The wife of the former adviser to the SADR presidency asks the President of Algeria for an explanation for the "forced disappearance of her husband" in 2009
The wife of the former adviser to the presidency of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) Ahmed Khalil Bareih, who has been missing for over 10 years, has sent a letter to the President of Algeria, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, to ask for explanations about the "situation of forced disappearance" of her husband which goes back to the beginning of 2009, according to information which the Saharawi Canary Forum has had access to.
In this letter, Beira Nafii Belkacen, wife of the disappeared man, explains the "distressing situation" that the family has experienced in the refugee camps of Tindouf, after "twelve years of suffering in silence and patience". In the same letter, Beira Nafii Belkacen also criticises the "little or no information they have received from the Saharawi authorities". She also recalled that her husband was detained in the military prison of Bilda and that her eldest son was able to visit him in 2011, this being the only and last time, despite successive requests to those responsible for SADR. "No one from the alleged Polisario authorities has provided us with any information on the situation of Ahmed Khalil or on the reasons and conditions of his detention", she stated.
On the other hand, this woman informed the Algerian leader that as well as asking for explanations from the SADR authorities, the same had been done with the officials of the Algerian Military Liaison Office in Tindouf on "more than one occasion". The family of Ahmed Khalil Bareih, wants to discover "the necessary clarifications on his arrest" and to know if "he has been able to enjoy all his rights in a fair trial in the event of charges being brought against him". Even so - they have stressed - they have received no response from any of the relevant authorities.
The letter concludes by urging the Algerian President to "put an end to this situation of suffering for the family in view of the fear of her husband's precarious health, the difficult conditions of the spread of the pandemic and the proximity of Aid," they said. The Saharawi Canary Islands Forum has indicated that Ahmed Khalil held several positions within the Polisario leadership, particularly head of the cabinet of President Abdelaziz, adviser in charge of human rights and responsible for the security of the camps in Tindouf, and that he lost contact on 9 January 2009, when he was in Algeria on "teaching missions in university centres in connection with his work".
Ahmed Khalil - who has a doctorate in social psychology, anthropology and philosophy, as well as a command of seven languages - took up a position at the top of the management team. Despite all this, in 1991, the communiqué underlines that "due to internal struggles within the Polisario who wanted to remove him from the scene because of his critical attitude towards the government of the self-proclaimed SADR, he was arrested and held for six months. After regaining his freedom, he decided to leave the government and devote himself to writing. "He was also a journalist, and recently was responsible for human rights in Tindouf," the document continues. "This desperation in which the family, wife and children are plunged, is the cause of the flagrant violation of human rights by both the Polisario Front and Algeria, and as such we denounce it, once again in the Saharawi Canary Islands Forum", concludes the statement issued by this institution.