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- Press Release: Senior Polisario Police Official Calls MoroccanAutonomy Best Solution for Sahrawis to Aug 13 2010CONTACT: Garth Neuffer202.470.2055FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Friday, August 13, 2010Senior Polisario Police Official Calls Moroccan Autonomy Best Solution for Sahrawis to End
Decades-old Sahara DisputeDeclares support after seeing Morocco regionalization reforms, thriving economy in W. SaharaWashington, DC (August 13, 2010) — In a surprise announcement while visiting his family in southern Morocco for the first time in three decades, the Polisario’s top police official in the Tindouf refugee camps in Algeria, Police Inspector-General Mustapha Salma Ould Sidi Mouloud, said Morocco’s compromise plan to grant broad autonomy to Western Sahara was the best possible solution to reunite Sahrawis and end the long-running conflict over the territory."After 31 years of separation, I was able to meet with my father and my relatives. I took the opportunity to tour Morocco. I was impressed by Morocco's major progress in different sectors, and the major development boom in the Sahrawi territories, which made me change my position," he said at a press conference in Smara, Morocco earlier this week.The Polisario leader said Morocco’s autonomy plan was the best option for Sahrawis to “achieve our main objective”—preserving their culture and identity—particularly in light of Morocco’s regionalization initiative to decentralize governance and empower local communities, which HM King Mohammed VI highlighted in his July 30th address, noting “Moroccan Sahara will be the top beneficiary.”Ould Sidi Mouloud, son of Sheikh Salma Mouloud, leader of the Rguibat tribe (largest in Western Sahara), said he plans to promote his new position on returning to Tindouf, and he urged Sahrawis on both sides to set aside differences and engage in dialogue to resolve the conflict.“Seeing is believing,” said Robert M. Holley, Executive Director, Moroccan American Center for Policy. “Morocco and Western Sahara have come a long way in the last decade, with far-reaching reforms and progress that make it a model for the region. I want to salute Mr. Ould Sidi Mouloud for recognizing this new reality when he saw it and having the courage and intellectual integrity to speak his mind.“We can only hope he’ll be allowed to speak his mind when he returns to Tindouf. If he is, it could be an opportunity to break the Sahara stalemate and let thousands of refugees trapped in the camps resume their lives. Many more should get a chance to leave the camps and see for themselves,” said Holley.Ould Sidi Mouloud travelled to Smara under the UN Family Visit program, which seeks to reunite Sahrawis in the camps with relatives in Moroccan Western Sahara. Unfortunately, more than 17,000 refugees are wait-listed for the program. Most have to wait years to see their families.On April 6, UN Sec. General Ban Ki-moon reported the parties to the conflict had agreed as a confidence-building measure to build a road from Tindouf to Morocco to let many more refugees visit their families.Meanwhile, 1,800 refugees have fled the Tindouf camps so far this year and more are likely to follow, with too many forced to make the dangerous trek across open desert to reach Moroccan Western Sahara.###The Moroccan American Center for Policy (MACP) is a non-profit organization whose principal mission is to inform opinion makers, government officials and interested publics in the United States about political and social developments in Morocco and the role being played by the Kingdom of Morocco in broader strategic developments in North Africa, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East. For more, please visit www.moroccanamericanpolicy.orgThis material is distributed by the Moroccan American Center for Policy on behalf of the Government of Morocco. Additional information is available at the Department of Justice in Washington, DC.
