Western Sahara Referendum Support Association (Delemont)
12 March 2008
Diplomatic movements (incomplete list) The ambassador of the Saharawi Republic in Tanzania and Mauritius, Habiballah Mohamed Kori, has been appointed Director of Protocole to the Presidency, he is replaced by Brahim Salem Ould Bousseif (the former representative in Navarra).
The new Saharawi ambassador in Algiers, Brahim Ghali, is replaced in Madrid by Bouchraya Hamoudi Beyoun, former Prime Minister. Elhaj Ahmed, SADR ambassador in Venezuela, is replaced by Emborik Omar. Louchaa Mohamed, representative in the Canaries, is appointed ambassador to Angola instead of Ahmed Salama, the new representative for Navarra. Seniya Ahmed, the representative in Switzerland is appointed ambassador to Tripoli.
Jamal Zerouali, representative in Germany moves to Brussels. Several new representatives for Spanish regions: Abidine Bouchraya for Andalucia, Boulahi Tirsal (formerly in Belgium) for Castilla-La Mancha, Mohamed Moustafá for the Balearic Islands, and Oualad Moussa (former representative in the Balearic Islands) moves to Catalonia. [SPS]
01.02.08, recognition The Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic and Malawi have decided to establish diplomatic relations at ambassadorial level. Malawi recognised SADR on 16.11.1994 but froze its recognition in June 2001. [SPS]
05.02.08, oil Mhamed Khadad, a member of the National Secretariat of the Polisario Front, presented in Houston, Texas, in the name of SADR, the second round of oil licence bids in the presence of representatives of oil companies and the specialised press. [full statement] <http://www.spsrasd.info/en/detail.php?id=745>
14-17.02.08, Africa A delegation of the National Union of Saharawi Women took part in Johannesburg in the proceedings of the 9th Congress of the Pan African Women's Organisation (PAWO), which expressed its support for the right of the Saharawi people to self-determination and elected the Saharawi organisation to represent African women in the United Nations. [more Span.] <http://mujeresaharauis.blogspot.com/2008/02/las-mujeres-africanas-reafiman-su.html>
22.02.08, letters The Saharawi Consultative Council (Council of Notables) demanded, in a message sent to the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, the publication of the report of the HCHR's mission in 2006 to Western Sahara. Another message was sent to the UN Secretary General. The CC elected a new executive and a new president, Mohamed Mohamed Mouloud Abba Ali, who succeeds Mbarek Lehbib. [New bureau of the CC] <http://www.upes.org/body1_eng.asp?field=sosio_eng&id=826> [Letter to Ban Ki Moon] <http://www.upes.org/body1_eng.asp?field=sosio_eng&id=828> [Letter to UNHCHR] <http://www.upes.org/body1_eng.asp?field=sosio_eng&id=827>
27.02.08, Tifariti - 32nd anniversary of the proclamation of the Saharawi Republic
The official celebrations took place in Tifariti, in the liberated territories. Some days before, the Algerian president, Bouteflika had sent greetings to his Saharawi counterpart on the occasion of the national day, expressing the "hope that the fourth round of negotiations, planned for Manhasset in March 2008, should permit a political solution to be reached based on the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara". [SPS]
The 8th Sahara Marathon brought together 500 athletes of different nationalities. The Spanish runner Pedro José Hernandez Sanchez won the race.[SPS] This sporting and humanitarian event raised US$22,500 towards the construction of a sports centre in the refugee camps. [UNHCR report] <http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/news/opendoc.htm?tbl=NEWS&id=47cd75024>
The library of the Francophone Cultural Centre in Ausserd, managed by the Saharawi Association for the promotion of cultural exchange, was inaugurated in the presence of numerous French and Saharawi personalities. [SPS]
The new South African Ambassador to SADR, Mzuvukile Maqetuka, presented his credentials in Tifariti, to the President of the Republic, Mohamed Abdelaziz. [SPS]
Investiture of the Saharawi parliament: the President of the Saharawi Republic opened the session of the newly elected Parliament whiich comprises a third women and many young people.
