"I say it and I insist," stressed the Moroccan diplomat, before the Human Rights Council (HRC), in response to a statement made by the Algerian ambassador who spoke earlier. "They are held, because they cannot move, because there is a double military belt, that of the Polisario and that of the Algerian army around the camps," he said.

    He highlighted the "serious human rights abuses in Algeria", mentioned by important UN bodies. He recalled, in this regard, the periodic report on Algeria in which the Human Rights' Commission noted "with concern that many serious human rights abuses are committed and would continue on the territory of Algeria."

    These are, among other things, "massacres, torture and banning journalists from raising the issue of missing persons, as well as information on the existence of secret detention centers,” Mr. Loulichki underlined.

    The Algerian-backed separatist movement, Polisario, which claims sovereignty over Morocco’s Southern Provinces –the Sahara, lured, in 1976, thousands of Moroccan Sahrawis into fleeing to the Tindouf camps where they have been held against their will ever since.

News and events relating to Western Sahara issue / Corcas