UNITED NATIONS,
June 13 – Back on April 9
Inner City Press reported
UN Secretary General
Antonio Guterres' proposal of
Horst Kohler of Germany to
replace Christopher Ross as
the UN's Western Sahara envoy.
Guterres' holdover spokesman
Stephane Dujarric, when Inner
City Press, repeatedly refused
comment. Now the reason for
delay until today's letter can
be reported: UN sources tell
Inner City Press that Kohler
demanded a large staff, some
long time associates, to be
put on the UN payroll, leading
to delay. Dujarric still
refuses to disclose any
specifics of the UN's "When
Actually Employed" envoys.
Nor, now, how large a staff
Kohler requested. And on June
13, UN Spokesman Stephane
Dujarric refused to answer
this written question from
Inner City Press: "Morocco has
reportedly accused Christopher
Ross of having been involved
in setting up or preparing the
Akdeim Izik camp - what is the
Secretary General's response?"
We'll have more on this. On
substance, here's from
Polisario's testimony to the
C-24 at the UN: "More than
sixty political prisoners have
been held in Moroccan prisons
for years, including Gdeim
Izik’s group, whose members
were sentenced to life
imprisonment by the military
court of a politically
motivated occupying
country.... Where is the
referendum today? Who
obstructs it? We have been
waiting for 25 years. The
facts show that Morocco
accepted the solution of the
referendum with the option of
independence and manoeuvred to
involve the UN and the
Organisation of African Unity
in a sham poll, by granting
the right to vote to thousands
of Moroccan settlers who were
transferred to our country
during and after the military
invasion... The failure of the
Security Council to respond to
the Moroccan obstruction of
the referendum has undermined
the credibility of the UN and
has led Morocco to believe
that it has been granted a
right to impunity. In fact,
the UN Mission is today a
prisoner of the occupying
power that forces it to look
the other way, not even to
inform New York of facts of
extreme gravity that took
place. Its cars still have
Moroccan registration numbers.
It is the only peacekeeping
operation created since 1978
that has no prerogatives to
protect human rights. It
cannot interact with the
population or the human rights
defenders. On 16 March of last
year, its political and
civilian components, 87
officials, were expelled by
Morocco within a 48-hour
threatening deadline... in
2013, it declared as persona
non grata the former Personal
Envoy of the
Secretary-General, Ambassador
Christopher Ross... the
African Union of which our
country is a Member State
admitted Morocco last January
after signing and ratifying
the Organization’s
Constitutive Act. Article 4 of
the Act stipulates that the
borders of the Member States
of the Union are those
existing on achievement of
independence. Morocco obtained
its independence in 1956. This
means that it must withdraw
from the territories of
another State of the Union,
which it has illegally
occupied since 1975. This
would enable the resolution of
the conflict. Facts and
Moroccan official statements
in recent months show however
that Morocco will not respect
what it has signed and
ratified. We have within the
African Union a Trojan horse
that stands once again to
threaten continental unity and
security... we believe that it
would be useful for the
Committee to decide on a date
for the special meeting on
Western Sahara that has
already been agreed. This will
serve to bring the subject to
the daylight and to release it
eventually from the invisible
chains of silence.
Furthermore, I would like to
convey to the Committee our
desire that it takes a
decision on the plundering of
the natural resources of our
country such as phosphate and
the fishing ground. The
plunder annually gives Morocco
around $ 5 billion, which
serves to strengthen the
occupation and, hence, to take
us farther away from peace. We
have filed lawsuits against
some foreign companies
involved in the plundering,
and hopefully the European
Union will be able to respect
international law and the
ruling of its Supreme Court of
December last year in which it
made it clear that Western
Sahara is not part of
Morocco. According to the
Court, it is (I quote), “a
distinct and separate
Territory” (unquote). This
means that the natural
resources of our countryshould
not be involved in any
commercial transaction with
the occupying power." On May 5
Dujarric said
Guterres "has communicated to
his parties his preferred
candidate to replace
Christopher Ross, you know,
who had announced his
intention to leave.
