Sahara families-exchange program to be continued for 6 months, Moroccan official
Morocco-Algeria, Politics, 3/10/2004

The visit exchange programs between Sahara families from the Moroccan southern provinces and families in the Polisario-controlled camps in southern Algeria will be carried on for 6 months with a weekly frequency of two round trip flights, said a Moroccan official.

Hamid Chabar, governor in charge of coordination with the MINURSO (French acronym for the UN mission in the Sahara), said the operation that started last Friday with people flown from Laayoune to the camps and vice-versa will be extended to families from other Moroccan southern provinces, denying, by the same token, allegations by the Polisario separatists that Morocco is excluding persons from other Moroccan cities from the family visit-exchange program.

He also explained that the goal of this humanitarian operation is to break the psychological barriers between the inhabitants of Laayoune and persons sequestered in the camps, insisting that Morocco has been urging for dissociating political and humanitarian aspects of the issue. Thanks to the efforts of the Moroccan civil society, the UNO has actually adhered to this approach, he argued.

He also stressed that Morocco reacted in a positive way despite the provocative remarks by a participant upon arrival in Laayoune in violation of the agreement with the UNHCR that participants shall abstain from political statements, and has not prevented the man, who deliberately tried to torpedo the whole process, from visiting his relatives.

The Moroccan authorities have shown flexibility and tolerance so that "the exchange of visits between persons sequestered in Tindouf and their relatives in Laayoune actually takes place and consequently frustrates any attempt by the Polisario to endanger this humanitarian operation," he stressed.

Chabar warned however that "if the other side continues to send members of its intelligence services, Morocco will be forced to re-consider the agreement."

A plane, chartered by the United Nations, carried on Friday the first batch of Sahara families from the Moroccan southern city of Laayoune to the Tindouf camps after a first group of persons sequestered in the camps landed in the city of Laayoune on the same plane. The exchange of visits between relatives is part of the UN confidence-building measures.

Previous Stories:
  Moroccan women call UN SG to intervene for relief of moroccans sequestered in Tindouf   (3/9/2004)
  Family exchange seeks to relieve blockade of Moroccans sequestered in Tindouf, official   (3/6/2004)
  Activists denounce human rights abuses in Polisario-controlled Camps in Algeria   (2/27/2004)

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