101 Moroccan prisoners repatriated

At least 100 Moroccan prisoners released on 18 June by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Rio de Oro (Polisario Front) were repatriated on Sunday, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan hailed the release of the prisoners of war (POWs) but called on the Polisario Front to move towards an early release of its remaining detainees, a statement from Annan's office said on Monday. The prisoners left Tindouf in Algeria aboard a chartered aircraft and were handed over to the Moroccan authorities at the Inezgane military base near Agadir. "ICRC welcomes the release of the prisoners, most of whom are sick and elderly, [but] it remains concerned about the plight of the 1,260 Moroccans still held captive and views the repatriation as a step towards the release of all prisoners," the ICRC reported on Sunday. Another 115 Moroccan prisoners were released by the Polisario Front on 17 January under the auspices of the ICRC. Polisario said then the release was a "humanitarian measure" and part of its effort to solve the dispute over the future of the territory. In February, the UN Security Council urged Polisario to release all prisoners of war, some of whom had spent over 26 years in detention. Morocco, the council said, had released its prisoners. The council also called on Morocco and Polisario "to avoid any action that can aggravate the situation" and "to ensure freedom of movement of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO)". Polisario Front took up arms to fight for the independence of Western Sahara after Morocco took over the former Spanish colony in 1975. The two sides signed a ceasefire in 1991, paving the way for MINURSO's deployment. However efforts to organise a referendum on the territory's future have so far failed. The council in April extended MINURSO's mandate until 31 July in order to allow more time to examine proposals by Secretary-General Kofi Annan to break the impasse over the territory's future. Annan proposed several options to resolve the conflict. First, that the UN resume attempts to implement a 1988 settlement plan, even without the agreement of the two parties; second that his envoy James Baker III draft a framework agreement without necessarily the agreement of Morocco and Polisario. The third option was that Baker discusses a possible division of the territory with interested parties while the fourth would see the Security Council end MINURSO's mandate.