Moroccan southern delegation starts South-American information tour

A delegation of heads of tribes and notables representing inhabitants of the Moroccan southern provinces has started Sunday a visit to Chile, part of a tour in Latin American countries to give officials, NGOs and journalists insight about the reality in the Moroccan Sahara.

On the first day of their visit, Carlos Parker, a leader of Chile's ruling socialist party, said the explanations made by the delegation on the strategic stakes of the Sahara issue and the Polisario practices against Moroccans forcibly held in the Tindouf Camps was eye-opening to him.

He said he will visit the region together with a group of politicians representing all his country's political parties.

The Moroccan delegation unveiled before the Chilean politician the masquerade of the Algeria-backed Polisario guerrilla movement that is claiming the independence of the Sahara that Morocco retrieved in 1975 following a tripartite agreement with Spain and Mauritania. They unveiled how unflattering interests are driving the secessionists who are subjecting the sequestered populations to the most shameful practices.

They also explained the reasons why the local population is refusing the latest plan mooted by the UN secretary general's personal envoy, James Baker, and how the populations are insisting that any solution that does not cater for Morocco's sovereignty over the territory will be rejected.

Ms. Saadani Maalainin, a sociologist who is member of the delegation told the Chilean politician about the plight of local families who are deported and facing daily ill-practices.

The delegation also said the Polisario has never been a liberation movement, and that it was actually the Algerian military that created, finance and supported it in order to harm Morocco's rights and its efforts to perfect its territorial integrity.

The delegation will also be meeting Chilean senators, human rights associations, journalists, academics and intellectuals.

After Chile, they are scheduled to go on a similar mission in Mexico where they will meet officials at the foreign department.