Morocco
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
Morocco has welcomed a decision by the Polisario Front -- the independence movement in the Western Sahara - to release one-hundred-and-fifteen prisoners of war, some of whom have been detained for twenty-five years. The men were captured by the Polisario Front at the beginning of its independence war against Morocco which began after Spain, the former colonial power, pulled out in 1975. Their release has been arranged in collaboration with the Red Cross. The Moroccan Foreign Ministry has welcomed the decision to free the prisoners, but said there were more than a thousand Moroccan soldiers still held by the Polisario Front, some for more than twenty years. No date has yet been announced for the handover of the prisoners.
