ICRC delegate meets relatives of Moroccan POWs

Delegate of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Dorothea Krimits, is carrying on a "humanitarian mission" visiting in the southern Moroccan city of Guelmim relatives of Moroccan POWs held captive by the Algeria-backed Polisario Separatists in southwestern Algeria.

A total of 914 Moroccan prisoners of war are still held captive by "The Polisario" in the Tindouf Camps, southern Algeria, said Krimits after visiting with relatives of seven of these prisoners held in those camps by this Algeria's backed separatist movement claiming independence of Western Sahara, a former colony retrieved by Morocco in 1975.

She explained that her visit to these families is part of the humanitarian mission undertaken by the ICRC to maintain contacts between these prisoners and their relatives.

The ICRC representative insisted in a statement to the media that her mission is purely humanitarian and aims at reminding the concerned parties in the conflict of the International Humanitarian Law which provides for the good treatment of prisoners of war and calls for the immediate release of all prisoners.

The delegate of the ICRC had earlier been in Tata (south of the country) where she visited relatives of 26 of these POWs.