Brussels, 19/08/2005 (Agence Europe) - On 19 August, the European Commission welcomed the release on 18 August of 404 Moroccan prisoners of war held by the le Front Polisario (the Western Sahara separatist movement) and issued a statement welcoming the combined efforts of the Algerian and Moroccan authorities to facilitate their release. Some of the soldiers had been in prison for more than twenty years, explained the Commission in its statement, reiterating its support for United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan in his attempts to find a final and mutually acceptable solution to the Western Sahara conflict, in the form of a UN Resolution. A United Nations Mission for a referendum in the Western Sahara was established in 1991, to monitor the ceasefire between Morocco and the Front Polisario (supported by Algeria9 and to organise a referendum to allow local people to express their views about their future.