Morocco orders captives' release / Morocco pardons W Sahara prisoners / Moroccan King pardons jailed Polisario supporters

Two stories:

From the BBC...

Morocco's King Mohammed has ordered the release of 48 Sahrawi activists jailed last year for demonstrations demanding the independence of Western Sahara.

Officials said the pardon would free the last remaining political prisoners from Western Sahara.

The area, once a colony of Spain, was annexed by Morocco in 1978.

It comes a day after United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan urged Morocco to hold direct talks with the Polisario Front independence group.

Referendum delay

Morocco has rejected a UN-sponsored peace plan involving immediate self-government for Western Sahara and a referendum on independence within five years.

But Morocco has offered to give the territory greater autonomy.

"The sovereign has pardoned all the Sahrawi prisoners and they are already being freed," an official source was quoted by news agency AFP.

The Western Sahara was fought over by Morocco and Mauritania after Spain's withdrawal, before Morocco took over the territory completely. The Polisario Front then fought for independence from Morocco.

The 48 people had been serving sentences of varying lengths for offences which included sabotage of public property and using weapons against public officials.

A UN-sponsored ceasefire between Morocco and the Polisario Front began in 1991. A referendum on the territory's independence was supposed to be held soon after, but the referendum has never taken place.

On Friday, Mr Annan said the stalemate over Western Sahara had become so serious that the only solution was for Morocco to negotiate directly with Western Saharan rebels.

From Reuters (also here, in a shorter, alternate version)...

Morocco's King Mohammed has pardoned 48 Sahrawi prisoners as part of Rabat's drive to end a 30-year dispute between Morocco and the Algeria-backed Polisario Front over Western Sahara.

Morocco, claiming centuries-old rights over the territory rich in phosphates, fisheries and possibly offshore oil, annexed it after former colonial power Spain withdrew in 1975.
   
The Polisario Front launched a low-level guerrilla war against Morocco's armed forces to back its claim for an independent state. The two sides have been observing a UN-sponsored ceasefire since 1991.
   
"No single prisoner held because of the territory's dispute will be left behind bars. Forty-eight, all of what remained of the prisoners, were pardoned by the king," a senior government official said on Saturday.
   
The pardoned detainees were jailed late last year for between 10 months and five years for anti-Moroccan riots in Laayoune, the main town in Western Sahara. They were sentenced for offences including sabotage of public property and using weapons against public officials.

Reconciliation
   
"The pardon by his Majesty King Mohammed underlines that the situation in the territory and in Morocco in general was changing towards a better future of reconciliation, democracy and prosperity," said Khali Henna Ould Errachid, chairman of the Royal Consultative Council for Sahara Affairs.
   
"The decision to free the remaining prisoners was meant to signal that we had begun together moving to cement our full reconciliation."
   
"All the pardoned prisoners will be released later today," a senior government official said.
   
The king pardoned 216 Sahrawi prisoners last month after a six-day visit to the territory where he vowed Western Sahara would remain part of Morocco.