Former ‘polisario’ Prisons Detainees Give Harrowing Accounts of Inhumane Detention Conditions

The former prisoners revealed, during a meeting held by the Socialist Union of Popular Forces (USFP) in coordination with the Sahrawi Coalition for the Defense of the Victims of the Rachid prison in Tindouf, the serious violations and abject practices they endured in these jails of shame, in violation of all international conventions.

They stressed that these violations were not isolated cases, but part of an organized criminal act, clearly sponsored by Algeria, with social and psychological effects that haunt the victims and their families, noting that these facts “pierce our collective memory and make the hearts bleed for the families of the kidnapped and those whose fate remains unknown,” among the victims of the terrible Rachid prison.

The Head of the Sahrawi Coalition for the Defense of the Victims of the Rachid prison in Tindouf, Ahmed Mohamed Lkher, who spent 14 years in “polisario” prisons, including 10 years in isolation, stated that he was submitted to the most heinous forms of torture, revealing the different practices, including torture, collective executions, incineration of corpses, the removal of teeth and burns.

The former prisoner, who was one of the founding leaders of the separatist “polisario” front before coming to his senses, painted a bleak picture of Tindouf, recounting an incident in which a man was killed in front of his children and wife, before the latter was separated from her children and executed in cold blood, a scene that gave the audience a glimpse of the atrocities committed in Tindouf and its detention centers.

For his part, Abdellah El Yamani, another victim from Casablanca, gave a harrowing account of his abduction between Agadir and Tata by “polisario” elements, who placed him in Rachid prison, where he spent no less than 24 years.

Returning with deep bitterness to the inhumane conditions of his incarceration, El Yamani pointed out that the first letter he received, 16 years after his incarceration, was the one announcing the death of his parents, adding that he held the Algerian regime primarily responsible for the serious human rights violations to which he was subjected.

At the outset of this meeting, the First Secretary of the USFP, Driss Lachgar, said that the party would remain at the forefront of the active forces committed to human rights issues, a fortiori when it comes to a major issue such as the abuses committed in the prisons by the “polisario” militias, noting that the separatist entity “serves as the executive arm for the agendas and illusions of a certain caste bent on crushing the will of the brotherly Algerian people.”

The aim of the meeting, which takes place against the backdrop of the gains made on the issue of territorial integrity, is to reveal the serious human rights violations perpetrated in the Rachid prison, Lachgar said.

It is in these prisons, he pointed out, that unprecedented forms of physical and psychological torture are practiced, as attested by several documents and multiple testimonies reporting systematic excesses, and as established by international reports.

The meeting also featured a photographic exhibition on human rights violations in Tindouf prisons, and the screening of the film “Oum Cheggag,” which looks back at an important stage in Morocco’s history and highlights the strong ties between the people of the southern provinces and the Motherland.