Prisoners of War

In 2005, the US government pressured the Polisario Front to release illegally detained Moroccan POWs, many of whom had been held since the 1980’s. Their tragic stories of torture, humiliation, and death are a reminder of the need to resolve the Western Sahara crisis.
In 1991, the United Nations brokered a cease-fire over the disputed Western Sahara territory between Morocco and the Algerian-backed separatist movement, the Polisario Front.  At that time, armed hostilities ended, prisoner exchanges began and the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) was established to maintain and monitor the cease-fire.  However, 15 years after the cease-fire was implemented, the Polisario Front still held Moroccan Prisoners of War in the Tindouf camps in southern Algeria.  This action was in clear violation of the Geneva Conventions and numerous international agreements on the treatment and detention of Prisoners of War.
Testimonies by former Moroccan POWs have provided vivid and graphic accounts of physical and emotional torture, slave labor and flagrant human rights violation at the hands of the Polisario Front in the Tindouf Camps. These atrocities were meticulously documented in a 2003 report by France Libertés, an international Human Rights NGO. (Click here to read the France Libertés report: http://www.freethemnow.org/FranceLiberte.pdf) In May 2005, a group of former Moroccan POWs traveled to Washington DC and met with key US lawmakers to bring awareness about the atrocious human rights violations they suffered in captivity and were still being suffered by their fellow POWs.
Background Information Expand
Exploding the Myths about the Moroccan POWs  These "Frequently Asked Questions" provide answers to common questions and myths surrounding the events leading up to the release of the last remaing 404 Moroccan Prisoners of War. (PDF, November 2005)

France Libertés Moroccan POW Report  In April 2003, the French NGO, France Libertés, conducted an "International Mission of Inquiry: The Conditions of Detentions of the Moroccan POWs Detained in Tindouf (Algeria). (PDF, April 2003)

ESISC Report: “Credible Negotiatiator or Obstacle  2005 Report by the European Strategic Intelligence & Security Center (ESISC): “Credible Negotiations Partner or After-Effect of the Cold war and Obstacle to a Political Solution in Western Sahara.” (PDF, November 2005)

MACP Report: “Cuba and the Polisario Front”  This report by the Moroccan American Center for Policy examines the more than three decades long relationship between Cuba and the Polisario Front. (PDF, August 2005)

ESISC Report: Polisario's Human Rights violations  Report by the ESISC (European Strategic Intelligence & Security Center) of an independent committee of inquiry into allegations of violations of human rights, crimes, abuses and various other irregularities brought against the Polisario Front. (PDF, October 2006)

"Castro’s Closest Friends Need Him to “Get Well S  

In the days following Cuban dictator Fidel Castro's illness, Polisario Front and Algerian officials were quick to wish their long-time friend a "speedy recovery." (Article, Moroccan American Center for Policy, September 2006)



Official website for the American Council for Moroccan POWs
http://www.acmpow.org/