Tindouf camps 'forgotten victims' 'shame' on international community, conference
Morocco-Regional, Politics, 4/7/2005

"It is a shame that such a case of 'forgotten victims' by the international community can exist in the new millennium" aired, in denunciation of the Moroccans sequestered in Tindouf camps (Southwest Algeria), the representative of Centrist Democratic International (CDI) in Italy.

Anna Maria Cervone, and the attendance of a conference organized on "The World's Oldest Prisoners" in the University of Geneva, were moved by the testimony of Moroccan aviation captain, Ali Najab, who has been detained in the "Polisario" camps for over 25 years.

Backed by Algeria, the "Polisario" is a separatist movement that has been seeking since 1976 the separation of the Moroccan Southern Provinces, known as the Sahara, from the rest of the Kingdom. The former Spanish colony was retrieved by Morocco in 1975 under the Madrid Accords signed with Spain and Mauritania.

Captain Najab, a living testimony of Moroccan detainees' sufferings, explained how the provisions of the Geneva Convention on Human Rights are "constantly violated."

"Not a single day goes by in these camps without the Geneva Convention texts being violated," he said, recalling the acts of humiliation of the totalitarian "Polisario" apparatus against the Moroccan detainees.

Najab called on the international community, "particularly the European Union" to exert pressure on Algeria and "Polisario" to free the 408 Moroccan remaining POWs in the Tindouf camps.

Anja Oksalampi, representative of the CDI in Switzerland, and former supporter of the "Polisario," showed how the report of the French NGO "France-Libertes" on the breaches of human rights in the "Polisario" camps informed many NGOs on the true situation in these camps.

The meeting was organized by the International Committee for the Liberation of Tindouf Prisoners, the Italian Municipality of Pontremoli and the group of Human Rights Association in the Sahara, on the sidelines of the 61st session of the UN Commission on Human Rights.

Previous Stories:
  NGOs stress the need to help sequestrated populations in Polisario camps   (4/6/2005)
  NGOs stage sit-in to denounce Ali Lmrabet statements   (4/6/2005)
  Morocco good example of political transition and democratic experience, academic   (4/1/2005)

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