NGO denounces 'atrocities' in Tindouf camps before UN rights commission

An NGO has strongly denounced, on Monday, before the United Nations human rights commission, the "atrocities" and "barbarous violations" committed by the Polisario Front in Tindouf camps (Algeria).

The Algeria-backed guerrilla movement is claiming the separation of Morocco's southern provinces, known as the Sahara. The former Spanish colony was retrieved by Morocco in 1975 under Madrid Accords.

Speaking at the 61st session of the Commission on behalf of the NGO "Internationale démocrate du centre," Aamar Cheikh called the international community to work for the release of 408 Moroccan detainees still held by the Polisario for over a quarter of a century, and to lift the siege on the populations in the camps.

Polisario continues to breach the basic human rights recognized by the international community, he said, underlining that the Moroccan prisoners are used in forced labor and treated like slaves despite "calls launched by international bodies for their immediate and unconditional release."

Aamar Cheikh also deplored the deportation of Sahrawi children to Cuba, under the cloak of studies, to be submitted to an ideological indoctrination.

"At present, hundreds of children are separated from their parents" because of Polisario's policy, he said, reiterating call to the UN Secretary General and international humanitarian organizations to "lead investigations in the camps" so as to conduct a census of their population and assess their needs.

IDC's delegate also urged for the immediate release of the 408 detainees and for the international community's intervention to put an end to this situation.