El Pais: Moroccan POWs in Tindouf confirm French NGO's Report

Several Moroccan prisoners held captive by the separatist movement "Polisario" in the Tindouf Camps (Southern Algeria), have confirmed all the inhumane living conditions and forced labor reports that French NGO "France-Libertes" had written in its recent enquiry.

The prisoners who spoke to a reporter of the Spanish daily "El Pais," said they had been forced by the Polisario to build schools, roads and infrastructures, in total violation of the Geneva Convention. The Moroccan prisoners, held captive for more than two decades, complained about the inhumane conditions of their detention saying they suffered of malnutrition, in particular after the release of the Moroccan military doctors who used to treat them. El Pais reporter who was among a group of foreign journalists who interviewed these former prisoners, said a total of 230 POWs are piled up in the prison of Lassiad, near Rabouni, southwestern Algeria.

He cited as an example of their forced labor, their building of the Rabouni Hospital, financed by the regional government of Navarra ( North of Spain) and the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation. The France-Libertes foundation, chaired by Danielle Mitterand, widow of French socialist president Francois Mitterand, had published in April a damning report based on a 15- day investigation by its team in the Tindouf camps whereby it denounced "war crimes" committed by the Polisario against these prisoners.

The report also denounced the forced labor imposed on them in total violation of the Geneva Convention on the treatment of prisoners of War. Following the fact-finding mission, France-Libertes decided to stop its aid to this separatist movement claiming independence of the Sahara, a former Spanish colony retrieved by Morocco in 1975 under a three-party agreement with Spain and Mauritania.