A young Sahrawi exile returns home
Morocco-Algeria, Politics, 6/21/2005

Hamoudi El-Bihi returned home after 15 years of exile in Cuba by the Polisario.

The Polisario, a guerrilla movement backed by Algeria, is claiming the separation of Morocco's southern provinces (known as the Sahara). The former Spanish colony was retrieved by Morocco in 1975 under Madrid Accords.

Speaking at a press briefing on Monday in Settat (157 km South of Rabat), the young Sahrawi (26), who had been deported to Cuba for 15 years since he was a nine-year-old child, said he was sent with another 1,000 to undergo training in the Caribbean island, where he got a diploma in pharmacy.

El-Bihi, native of Reguibate El Bihate tribe, said "Polisario" deports Sahrawi children to Cuba to practice pressure on parents to dissuade them from returning to their homeland, Morocco and indoctrinate these children.

He went on, these children, exiled against their will, are often unable to contact their parents during the years of deportation, while these children always long for returning one day to their homeland and meet their relatives.

Concerning academic studies in Cuba, he said that only "Polisario" leaders' children are enrolled in scientific programmes, while other students are enrolled in military training to join the "Polisario" army.

He pointed out that Polisario students' sufferings go on in Tindouf camps as 95% of graduates face unemployment, which push many of them to think about fleeing. More than that, Polisario officials remove diplomas of those who do not comply with their thesis and hand it to unqualified people.

He noted that the Polisario vehicles propaganda against Moroccoo to persuade the sequestered to stay in the camps of shame and thus serve the separatists vile interests.

The "Polisario" deports every year Sahrawi children to Cuba in the frame of a policy aiming at dissuading sequestered parents from returning to their homeland, Morocco.

Several organisations denounce the use of this shameful and inhumane scheme by the "Polisario" that uses several misleading nomenclatures such as "education," "progress" and "ideological awakening," while the sole objective of this act, is to exert pressure on Sahrawi families, and prevent them from returning to Morocco.

Previous Stories:
  NGO denounces 'atrocities' in Tindouf camps before UN rights commission   (4/19/2005)
  Deportation of Sahrawi children to Cuba by 'Polisario' denounced   (3/30/2005)
  Polisario activists assault Swiss woman for asking disturbing questions   (3/19/2005)

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