News-Info-Alerts

Re: Long-Term POWs Freed

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Date: July 10, 2002

"Western Sahara rebel group frees 101 Moroccan POW's

RABAT, Morocco (AP) -- A rebel group fighting for independence of the Western Sahara from Morocco freed 101 Moroccan prisoners on Sunday, a report said.

The group flew aboard a Red Cross aircraft to the Moroccan coastal city of Agadir, Morocco's official MAP news agency said. It was the second time this year that Moroccan prisoners have been released from the Polisario Front's camps on Algerian territory.

The International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations have pressed for freedom for about 1,200 Moroccan prisoners of war still being held in the camps.

The soldiers were captured between 1975 and 1991 during clashes between the Moroccan Army and Polisario rebels supported by Algeria. Some have been held for more than two decades, and the ICRC says they are the world's longest-held prisoners of war.

The Moroccan Foreign Ministry said it welcomed the prisoners' release, but "urged that all the prisoners, who are being held in worrisome conditions, be freed," MAP reported.

Algeria and Morocco have had tense relations for more than a quarter-century over the issue of Western Sahara, which Morocco claims.

In 1975, Morocco annexed the former Spanish Sahara -- a 110,000-square-mile stretch of land along the Atlantic coast. Algeria considers the annexation illegal and has supported the territory's rebels.

Copyright 2002 The Associated Press."