The United States Helps Broker the Release of 404 Moroccan Prisoners

Senator Richard Lugar in Tindouf  (K. Gueffaz)

Senator Richard Lugar, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was in Algeria August 17-18 on a Presidential Mission to oversee the humanitarian release of 404 Moroccan prisoners held captive by the Polisario Front for up to 20 years in camps in the southwestern Algerian city of Tindouf.  The Senator was accompanied by Ambassador Richard Erdman; General James L. Jones, Supreme Allied Commander, Europe and Commander of the U.S. European Command, whose command organized transport for the prisoners to return to their native Morocco; and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Gordon Gray, among others.  The humanitarian mission was facilitated by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Governments of Algeria and Morocco.

In his visit to Algeria, Senator Lugar met with President Abdelaziz Bouteflika in Algiers and then traveled to Tindouf where he met with Polisario leader Abdelaziz and witnessed the release of the Moroccan prisoners into ICRC custody.  In his statement to the press, Senator Lugar praised this humanitarian step, reaffirmed U.S. support for a political solution to the Western Sahara conflict within the framework of the United Nations, and urged all parties to continue to work with the UN Secretary General’s Personal Envoy, Peter van Walsum.  The Senator further underscored the importance the United States attaches to “improved relations between Morocco and Algeria with a view to creating a regional climate conducive” to settling the Western Sahara conflict and urged all parties to seize on the opportunity presented by the prisoner release to create a more positive dynamic in the region.