee camps, came third.

SAHARAWI WOMEN CONMEMORATE INTERNATIONAL WOMEN´S DAY

Women from Western Sahara have conmemorated as every year on March 8th the International Women´s Day with  different activities.

Saharawi Women not only those that are living in the refugee camps but also that are under the moroccan occupied  cities and overseas have celebrated the International Women´s Day with different events like work-shops, talks and conferences where they have paid tribute to the vital role women play in their country´s liberation struggle and emancipation.

Saharawi Women joined their sisters around the world in solidarity for equality,  justice and human rights.

The Saharawi Women´s Association in Spain has invited the Saharawi Minister Kheira Boulahi to the event that organized in the spanish capital, Madrid, on conmemoration of the International Women´s Day. The Saharawi female leader       

has reaffirmed in her speech the will of the Western Sahara people and women to continue their just struggle for independence ,peace and democracy in the Africa´s last colony and said that the saharawi women are a real example of emancipation in the arab and muslim world and they are still convinced that if their country is not free and independent that could not feel totally emancipated as a human been.

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH CALLED ON MOROCCO FOR HUMAN RIGHTS´S VIOLATIONS

Saharawi Women strongly support the Human Rights Watch´s World Report 2012 issued some days ago and express their agreement in the recommendations for the moroccan government to respect human rights in the Western Sahara´s occupied cities where the moroccan army daily use repression against the saharawi  citizens organize peaceful demonstrations.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) called on the Moroccan authorities to respect the right of assembly and protest in the occupied territories of Western Sahara, its 2012 World Report that assesses progress on human rights during the past year in more than 90 countries.

The Organization indicated that Moroccan authorities “still continue to suppress the peaceful demonstrations organized by the Saharawi citizens in the occupied territories of Western Sahara that demand self-determination and independence,” asking Morocco to stop violating the legitimate right to demonstrate which is provided by all international covenants.

It also expressed its concern on the detention of twenty-three Sahrawi civilians for their alleged role in Gdeim Izik camp and taking them to a military court, in addition to the detention of another 120 Sahrawi human rights activists for political reasons.

HRW demanded that Moroccan security services be accountable for using the excessive force, when dispersing the Saharawi demonstrators.

“Moroccan regime still prevents the establishment of associations and organizations of human rights in Western Sahara,” added the report.

“The people driving the Arab Spring deserve strong international support to realize their rights and to build genuine democracies,” said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. “Loyalty to autocratic friends shouldn’t stand in the way of siding with democratic reformers. International influence is also needed to ensure that the new governments extend human rights and the rule of law to all, especially women and minorities.”

“Rights-respecting governments should support international justice regardless of political considerations. It’s misguided to believe that allowing countries to sweep past abuses under the rug will somehow avoid encouraging future atrocities,” Roth said.

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.