Human Rights Council: Moroccan Ambassador in Geneva Exposes Algerian Baseless Allegations on the Sahara

The Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Morocco in Geneva, Omar Zniber, has once again denounced the false allegations spread by the Algerian representative to the Human Rights Council (CDH), with a view to instrumentalizing the work of the Council as part of the hostility of the regime of his country with regard to the territorial integrity of the Kingdom. In a letter sent to the ambassadors permanent representatives in Geneva and to mandate holders to the Human Rights Council on the occasion of the 48th session of the Council, Mr. Zniber highlighted the hostile and obsessive maneuvers in which the Algerian delegation was engaged in each session of this UN body so as to mislead the international community about the Moroccan Sahara. “This hostility manifests itself through a declaration and a side-event, always hollow and ignored, peddling lies and wordy expressions, unrelated to our agenda and our objectives,” noted the diplomat, adding that “this calculated and unacknowledged agitation does not find any echo and is on the contrary decried by the overwhelming majority of the delegations.” He stressed in this regard that Algeria, as part of its hostile maneuvers, seeks to mobilize some circles and a few very limited delegations, whose countries, for the most part, are known and prosecuted for massive violations of human rights with regard to their own populations. These same circles in the pay of the enemies of Morocco for decades attack the Kingdom, blindly and without discernment, without proof, nor tangible facts, or corroborated by neutral and impartial sources, he pointed out. The Moroccan delegation in Geneva has always been keen to argue its words, its statements, and to document elements regarding the situation prevailing in the Tindouf camps, in Algeria, where populations have been held against their will for nearly half a century, in the camps, and they are militarized, enduring exactions and bullying which were denounced at the international level, noted the ambassador who joined to this letter a video footage, supported by elements of written evidence, on the involvement of the Polisario separatists, supported by the Algerian military regime during five decades, in criminal acts of massive violations against the populations of these camps in Algeria. He recalled in this regard the testimonies expressed by former senior militia leaders, bringing indisputable truths on the real face of the separatists and their sponsors, leading a plot of destabilization against the Kingdom of Morocco, at a time when the Maghreb region faces major challenges in terms of stability and security due to the boundless adventurism of the Algerian military regime against the interests of its own people whose resources have been squandered and diverted and whose negligence, proof of this is the unacceptable loss of life due to recent wildfires. Some NGOs, acting globally, he said, have denounced the still ongoing crime of enlisting children in separatist militias, thus violating humanitarian law and the Convention on the Rights of the Child under the responsibility of the Algerian regime. The competent European authorities have updated and drawn up damning reports on the misappropriation of humanitarian aid intended for populations in the camps, for the benefit of trafficking organized by the militia leaders, as evidenced by the official reports of the bodies of the European Commission. In addition, he said, elements of unprecedented gravity, for the whole region, prove the presence of Hezbollah officials in the Tindouf camps and the supply of arms by this party. The separatist militias are also significantly infiltrated by criminal terrorist groups in the Sahel, as evidenced by the kidnapping of humanitarian staff in the Tindouf camps, he recalled. Mr. Zniber also noted that the action of UN humanitarian institutions is also blackmailed, as was the case in October 2020, when “Polisario” militias burst into the UNHCR premises in Rabouni, Algeria, and publicly desecrated its flag in provocative action and a flagrant violation of humanitarian law. On the other hand, the competent mechanisms of the Human Rights Council (HRC) and its procedures are seized of the cases of victims of acts of torture, enforced disappearances, extrajudicial executions, arbitrary detentions, targeting the opponents of the leadership controlling these camps, under the supervision and authority of the Algerian army without any follow-up given to these requests, which is constantly recalled through the press releases of these proceedings. “These violations are constantly denounced before the UN authorities, in particular by the thousands of people who have managed to flee these camps, many of whom were considered as the most important militia leaders,” the ambassador said. Denouncing the ordeal of the families held against their will in the Tindouf camps, the diplomat underlined that the Kingdom of Morocco remains committed, more than ever, to putting an end to this human tragedy, for which the historical responsibility rests totally with the sponsors and manipulators of the separatist plot. “The populations in the Tindouf camps, who have never been counted, due to the refusal of the Algerian leaders, are called upon to join their homeland, the Kingdom of Morocco, which transformed the southern provinces in the Moroccan Sahara, since their recovery in 1975, from a destitute, poor and abandoned desert into a pole of economic, social, cultural development, unequaled in the region,” he pointed out.