Polisario separatists burn Moroccan detainees in southwest Algeria, NGO

A Moroccan Sahara-based NGO has accused the separatists of being behind the recent arson that claimed the life of a family in a camp in southwest Algeria, controlled by the Polisario.

Last week, a huge fire destroyed a sequestration camp, inhabited mainly by the Ouled Dlim tribe, near an area called Rabouni. The blaze claimed the lives of many people including the whole family of Ould Ehmeyem, an eyewitness told MAP.

The Alliance for the Protection of Human Rights in the Sahara said Sunday in a press release that the late Mohamed Yahdih Ould Ehmeyem was a staunch leader of the Moroccans sequestered in the Tindouf camps (southwest Algeria), which pushed the separatists to transfer him to the camps of Rabouni.

Ould Ehmeyem, said the Alliance, was at the head of a large moderate group which strives for a just and sustainable solution of the Moroccan Sahara dispute, a solution that cares for the interest of the Sahrawi population and the sovereignty of the Kingdom of Morocco over its Southern provinces known as the Sahara.

The Alliance, composed mainly of ex-members of the Polisario, said the Polisario claims that fire destroyed a single tent erected amid many others are impossible.

While condemning vehemently this "barbarous act that violates human rights and denies the right of speech," the Alliance appealed to the UN Secretary General to dispatch a fact-finding mission on the incident.

Since 1976, the Algerian-backed mercenaries have been claiming the separation of Morocco's Southern Provinces that were occupied by Spain. The North African country retrieved this territory under the 1975 Madrid Accords signed with Spain and Mauritania.