This article was automatically translated from HIBAPRESS, the Arabic version:
Hibapress
Human rights activists and victims of the violations committed by the “Polisario” challenged the UN Human Rights Council (CDH) on forced disappearances and the abuses perpetrated by separatist militias in the Tindouf camps, in the Algerian southwest.
Intervening within the framework of the 58th session of the CDH, Ms. Lemaadla Mohamed Salem Zrug, of the African Network for Development, Governance and Human Rights (RADHEG), stressed that international human rights organizations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and France Libertés have documented the most odious human rights violations committed “Polisario” and the Algerian army.
The activist, who was expressed within the framework of the interaction with the report of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, cited in particular forced disappearances, systematic torture, extrajudicial executions, rapes, slavery and the deprivation of international aid, in addition to the enlistment of child soldiers.
In these camps, which are completely besieged by Algerian forces, “there is not a single tent that has not witnessed a horrible story linked to the atrocities of” Polisario “leaders,” she said.
Ms. Lemaadla Zrug spoke about the case of her own father, who was removed before his birth and tortured to death. “We still do not know what happened to her body,” she deplored, also telling how she was then torn from her mother’s arms and sent to Cuba with thousands of children, where they underwent, for years, forced work and ideological indoctrination.
“As soon as I returned to the camps, I was persecuted and oppressed because I dared to demand to shed light on the fate of my father, which I had never seen in my whole life,” she said with emotion.
For his part, Mr. El Fadel Barika, a former Sahraoui detainee in the secret prisons of the “Polisario”, reviewed the abuses of people who are kidnapped in the Tindouf camps.
This Sahrawi activist cited in particular the elimination of freedom of expression, the prohibition of journalistic work, the propagation of slavery and the restrictions of movement inside or at the end of the camps, in addition to the racial discrimination practiced by the Algerian authorities against the Sahraouis.
According to him, “the last episode of these racist practices was the barbaric aggression of Sahrawi students by the Algerian authorities after they demanded the end of the racial discrimination they are victims at Lycée Labyoud, in the wilaya of Mecheria”.
“These assaults have made people injured among the victims, some of whom are in critical condition, and their parents were not allowed to leave the camp to go see them in hospitals where they continue to be attacked physically and psychologically after having published photos showing the gravity of their injuries,” said Braika.
He also drawn attention to the worsening of the siege imposed on the Sahrawis in the Tindouf camps after the Algerian authorities decided, last month, to limit the number of vehicles authorized to leave the camps every week.
In addition, the Algerian army led a vast campaign of arrests targeting young Sahrawis who were trying to flee the camps, the Saharawi activists having documented the arrest of 43 young people since the start of this year only who were trying to leave the camps, he added.
The Sahrawi activist called on the international community to put pressure on Algeria to take responsibility in the protection of the Sahrawis present on its territory and to put an end to the impunity which encourages the militias of the “Polisario” and their leaders to pursue their heinous crimes against the Sahrawis.
