The Algerian secret services, in connivance with the Polisario leadership, have hacked the websites of some Sahrawi opponents in an attempt to silence their dissident voices.
The reformist movement “Khat Achahid” (the martyr’s voice), known for his opposition to the Polisario in the Tindouf camps, and the Sahrawi Democratic Rally party, announced that their web site and blog have been hacked by the information technology units of the Algerian military intelligence services (DRS).
These units also hacked the e-mail box of Sahrawi autonomy advocate and former police chief of the Polisario, Mustapha Salma Ould Sidi Mouloud, who is now living in forced exile in Mauritania.
According to several sources from the Rabouni camp, which is hosting the Polisario headquarters, the Algerian secret services have reportedly manipulated the databases of the hacked sites, seized copies of audio correspondence and e-mails and confiscated air tickets and bank statements of many activists of dissident organizations and movements militating for the Western Sahara autonomy or for toppling the current Polisario leadership or for the release of Sahrawi prisoners.
Khat Achahid said that the Algerian cyber attack was primarily targeting the movement leader, El Mahjoub Essalek, in retaliation for the revelations he made to the UN mediator Christopher Ross regarding Khat Achahid’s stands on the Sahara issue which are inconsistent with the Algerian regime’s guidelines and the Polisario’s theses.
During his talks with Ross, El Mahjoub Essalek had also denounced the mismanagement of local affairs and the financial malpractices in the Tindouf camps as well as the serious human rights violations committed by the separatist movement’s leaders and their armed militias against Saharawi civilians.