Right now, the Kingdom of
Morocco has not yet responded
to the information passed on
to it." As of May 31, no
update. On May 31, Inner City
Press asked Dujarric, UN
transcript here:
Inner City Press: So the
UN Global Compact has a
provision where if NGOs or
civil society complain against
a corporation, they set up a
talk, because that's the one
thing that seems to be
required of corporations is to
actually engage with their
critics. So there's a
company called [inaudible],
which is under fire for
exploitation of natural
resources in Western
Sahara. And a group
commented, and the Global
Compact set up a dialogue
between them and then cancelled
it, saying that there
had been leaks, and if there
are leaks, no
discussions. And I just
wanted to know, the group
itself is unclear who is
leaking. They think the
Global Compact did. But
is that… does… has the
Secretary-General… since he's
come in, has he looked at this
mechanism of the UN having a
body that raises
corporations? And is it
enough to say…
Spokesman: The Global…
first of all, we have to look
in the specific case. The
Global Compact has, throughout
years, removed companies that
have not lived up to its
ideals. I will look into
the specific case you mention.
More than
a day later, nothing.
Dujarric's office didn't even
look it up to get the
company's name, preferring to
call it "inaudible." It is
Vigeo Eiris. And it's the
Global Compact which did the
publicizing they accuse others
of. Dujarric offered no answer
on June 1; on June 2 it was
his deputy Farhan Haq who
issued this: "The
Secretary-General is deeply
concerned over the plight of
tens of thousands of Sahrawi
refugees in Algeria, who will
have their food rations cut
due to lack of funding.
Humanitarian aid, including
food aid, is a lifeline for
these refugees from Western
Sahara. A recent survey
highlighted the precarious
nutrition situation in the
Sahrawi refugee camps and the
refugees' limited access to
markets or livelihoods. A lack
of funding has forced the
World Food Programme (WFP) to
cut food rations by almost one
fifth this year, and to halt
distributions of nutritional
supplements to treat anaemia
and malnutrition in pregnant
women, nursing mothers and
young children. Food rations
will be further reduced to
half in June, which could have
a severe impact on the
refugees' food security and
nutritional status. The
Secretary-General calls on
donors to urgently increase
their assistance to this often
overlooked and vulnerable
population. WFP requires
US$7.9 million to continue
providing vital food
assistance over the next six
months.
Farhan Haq, Deputy Spokesman
for Secretary-General
New York, 2 June 2017"
On May 15,
Dujarric said
"the last update I had is that
we had not gotten approval
from… the formality on a name
to replace Mr. Ross.
We're still awaiting
clearance." While pro-Morocco
trolls insist this doesn't
ascribe the delay to their
King, in context it surely
does. We'll have more on this:
more questions, more stories.
Watch this site.
Dujarric also, again, refused
to explain the now week-long
censorship of the Western
Sahara stakeout of April 28.
Now, after ten days of
censorship, the UN has annexed
the stakeout to this
video and put it online,
While it dispenses with
pro-Morocco trolls'
arguments, explanations
of the delay, and policy,
remain needed. Inner City
Press asked Dujarric for both
and was told the UN likes to
re-invent the wheel; no
explanation was offered for
the Turkish Cypriot Community
getting their own, immediately
archived UNTV stakeouts and
this ten day delay. Watch this
site. A ship moving phosphate
taken from Western Sahara to
New Zealand has been impounded
in South Africa: the Marshall
Islands flagged bulk carrier
NM Cherry Blossom. The issue
is the illegality of Morocco's
exploitation of the natural
resources of the Western
Sahara territory it occupied,
a question Inner City Press
asked about at the UN Security
Council stakeout on April 28,
still not put online by the
UN. So on May 4, Inner City
Press asked UN spokesman
Stephane Dujarric about both
issues: the ship and
exploitation of Western
Sahara's natural resources. On
the first, Dujarric merely
alluded to Antonio Guterres'
report. On the UN's ongoing
censorship of the April 28
Q&A stakeout including on
exploitation of resources,
Dujarric said he has nothing
new - it's been six days and
we will keep asking. At
Morocco's "Universal Periodic
Review" at the UN Human Rights
Council in Geneva on May 2,
the representative of the US
urged the Kingdom of
Morocco to release detained
journalists, and Sweden called
on Morocco to respect freedom
of the press. This call is
apparently not heard by
Morocco's Ambassador to the UN
Omar Hilale, who even after
Inner City Press published a
blurring Morocco-AU document
at his request used the UNTV
microphone to claim that all
of Inner City Press'
publication are anti-Morocco.
