“The Polisario militias, in flagrant violation of international charters and rights, engage in the military recruitment of children in the Tindouf camps to exploit them in the artificial conflict over the Moroccan Sahara,” said the president of the organization, Isidoro Ramirez López, in a statement to MAP on the sidelines of the 15th World Social Forum in Mexico City.
This is a crime that may lead to international criminal prosecution, he insisted.
Mr. Lopez, who is an expert in international law, warned that thousands of people sequestered in the Tindouf camps “suffer the worst forms of violation of their most basic rights. Children are enlisted there by force to make them, with the support of Algeria, the terrorists of tomorrow”.
He pointed out that the Mexico City Forum rightly allows to lay bare the successive violations committed by the separatist front which kidnaps thousands of people by depriving them of their fundamental rights to decent housing, education and health.
He also stressed that the remarkable presence of Mexican civil society among the friends of Morocco at this global event gives unequivocal support to the Moroccanness of the Sahara as an undisputed historical reality and enshrines the seriousness of the autonomy initiative as the only basis to end this artificial conflict and establish peace and stability in the region.
The World Social Forum in Mexico City is intended to be a space for debate, reflection, exchange of experiences on various social issues in a world facing numerous challenges. Morocco is represented by members of civil associations active in several fields, as well as representatives of the youth of political parties, and of the National Human Rights Council.
