African Activist Archive

The report discusses the Paris Peace Conference, "Peace for the Sahrawi People, A European Concern," held November 23-24, 1985 at the French National Assembly, a new effort by the Coordinating Committee of International Support Committees for the Sahrawi people to focus world attention on the plight of the Sahrawis. The International Coordinating Committee, which has met yearly since 1975 to coordinate relief efforts for the Sahrawi refugees (who number about 165,000 persons in camps in the Tindouf, Algeria region), decided in late 1984 to host this meeting. The Western Sahara Campaign, USA assisted in planning; the following Americans became sponsors of the conference: Ramsey Clarke, The American Committee on Africa, Richard Falk, Rev. George Houser, Noam Chomsky, Rev. Dr. William Sloane Coffin, and Eqbal Ahmad. The report says Yugoslavia, the only European nation to officially recognize the SADR (Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic), included in its delegation Nijac Dizdarevic, Yugoslavian deputy. Major parliamentary figures to attend were Enzio Enriques Agnoletti, Italian Senator; Wim Albers, Dutch deputy; the adjunct Secretary General of the OAU (Organization of African Unity), N'jenga; Anne-Marie Lizin, Belgian deputy to the European Parliament; Barbara Simmons, West German deputy to the European Parliament; Petra Kelly, West German deputy; M.A. Anderssen, Swedish deputy; M. Guggenberger, Austrian deputy; and J. Rouxin, Adjunct Mayor of Le Mans. The newsletter says Raoul Weexsteen of the French Socialist Party was a delegate and represented the Socialist International; British and Irish parliamentarians Jeremy Corbyn and Tom Enright attended, as did representatives from a number of liberation movements including SWAPO from Namibia and the ANC from South Africa. American participants included Dr. Anne Lippert of the Sahrawi People Support Committee (Ada, Ohio); Ludlow E. Bailey, Secretary of Western Sahara Campaign; David H. Smith of Miami, Florida; and Western Sahara Campaign's Executive Director, Teresa K. Smith. Messages were received from Bishop Tutu of South Africa, Mayor of Atlanta Andrew Young, George Crockett, Jr, U.S. Representative, and Senators Paul Simon and Rudy Boschwitz. Sahrawi dignitaries who attended were Madame Guejmoula Ebbi, Secretary-General of the Union of Sahrawi Women and her Director of Foreign Affairs, Ms. Keltoum Khayatt; Omar Hadrami, member of the Political Bureau of the Polisario Front; Hakim Ibrahim, Minister of Foreign Affairs; Ahmad Boukhari, Polisario Director of European Affairs; and those Sahrawis working in information bureau in Europe.

African Activist Archive

REPORT ON THE "PEACE FOR THE SAHRAWI PEOPLE", an international conference held at the French National Assembly, November 23-24, 1985

Creator

Place Created

Date

Type of Item

Length/duration

Description

Organization

Coverage Africa

Language

Digital Format

Collection