Amnesty international calls Polisario to release remaining POWs

Amnesty International reiterated on Friday its call for the immediate release and repatriation of the more than 900 remaining Moroccan prisoners of war still being detained by the Algeria-backed Polisario.

"It is high time that these men are allowed to return home to their families," the organization says in a release. "Most of the men have been detained for over two decades. Among them are old and sick people, whose release must be a priority."

According to the Third Geneva Convention, all prisoners of war must be released without delay after the cessation of active hostilities, the London-based organization recalls. 243 men by the Polisario Front on 1 September 2003. While Amnesty International welcomes the release of 243 pows by the Polisario, it says "the continued detention of these men over a decade after the declaration of a cease-fire is a grave abuse of their right to physical and mental integrity."