Rabat – The Sahrawi activist Mustapha Salma Ould Sidi Mouloud said that “the solution to the Sahara issue lies in a consensual and negotiated autonomy plan taking into account the interests of everyone.”
In an interview with ‘France-24’ TV channel from Nouakchott, Mustapha Salma said: “We want a middle ground solution, ending the suffering of the Sahrawis, which consists of a consensual and negotiated autonomy plan as part of an international agreement involving all parties to put an end to this conflict and open new perspectives for the Maghreb region.”
“The polisario is sponsored and supported by Algeria,” he added.
The Sahrawi activist also reiterated his hope to join his family in the Tindouf camps as soon as possible, recalling the conditions of his arrest by the militias of the polisario and the torture he suffered in the jails of the separatist movement.
Mustapha Salma, a former polisario police official, was arrested on September 21, 2010, on his way to Tindouf camps after having visited his father in the southern city of Smara in Morocco’s southern provinces within the framework of the UNHCR led family visit programme.
In a press conference, on August 9, 2010 in Smara, he expressed support for Morocco’s autonomy plan as a lasting settlement to the Sahara conflict, saying that he will return to explain the autonomy initiative in the polisario-run camps in Tindouf.
Afterwards, Mustapha Salma was kidnapped, secretly detained and tortured for 71 days by the polisario militias. His release came following an international campaign that laid bare the inhuman practices of the separatists.
In December 2010, Mustapha Salma was brought to the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, in Mauritania where he has been staging a sit-in to claim his right to reunite with his family.
