Poignant testimonies by Polisaro victims at conference confound separatists

Poignant testimonies delivered on Saturday by victims of Polisario human rights violations, deportations and torture confounded the separatists and shattered lies and allegations presented at a conference held in the French capital in honor of the Polisario.

After the separatists and their friends lectured on their theses, a somewhat-customized history, victims who were all forcibly held in the Polisario-controlled camps in southwestern Algeria required an opportunity to respond to the allegations.

Bouchaib Yahdih, who used to represent the Polisario mercenaries in Paris, denounced the biased debate held at such a prestigious academic university as the Sorbonne University without listening to other Sahrawis who chose to return to their homeland, Morocco.

Let the majority express itself, he told bewildered lecturers and organizers before facing Mohamed Sidati and Souilma Ment Beirouk with the reality that their own relatives are living in Morocco, confirming thus the international court of justice's verdict that the Sahara was not a "terra nulus" and that local tribes, indeed, had allegiance ties with Morocco's kings.

"Sidati, you are the son of a Moroccan magistrate and the grandson of Cheikh Ahmed El Hiba who fought for Morocco's independence. Souilma Bent Beirouk, you are from the Beirouk family who still has caids (local officals) in Morocco."

What can you tell torture victims in the Tindouf camps in southern Algeria? What answer would you give to Ms. Saadani Mae El Ainaine, whose father was tortured and executed in the Polisario jails? What can you tell Ahmed Kher, present here, who was imprisoned for 14 years without trial and without defense, like hundreds of other persons who were tortured and are unaccounted for?"

Turning to another embarrassing issue for the Polisario, the man denounced the deportation of thousands of children to Cuba with the aim of forcing their parents to stay in the camps, showing two cases of this condemnable treatment of children present in the conference room.

An extremely moved 26-year old woman wondered why she is being prevented from taking the floor to speak about her father, who died under torture and tell the story of her own deportation when she was 7 years old and her 17-year long plight in Cuba far from her family.

Another poignant testimony was made by a girl of 12 who only asked to see again her dad, a prisoner of war. In a desperate hope to see her father back, she even wrote to French president Jacques Chirac begging him to press for the release of her father.

Were also present in the Sorbonne university conference room president of the Spain-based association of Polisario victims, Ramdam Massou, who asked Polisario's representatives in France about the fate of hundreds of missing persons held captive in the notorious Arrachid detention center and in the Tindouf jails. The disinformation practiced by the Polisario whenever they are given a tribune was also denounced by spokesman of "the association of Moroccan Sahrawi tribes in Europe," "Erraya," Abalia Semlali, who warned the Polisario leaders that history will remember those who denounce torturers of innocent people.

Confronted to these telling testimonies, the Polisario speakers and their friends, bewildered and running short of arguments, precipitously closed the session and left the tribune without giving any answer.

Another association handed distributed to the audience documents bearing proof of daily human rights abuses in the Tindouf camps, confirmed by international NGOs accounts on embezzlement of humanitarian aid.