126 candidates stood for the 52 seats to be filled. On this occasion, Abdelaziz declared that the choice of Tifariti as a provisional capital of SADR is a "reaffirmation of our sovereignty over our liberated territories". The parliament re-elected Mahfoud Ali Beïba as its president.
Inaugurations: The Saharawi president opened a sporting complex, financed by South Africa, comprising a football stadium, a handball and a volley-ball court, a swimming pool, administrative buildings and housing as well as a small dam, the town hall, the seat of the Parliament, a mosque, a hospital, a school and housing for local inhabitants. The Saharawi authorities have allotted land for building for Saharawis living in the refugee camps. Mohamed Abdelaziz also presided over the graduation of 400 students of the military college,
Reaction: The Moroccan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in a statement, considers these initiatives as breaking the status quo. He reaffirms "his clear determination to preserve, by every means, their territorial integrity over the whole of the Sahara" and threatens Algeria, who, according to him, is encouraging such developments.
Counter-offensive: On 26.02.08 about a hundred people are said to have defected to Morocco at the border point of Guerguerat, having escaped from the Saharawi refugee camps according to the official Moroccan agency MAP. According to another source, they are Mauritanians and some Saharawis living in Mauritania. This spectacular action was orchestrated by Khalihenna ould Rachid, president of CORCAS, and Hamada ould Darwich, a rich Mauritanian businessman, and former director-general of the Port of Nouadhibou, former-owner of the BACIM Bank, unlucky candidate in the 2006 elections in Bir Moghrein and finally a cousin of Hakim Ibrahim, a former Minister for Foreign Affairs of SADR, whose real name is Ibrahim ould Darwich.
Demonstrations: In the occupied territories leaflets and flags have been distributed in El-Ayoun, Dakhla and Smara, despite the very large police and military deployment trying to stop any gathering. In Smara several demonstrations nevertheless took place in various quarters, dispersed, as usual by the police.
Similar demonstrations in Tan Tan and in Moroccan universities have been reported.
Abroad A solidarity meeting was organised in Algiers, with representatives of the National Algerian Committee of Solidarity with the Saharawi people, a parliamentary group, Fraternity Algeria-SADR, the Panafrican Union of Youth and SADR. The 32nd anniversary was celebrated in different ways in many other countries. The autonomous parliament in the Balearic Islands decided on 26.02.08 to set up a coordinating committee to support the resolution of the conflict in Western Sahara, composed of representatives of all the political parties, from the management of the cooperation and cooperation fund in each island, the Polisario Front and solidarity associations. The Basque autonomous parliament unanimously approved a declaration in favour of the exercise of the right to self-determination of the Saharawi people. [más] <http://www.atbnoticias.es/noticia.php?id_seccion=0&id=117843> The government of Grand Canaria unanimously approved an urgent motion in favour of the right to self-determination of the Saharawi people and the respect of human rights in occupied Western Sahara. Numerous demonstrations, lectures and various ceremonies took place not only in Spain, but also in Venezuela (Caracas), in Australia (Melbourne) <http://www.upes.org/body1_eng.asp?field=sosio_eng&id=842> , in Switzerland (Geneva), etc.
OCCUPIED TERRITORIES AND SOUTH MOROCCO
Arrests, questionings, intimidations In Dakhla on 28 January, arrest of Khalihenna Oulad Cheikh Beida and the next day of Mrabih Taleb Bouya, brother of Hassana Taleb Bouya, member of the Committee against Torture of Dakhla.
Three former political detainees and two other Saharawi citizens were questioned on 17 February in El Ayoun, while they were visiting the Saharawi former political prisoner Sidi Mohamed Alouate. On 22 February, Mohamed Ould Salama Ould Hameya and his daughters were attacked by a group of police officers, while they were at home receiving the visit of Najem Ould Mahmoud Ould Hameya and his family, who had come from Tindouf, within the UNHCR family exchange visit scheme.
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