Polisario threatens peace in maghreb and the world, experts
Morocco-Algeria, Politics, 4/2/2004

A group of international experts highlighted Wednesday in a conference held at the University of Geneva the threat of the "Polisario" separatist group " to peace, security and democracy, "not only in the Maghreb but also in the rest of the world."

Professor of geopolitics and director of studies in l'Ecole de Guerre de Paris, Aymerie Chauprade, warned of Polisario's mutation into an "incontrollable and Mafia-like group" and of its eventual involvement with extremist and terrorist networks.

This guerrilla movement that is claiming the independence of the Moroccan Sahara with the backing of Algeria is currently in "mutation" because of its growing military and political helplessness and the upsurge of a new young generation of leaders, said Chauprade. These new leaders, he noted, studied in Algiers, and not in Cuba or Moscow, hence their ideological reference is militant Islamism and not the revolutionary Marxist and Leninist theories as it was the case for the older generation.

According to the geopolitics professor, this new generation has gradually set up an informal network through the sale of arms and the embezzlement of the humanitarian aid destined to Sahrawi populations. The influence of this network extends to southern Algeria, northern Chad, and the borders of Mali, Niger, and Mauritania, he said.

Chauprade argues that it is very likely that this "fundamentalist arc" cooperates with Al Qaeda network which currently operates with the help of local Islamist extremist groups. Terrorist networks represent an "ideological incentive" and a financial source that are currently badly needed by Polisario, he explained, underlining that political claims of the separatist movement are at present very different from those of the past.

"At a time when the fight against terrorism and the quest for peace and security have become an international priority, we have to stop to see in the Polisario a movement seeking a political identity but rather a factor of risk and instability," he concluded.

On her part, representative of the international Christian democratic center, Anna Maria Stame Gervone, stated that Algeria created the Polisario with a view to achieve its hegemonic and geopolitical aims.

"We are aware of the serious violations in Tindouf camps (southern Algeria). (É) We know that Sahrawi children are separated from their families and that hundreds of them are deported every year to Cuba. We know that torture is a common practice in the camps and that hundreds of Moroccan prisoners of war are still held captives in Tindouf and treated like slaves in blatant violation of Geneva conventions," she deplored.

Former officials of Polisario gave at the conference an overview on the historical and political evolution of the separatist group, insisting that the legitimate claim of Sahrawi populations for the return of the Sahara to homeland Morocco after the Spanish occupation, has turned into a blind and cruel political adventure.

Previous Stories:
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  Two Algerian presidential candidates highlight new Moroccan family code   (3/23/2004)
  Morocco deplores Algeria's truth 'falsification' over sahara   (3/23/2004)

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