PR_Senior Polisario Police Official Supports Autonomy Plan 13 Aug 2010 FINAL.pdf - Press Release: US Applauds Morocco’s “Comprehensive Approach” to Fighting Terrorism, Innovative Eff Aug 06 2010Garth Neuffer202.470.2055FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Friday, August 6, 2010US Applauds Morocco’s “Comprehensive Approach” to Fighting Terrorism, Innovative Efforts to Reduce ExtremismState Dept. annual terrorism report to Congress cites rising threat from al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) in North Africa and the SahelWashington, DC (Aug. 6, 2010) — The US State Department’s new Country Reports on Terrorism for 2009 praises Morocco as a model for security, innovative efforts to curb extremism, and international cooperation to combat the transnational threat from al-Qaeda and affiliates such as al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) in North Africa and the Sahel, which the report cites as one of al-Qaeda’s “most-active” worldwide.“Effective counterterrorism policy must go beyond the law enforcement, intelligence, and military efforts,” said Daniel Benjamin, the US State Department’s Coordinator of Counterterrorism, introducing the report. It must also take “steps to undermine the appeal of al-Qaeda’s world view and to isolate violent extremists.”Released shortly after the recent decapitation of a French hostage in Mali by AQIM, the report highlights Morocco’s success in preventing AQIM attacks at home through its comprehensive counterterrorism approach and innovative counter-radicalization policies. It also cites Morocco’s extensive cooperation with the US and its continued success working with international partners to disrupt terrorist plots against Morocco, the US and other targets.The report praises King Mohammed VI’s “significant efforts to reduce extremism and dissuade individuals from becoming radicalized,” including Morocco’s National Initiative for Human Development, a $1.2 billion program launched in 2005 “to generate employment, combat poverty, and improve infrastructure, with a special focus on rural areas.”The report also notes Morocco’s official sanction of mourchidates, or female counselors, to help promote moderation and religious tolerance in mosques across the Kingdom and in Moroccan immigrant communities abroad. And it cites Morocco’s commitment to maintaining human rights standards and increasing transparency of law enforcement, as well as steps taken to limit and prosecute terrorist financing.For the complete report, please visit: http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2010/08/145737.htm###The Moroccan American Center for Policy (MACP) is a non-profit organization whose principal mission is to inform opinion makers, government officials and interested publics in the United States about political and social developments in Morocco and the role being played by the Kingdom of Morocco in broader strategic developments in North Africa, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East. For more, please visit www.moroccanamericanpolicy.orgThis material is distributed by the Moroccan American Center for Policy on behalf of the Government of Morocco. Additional information is available at the Department of Justice in Washington, DC.
PR_US Terrorism Report 6 Aug 2010 FINAL.pdf - Press Release: Sec. of State Clinton reaffirms US Commitment to Help Refugees “Return to Their Homes Jun 18 2010
Calvin Dark
202.587.0855
cdark@moroccanamericancenter.comFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Friday, June 18, 2010
Sec. of State
Washington, DC (June 18, 2010) — Today, in commemoration of World Refugee Day on June 20th, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton reaffirmed US commitment to meeting the “transnational challenge” of the plight of refugees around the world, which “is an issue that transcends not just geography and ethnicity, but politics and partisanship.”
“Now, for the
Today, more than 8 million refugees are warehoused—some for three decades or more—in camps and settlements around the world in places such as
In its latest annual World Refugee Survey, the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants found that Algeria “allowed the rebel group, Polisario, to confine nearly a hundred thousand refugees from the disputed Western Sahara to four camps in desolate areas outside Tindouf military zone near the Moroccan border ‘for political and military, rather than humanitarian, reasons’.” News reports from the region have indicated that as many as 600 Sahrawi refugees have made a perilous escape from the Tindouf camps over the last few months, though thousands remain without documentation or freedom of movement to rejoin their families.
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, in his April 6, 2010 report recommending extension of the UN’s MINURSO peace-keeping mission to the
The Inter-University Center for Legal Studies and the Moroccan American Center for Policy have published, “Group Rights and International Law: A Case Study on the Sahrawi Refugees in Algeria,” which provides historical background on the plight of the Sahrawi refugees in Algeria and outlines concrete actions that the US and the international community can take to resolve their three-decades-old struggle for freedom and basic human rights.
The Moroccan American Center for Policy (MACP) is a non-profit organization whose principal mission is to inform opinion makers, government officials, and interested publics in the
This material is distributed by the
PR_World_Refguee_Day release 6-18-10 FINAL.pdf
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