Free at Last

Prisoners' Release in Morocco Debated

The Washington Post reports that even as the last Moroccan prisoners of the Polisario are freed after more than two decades of captivity, questions still remain over the future of the Western Sahara. Morocco maintains that the prisoner release was a political ploy by the Algerian government, which has not been held accountable for the prisoners' detention or its sponsorship of the Policsario Front. Several former prisoners claimed to have been tortured by Algerians while in captivity. Polisario officials, meanwhile, said that the onus was now on Morocco to account for missing guerrillas and to honor its longstanding pledge to hold a referendum on the future of the Western Sahara.