Morocco urges algeria to free 514 POW

Morocco reiterated Thursday its call for Algeria to immediately and unconditionally free some 514 prisoners of war (POW) still in captivity in Tindouf camps (southern Algeria).

Addressing the 60th session of the Human Rights Commission, Morocco's ambassador to the United Nations, Omar Hilale, shed light on the humanitarian situation of the Moroccan captives in the Algerian territory, deploring that this "tragedy continues despite the incessant calls of the international community and the multiple resolutions of the Security Council."

Hilale said the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) considers these prisoners as the longest-serving in the world. "Some of them have been held in Algerian prisons for three decades, which never happened before in any conflict in the history of humanity. The continuous deterioration of their physical and psychological health raises the concern of the ICRC, the UN secretary general and several international NGO," he said.

These captives, the diplomat added, "should have been released 13 years ago immediately after the ceasefire proclaimed in 1991 in conformity with Article 118 of the 3rd Geneva Convention of 1949 that stipulates the release and repatriation of POW at the end of active hostilities."

Their incarceration, he went on, is an arbitrary detention that is aggravated by a series of violations such as torture, cruel and inhuman treatment, forced labor and media exploitation by Algeria that "is desperately attempting, through the instrumentalization of this human tragedy, to endure the artificial conflict."

Hilale called on Algeria to abide by its international commitments through the immediate liberation of the remaining 514 Moroccan prisoners. By keeping them captives on its own territory and assisting those who imprisoned them (Polisario) Algeria will have to shoulder responsibility before the international community because it violated no less than 27 articles of the third Geneva convention of 1949, he went on.

Member countries of the Arab Maghreb Union (UMA) have recently celebrated the 15th anniversary of the signing of UMA charter, he recalled, underlining that in this occasion the Moroccan people cordially calls on Algeria to respect this Charter whose Article 15 stipulates that member countries would not allow in their territories any activities likely to undermine the security, territorial integrity or political system of another member state.

In addition to Morocco and Algeria, the regional grouping of UMA also comprises Libya, Mauritania and Tunisia. The Maghreb Arab project has been hindered for years mainly because of Algeria's backing to the separatist group Polisario that claims the independence of the Moroccan Sahara.