Polisario Destroys Mines In W. Sahara - Group‎

By Somalilandtimes network

ALGIERS, Mar 3, 2006 – Western Sahara's independence movement has started destroying its landmines in a boost for efforts to enlist "non-state" armed forces in the drive to abolish the weapon, a humanitarian group said on Friday.

The Geneva Call group said in a statement that engineers of the Polisario Front, which opposes Moroccan control of the territory, destroyed 3,321 anti-personnel landmines last month in front of United Nations and other international observers.

The event took place at 30th anniversary celebrations of Polisario's proclamation of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) in the small town of Tifariti in an area of the territory outside Moroccan control.

"This shows the Polisario attachment to international humanitarian law and, despite the current political deadlock, its will to respect and implement its commitment quickly," Geneva Call President Elisabeth Reusse-Decrey said in a statement received in Algiers.

"Such an operation demonstrates the importance of engaging non-state actors in the mine ban and the role they can play towards a mine free world."

Geneva Call is a Swiss-based international humanitarian organization that encourages independence movements and guerrilla groups to adhere to humanitarian norms, starting with the ban on anti-personnel mines.

It says 28 armed groups in Burma, Burundi, India, Iraq, the Philippines, Somalia, Sudan and Western Sahara have agreed to ban anti-personnel mines. They have signed a deed of commitment requiring regular reporting on landmine destruction and accepting outside monitoring of the process.

Western Sahara is Africa's longest-running territorial dispute.

Tens of thousands of refugees have lived in sprawling desert refugee camps in one of Africa's remotest corners since Morocco's 1975 seizure of most of the mineral-rich desert land.

After 16 years of intermittent guerrilla war from 1976, a U.N. ceasefire was brokered in 1991 with the promise of holding a ballot to decide the area's fate. But disputes about who is eligible to vote have prevented it from taking place.

Although it has not achieved independence the SADR is now recognized by many governments and is a full member of the African Union. It is currently promising to give foreign oil companies exploration rights if it achieves independence.

Source: Reuters

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