Sahara: Morocco’s Autonomy Plan at Center of Meeting in French City of Nancy

The autonomy plan offered by Morocco under its sovereignty for a lasting and peaceful resolution of the Sahara regional conflict was at the center of a meeting held over the weekend in the French city of Nancy.

The event was organized by the Sahrawi Association for Autonomy Project and Sustainable Development. It featured a series of activities, including an exhibition of Saharan handicraft and arts. Lectures were given by former founding member of the polisario, Mahjoub Salek; French-Swiss political expert, Jean-Marie Heydt; university Prof. Mohamed Mraizika; and Head of International Observatory for Peace, Democracy and Human Rights in Geneva Aicha Douihi.

Debates focused on the growing international support for the autonomy plan presented by Morocco, a plan described by the United Nations and the international community as the ONLY viable and realistic solution to the Sahara conflict, a conflict fueled by Algerian military junta to serve its hegemonic agenda and deflect the attention of the pro-democracy protesters demanding regime change.

The lecturers decried the deteriorating living conditions of the sequestered Sahrawis in Tindouf camps, southern Algeria, and denounced the abuses, serious human rights violations and crimes committed by the armed polisario militias in these camps in connivance with Algerian rulers.

Three Sahrawi activists, who escaped from the polisario-controlled camps, offered moving accounts of the sufferings, torture, ill-treatment and oppression perpetrated by the corrupt and reckless polisario thugs under the watch of the Algerian Generals.