The “White Dove” Organization organized, at the United Nations square in Geneva, a “human rights camp”, to denounce the serious violations committed by the armed militias of the polisario in the Tindouf camps, in particular the military recruitment of children, as a war crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
This three-day sit-in, which ended Saturday, was initiated by human rights activists from the southern provinces of the Kingdom, on the occasion of the 50th session of the UN Human Rights Council, in order to draw attention to the plight of the populations held against their will in the camps of Tindouf, Algeria, including the drama of exploitation of child soldiers recruited by the polisario.
The participants have brandished, on this occasion, banners denouncing the exploitation of children and on which are displayed photos of children in the camps of Tindouf dressed in military fatigues, carrying weapons and taking part in parades of the separatist militias.
”This human rights camp is part of the actions initiated for years by White Dove, with the support of children from educational institutions in different regions of the Kingdom, to alert the international community and public opinion on the atrocities committed by the military junta of the polisario, in collusion with the Algerian authorities against child soldiers in Tindouf,” said the president of ”White Dove”, Ali Jeddou, in a statement to MAP.
He recalled, in this sense, that the children, aged between 7 and 14 years, were snatched from their families by the separatist militias in Tindouf and deported to different countries to undergo training in the handling of firearms and explosives.
Jeddou denounced in this regard the full responsibility of the Algerian authorities in the crimes committed by the polisario, the Tindouf camps being located in Algerian territory.
For his part, Rachid Salmi, member of the NGO organizing this sit-in, spoke out against the siege imposed by Algeria and the polisario to the detained populations in the camps of Tindouf, whose rights are systematically violated in defiance of the rules of international humanitarian law, calling on the international community to intervene to end the ordeal of the inhabitants of the camps.
Salah El Afia, a lawyer at the bar of Grenoble announced that “White Dove is preparing a file that will be sent to the International Criminal Court on crimes committed by the polisario, especially the recruitment of child soldiers”.
After recalling that the recruitment of children is a war crime, he stressed the imperative to work so that those responsible for crimes committed in the camps of Tindouf are brought to justice.