Nor is the call heard by the
UN, which five days after the
back to back stakeouts by
Hilale and the Polisario
representative has refused to
put the latter video online.
Inner City Press for the third
day -- "question 228" by
Hilale's count -- asked
Dujarric about the delay; he
again offered no explanation
despite this same scenario
having arisen in the past.
From the May 3 UN transcript:
Inner City Press: I’m sorry to
ask you this again, but it’s…
the stakeout took place
Friday. It’s now
Wednesday. So it’s five
days later. You’d said
that it’s something working
on. I’d like you to
explain it, because in April
2016, after, I think, a
shorter period of time, it was
decided to append the
Polisario stakeout behind
Algeria. What’s the
difference now?
Spokesman: When I’m
ready to have something to
announce. I will
announce it and I will explain
it.
Inner City Press: Does that
solution…?
Spokesman: That’s all I
can say.
Censorship. After several
delays, the UN Security
Council renewed for one year
the mandate of its Western
Sahara mission MINURSO at 6 pm
on April 28. Final resolution
put on Scribed by Inner City
Press here.
After the vote when Morocco's
Permanent Representative to
the UN Omar Hilale came to the
UNTV stakeout, and after
questions from Moroccan state
media, Inner City Press asked
Hilale three questions, on
Horst Kohler as possible new
envoy, on the C-24 Committee
visiting the regions, and what
Morocco had accomplished by
ousting the MINURSO
peacekeepers. Hilale rather
than answering used the podium
to, as he put it, give some
statistics. 6-second Vine
Camera video here.
He said that
Inner City Press has asked 225
questions about the conflict
in the past year - quelle
horreur -- and had had
the temerity to write 150
articles about it. Inner City
Press pointed out that it has
written more about other
countries, such as these days
Cameroon. But Hilale went on
from there. Video
here. Three days after
the stakeouts, the UN
Department of Public
Information had put on its
website only two of the three
speakers that evening (May 1
photo here).
So on May 1 Inner City Press
asked the UN's holdover
spokesman Stephane Dujarric,
video
here, UN transcript here: Inner
City Press: This happened
before, so maybe you’ll have
an answer to it. On
Friday, after the meeting on
Western Sahara, in the
Security Council, there were
three stakeouts, Morocco,
Algeria and then
Polisario. And three
days later, only Morocco and
Algeria are up and not
Polisario. Now, the last
time it took several days, and
then it was appended behind
Algeria. How did the
same thing happen again, or it
hasn’t even been… [inaudible]
Spokesman: I can look
into it.
Inner City Press But
isn’t it… I mean, after last
time…
Spokesman: I said I
would look into it.
Seven hours later, nothing. So
here is part of the video. What
is wrong with the UN, and its
DPI? It was to the DPI
that Hilale's Moroccan mission
made a frivolous complaint
about Inner City Press
taking photos at the stakeout;
it was this DPI which evicted
Inner City Press and still
keeps it restricted, trying to
give its long time shared
office to an Egyptian state
media which rarely comes in
and never asks questions. This
zero, apparently, is a count
that Hilale, Morocco and its
state media and trolls are
most comfortable with. Up to
death threats have been
received. Here then is a song,
Western Sahara Blues, the
Ballad of Omar Hilale.
