Assabah: Pro-separatists in Moroccan Sahara receive foreign financial assistance, paper

Pro-Polisario activists in the southern provinces of Morocco (Sahara) receive foreign financial assistance, revealed on Friday the Moroccan daily "Assabah."

Quoting reliable sources from Laayoune (Southern Morocco) who spoke under condition of anonymity, "Assabah" said the financial assistance comes from the separatist movement and its backer Algeria through ordinary channels, which makes it difficult to identify the recipients' intention.

The pro-Polisario operating from inside the Moroccan Southern Provinces use different means of communication to keep in touch with the Polisario leadership based in Tindouf (southwestern Algeria) and act on their orders.

Quoting the same sources, the newspaper said the Polisario's urgent objective is to involve the MINURSO (UN mission in charge of organising a referendum in the Sahara) under the pretext of "protecting Sahraoui citizens and to dispatch an international fact-finding commission."

The "Assabah" story came in the wake of last week incidents in Laayoune (capital of the Moroccan Sahara) involving police forces and some demonstrators who were throwing stones at them in protest against the transfer of a common law prisoner.

The Algeria-backed "Polisario," which has been claiming since 1976 the separation of the Moroccan southern provinces (the Sahara) from the rest of the country, tried to root out this commonplace social event and present it as a "violation of human rights" by Moroccan authorities in the Sahara. The separatist group also made allegations on "clashes" between the police and demonstrators that "expanded to other neighbourhoods in the city."