Polisario jails survivors decry torturers
Morocco-Spain, Politics, 3/23/2000

Several survivors of Polisario jails have denounced in Madrid the torture practices they have been subject to by the separatist group.

At a meeting held in Madrid by the London-based Amnesty International on human rights in the Sahara, the former detainees outlined the heartless torture methods of the Polisario, including sequestration, kidnapping and assassination of opponents.

Aliya Allali, a former detainee, presented photos of his body with scars of torture. He asked Amnesty International to help him find his brother, who has been under arbitrary detention in the Polisario jails since 1984, as well as his three children.

Mohamed Ahmed Bahi, a journalist who had spent several years in detention at the Polisario camps, urged international humanitarian organizations, especially the international Red Cross and the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, to endeavor for the release of his family still jailed in Polisario camps and of all people sequestered in Tindouf (southwestern Algeria).

Bahi recalled the ordeal he went through in different Polisario jails, especially the Rachid prison, before he succeeded to flee the Tindouf camps and return to the homeland, Morocco, in 1996.

According to the Amsterdam-based Association of Polisario Jails Survivors, some 52 Moroccan Sahrawis were jailed by the Polisario during the month of March.

The new detainees were jailed for political reasons, Yahia Lemine, spokesman of the association, said during the Madrid meeting.

He added that some 116 persons were reported missing in Tindouf, including five Spanish, one Portuguese and several other foreigners.

The association, which will make public a list of all the missing persons, said that Brahim Ghali, Polisario's representative in Madrid, had attended torture sessions of detainees.

Previous Stories:
  Women associations urge for lifting siege on sequestered populations in Polisario camps   (3/10/2000)
  Morocco deplores at HCR meeting limits to freedom of expression at Polisario camps   (3/2/2000)
  Europe-based Sahrawis claim registration in referendum voter lists   (2/29/2000)

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