Amnesty international calls Polisario to release remaining POWs
Algeria-Morocco, Politics, 9/8/2003

Amnesty International reiterated on Friday its call for the immediate release and repatriation of the more than 900 remaining Moroccan prisoners of war still being detained by the Algeria-backed Polisario.

"It is high time that these men are allowed to return home to their families," the organization says in a release. "Most of the men have been detained for over two decades. Among them are old and sick people, whose release must be a priority."

According to the Third Geneva Convention, all prisoners of war must be released without delay after the cessation of active hostilities, the London-based organization recalls. 243 men by the Polisario Front on 1 September 2003. While Amnesty International welcomes the release of 243 pows by the Polisario, it says "the continued detention of these men over a decade after the declaration of a cease-fire is a grave abuse of their right to physical and mental integrity."

Previous Stories:
  Security Council calls for release of all Moroccan prisoners still held in Algeria   (9/6/2003)
  ICRC calls for immediate release of all Moroccans detained in Tindouf   (9/3/2003)
  Annan calls for liberation of Moroccan POWs still held by separatists in Algeria   (9/3/2003)

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