The call was made during a press conference to present the AI's 2008 annual report on the state of the world's human rights.

    The organization's Moroccan section president, Mohamed Sektaoui, said that Amnesty, that was denied access to the camps by Polisario, noted that the Polisario leaders took no steps to address the impunity of those accused of human rights abuses in the camps in the 1970s and 1980s.

  Thousands of Moroccan Sahrawi civilians are held against their will on the Algerian soil by the Polisario separatists who lured them into joining the movement in the mid-70s. The separatist movement, backed by Algeria, claims the independence of the territory, retrieved by Morocco from the Spanish rule in 1975 under the Madrid Accord.

    On human rights in Morocco, the report said the Nationality Code was amended to allow Moroccan women married to foreign men to pass their nationality to their children. It added, in this regard, that the authorities reported that 82% of reported ill-treatment of women was due to violence in the home, and launched a campaign to stop violence against women.

    As regards the fight against terrorism, the report said that more than 100 Islamists were detained on suspicion of planning or participating in terrorism-related activities. Most of the detainees were charged and some were tried on terrorism offences and sentenced to up to 15 years in prison.

    It noted restrictions on press freedom, citing that several journalists were arrested and charged with criminal offences for articles deemed to threaten national security. A new Press Code drafted by the authorities is said to retain offences carrying prison sentences.

    As for illegal immigration, the document said that thousands of people suspected of being irregular migrants, among them refugees and asylum-seekers, were arrested and collectively expelled.
Source: MAP
News and events on Western Sahara issue / Corcas