Spain-Based NGO, French HR foundation discuss situation of Moroccan POWs in Tindouf

The situation of Moroccan prisoners in the Tindouf camps (southwestern Algeria) and the human rights violations committed by the Algeria-backed separatist group " Polisario" topped talks here Thursday between the Spain-based "Association of the Victims of Polisario" and the French foundation "France Liberte."

The French foundation, led by Danielle Mitterand, widow of late French president Francois Mitterand, had published a 52-page report that condemns and unveils Polisario's breaches and its inhumane treatment of Moroccan captives that have been held for nearly thirty, years despite a UN-mandated cease-fire proclaimed in 1991.

President of the Spain-based association, Ramdan Masoud, hailed the courage of the two investigators, Afifa Karmous and Pauline Dubuisson, who were in charge of investigations on the detention conditions of Moroccan POWs.

Masoud told Karmous, a close collaborator of Mrs. Mitterand, during a three-hour meeting that the torture of the Moroccan detained is also practiced against the civilian populations in the south of Tindouf.

Ramdan handed Karmous the photos of the disappeared in Polisario prisons and a list of victims who managed to flee the camps and who are today "traumatized" and "physically and psychologically destroyed." Ramdan said his association is entirely ready to contribute in collecting the maximum information on Polisario human rights violations to provide the next report of "France Liberte" with substantial and irrefutable proofs on the separatists' abuses.

The president also handed "France Liberte" executives a document that denounces the torture and forced labor of Moroccan captives and the civil population, requesting that Algeria be referred to international justice. "The human rights violations were perpetrated in the presence of Algerian officers," he insisted.