demonstrators in Europe denounce Algerian interference in Moroccan affairs
Morocco-European Union, Politics, 6/20/2005

Thousands of demonstrators denounced, Sunday in the French capital, the Algerian interference in Morocco's domestic affairs, and its deceptive discourse regarding the Moroccan Sahara.

Flooding in thousands from the four corners of France, the demonstrators, of several nationalities, showed an all-out support to the Moroccanity of the Sahara against the Algerian dealings, calling on the Algerian president, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, and his government to give up their policy to saw discord and division, which threatens the whole region.

Algeria has been backing the separatist movement of the "Polisario" which claims, since 1976, the separation of the Moroccan southern provinces (the Sahara) from the rest of the Kingdom. Morocco had retrieved this former Spanish colony in 1975 under the Madrid Accords.

Called for by the "International grouping for the freedom of the Moroccans Sequestered in Tindouf," the demonstration also condemned the detention, for three decades now, of hundreds of Moroccans in the Tindouf camps, southwestern Algeria, and called for their "immediate and unconditional release."

"They outranked the sorry detention of Nelson Mandela. That's enough!" deplored a demonstrator.

In Spain, hundreds of Moroccans staged a demonstration in front of the Algerian embassy in Madrid to denounce Algeria's "hostile dealings" against the territorial integrity of Morocco, and the complicity of certain Spaniards to try to impair the Moroccanity of the Sahara.

The demonstrators, who came from many Spanish cities brandished slogans denouncing the "unacceptable interference of Algiers" against Morocco's sovereignty over its southern provinces.

They called on the local government of Madrid, the political parties and the social society to "act for the immediate liberation" of the Moroccan detainees in Tindouf, in flagrant breach of the human rights and of the relevant resolutions of the Security Council.

Demonstrators that rallied in the German city of Frankfurt, vehemently condemned Algeria's recent declarations against Moroccan territorial integrity, deploring that they "mar bilateral relations, undermine the UMA (Maghreb Arab Union mustering Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia), and harm the whole Arab nation."

Previous Stories:
  Sahara: Parliamentary Assembly of Europe's Council for a a mutually accepted political solution   (1/25/2005)
  OSCE supports any equitable political settlement to Moroccan Sahara'   (6/16/2004)
  Passport for Freedom to drum up support for release of Moroccan POWs in Algeria   (5/25/2004)

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