1.
GV St. George's Hotel, Algiers (2 shots)
0.06

2.
SV Saharan spokesman Brahim Hakim (left) with interviewer
0.08

3.
SV Hakim speaking in French
1.41



Initials BB/2200



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: In Algeria a spokesman for the self-styled Saharan government, Monsieur Brahim Hakim, has officially dissociated the Polisario guerrilla movement from Thursday's (7 July) shooting attack on the Mauritanian ambassador to France, Monsieur Ould Janahallah.

Polisario guerrillas are fighting to gain independence for the Western Sahara from Morocco and Mauritania. The territory was divided between the two countries at the end of Spanish colonial rule last year.

SYNOPSIS: In an interview at the St. George's hotel in Algiers on Friday (8 July) Monsieur Hakim strenuously denied Polisario involvement in the attack.

Speaking in French he also expressed surprise and indignation that the name of Sayed el Wali had been associated with the shooting of the Ambassador. El Wali, a former Secretary General of the Polisario Front, was killed in an attack on the Mauritanian capital of Noakchott last year. Monsieur Hakim, known as the Saharan Minister of Foreign Affairs, said the Paris attack, in which Monsieur Janahallah was seriously injured, was against the principles and ideals of the Saharan liberation movement. He added that their armed struggle could only take place in their homeland and that the Polisario did not extend its activities abroad.

He further emphasised this point by saying that the Saharans were against all acts of this nature and that the only way they could achieve liberation was to continue their struggle on their own territory. He said that only enemies of the Sahara could resort to such methods out of desperation, after recent Saharan military and diplomatic successes. In addition Mr. Hakim suggested that the attack bore..... ...the imprint of the Moroccan intelligence services with some foreign connivance. He said that Morocco had always chosen Paris as a location for assassination attempts of this nature. The attack was described as a "provocation aimed at harming the credit of the Saharan people and spreading of confusion.