On
W. Sahara,
Morocco Got
Ban
Assurances,
Polisario
Calls
MINURSO Secret
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
November 28 --
When two sides
to a
controversy in
the UN
Security
Council come
out to talk to
the press at
the stakeout,
is it
better to go
first or
second?
Among Sudan
and South
Sudan it is
often
a race who can
get there
first, or to
know if the
other is going
to
speak. But the
power dynamic
between
Morocco and
the Polisario
Front
of Western
Sahara is
quite
different.
Wednesday
after
UN envoy
Christopher
Ross briefed
the Council
and then took
a
few question
at the
stakeout,
Ahmed Boukhari
of Polisario
approached
the
microphone.
Then he paused
and gestured
to Morocco's
Permanent
Representative
Loulichki, who
was standing
up the steps
from the
stakeout, if
Loulichki
wanted to go
first.
Loulichki
waved
him off,
seeming to
say, I don't
need to talk
there. Morocco
is
a member of
the Security
Council now,
and for the
next 13
months.
Boukhari
started
up. Inner City
Press asked
him about
reported
restrictions
on
the UN's
MINURSO
peacekeeping
mission and
why the
Department of
Peacekeeping
Operations
hasn't in the
past year made
these
restrictions
more public.
Among
other
responses,
Boukhari
talked about
foreign
journalists
being
thrown out by
Morocco. Inner
City Press
asked him
about the
European
Union's
fisheries
agreement with
Morocco, which
would purport
to
cover waters
off Morocco in
violation,
some experts
say, of
international
law.
Boukhari
said
the EU should
closely
consider the
law. When he
finished,
despite some
expectation he
would be the
last speaker,
Loulickhi came
to the
microphone and
said he was
ready for any
question.
Inner
City Press
asked him
about
Morocco's
questioning of
Ross as envoy,
and about the
expulsion of
foreign
journalists.
On the former,
Loulichki said
that the King
of Morocco
received
assurances
from Ban
Ki-moon, in
their phone
conversation,
that this
would not be a
continuation
of the same
mediation
process.
Loulichki will
become the
president of
the UN
Security
Council for
the month of
December, in
just a few
days.
On
the latter,
Loulichki said
that some come
in as
tourists, and
then
begin
activities
that have
nothing to do
with
reporting. He
said one
has to apply,
as a
journalist,
and that
Morocco is
open to the
"dialectics"
of human
rights, is
open to
criticism.
In
connection
with the last
few UN reports
on MINURSO and
Western
Sahara, Inner
City Press has been
told in detail
by UN sources
of
lobbying by
Morocco, and
France, to
change the
report before
it is
released.
Is this just
part of the
dialectic?
When
Boukhari was
at the
microphone, he
said that
MINURSO is a
"secret
operation"
without proper
access to the
population, to
the
international
community or
to the press.
He said
silence on
this
undermines the
credibility of
the
peacekeeping
mission. It is
noted
that the head
of UN
Peacekeeping
is Herve
Ladsous, the
fourth
Frenchman in a
row to hold
the position.
Since
May, Ladsous
has refused to
answer any
Inner City
Press
question,
most
recently
summoning
other less
critical
correspondents
to follow
him into the
hallway beside
the stakeout
to give
"information"
about the
Congo, on
which he came
to brief the
Council. He
also came
Wednesday
morning for
Sudan, but did
NOT come to
the Council on
Western Sahara
and MINURSO.
Some
in DPKO who
work for
Ladsous say it
is unfair to
criticize or
even question
Ladsous about
Western
Sahara, his
previous role
working for
his native
France
(including as
Deputy
Permanent
Representative
of France at
the UN
during the
Rwanda
genocide in
1994).
But
since Ladsous
won't answer
anything on
this, the
questions only
mount, and
with them the
criticism. But
we will keep
asking. Watch
this site.
, 
