(MENAFN- Morocco World News) The Canary Association of Victims of Terrorism (ACAVITE) intends to sue the Polisario Front for committing 'crimes against humanity' according to Spain's ''El Confidencial'' newspaper.
ACAVITE claims that 300 people mostly businessmen and fishermen were assassinated and 50 others were injured tortured or kidnapped by Polisario's militia between 1970 and 1980.
The Spanish Interior Ministry has acknowledged the existence of 130 cases of victims of the Polisario which under the 29/2011 Law grants them the same status as victims of terrorism. According to the same source this acknowledgment from the ministry was described as 'satisfactory' by Lucia Jimenez President of ACAVITE. Nevertheless Jimenez claimed to be disappointed that none of the murders have been resolved by the Spanish courts and the perpetrators enjoy impunity. The Canary Islands have not yet recognized the sad story of these victims and 'remains the only Spanish autonomous community that does not respect honor or value the bloodshed of the islanders' ACAVITE's President said last November. Jimenez whose father was injured in one of the Polisario attacks 40 years ago wants to compensate the victims' families and prosecute the perpetrators the same source noted. 'The Polisario Front and the Canary Islands Independence Movement -MPAIAC- in the seventies and eighties attacked our parents and siblings with bombs assassinations kidnappings and disappearances' Jimenez stressed in a previous statement. ACAVITE's President Jimenez found it inappropriate that the President of the Canary Islands regional government FernandoClavijoBatlle met with a delegation of the Polisario. ACAVITE called on President Clavijo to instead support the victims of the attacks and their families. Political experts in the subject of the Polisario agree this case is complicated sensitive and requires national and international support. The the last recorded Polisario crime of the 1980s was in 1985 when the Algeria-backed separatist movement attacked a small Spanish fishing boat in international waters near Cape Bojador off the coast of the so-called Western Sahara in Morocco. . The Polisario reportedly killed one fisherman and kidnapped five others during the assault. The victims were dragged to Tindouf in East Algeria the same source said. On November 6 2015 the Spanish Ministry of the Interior recognized the Canary Islands' victims of the Polisario terrorism in a ceremony held at the Canary Islands Government Delegation. Forty-nine victims were decorated in an act of 'memory dignity justice and truth' according to a report by Spanish newspaper ABC. Moving forward ACAVITE has reportedly hired lawyer Miguel Angel Rodriguez Arias as its representative to sue the Polisario Front for 'crimes against humanity.' Rodriguez Arias was responsible for the prosecution of five leading members of ETA a separatist movement in Spain.
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