At
UN
on Western Sahara, Morocco Pushes To Drop Human Rights Mechanism from
Draft, Q of French Standards
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
April 4 -- In the run up to the UN Security Council's
regular fight on Western Sahara this month, Morocco has been lobbying
to change Paragraph 119 of the UN's report, about establishing a
human right mechanism within the UN Mission MINURSO, Inner City Press
has learned.
The
UN Office of
the High Commissioner for Human Rights has suggested “the
establishment of an effective international mechanism for regular
independent, impartial and sustained human rights monitoring and
reporting... through a component within MINURSO,” according to a
draft obtained by Inner City Press.
But
Morocco,
according to sources, obtained a leak of the draft from the UN and is
pressuring to change the paragraph to delete any reference to a new
mechanism, and to instead “welcome the commitment of Morocco to
allow unimpeded access to Special Rapporteurs of the Human Rights
Council.”
Morocco
continues
to have the unquestioning support of France. Some Polisario
supporters call it a contradiction, that France would be bombing
Libya in the name of human rights while blocking the establishment of
a mere human rights reporting mechanism for Western Sahara. But,
these people say, many of France's policies are more explicable in
terms of colonial relations than principle.
Meanwhile,
when
new Security Council member South Africa invited all 15 Council
members to a session on Western Sahara at its mission last month,
Morocco lobbied many countries not to attend. Attendees included
Nigeria, the US, Russia and the UK. France was notably not present.
Watch this site.
* * *
On
Libya,
UN
Brings In Brit Ian Martin, Mulls Mission as d'Escoto
with Niece
By
Matthew
Russell
Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
April
3 -- The UN's planning on Libya now involving bringing
back its British former envoy to Nepal Ian Martin on the political
side, and continency planning for possible UN peacekeeping mission,
multiple source have told Inner City Press.
On
April 1 outside
the UN Security Council, Inner City Press asked chief UN Peacekeeper
Alain Le Roy to confirm that his department is engaged in planning
for a possible Libya mission. We are always planning, Le Roy
cryptically said.
Later,
UN
source
told Inner City Press that, at the urging of the UK which has offered
asylum to Gaddafi defectors and is bombing the country, the UN is
bringing Ian Martin back, on Libya.
While
Inner
City
Press has positively assessed Martin's work in Nepal, particularly
compared with his successor there, the UN sources say that for a
“Brit, at the demand of the UK, to be assigned by the UN to Libya
while the RAF is bombing” is unwise, and a new low for the UN.
We'll see.
Meanwhile
Gaddafi's
request
to be represented at the UN by former Nicaraguan
foreign minister -- and UN President of the General Assembly --
Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann has taken a new turn.
Contrary
to
other
media reports, Nicaraguan sources tell Inner City Press, d'Escoto
Brockmann has not left New York. The request is in to the UN to
credential him as a Nicaraguan Deputy Permanent Representative -- and
also to get credentials for his niece Sophia Clark.
Ban and Ian Martin, UK pressure, Libya & Sophia
Clark not shown
Inner
City
Press
previously exposed and tangled with Brockmann about his hiring of his
nephew Michael Clark, who is now working for UNCTAD in New York. Now
neice Sophia Clark is back in the mix, for Nicaragua and
prospectively Libya. If all goes well, there will be a press
conference by d'Escoto Brockmann on April 5. Watch this site.
Footnote:
the
degree
to which Ban Ki-moon's UN is in chaos is reflected by the
Saudis' shoot down, just reported exclusively by Inner City Press, of
the proposal
to
send ASG Fernandex-Taranco to Bahrain, click here for
that story.
* * *
, 
