The future of the Sahara with the siège status imposed on the Moroccan Sahrawis sequestrated in Tindouf camps in the Algerian desert was at the centre of discussions during an international symposium organized in Marrakech on the initiative of the the Moroccan Sahara for Development and Solidarity  Association(ASMDS), under the theme “Our youth and the Arab Spring at the service of our territorial unity”. This meeting knew the participation of delegations from many Arab and Western countries. At the opening on Wednesday in Marrakech, of the working session to which have also participated representatives of tribes and Sahrawi diaspora abroad, many participants among whom the president of the ASMDS association, Ahmed Rihani Ould Omar Dlimi, have taken the opportunity to reaffirm the moroccanity of the Sahara and the soundness of the national cause.

The light was shed on the Moroccan proposal for a large autonomy for the Southern provinces of the Kingdom as a political “fair and credible” solution to the conflict opposing Morocco to the Polisario front, supported by the Algerian authority. The President of the national association of martyrs, disappeared persons and prisoners’ families from the Moroccan Sahara, Abdelmajid Lefraoui has called, on his part, for the raising of the siege imposed on Moroccans sequestrated in Tindouf camps. This blockade which continues since more than three decades, he explained, restricts their liberty of movement and prevents them from joining their home land and leading a normal life among their relatives.
On the fringe of the symposium, a seminar is planned which themes tackle the autonomy proposal for the Sahara, the relationship of the Polisario with the terrorist groups and their consequences on the regional peace and economic, political, social and human rights development in the Southern provinces of the Kingdom. The participation of the representatives of Sahrawi tribes and diaspora, who know deeply the history of the Sahara conflict, has given more strength to the debates either within the symposium or within the seminar.