UN Group on Forced or Involuntary Disappearances takes charge of dossier of missing in Tindouf

For the first time, the United Nations Working Group on Forced or Involuntary Disappearances has officially taken charge of the dossier of Sahrawis missing in the prisons of Tindouf camps (south-western Algeria), that are ruled by the Polisario separatists.

This decision was taken after the Group heard testimonies of two human rights associations on the Sahara.

President of the Association of Families of Sahrawis victims of repression in Polisario camps (PASVERTI), El Houcine Baida, and president of the Sahrawi association for the defence of human rights (ASSADEH), Ramdan Mesaoud Larbi, shed light on the situation in the camps during a meeting with experts of the Working Group of the UN human rights commission on Forced or Involuntary Disappearances that is currently holding its 73 session.

Presidents of the two Ngos, both formerly detained in Polisario prisons, provided the experts with accurate details on the breaches committed by the Polisario in the prisons and with information about persons reported missing in the camps.

The Polisario secessionists are disputing Morocco over its southern provinces, known as the Sahara, with the backing of Algeria.

Exposing a list of people missing in Tindouf prisons, the two presidents held the country hosting the Polisario separatists, namely Algeria, responsible for the breaches committed in the camps. In the column dedicated to the entity or organization responsible for every case of disappearance, it was noted "Polisario military security under the supervision of Algeria."

Baida and Mesaoud Larbi believe that the 56 missing persons in the non-exhaustive list, are only the "tip of the iceberg" and that several other disappearances have taken place in the camps, which are under an arbitrary rule.

ASSADEH and PASVERTI presidents told MAP at the end of the meeting that the UN Group will include this issue in its upcoming report to be published by the end of the year.

Since its creation, the Group has probed nearly 50,000 individual cases of disappearances in over 70 countries. The group's main mission is to help families of the missing have information on the fate of their relatives and their whereabouts.

Every year, the Group submits a report to the Human Rights Commission on its activities made since its latest session.

During a conference held in Barcelona August (8-14) on the "forgotten victims of the Sahara Conflict," ASSADEH and PASVERTI has called on the international community to pressure Polisario to shed light on the cases of Sahrawis who disappeared in Tindouf prisons.