Naba Deddah El Meki, former responsible for the distribution of humanitarian aid to Tindouf explained to ALM how Polisario, in complicity with Algerian authorities, diverted humanitarian aid intended for hostages.
ALM: What it really going on in Tindouf camps?
Naba Deddah El Meki: I lived in the Tindouf camps from 1979 to early 2008. Throughout this period, I have held various positions: head of the Youth Office, a teacher and a corporal. The situation is simply disastrous; Polisario leadership takes advantage from the conflict while the majority of sequestered people are needy. Worse, they have become an instrument of asking charity from international NGOs.
How does Polisario leadership manage to get humanitarian aid?
Polisario leadership has made a lot of money by using hostages. It used a horrifying description of the situation in the camps to get aid, is subsequently diverted to their original objectives. Polisario distributes only a small part of this aid, while the rest is sent to Mauritania, Algeria and Mali, to be resold onto the black market. Time has come to inform international public opinion about the real destination of the humanitarian aid which enriches Polisario at the expense of the sequestered. The most influential members of the front have now accounts containing millions of dollars in European banks, in addition to luxury homes in Algeria, Spain and Mauritania.
What arguments could you put forward to prove aid embezzlement?
There so many examples. Once they arrive on site, international NGOs representatives ask to meet those who will take aids. Polisario officials bring young girls, still minor but presented as mothers of families composed of six members or more. These girls are chosen from the ones who are close members of the front leadership. Sometimes people put pressure on them to keep them silent.
Algerians also take part in these operations. I can assure you that every year some 200 to 300 caravans carrying aid (children's toys, nappies, perfumes) offered by Spanish NGOs, once arrived in Algeria, are redirected to warehouses of some of the powerful men of the Algerian intelligence, in agreement with Polisario leadership.
Could you tell us examples of embezzlement operations you witnessed?
There is the affair of medical scanner offered to the population in Tindouf by a Swiss NGO, which was transported then resold in Mauritania, by a Polisario senior official. When members of this NGO came afterwards for the installation, they did not find it. The scanner was missing. For fear that this scandal would adversely affect their image before the international public opinion, Polisario leaders sent the army to Zouerate in Mauritania to pick up the scanner and bring it back to the camps. There is also the case of an Italian NGO, which funded the construction of a hospital against one billion and 400 million Algerian dinars. This was a real scandal. At the inauguration, Italians were shocked to see that the hospital did not look like what it should be.
They realized that their funds were diverted from their goal and sent to the accounts of some members of the Polisario leadership. This scam was conducted by Bouchraya Bayoun, who is now representative of Polisario in Spain.
How to remedy the situation?
International NGOs must assume their responsibility. They should conduct themselves the distribution of aid to those who have rights, or suspend them and wait the setting up of control mechanisms. Polisario leadership has developed a system that allows it to hide the truth and mislead foreign media, such as exaggerating the number of people living in the camps, which do not exceed 50 thousand people. Polisario claims to be around 200,000.
Source : Aujourd'hui le Maroc
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