On
W Sahara, As ICP Photographs
Polisario & Ross On Way to
UNSG, Morocco Gets UN To
Censor
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS,
March 17 – When UN Secretary
General Antonio Guterres'
schedule was updated on the
afternoon of March 17 to add
Brahim Ghali,
Secretary-General of the
Frente Polisario at 4 pm, Inner
City Press remained at the UN
Security Council stakeout
working. When the Polisario
delegation, including UN envoy
Christopher Ross, was escorted
to the elevators at 3:45 pm,
Inner City Press took a photograph
and tweeted
it, along with urging
Guterres' holdover spokesman
Stephane Dujarric to issue a
read-out. But then one of the
Morocco diplomats who had been
hovering around the Security
Council stakeout for hours
went and complained to UN
Security that Inner City Press
had taken a photograph - from
the Security Council stakeout
where it is authorized, and
where at the same time
tourists were taking
photographs. Inner City Press
was encouraged to stop so that
a UN Security supervisor would
be called. (Here's
how UN Security ousted Inner
City Press from the same
stakeout, at the order of
Under Secretary General
Cristina Gallach, audio
here.) This is the disgusting
level of censorship in today's
UN, that must be reversed.
Back on
March 6 Inner City Press asked
UN Deputy Spokesman Farhan Haq
to confirm or deny Christopher
Ross had offered his
resignation as the UN's envoy
on Western Sahara. Haq would
only say that Ross serves at
the pleasure of the Secretary
General and remains in his
position; Haq would not answer
Inner City Press' follow up
question if Ross' contract
expires March 31. But UN
Department of Political
Affairs chief Jeffrey Feltman,
later on March 6, answered
that Ross has submitted his
letter of resignation, for
action by Antonio Guterres at
a time of his choosing. We'll
have more on this.
Morocco's King
Mohammed VI spoke to Antonio
Guterres on February 24, his
media reported, while
Guterres' spokeman Stephane
Dujarric ran
out of the UN Press
Briefing Room as Inner City
Press asked him about a leaked
letter to the UN staff
ousted from Western Sahara by
Morocco.
On February
27, Inner City Press asked
Dujarric again about the
letter and to state any
reassignments of MINURSO staff
members ousted by Morocco.
Dujarric has refused to answer
that, so Inner City Press
asked based on its sources if
MINURSO's (former?) Deputy
Chief Security officer Lihong
Shen has been reassigned to
South Sudan.
Dujarric,
as is his strategy, then said
archly he doesn't have access
to personnel files. But he
said he was unaware of any
reassignments - seemingly, a
cover up. And so it goes.
Inner City
Press asked Dujarric why,
until previously at the UN,
the call with Morocco's King
was not disclosed or read-out,
nor the in person meeting with
Polisario. Dujarric called it
delicate diplomacy. If these
were done these days in
Washington, the media would
scream. We'll have more on
this.
On
February 24, Polisario's
representative at the UN met
Guterres, he tells Inner City
Press. But why wasn't it on
Guterres' public schedule? And
why no read-out of the call?
Polisario has issued this
statement, Google-translated:
"The Frente
POLISARIO shares the concerns
of the UN Secretary-General on
the current situation in the
region Elgargarat in Western
Sahara and supports its call
for respect for the spirit and
letter of the cease-fire in
effect since 1991 as part of
the implementation of the
UN-OAU settlement plan whose
outcome remains the holding of
a self-determination
referendum for the people of
Western Sahara.
However the
Frente POLISARIO wishes to
reiterate that the situation
Elgaragarat is not an isolated
one and therefore a
consideration of the status of
the Western Sahara
decolonization process as a
whole is able to allow
exceeding the voltage current.
At the time of establishment
of the cease-fire, there were
no roads, no commercial
traffic between the wall of
the Moroccan occupation and
the Mauritanian border. The
existence of such trafficking
today is a violation of the
status of the Territory and
the cease-fire because it is a
change of the status quo in
the buffer zone.
Moroccan decision
today to roll back, a few
hundred meters, his troops
near Elgargarat is window
dressing and not hide contempt
for international legality
Rabat, obstinacy and refusal
for almost three decades, to
allow the implementation of
Council resolutions security
and the General Assembly on
Western Sahara.
The current situation and
everything that can result is
the sole responsibility of
Morocco that prevents the
implementation of the
settlement plan, refuses
negotiation, hampering efforts
of the Personal Envoy,
expelled at will the staff of
MINURSO with impunity violate
human rights and plunders
natural resources of the
Territory.
The Frente
POLISARIO reiterated its
support for the efforts of the
Secretary-General and his
Personal Envoy for the
implementation of UN
resolutions enshrining the
inalienable right of the
Saharawi people to
self-determination and
independence."
And here's
Morocco's response by its
state media MAP, albeit behind
a paywall, here.
Inner City Press' February 24
question to Dujarric and his
deputy including about where
Guterres is have gone
unanswered. What is wrong with
today's UN?
Even
after Morocco threw portions
of the UN Peacekeeping mission
out of Western Sahara, when
the UN Security Council met on
the topic on February 22 it
was not listed on their agenda
and afterward the President of
Council told Inner City Press
he couldn't remember how many
of the Morocco-ousted staff
were still banned from Western
Sahara. Video
here.
