A report slipped into the UN Human Rights Council, by watchdog groups, has resurrected discussions on the massive humanitarian atrocities in Algeria and Western Sahara under the watch of their security operatives.
Tindouf camps in southwestern Algeria, were named the epicentres of this whirlwind that find Algerian security services and the Polisario Front, down in the gutters, committing massive human rights violations with all the accompanying humanitarian atrocities, against the backdrop of the Sahara conflict.
Although the Polisario Front has acknowledged that human rights violations have occurred in the past, it has not provided clear data on enforced disappearances, abductions, extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, torture in detention centers, or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
The report which occasioned a symposium on 22 September 2022, in the chamber of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, catalogued in detail, suspected contents of the Pandora box. It alleges that the Polisario remains an organization beyond control, despite the serious crimes and violations it has committed since its creation. Indeed, the Polisario has made the Tindouf camps a rear base for sponsoring kidnappings, looting and attacks of an arbitrary and terrorist nature, resulting in thousands of victims not only among the residents of the Tindouf camps, but also from Mauritania, Mali, South Korea, France, Spain and Morocco. Thus, the Polisario has caused casualties through armed ground operations or attacks on boats and ships near the coasts of neighboring countries.
Nearly five decades of violations and inhuman treatment, the most prominent of which have been torture and arbitrary executions, have passed in a climate of impunity, where the Algerian recourse mechanisms, the only authority responsible for investigating all violations committed on its territory, have refused to deal with or examine any file relating to violations, committed by the Polisario. The Polisario, has been imposed by the Algerian authorities in the management of the affairs of the camps, in violation of the provisions of international law.
In this context, the Polisario leadership exploits and mobilizes women and children to export violence and murder outside the camps, as the only way to intimidate its critics.
Organized by pressure groups, the Promotion of Economic and Social Development and the International Observatory for Peace, Democracy and Human Rights of Geneva, the forum described as negative, Algeria’s Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation for seeking to alter the truth on the urgent humanitarian situation.
Speakers were unanimous in their condemnation of the dangerous link between the Polisario board and the armed groups operating in the Sahel region, and warned that the underhand dealings could reverse positive steps, intended to halt worsening conditions.
The event was moderated by Miss Aicha Duihi, President of the International Observatory for Peace, Democracy and Human Rights of Geneva ”IOPDHR-GENEVA”. On the tall list of speakers were, Mr. Emmanuel Tawil, Professor at the University of Paris II Panthéon-Assas; Mr. Lorenzo Penas Roldan, International Lawyer for terrorism and international security; Miss Sophie Michez, Lawyer at the Brussels Bar and Mr. Chema Gil, Director of the International Security Observatory and expert on terrorism and international security issues.
Others were Miss Maghlaha Dlimi, Director of the Dakhla media library; and Mr. Naoufal Bouamri, Lawyer and human rights activist.
