Morocco's position was clear from the outset. Ould Sidi Mouloud's kidnapping "is neither legal nor acceptable at the political, diplomatic, legal and human rights levels," Fassi Fihri told the press shortly before the weekly cabinet meeting, adding that the Sahrawi activist must be able to "meet anyone he wants, especially his family."
    Morocco, he said, mobilized all the national political parties and civil society's components, supported by several international and UN institutions to make Algeria and the polisario release Ould Sidi Mouloud, who was kidnapped on September 21 by the polisario's militias.
    This case reveals that the position of Algeria and the polisario is marked by rigidity, obstruction and refusal of dialogue, the Moroccan official underlined.
    Algeria and the Polisario have invented “the issue of the so-called human rights violations in our southern provinces and hindered the negotiation process and the Moroccan autonomy initiative,” which triggered a new dynamic in the negotiation process and enjoyed support at the international level, he said.
    Fassi Fihri noted that the separatists’ unilateral thinking and archaic mentality were behind the entrenched attitudes which prevented the forcibly detained populations in the Tindouf camps (south-western Algeria) from enjoying their right to census.
    This census would have enabled the populations held against their will in the Tindouf camps to choose either to stay in the polisario-run camps or return to Morocco to join their families, the Moroccan official added. 
    Morocco had welcomed the announcement, Wednesday, of the release of Mustapha Selma Ould Sidi Mouloud, who was kidnapped on his way to the location of his usual residence in the Tindouf camps, on the Algerian territory.