At
UN, Replies on
Kashmir Not W.
Sahara, UK Hit
on Malvinas
&
Gibraltar
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
October 14 --
In UN's
Decolonization
Committee
replies on
Monday
morning, the
UK cited a
string of
Latin American
countries and
said it had
"nothing to
add" about the
Malvinas or
Falkland
Islands.
Argentina shot
back that the
UK was
distorting the
concept
of
self-determination.
(Last
week, as
reported by
Inner City
Press, Bolivia's
Permanent
Representative
Sacha Llorenti
said the UK
was engaged in
"colonial
marketing.")
Spain
said, to the
UK, that it
was Gibraltar
authorities
causing
tension,
"launching"
cement blocks
with long
spikes to
hinder
Spanish
fishermen.
(The
UK was one of
four
abstainers,
versus 149
for, on a
resolution of
which is said
it should be
up to the
"administering
power" and those
of a territory
to decided
when to stop
reporting to
the UN.)
India
rejected
Pakistan
having raised
Jammu and
Kashmir in the
Committee.
On
the item that
drew the most
petitioners,
Western
Sahara, there
were
no replies on
Monday.
Rather,
Algeria began
the morning by
insisting
that a
referendum
with
independence
as an option
must be held.
South
Africa called
Western Sahara
the last
colony in
Africa, and
cited
decisions to
this effect by
the African
Union as
recently as
January
2013.
Amid
reports of
Francophone AU
countries last
week blocking
others AU
members drive
to withdraw en
masse from the
International
Criminal
Court, one
wonders how
these same
Francophones,
like
Democratic
Republic of
Congo which
spoke
pro-Morocco,
have not yet
chewed into
AU positions
on Western
Sahara.
Morocco's
Permanent
Representative
Loulichki gave
his speech,
not seeming to
directly
address the
issue of a
referendum
with
independence
of an
option but
saying the the
phosphates of
Western Sahara
represent only
1.6% of the
phosphates of
Morocco.
The
Salvadoran
chair of the
Committee
asked
Loulichki to
wrap up with
on
sentence, but
he went
longer. Then,
no rights of
reply on the
issue.
From
Rabat, Inner
City Press was
contacted that
UN envoy
Christopher
Ross
is in Morocco,
but no one
knows why. So
we're put the
question in.
Watch this
site.
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