17 European deputies inspect on the humanitarian aid in Tindouf Camps beginning of May 2012

The European parliament designated a delegation of  17 European deputies  directed by Udo Bullman of the German Social Democratic Party , to conduct a visit in Tindouf beginning of May 2012.The main purpose of the visit is to  conduct an audit  on the humanitarian aids  destined for the population of Tindouf.

This decision was taken on April 4  after the conclusions of three commissions of inquiry  which submitted the results of the reports in March 2012.The scandalous conclusions were pointed to  the Polisario leadership and its systematic exploitation and misappropriation of humanitarian aid.

The inspection of the 17 European deputies will take 15 days through which a report will be submitted and discussed in  September 2012 in Brussels at the Plenary European parliamentary meeting . 

Moroccans Expelled from Algeria, a Bitter Memory That Still Haunts Us

In March of this year, I had the pleasure of participating in the 19th session of the UN’s Human Rights Council in Geneva. I met and worked with human rights activists from across the globe, and I was moved by their stories of injustice, persecution and oppression.  Inspired by the proceedings of this meeting, I decided to write this article in order to shed light on the plight of 45,000 Moroccan families who were expelled from Algeria in 1975 in the aftermath of the Green March.

After more than thirty five years of suffering and struggle for justice, hundreds of thousands of Moroccans finally broke their silence and sued the Algerian state, in the person of its President Abdul-Aziz Bouteflika. In an effort to coordinate their activities, the displaced Moroccans formed associations and sections in many parts of the world, to better advocate for their rights.  The associations are especially keen on recovering expropriated property taken by Algerian military junta, who decided to punish Moroccans for their country’s decision to reintegrate its Sahara.

Under the orders of President Houari Boumediane, Mr. Bouteflika, foreign minister at the time,   carried out the expulsion without adequate notice and in abominable conditions. Entire Moroccan communities were uprooted from their dwellings in Algiers, Oran, Tlemcen, Annaba, and Constantine. In fact up until now, Algeria continues to turn a blind eye to this injustice and refuses to give the victims a satisfactory explanation for its inhuman actions.

Most of the expelled Moroccan families were very well established in Algeria.  Many ran businesses, held very good jobs, owned homes and had family ties throughout Algeria. Through no fault of their own, and due to pure political posturing, their lives were demolished when all their belongings and properties were seized and their businesses closed. But perhaps the most tragic consequence of the expulsion are the emotional and mental scars left on innocent men, women and children.

Many families were also separated as a result of this tragic event.  In cases of mixed marriages, children were made to stay with Algerian parents. Many have also been reported missing.  At the meeting of the UN Human Rights Council, I met a Moroccan victim named Miloud. As he stated, “I was walking back from school and when I arrived home I found my family in a small Police van and was thrown on the borders of Morocco.” As with Miloud, many Moroccans still carry this bitterness of suffering and the brutal separation from their families and relatives.

When we study the political impasse between Algeria and Morocco, we normally limit it to the Sahara conflict and Polisario. Rarely do we address the tragic event for which Moroccan and Algerian families continue to pay a high price. As human beings, not Moroccans or Algerians, we should champion the cause of the victims of this unjust expulsion and echo their call on the United Nations to open an international investigation into the violations of law committed against them.

Algeria: Mind Your Own Business!

 No one denies that Algeria and I mean here the army Generals and the Algerian state have been one of the most important factors in the conflict between Morocco and the Polisario. The latter’s goal , since its formation, was to oust the foreign occupier from the southern provinces of Morocco but all of a sudden its aim changed with Algeria’s interference even though that it maintains no territorial claim over Western Sahara but continues to be the Polisario backer militarily, financially, diplomatically and morally. Up until now and after 35 years since this conflict started, Algeria holds the same general status; encourage, boost, back and support the Polisario ideology.

The conflict over the Moroccan Sahara plays a significant role in the stability of the Greater Maghreb and the regional relations which led to an almost total failure of efforts for the Maghreb Union. This conflict did not  only affect the regional cooperation of 87 million Maghrebis but also the fate of 90,000 Moroccan Saharaoui still sequestered in the camps of Tindouf.It has also increased terrorist acts stemming from Tindouf camps which greatly affected the stability and security of the neighboring countries. Despite the political and economic instability, the dire human rights conditions in the Tindouf camps, the Western Sahara dispute remains not taken seriously by the international community and stays unfortunately among the “forgotten conflicts”.

Instead of peace and reconciliation, the Moroccan-Algerian relations remained strained under Bouteflika’s regime which sought only to hinder the peace process of the Western Sahara conflict. Since his accession to the presidency, Bouteflika has been guided by the Algerian Generals to show little interest in appeasing and conciliating the relations with Morocco. 

This can be explained through the categorical refusal to open the Moroccan-Algeria borders despite the endless and unprecedented efforts that Morocco undertook-especially with the arrival of the new Morocco Foreign minister M.El Othmani- to transcend the differences between the two countries. Another motive that shows ideational factors behind Algeria role in the Western Sahara conflict is its conception that a simpatico or proxy state in Western Sahara would give easy access to the Atlantic for natural resources exportation.

It is without a doubt that Algeria is the main, bigger influencing factor of the Polisario more than any country in the world and its financial assistance to the Polisario activities overseas is boundless. Algerian officials stated clearly and in a number of time that this conflict should be in the hands of the Security Council. They made it clear that Algeria will reinforce its cooperation with Morocco in the media sector while avoiding any biased information regarding the Western Sahara conflict but  Algeria continues to have a critical point of view in the conflict. It stays the bigger influencing factor of the Polisario more than any country in the world and its financial assistance to the Polisario activities overseas is boundless. Until when?