Major Event

NGOs question U.S. Congress about Polisario's involvement in terrorism in North Africa and Mali
3/12/2013

The Leadership Council for Human Rights (LCHR), one of the largest organizations of human rights in the United States, and Teach the Children International (TCI) sent a letter to the Chairmen of Foreign Affairs Committees of both the Senate and the House of Representatives of the U.S. Congress to question about the "proved" implication of Polisario in terrorist activities in North Africa and Sahel, particularly in the north of Mali.

"Overwhelming evidence attests the involvement of the Polisario Front in terrorist activities in North Africa and Mali," say Kathryn Cameron Porter and Nancy Huff, presidents respectively of LCHR and TCI, requesting the assistance of the U.S. Congress "to end the manipulation by separatist leadership on populations sequestered in Tindouf camps, becoming a tool in the hands of terrorist groups."

Cameron Porter and Nancy Huff are happy in this context that "the true nature of Polisario is finally unmasked by the international media in great detail", which reinforces facts found during their recent visit to the southern provinces and the interviews they had conducted with several people who were able to leave the Tindouf camps.

The airstrikes targeting French Army leaders of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), and jihadists in northern Mali, including dozens of dead led to the arrest of several activists including a member of "Polisario".

The letter also mentions the recent statement by the Malian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Tieman Coulibaly, in which he stated that "the Polisario militants are among the terrorist groups that spread terror in Mali." Malian authorities have in recent years reported that they would no longer "tolerate Polisario violates the integrity of the country."

"At first, explained Coulibaly in his interview with Atlasinfo.fr, jihadists were only fifty", estimating their number today between 5500 and 7000, including youth camps in Tindouf with no future or prospects a better tomorrow.

Kathryn Porter Cameron, also founder of the Caucus of human rights in the U.S. Congress, and Nancy Huff cite furthermore a study by Tunisian Academician, Alaya Allani, attesting to about 300 members of the Polisario involved in the war in Mali, active within Mujao, whose spokesperson is Abu Walid Saharoui, who comes from Tindouf camps in south-western Algeria.

The letter asks, finally, assistance from U.S. Congress in order to end the ordeal endured for over 37 years by the populations sequestered in Tindouf camps.

Mrs. Huff and NGO she chairs had worked for a long time in humanitarian missions in the Tindouf camps, before discovering the horrible violation of human rights and the embezzlement of humanitarian perpetrated by the Polisario leaders for personal wealth.

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