Al-Hayat: Detention of thousands of Saharwis in Tindouf raises concern

The maintaining in detention of thousands of Sahrawis in the Polisario-controlled Tindouf camps (Algeria) raises concerns, wrote on Tuesday the London-based newspaper Al-Hayat, evoking several paradoxes in the Sahara question "which make the issue more complicated."

The paper which shed light on the characteristics of the Sahrawi society that rejects all those who evolve outside the family and tribal circles, noted that the son of the head of the Polisario front and his brothers lead a normal life in Agadir and Kasbat Tadla (central Morocco).

The Algeria-backed Polisario Front is a separatist group that has been claiming the separation of Morocco's southern provinces (Sahara) since 1976. The former Spanish colony was retrieved by Rabat in 1975 under the Madrid Accords signed with Spain and Mauritania.

Al Hayat explained that Al Habib R'guibi is a lawyer in Agadir, but only a very few people know he is the brother of the leader of the Polisario. It added that his younger brother Driss has chosen to stay with their father Khalili R'guibi who lives in Kasbat Tadla (central Morocco).

When Libyan leader Muammar Al-Qadhafi knew that the 70-year old father of the head of the Polisario group lives in Kasbat Tadla, during a visit he paid to Morocco in 1984, he insisted to meet him, recalled the paper.

Al-Hayat also reported that Moroccan Health Minister Cheikh Biadillah once refused to meet with his brother Brahim Mahmoud Biadillah because the latter supported the separatists.

In addition, the newspaper highlighted the case of Maa Al Ainine tribe that does not hide the fact that Mohamed Sidati, who represents the Polisario in Europe, belongs to it.