Awareness campaign in US on Tindouf camps detainees

3/25/2006

By Morad Aziz

A delegation of Moroccan nationals coming from Moroccan southern provinces is currently organising a one-week visit to several American cities to heighten US public awareness, and that of the Christian community in particular, of the sufferings of the detained populations in Tindouf, south-west Algeria, and ask for their assistance to put an end to this human tragedy, MAP news agency reported.

During many meetings, co-sponsored by the reverend Robert Schenck, president of the National Council of the Clergy in Washington, several men of faith, particularly from the Evangelic Church, denounced the practices of the Polisario, which still detains thousands of Saharawis, using them for its own propaganda in order to obtain material assistance used only to enrich its leaders.

Schenck described the Polisario as a gang of corrupted mercenaries, which claims to be a movement of liberation, and which disputes Moroccan Sovereignty on the Sahara, a sovereignty that dates back to more than one thousand years.

This group [the Polisario] resorts to physical as well as moral torture against thousands of women, children and men that it has detained for more than 30 years in what look like 'concentration camps'. It spares no efforts to delude the international public opinion, Schenck declared during all the meetings that took place in Trenton, New Jersey, Sarasota and Jacksonville in Florida.

He affirmed that the Polisario deceived many organisations, including some American Christian organisations, which sent humanitarian aids to the Sahrawi detained populations. But they discovered later that the aids were sold by the Polisario in the markets of the neighbouring countries.

Schenck, who gave a historic overview on the issue of the Sahara, also denounced the Polisario's policy of separating Sahrawi children from their parents and sending them to foreign countries, in particular Cuba, where they are subjected to a political indoctrination and military training.

We, as Christians, cannot ignore this inhumane situation. We must help the families that need our help, Schenck emphasised while addressing an audience made up of religious leaders, pastors and parishioners.

The clergyman also asked the audience to send a letter to the US State Department to express their concerns over the situation of the detained Sahrawi populations.

Schenck was supported by other religious leaders who co-sponsored the meetings and who have become familiar with the situation of the detainees and the deported children, such as Pastor Ken Jascko of Monmouth Worship Center (New Jersey), Supreme Pastor David Anderson of the church Faith Baptist Church of Sarasota, and the Bishop of Christ the Redeemer Church of Jacksonville, Archbishop Van Gayton.

All these personalities, who considered Morocco as a friendly country and an ally of the United States, hailed the freedom of worship and tolerance which prevails in Morocco.

Morocco is open to inter-religious dialogue. It is where one can build up bridges between Muslim and Christian communities, Schenk said.

Participants in the meetings expressed their commitment to spare no effort so that justice is made and that an end is put to the sufferings of the Sahrawi populations taken as hostage by the Polisario and its leaders.

We have a responsibility towards our Moroccan friends in order to make justice prevail, Pastor David Anderson said.

The reverend Schenck, who visited the southern provinces of the Kingdom last November, announced that he will visit again Morocco next November. Archbishop Van Gayton also said that he will be part of the delegation.

He added that, in the meantime, the members of his congregation will send a letter to the US Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom John Hanford to exhort him to start investigations on the misappropriation of international aid by the Polisario.

Gayton also promised to raise the question in radio and TV programmes in order to heighten public awareness of the sufferings of the Moroccan Sahrawi populations detained in Tindouf camps, south-west Algeria.

During the one-week visit, members of the Moroccan delegation, Saadani Maa Oulainine, Boussoula Mohammed Ebeya, Bachir Edkhil, Ali Najab and Ali El Jaouhar also presented their testimonies about what they themselves endured in the Polisario prisons.

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