Polisario releases Moroccans
2002-01-05 14:32
Rabat - Morocco on Friday welcomed the imminent release of 115 of its soldiers by an Algerian-backed movement seeking independence in the Western Sahara and asked for the freedom of more than a thousand others.
The 115 men were captured by the Polisario Front 25 years ago at the start of its guerrilla war.
The Polisario announced on Wednesday that it would hand over the soldiers in a goodwill gesture but gave no date.
The handover has been arranged in collaboration with the Spanish Red Cross and the Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
The Moroccan Foreign Ministry said it had been following with great interest European Union efforts to free all Moroccans "held on Algerian soil in Polisario's prison cells".
But it added: "Moroccan authorities deeply regret that only 115 prisoners of 1 477 still held in Algeria benefit from this recent announcement despite the positions clearly expressed on this issue by the international community."
The ministry, in a statement carried by the official MAP news agency, said 1 028 Moroccan soldiers had been held by the Polisario for more than 20 years, including some now in poor health.
"Morocco calls on the international community, mainly the UN Security Council and all concerned bodies, to exert all relevant prerogatives to ensure their release, without precondition and further delay," the ministry said.
At United Nations headquarters in New York, Security Council members, welcomed the Polisario Front's announcement but said soldiers on both sides have not been accounted for and called for the release of all those being detained.
It was time for both sides "to abide by their obligations under international humanitarian law to release without further delay all those held since the start of the conflict", the members said in a statement read by Ambassador Jagdish Koonjul of Mauritius, this month's council president.
The Polisario said the latest handover would bring to 900 the number of Moroccan prisoners it has released since 1997.
A 10-year-old UN-brokered plan to hold a referendum to give Western Sahara residents the choice between independence or integration with Morocco has reached deadlock.
A new solution aimed at regional autonomy for the territory under Moroccan sovereignty has been put forward by a UN envoy as an alternative but is strongly opposed by the Polisario.
Morocco claims and controls most of the Western Sahara, a sparsely populated area which has a 1500km Atlantic coastline with accompanying fishing rights, and a wealth of phosphates and other minerals.