The Missing

Conference Participants condemn the forced disappearances from the Tindouf Camps in Algeria

Participants attending a conference organised by international non-governmental organisations at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, condemned the forced disappearances from the Camps in Tindouf in Algeria and stressed that the Plan for Autonomy proposed by Morocco constituted the only solution to end the misery endured by the families detained against their will in Tindouf.

The Conference was organised by Interfaith International, the International Democratic Centre and the Union of Women's Action and those participating considered that the only means of resolving the Saharan Conflict and of re-starting the building of the Great Maghreb for the benefit of its people and the region's security was this Plan for Autonomy.

Mr Sidat El Ghallaoui, former representative of the Polisario in Italy, traced the history of the Saharan Conflict, a vestige of the Cold War, and stresed that the Plan for Autonomy responds to the demands of the Saharawi population, by offering them considerable opportunities to manage their own internal affairs.

He remarked that the on-going conflict over the Sahara prevents the development of the Maghreb Union, adding that the resolution of the Conflict would enable the five countries in the region to achieve economic and social development, to reduce instability, and to counteract threats of terrorism and the trafficking of weapons and people.

Mr Abadilah Semlali of the International Democratic Centre drew the conference's attention to the catastrophic plight of the people detained against their will in the Camps of Tindouf, in south-west Algeria, which passes almost unnoticed.  He denounced the collective kidnapping and detention of these people undertaken by the Polisario and the Algerian Security and Military apparatus in the mid 1970's.

Mr Semlali also indicated that numerous Saharawi families, whose relations are still missing, instructed him to convey their distress to the human rights' committees in Geneva, so as to draw the attention of the international community to their suffering.

He called for instances of forced disappearances to be highlighted, since they represent a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law.  As an indirect victim of these forced disappearances, Madame Malka Kriti spoke about the psychological trauma she has experienced since her father Haj Souilem Al Bachir - known to be a ferocious opponent of Spanish colonialisation and an adherent of Morocco's territorial integrity - was abducted before her eyes from their home in Laayoune in 1974 by members of the Polisario.

She made an emotional plea to members of the human rights committees in Geneva to shed light on her father's case, describing the psychological effects and her daily suffering caused by her father's absence.

March 2009