More Polisario abuses denounced before UN
Morocco, Politics, 10/2/2000

Sahrawis murdered or killed under torture were handed back to families as martyrs who died "in combat for liberation," former "Polisario" security official Ahmed Sherif said before the UN 4th Commission which wound up Friday scrutiny of the Sahara issue.

Sherif said he was ready to provide international and human rights organizations full details and evidence on torture and repression in the Lahmada sequestration camps insisting large numbers of people died of torture or physical liquidation because they opposed "Polisario" dictatorship.

He explained how his job was to prevent direct contact of detained with visiting foreign delegations and urged UN High-Commissioner for refugees to speed up the return to Morocco of all those kept in southern Algerian camps against their will. Sherif had also to put and maintain pressure on Shioukhs (heads of tribes) to reject registration-candidates from the Moroccan side even if they were from their own family.

Responding to inquiries by Gabon, Guinea and Senegal delegates on "Polisario" maneuvers and the situation prevailing in the camps, Sherif denied allegations saying 200,000 people live in the camps recalling how the mercenaries had announced early in 1976 figures ten times higher than the real population to promote the idea of a viable state in the Sahara.

He described how people were mutilated and seated on burning fire saying he could produce a list of hundreds of men and women who died of torture.

The UN 4th Commission also heard on Friday a report by Akbarati Thobbani of the Denver Metropolitan State College who conducted research in the area on social, economic and political changes in the last 25 years.

Faculty member said major socio-economic projects have been achieved in the Saharan provinces by Morocco with schools, housing, roads and hospitals making of cities like Laayoun a genuine metropolis in the desert.

Of human rights, he described how people freely travel and express themselves making the most of ever-widening overture and democratization in the Kingdom. He deplored the tragedy of families bereft of members held in Tindouf camps and urged the UN to start their return the soonest possible and probe all options to settle the problem.

Previous Stories:
  Berlin meeting did not help reach positive results, UN spokesman   (9/30/2000)
  UN hears testimonies denouncing human-rights abuse in Tindouf   (9/30/2000)
  Morocco, Polesario delegations left Berlin before the arrival of Baker   (9/30/2000)

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