In front
of the UN Security Council's
Western Sahara closed door
consultations on April 25,
Inner City Press asked French
Ambassador Francois Delattre
why there is no human rights
monitoring in the mandate of
the MINURSO mission, as urged
by for example Amnesty
International. Delattre said
human rights "is in our DNA,"
but said there are many ways
to work for human rights. Video here. Now the vote
on the resolution, one draft
of which is below, has been
pushed back from 5 to 5:30 to
6 pm on April 28. Verification
of Guerguerat, inclusion or
deletion or modification of
language in the resolution,
below. Up on the UN's 38th
floor after a photo
op of UK Boris Johnson
and Secretary General Antonio
Guterres, Inner City Press
spotted Uruguay's ambassador.
He has been pushing for human
rights monitoring, DNA or no
DNA. But down at the stakeout
of the Security Council, the
questions to him concerned
mostly a reported missile
firing by North Korea. Watch
this site. Inner City Press
asked about Horst Kohler as
Antonio Guterres' nominee as
Personal Envoy on Western
Sahara. Delattre smiled and
answered in German. Then
and the next
day, as Inner
City Press got
versions of
the draft,
Morocco
diplomats and
state
journalists
walked freely
up and down
the UN's 2d
floor, while
Inner City
Press was
confined to
Department of
Public
Information
minders. After
the meeting, Russia's Deputy
Permanent Representative Petr
Ilyichev said the real work on
the MINURSO resolution, which
he still expects to be put to
a vote on April 27, was at the
level of experts, not in the
April 25 meeting. Periscope
video here.
Outside the
Council, a half dozen Moroccan
diplomats milled around, the
same crowd from within which a
frivolous complaint to the
Department of Public
Information was made, to stop
taking photos or video from
the UNSC stakeout (which is in
fact permitted). The same DPI
allows Morocco state media to
chase Christopher Ross into
the elevator - but censured
Inner City Press for the same
thing. This is today's UN.
Numerous diplomats have asked
Inner City Press why Secretary
General Antonio Guterres is
"so pro Moroccan," as one of
them put it. The perception is
become widespread. The answers
proffered include Guterres'
time as Prime Minister of
Portugal, with references to
prior Moroccan King Hassan II
and Abdellatif Youssoufi. On
April 20, Inner City Press
asked Guterres' holdover
spokesman Stephane Dujarric
about Amnesty International urging
the inclusion of human rights
monitoring in the mandate of
the MINURSO mission, and why
Guterres ignored it as he
apparently ignores several
other human rights issues. From the UN
transcript: Inner City
Press: Amnesty International,
you may have heard of, has
issued a de… a call saying
that the UN Mission for the
Referendum in Western Sahara,
MINURSO, should have a human
rights monitoring
function. And I… I've
seen a copy. I'm not
sure if you can say what the
status of the
Secretary-General's report
is. Is it now
officially…?
Spokesman: Yeah, the
report… I would refer
you…
Inner
City Press:
I want to make sure…
Spokesman: I would refer
you to the report.
Inner
City
Press:
Since it… is it fair to say
that he's not recommending a
human rights monitoring
function? If so, how… how… why
not?
Spokesman: I think it's
fair to say that the report
speaks for itself.
Inner City Press:
Right. So he's not
recommending it?
Spokesman: You do the
analysis...
OK. And
then there's this: Moroccan
trolls, using Dujarric's (and
the now-gone Gallach's)
eviction of Inner City Press
for covering corruption like
this, that Inner City Press
"was sacked out from the #UN
because he was caught filming
a closed meeting." No, Inner
City Press said openly it
would film, and did, a meeting
in the UN Press Briefing Room
by a group that took dues
money from now indicted Ng Lap
Seng's bribery conduit. The
Moroccan state "media" at the
UN don't even ask questions.
