Polisario frees last 404 Moroccan inmates-Red Cross

GENEVA (Reuters) – Western Sahara’s exiled Polisario Front
independence movement on Thursday freed its last 404 Moroccan
prisoners of war, many held for almost two decades, the
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said.

The neutral Geneva-based humanitarian agency said the
handover in Tindouf, southwest Algeria, followed mediation by
the United States. The freed men were being flown to Morocco to
be reunited with their families.

“The Polisario Front today (Thursday) released all the
Moroccan prisoners in its custody,” a ICRC statement said.

“Their repatriation ends a long period of internment and
marks an important step in resolving the humanitarian
consequences of the conflict in the Western Sahara,” it added.

The release could ease tensions between Morocco and Algeria
in a region where the West wants stability because of fears it
could be a possible source of Islamic militancy.

The former prisoners were to be flown later in the day to
Agadir, Morocco, according to ICRC spokeswoman Nada Doumani.

U.S. Senator Richard Lugar, chairman of the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee, had been due to oversee the release. It
was not clear if he had arrived in Tindouf on time.

Over the years the ICRC has repatriated more than 2,000
Moroccan prisoners captured during a 16-year-long guerrilla war
with Morocco over the Western Sahara.

Its officials regularly visited the detainees, providing
medical care and transmitting messages to their families.

A U.N.-brokered ceasefire was clinched in 1991, ending the
conflict with a promise of a referendum on the territory’s
future but Morocco has refused to allow a vote on
self-determination.

The ICRC also said it would pursue its efforts to clear up
the fate of “all those reported missing in connection with this
conflict.”

More than 250 people on each side are still reported as
missing, according to ICRC spokeswoman Doumani.