The delegate of the International Action for Peace and Development in the Great Lakes Region (AIPD), Mr. Hamdi Cherifi denounced before the Council on Human Rights (CHR) systematic violations of freedom of expression and movement in the Tindouf camps, citing the case of Mr. Mostapha Salma as a glaring example in this regard. 

Mr. Cherifi said that this Polisario former police chief has been denied his right to speak freely by the militia of this movement for the simple reason that he had expressed an opinion different from that of Polisario and Algeria, supporting the Moroccan autonomy proposal for the Sahara region. After being imprisoned for several weeks, he said, Mr. Ould Sidi Mouloud was prevented by the militia to accede to the Polisario camps in Tindouf in Algeria, where the rest of his family are detained. He is now unable to rejoin his wife and his children, he added.

While the Polisario militia, backed by Algeria, continue to ignore the issue, the Council on Human Rights has the responsibility to address situations of violations of human rights in the Tindouf camps, including systematic violations of the right to freedom of expression, which requires urgent action by the international community," said the AIPD Representative.

He said that the case of Mr. Ould Sidi Mouloud is just one example of other cases of violations of freedom of expression committed daily in the Tindouf camps, where the population is kept in captivity and subjected to the most cruel and inhuman treatment, left to the Polisario militias with the blessing of Algeria and its military security. 

He stressed that Algeria should comply with international treaties that it has signed and enable the return of Ould Sidi Mouloud with his family.

The speaker urged the Council to take the necessary measures to ensure the safe return of Ould Sidi Mouloud in the Tindouf camps, and ensure his ability to express his views freely at his arrival in these camps. The reliability of the Council depends on its ability to allow Mr. Mostapha Salma Ould Sidi Mouloud to rejoin his family and people of the Tindouf camps to express his views freely, " he concluded.

For his part, Mr. Ismaili Moulay Salma Ould Sidi Mouloud, Ould Salma’s father, launched in Geneva on Wednesday, an urgent appeal to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), asking that his son, who is currently in Mauritania after being arrested and deported by the Polisario, to choose the country where he wishes to settle.

Almost four months have passed since Mustapha Salma suffers from this situation in Mauritania and the UNHCR tries to find him a host country of his choice, enabling him to finally meet with his family, lamented Ismaili Moulay Salma Ould Sidi Mouloud, who, to this end, invited the UN agency to assume full responsibility so that his son can finally know his fate. 

He recalled that his ordeal began when a group of Polisario militiamen attacked his home in 1979 and took three of his children, including Mustapha who was 11.

After this family tearing that lasted 31 years, Mustapha decided to visit me in Es-Smara. Having stayed 4 months in the southern provinces of Morocco, he was able to see, in situ, the high degree of socio economic and cultural development in the cities of the Sahara and the freedom of expression and movement that prevail, "he said.

He added that after several contacts with the Sahrawi population, Mustapha was able to increase the positive impact of autonomy plan proposed by Morocco as a final solution to the Sahara issue.

Encouraged by these considerations and convinced by the need to participate in solving this problem, he said, he decided to join the project and communicate its benefits, at his return to the camps, to people in Tindouf camps

Source: MAP
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