Troll on. On April 19 as
Guterres held a rare Q&A
session, about Africa, his
holdover spokesman Stephane
Dujarric had pre-selected
questions, many of them not
about Africa at all. The UN
Department of Public
Information under Guterres has
threatened
Inner City Press after a
frivolous complaint from the
Moroccan mission about photos
taken according to the rules
at the UN Security Council
stakeout, while DPI has given
multiple "Resident
Correspondent" badges to
Moroccan state media, some
moonlighting for the UN
itself, while restricting the
UNderdog Press. Meanwhile,
Inner City Press has learned,
the UN's decoloniziation
(C-24) committee is preparing
to visit the Tindouf refugee
camp. We'll have more on this.
While Guterres breezed by the
issue of Western Sahara on
Friday, April 7 as Morocco
tried to get the Press which
covers it further restricted,
Inner City Press was leaked
the email below, from the UN's
Kim Bolduc, amid reports of
Germany's Horst Kohler as new
Personal Envoy. While
Guterres' holdover spokesman
Stephane Dujarric refused to
comment on either,
here (contrary to his
Q&A last week about "Sex
in the City, here),
now Inner City Press has put
on Scribd the full text
of Guterres' first MINURSO
report such as it is, here.
But when Inner City Press
asked the UN's holdover
spokesman Stephane Dujarric
about both on April 10, he
wouldn't answer either
question. Video
here. From the UN
transcript:
Inner City Press:
on Western Sahara, you'd said
to wait for the report, but I
guess I just want to say, this
Kim Bolduc e-mail, which Inner
City Press published, was
directed to, like, many, many
people in UNHCR. So,
5I'm wondering what then, it
talks about a code cable for
Jean-Pierre Lacroix to go
forward and… and… and, you
know, re… bring all 17 people
back. So, I'm sort of
wondering, like, is it that
you know it, but she shouldn't
have written that first?
Is it…?
Spokesman: She's the
master of her e-mails.
She's obviously communicating
what she needs to communicate
with her… with her staff, and
the Secretary-General's
position will be made very
public and updated once the
report comes out in the next
day or so.
[Also:
Question:
Follow-up. There were
some reports also last week
that the Polisario have
threatened to shoot the
MINURSO peacekeepers if they
try to conduct ceasefire
patrols in the areas under
their control. What's
the Secretary-General think
about that and the integrity
of the peacekeeping mission
itself?
Spokesman: Well, it's
incumbent on all the parties
involved to respect the,
respect UN personnel in the
area, whether uniformed or, or
not, in the way they go about
their work on a mandate of the
Security Council.
Correspondent: I'm
sorry. Just a quick
follow-up. The Polisario
also reported that you have
prevented the MINURSO from
patrolling the El-Guerguerat
area after the Moroccan forces
have withdrawn from it…
Spokesman: I think it is
important that all the parties
ensure that MINURSO has full
freedom of movement.
Masood-ji.
Correspondent: Thank
you, Stéphane-ji. ]
Inner City
Press: Will he, by that
time, confirm or deny that
he's nominating Mr. Horst
Kobler as… or Köhler…?
Spokesman: As you know,
whenever we have a nomination
for a high-level person,
there's a lot of the rumours
prior. The Security
Council will have to be
consulted, and once all that
is done, we will announce it
officially and, no doubt, you
will have the information
before it is announced
officially.
Inner City Press: Just
finally, on both this and on
South Sudan, is it possible to
get Mr. Jean-Pierre Lacroix to
do a stakeout or some type of
Q&A…?
Spokesman: I'm sure Mr
Lacroix will be delighted to
come meet you as soon as it is
possible for him. Good
day.
Inner City Press: Can I
ask a Burundi question?
Spokesman: No.
We're done. Thank you.
This
is today's UN.
***
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