Family exchange seeks to relieve blockade of Moroccans sequestered in Tindouf, official
Morocco-Algeria, Politics, 3/6/2004

The exchange of visits between Moroccans sequestered in the Polisario-run camps of Tindouf (southwestern Algeria) and their relatives in the Moroccan Sahara is meant to relieve the blockade imposed on the captives, said Hamid Chabar, the Moroccan governor in charge of coordination with the MINURSO (French acronym for the UN mission in the Sahara).

We see it as a positive step and we hope the family visits program will be carried on, in accordance with the commitments taken with the UNHCR, he said at a press conference, held Friday with director of the foreign department's multilateral cooperation, Mohamed Loulichki, and governor of the region of Laayoune-Boujdour-Sakia Al Hamra, Mohamed Rherrabi.

Morocco is showing its good will so that this "purely humanitarian" operation can be carried out without incidents, and without being torpedoed by the other party, he said.

Chabar said Moroccan authorities are seeing to it that the operation unfolds in transparency so that any family that desires to meet its relative benefits from it.

The Governor of the region affirmed that authorities are responsible for the safety of persons who come from the camps and that all measures were taken to guarantee utmost security, so that the operation be a moment of celebration and reunion between families. He voiced Moroccan authorities' determination to preserve the humanitarian aspect of the operation and be up to the UNHCR's trust in the kingdom.

Loulichki, on his part, said Morocco has insisted that he UN body takes all necessary measures to avoid any incident, ensuring that Morocco is dealing with the matter serenely, hoping that all Moroccan captives return to their home country.

A first group of 21 persons traveled on the same plane, chartered by the United Nations, which brought earlier on the same day families sequestered in the camps to visit their relatives in the Moroccan southern provinces.

The exchange of visits between relatives who have been separated for nearly 30 years was made possible after Morocco, Algeria, and the Polisario gave the go-ahead to flights between the Moroccan southern provinces and five Polisario-controlled camps in southwestern Algeria around the Algerian town of Tindouf.

The air shuttle will take place on a regular basis, carrying four to five families in each direction.

As part of the confidence-building measures, the UNHCR inaugurated the first telephone line that was suspended for eight months, at the initiative of the separatists, before it was restored a month ago after pressures from the security council and the UNHCR.

The family visits program is the latest in a series of confidence-building measures designed to bring greater normalcy to the lives of thousands of captives living in the camps, run by Algerian officers and the Polisario which is claiming independence of Morocco's southern provinces.

Algeria is economically, politically and militarily backing the separatists, but rejecting any involvement in negotiations to settle the issue of the Sahara, which was retrieved by Morocco in the 70's under the Madrid tripartite accords.

Previous Stories:
  Activists denounce human rights abuses in Polisario-controlled Camps in Algeria   (2/27/2004)
  Maghreb Union, a strategic aim, says Algiers   (2/17/2004)
  ICRC meets families of Moroccan prisoners held in Algeria   (2/6/2004)

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