London sit-in calls for release of Moroccans detained in Southern Algeria

Moroccan expatriates in Great Britain staged a sit-in, on Tuesday before the "Welington Arch" in London, to denounce the Polisario separatists manoeuvres and call for the immediate and unconditional release of their fellow countrymen who are detained in the Tindouf camps (southwest Algeria).

Many Moroccans are still sequestered by the Polisario front, an Algeria-backed guerrilla movement claiming the separation of Morocco's southern provinces (known as the Sahara). The former Spanish colony was retrieved by Morocco in 1975 under the Madrid Accords.

Protestors denounced the participation of the so-called SADR presidential adviser, Mohamed Khadad in a press conference on "Sahrawi people oil resources."

The demonstrators were carrying banners and chanting slogans urging British and international public opinion to watch out the manoeuvres of the Polisario that tries to cover the real problem, which is the sufferings of Moroccans, sequestered in separatists prisons.

"The sit-in was staged by Moroccan associations to denounce our fellow countrymen imprisonment and to urge for their immediate release," President of Westminster Moroccan Association, Mohamed Wahbi told the Moroccan News Agency MAP.

The theme of the press conference is just a diversion, he said stressing that "Sahara resources belong to Moroccan Sahrawis who live in the Sahara and not to separatists."

"We called on the British government not to encourage such meetings," he said noting that "Polisario mercenaries try to plunder Moroccan Sahara riches."

For his part, President of Eastern London Association, Al-khalil El-Moudden said the sit-in is a peaceful demonstration to attract the British public opinion attention to the sequestered Moroccans situation.