Inner City Press -- Investigative Reporting From the Inner City to Wall Street to the United Nations

On W. Sahara, Delay As UN Says Report “Has Rights Language" - But No Monitoring?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 13 -- Though the UN's Western Sahara report and resolution are only once a year, this April the UN is in chaos, which it blames the leak to and publication by Inner City Press of the UN's draft report on Western Sahara.

  The report was due April 6, but after publication of the leak -- and the UN refusing to take Inner City Press' questions on the topic -- it was delayed. Then meeting of the Troop Contributing Countries of the UN Mission MINURSO, set for April 12, was postponed.

  Now, Inner City Press is told, the consultations scheduled for Friday, April 15 have also been postponed. Morocco and Algeria are trading arguments. In the “Group of Friends” on the resolution, France is fighting off not only a proposal for a human rights monitoring mechanism, but also to distribute the draft Security Council resolution on a timely basis to the Council members, including South Africa, which are not in the Group of Friends.

  Meanwhile at the UN noon briefing on April 13 -- the day after the UN claimed it hadn't misled about Ban Ki-moon's panel meeting with Sri Lanka officials -- Ban's acting deputy spokesman was asked (by BBC) about the leaked, published and delayed report:

Question: Can you tell us what’s happened to the report on Western Sahara? I heard that it might be published today. And also can you tell us why it is being delayed for a week? Because according to our schedule, it was supposed to be published last Wednesday.

Acting Deputy Spokesperson Haq: It took some time to finalize the report. Sometimes over the drafting process there is editing and approval and I believe — although I’d need to check — but I believe it is being finalized now. So hopefully it will become a document shortly. I’ll just check when it will be a document.

Question: Can you just respond to allegations from the Polisario that Morocco managed to get a copy earlier on and has been lobbying with French support to change some of the language, particularly on human rights, on a human rights mechanism for MINURSO [United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara]?

Acting Deputy Spokesperson: Well, first of all, once the report is out, you can see for yourself the language about human rights. There is language on human rights in the report, and I would simply refer you to the language used in the report. As for changes and whether a copy had been leaked, I am aware that there was a draft version, which I believe Martin [Nesirky] had mentioned. It was simply a draft with no official status which had been leaked, and you can probably see it on the website of one of your colleagues.

Question: But the question, really — sorry, maybe I wasn’t clear — is that the allegation is that’s the reason for the delay in publication; that the Secretariat has come under a lot of pressure to change some of the language in the report.

Acting Deputy Spokesperson: No, no; with any number of reports on any number of topics, different countries will seek to talk to the Secretariat and influence the language of a report one way or another. But ultimately, the Secretariat makes its own evaluations and writes its own language. And you will be able to see for yourself what language is, but there is human rights language in the report.

  Yeah -- human rights “language” -- but is it for a monitoring mechanism, or merely what Morocco and France want, a welcoming of Morocco allowing in special rapporteurs? Watch this site.