Morocco calls U.N. to move to free 1,160 Moroccans captive in Algeria

Morocco on Wednesday called on the United Nations Human Rights Commission to join ongoing international efforts to free 1,160 Moroccan nationals detained by the Polisario in south-western Algeria.

The call was made by Moroccan ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, Omar Hilale, in a speech at the 59th session of the Human Rights Commission.

The delegate, who attracted the Commission's attention to the tragic situation of these detainees and how the "inhumane plight of these 1,160 Moroccan detainees, considered by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICR) as the longest serving POWs, is continuing in the camps of Tindouf in blatant violation of the Geneva Convention.

"Supposed to have been released in the morrow of the cease-fire of September 1991, these detainees continue to be prey to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment," said the diplomat, recalling the concern voiced by ICRC as to the situation of these POWs.

The diplomat slammed the political exploitation made by the Polisario of the previous liberation of other detainees. These so-called humanitarian gestures are a sheer political marketing in quest of sympathy and backing, the delegate said.

He recalled, in this connection, that U.N. Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, had rejected this kind of political-humanitarian amalgam. Annan has been repeatedly noting in his successive reports that the arbitrary detention of these Moroccans was "a humanitarian issue, a human rights issue that should be settled urgently," the diplomat said, lauding the position of several European countries which are mobilized for the release of the Moroccan detainees.