Morocco, Burkina Faso urge for the release of Moroccan POWs in Southern Algeria
Morocco-Burkina Faso, Politics, 3/3/2005

Visiting King Mohammed VI of Morocco and President Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso, have urged the international community to step up efforts for the release of some 400 Moroccan prisoners of war still detained by the separatist movement "Polisario" in the Tindouf camps, south-western Algeria.

This came in a joint communique released at the end of the two-day official visit of King Mohammed VI to Burkina Faso, part of a three-nation African tour.

408 Moroccan POWs are still being held prisoners in the worst conditions as was denounced by various human rights organizations, including Amnesty International. Some of these POWs have been detained for more than two decades, despite appeals by the UN and other organizations fore their immediate release, and despite the 1991 UN-brokered ceasefire between Morocco and the Algeria-backed separatists.

The two leaders voiced support to the international community efforts under way to find a political, negotiated and final solution to the Sahara dispute opposing Morocco to the Polisario which has been seeking since 1976 the separation of the Moroccan Southern provinces, known as the Sahara. The former Spanish colony was retrieved by the kingdom in 1975 under the Madrid Accords.

The two heads of State said the settlement of this dispute would encourage the process of regional integration and the building of the Great Maghreb, the communiquŽ went on.

President Compaore, who deplored the absence of Morocco from the African Union, stressed the urgent need to overcome all obstacles that hinder the return of the North African Kingdom to this organization. In 1984, Morocco quit the then Organization of African Unity (OAU), now called African Union, in protest against its recognition of the so-called Sahrawi republic, a puppet state proclaimed by the Polisario and hosted by Algeria.

As for the situation in the black continent, the two Heads of State deplored the persistence of a number of conflicts that seriously threaten the stability and security of Africa, and urged, in particular, Cote d'Ivoire and Togo, to resort to dialog to reach a final settlement of their conflicts.

Concerning the situation in the Mid-East, the communique went on, the two heads of State voiced support to the recent peace initiatives by President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, aiming the creation of an independent Palestinian State with Al Qods as its capital. They also expressed satisfaction at the outcome of the recent Sharm Al-Sheik (Egypt) Summit aiming to restore contacts between the Palestinian and the Israeli governments.

On Iraq, the two leaders praised the recent elections and hoped to see peace and stability restored in the war-torn country.

Previous Stories:
  King Mohammed VI receives eminent Burkina Faso Moslem figures   (3/2/2005)
  Morocco, Burkina Faso sign package of cooperation accords   (3/2/2005)
  Minister says King's visit to Burkina Faso, 'historic'   (3/1/2005)

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