Europe-based Sahrawi NGOs denounce Polisario torture methods

The Swedish association defending Sahrawi Refugees in Tindouf (ADESETI) and the Barcelona-based association of Polisario Victims in Spain (ASVIPO) denounced tortures and abuses perpetrated by Polisario leaders against Sahrawis sequestered in Tindouf camps (southwestern Algeria).

ADESETI spokesperson and ASVIPO chairman said in a message addressed Tuesday to Spanish foreign affairs minister, Ana Palacio, "the Polisario hardly represent now the third of the number of Sahrawis."

"We Sahrawis, who were born at the time of Spain's colonization of the Sahara and have unjustly suffered from torture and all types of humiliation in Polisario prisons, assert that the solution of this human tragedy is inside Morocco which is the only one capable of guaranteeing the dignity and the well-being of Sahrawis," the message goes on.

The two NGOs asked Spain to interfere to convince the Polisario leadership to "stop torture and repression against the Sahrawis sequestered in Tindouf."

Independently of the political solution to the Sahara question, the suffering and humiliation that the Polisario inflicted to the Sahrawis should not pass unseen, the message added.