After the
UN's holdover spokesman
Stephane Dujarric who refuses
to answer Inner City Press'
written questions has claimed
he is unaware of any of the
ousted staff being reassigned
to other UN missions, on UNTV
on February 23, Inner City
Press on the morning of
February 24 exclusively
publishedi a letter from the
UN's Herve Ladsous, that the
UN "will contact these staff
members and discuss a way
forward in the coming weeks."
Letter published by Inner City
Press on Scribd here.
But when
at the UN's February 24 noon
briefing Inner City Press
began asking "Spokesman"
Dujarric about the letter, he
immediately ran off the podium
and out of the briefing room
(after this).
And UN DPI under Cristina
Gallach produced a video
file where the audio cuts off
in the middle of the Western
Sahara file. See here,
at end. Both should leave;
March 31 is too long.
On Western
Sahara, ICP Publishes Ladsous on Ousted Staff,
Here, Spox UNaware of Reassignment by Matthew
Russell Lee on Scribd
Permanent member
France has ensured it remain
this way, and has managed to
get its fifth national in a
row put atop UN Peacekeeping,
to succeed Herve Ladsous who
again and again told Inner
City Press,
I don't answer your
questions, until it was
evicted
from its office and remains
restricted by Spain's Cristina
Gallach. Last week Inner
City Press asked what to
expect from Antonio Guterres,
see below.
On the
afternoon of February 22, with
Western Sahara on the Security
Council's agenda, Inner City
Press asked French Ambassador
Francois Delattre how many of
the ousted UN staff are still
out, and about the meeting. He
said to Ask his colleague, who
would attended, joking "cheap
shot." Video
here.
At the
Security Council stakeout, at
least four Moroccan diplomats
held vigil, including the
sponsor of UN Office of the
High Commissioner for Human
Rights' Eric Tistounet's book
party.
After cover up
man Herve Ladsous left, it was
said the President of the
Council would speak at the
stakeout. When he did,
Inner City Press asked for a
summary, at least how many of
the ousted UN staff had
returned. I don't remember,
was the answer. Video
here.
So on
February 23, Inner City Press
asked UN Spokesman Stephane
Dujarric how many have (not)
returned, and if any have been
reassigned to other UN
missions. From the UN
transcript:
Inner City Press:
yesterday, after the
consultations in the Council
about MINURSO (United Nations
Mission for the Referendum in
Western Sahara), I asked the
President of the Council if
Mr. [Hervé] Ladsous had
provided a number of the staff
that had yet… had been ousted
that had yet to be
returned. And he said,
yes, a number had been
provided. He didn't say
that he could remember the
number, but I'm assuming that
you can remember the
number. How many are
still out?
Spokesman: Well, I don't
have to remember it because I
have it written down in front
of me, which is very
good. I can tell… I know
there have been a lot… a
number of questions about the
level of the mission in
Western Sahara. We're
obviously continuing our
efforts to restore full
functionality to the UN
Mission, to MINURSO. At
this time, there remains 17
staff who have been unable to
rejoin the mission after
requested… being requested to
depart by Morocco, and efforts
continue to enable their
return. The Department
of Peacekeeping Operations
(DPKO) and MINURSO remain in
close touch with staff members
concerned in order to keep
them informed of the current
situation.
Inner City Press: One
follow-up. I've heard
that some of these people have
been assigned to other
missions. Is that the
case? And, if so, does
it kind of acknowledge--
Spokesman: I'm not aware
of those people having been
reassigned to another mission.
We'll have
more on this.
Back on February
16 at a rare panel discussion
on Western Sahara just off
Manhattan's Park Avenue, a
questioner brought the
proceedings to a halt when he
asked about Trump adviser
Steve Bannon working in
MINURSO. Several
audience members - on both
sides, as it turned out -
asked, Why? From the podium
came the answer that the
reference was to John Bolton.
The Q&A continued.
Inner City
Press asked about Antonio
Guterres, who recently gave
the top position in UN
Peacekeeping to yet another
French official, Jean-Pierre
Lacroix the fifth in a row,
and what his views may be on
Western Sahara.
Amy
Goodman of Democracy Now
responded that as a former
Portuguese prime minister
Guterres should remember, and
be asked about, East Timor. Video
here, from Min 1:30:26.
Consider it an assignment.
The event
was at Hunter College's
Roosevelt House and included
Prof Sandra Babcock, lawyer
Katlyn Thomas, Madeleine Bair
of Watching Western Sahara and
Mohammed Ali Arkoukoum of the
Saharawi Association in New
York. The final questioner,
with a pro-Morocco perspective
and some supporters with
filming phones, came in from
Boston.
Back on
January 27 after the UN
Security Council held a closed
door meeting about Western
Sahara, Inner City Press asked
the Council's President for
January Olof Skoog of Sweden
what happened in the meeting.
Video
here.
Specifically, Inner City Press
asked Skoog how many of the 83
members of the MINURSO
peacekeeping mission expelled
by Morocco have be able to
return.
Skoog did
not give a number, but said
that MINURSO is still no up to
full functionality. He
mentioned Guerguerat.
Inner City
Press asked if Morocco's
attempts to join the African
Union, and the impact that
might have on the political
negotiations, had been
discussed. Skoog said no.
There was
no time to ask about the
Norwegian oil fish ship that,
it seems, violated the recent
European court ruling. And
less than two hours later,
guards citing the eviction /
Press downgrading order of
Spanish UN official Cristina
Gallach demanded to know where
Inner City Press' "minder"
was, putting an end to a
diplomat's provision of
information to Inner City
Press. This is today's UN.
***
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