NGO postpones humanitarian mission to Tifarity
The Association of the Moroccan Sahara (ASM) announced, here Tuesday, that, in response to a request of the US embassy in Rabat, it had postponed the humanitarian march initially scheduled for January 14 to the region of Tifarity, south-western Morocco.
The US embassy has asked for the postponement of the march in order to "preserve peace, security and stability in the region," ASM chairman, Mohamed Reda Taounji said in a press conference.
The association, Taounji explained, addressed a message to the diplomatic representation informing it of the approval of the request on condition that the Polisario - an Algeria-backed separatist group that lays claims on Morocco's Southern Provinces (the Sahara) - refrains from holding any event in Tifarity, a Moroccan territory.
The US embassy gave its preliminary agreement on this condition, he added.
The mission of the ASM consists in setting up, in concert with the Moroccan authorities, a humanitarian camp in Tifarity to allow for meetings between the natives of the Moroccan Sahara held against their will since the mid-Seventies in the Polisario-run Tindouf camps, south-western Algeria, and their relatives in Morocco.
The ASM board, he went on to say, has sent a second letter to the embassy informing it that Algeria and the “Polisario Front” have scheduled several events and a military parade on February 27 in Tifarity.
The head of the association also called on the US authorities to step in to cancel these events in order to preserve peace, security and stability in the region and to prevent what he called a “farce” that “provokes the Moroccan people.”
The ASM, he warned, will be obliged to organize this humanitarian mission before February 20, if Algeria and the Polisario insist in holding these events, adding that his association is planning to associate political parties, the civil society and unionists to this mission if the Polisario disregards the American request.
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