Mister1979
09-03-2007, 14:19
Algerian army arrests 40 people fleeing Tindouf Camps to join Morocco
Rabat, Mar.8 - The Algerian army arrested, on Thursday, a group of 40 people, including women and children, who were trying to flee the Polisario-run camps of Tindouf, southwestern Algeria, to return to their homeland, Morocco, reported the Spain-based "Association le Sahara Marocain" ASM, citing knowledgeable sources.
The group, which was traveling by night onboard several 4WD vehicles and a truck, was stopped by Algerian soldiers, a score of kilometers from the Algerian-Mauritanian borders. After some summons shootings, the Algerian army opened fire on the group, wounding three people, including a woman seriously, the same source said.
The Algerian army has mobilized two helicopters that have been flowing over the Algerian Sahara since Wednesday morning.
The ASM, which expressed its great concern about what Algerian soldiers can do to the group before handing it over to "Polisario", has informed international bodies, in particular European ones, of the dangers threatening these people.
Morocco is devising a proposal to grant substantial autonomy to its southern provinces, the aim being to settle a dispute over the territory triggered by the claims of the Algeria-backed Polisario to separate this former Spanish colony from the rest of Morocco. As the dispute broke out in the mid-Seventies, the Polisario lured thousands of Sahrawi into joining its claim of the creation of a so-called Sahrawi Republic. Ever since, These Moroccan citizens have been kept against their will in Tindouf refugee camps.
Last month, 238 people including women, old people and children, fled from these camps and expressed desire to live in Morocco.
http://www.map.ma/eng/sections/box1/algerian_army_arrest/view
Rabat, Mar.8 - The Algerian army arrested, on Thursday, a group of 40 people, including women and children, who were trying to flee the Polisario-run camps of Tindouf, southwestern Algeria, to return to their homeland, Morocco, reported the Spain-based "Association le Sahara Marocain" ASM, citing knowledgeable sources.
The group, which was traveling by night onboard several 4WD vehicles and a truck, was stopped by Algerian soldiers, a score of kilometers from the Algerian-Mauritanian borders. After some summons shootings, the Algerian army opened fire on the group, wounding three people, including a woman seriously, the same source said.
The Algerian army has mobilized two helicopters that have been flowing over the Algerian Sahara since Wednesday morning.
The ASM, which expressed its great concern about what Algerian soldiers can do to the group before handing it over to "Polisario", has informed international bodies, in particular European ones, of the dangers threatening these people.
Morocco is devising a proposal to grant substantial autonomy to its southern provinces, the aim being to settle a dispute over the territory triggered by the claims of the Algeria-backed Polisario to separate this former Spanish colony from the rest of Morocco. As the dispute broke out in the mid-Seventies, the Polisario lured thousands of Sahrawi into joining its claim of the creation of a so-called Sahrawi Republic. Ever since, These Moroccan citizens have been kept against their will in Tindouf refugee camps.
Last month, 238 people including women, old people and children, fled from these camps and expressed desire to live in Morocco.
http://www.map.ma/eng/sections/box1/algerian_army_arrest/view