The case of Mustapha Salma Ould Sidi Mouloud, kidnapped since more than one month and imprisonned by the Polisario Militia, continues giving rise to an unprecedented fervour of solidarity. The Association of Moroccans in Irland (AMI), based in Dublin, has condemned this kidnapping and has called the international community to put pressure on Algiers and the Polisario for the immediate release of Mustapha Salma without any conditions. In a release published this week, the AMI has expressed its support and solidarity with Ould Sidi Mouloud and greeted his courage for having defended openly and publicly the Moroccan initiative for autonomy in the Southern provinces. The association which has denounced the deceitful announcement made on the last October 6th by the Polisario about the release of Mustapha Salma, has qualified this approach of disinformation intended to mislead the vigilance of the public opinion and human rights organizations.

For this association, the information provided by the militant’s relatives is worrying. They talk about the degradation of Mustapha Salma health conditions since his being injured by a bullet in his leg, when he tried to escape from his place of detention. His torturers made him undergo a daily physical torture and a moral pressure to oblige him to give up supporting the Moroccan initiative for autonomy. The AMI has urgently called the UN and international human rights NGOs so as to push immediately the Algerian authorities and the separatist movement leader, to immediately release Ould Sidi Mouloud and to guarantee his physical integrity. The Moroccan members of this association, settled in Irland say to be mobilized so that Mustapha Salma can regain his freedom and that his freedom of expression and movement be guaranteed. The same concern of the AMI about the destiny of Mustapha Salma are shared by Human Rights Watch (HRW) whose chief assistant for the Maghreb and Middle-East Office, Eric Goldstein, has called the Polisario to prove more transparency in Sidi Mouloud case. The former executive of the Polisario police remains for the time being very isolated in M’Hériz, has told in confidence, on Thursday, Goldstein to Medi 1 radio, specifying that HRW has formulated its wish that polisario makes easier the family contacts with Salma ould Sidi Mouloud. The American HRW NGO has confirmed, based on its own investigations, that Salma Ould Sidi Mouloud did not have, since its kidnapping on the 21st September, any contact with his relatives and that nobody could come to verify the conditions in which he lives. HRW has, besides, deplored the inexistence of foreign strangers on the field to verify if Mustapha Salma has been humanly treated. It is the nth call launched by Human Rights Watch and other human rights NGOs, for the release of Mustapha Salma, but the Polisario and Algiers’ highest authority continue turning a deaf ear.