On
W Sahara, Leaked MINURSO Email
on Return, Of Horst Kohler
& Gunboat Diplomacy
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS,
April 9 – While UN Secretary
General Antonio Guterres
breezed by the issue of
Western Sahara on Friday,
April 7 as Morocco tried to
get the Press which covers it
further restricted, Inner City
Press has been leaked the
following, amid reports of
Germany's Horst Kohler as new
Personal Envoy:
"MINURSO-SRSG
OFFICE/MINURSO/UNFIELDMISSIONS
Important update on MINURSO
full functionality
Dear colleagues,
I am pleased to announce that
today MINURSO received a Code
Cable from USG DPKO, Mr.
Jean-Pierre Lacroix, informing
that Morocco agreed to the
return of the 17 MINURSO staff
who thus far have been unable
to come back to the Mission
since March 2016 and that the
decision was applicable
immediately. Mr. Lacroix
instructed me to proceed, in
cooperation with the
Department of Field Support
and in full consultation with
the Moroccan Coordinator, Mr.
Barez, with the reintegration
of the above mentioned staff
into MINURSO, so as to restore
the mission full
functionality. I have already
instructed the Chief of
Mission Support to make
arrangements immediately for
the prompt return of our
colleagues to the Mission,
which should take place as
soon as possible. Contact with
each concerned staff member
will be made in coordination
with DFS / FPD. I would like
to take this opportunity to
thank all MINURSO staff, both
civilian and military, for the
dedication and commitment
shown in the last year while
the Mission was operating at
reduced capacity, many having
to assume a much larger
workload during such an
extended period, and also
thank our colleagues for their
patience while negotiations on
their return were underway.
Kind regards, Kim
Bolduc, SRSG and Head of
Mission, MINURSO, Laayoune,
Western Sahara."
We'll have more
on this. As to Horst Kohler,
his "gunboat
diplomacy" comments
regarding Afghanistan in 2010
bear remembering..
Amid Western
Sahara protests and repression
in El Aaiún, and after the UN
acceded to an abusive
request by Morocco to
expand the restrictions on
Inner City Press which the
UN's Cristina
Gallach imposed 13
months ago, Inner City Press
on the morning of March 27 in
writing asked the UN's top
three spokespeople questions,
including "in El
Aaiún renewed
protests have been met with
repression. What is MINURSO
doing, and what is the
Secretary General's comment?"
At the day's noon briefing,
held without restricted Inner
City Press, UN spokesman
Farhan Haq faced only two
questions; on one he
ironically answered about the
right to protest, elsewhere.
After the briefing, Haq's
office sent Inner City Press
this sentence, published in
full: "Regarding protests in
Western Sahara, the UN
recognizes the right of all to
peaceful assembly and
protest." This came before a
quiet March 28 "Any Other
Business" session about the
MINURSO mission, in advance of
which Morocco not only filed a
frivolous complaint against
Inner City Press' reporting
from the UN Security Council
stakeout with camera and Periscope,
but also invited
correspondents it has not
complained about to its
Ambassador Omar Hilale's
residence for praise,
including of Italian
correspondent / landlord
Giampaolo
Pioli who has not
reported on events in Western
Sahara. We'll have more on
this.
The UN's
willingness to censor Press
coverage of itself and its
failures such as in Western
Sahara, including at the
behest of abusive UN member
states like Morocco, shows a
need for radical reform not
currently being attempted much
less achieved. A complaint
conveyed to Inner City Press
on March 22 by the UN
Department of Public
Information, which previously
evicted and still restricts
Inner City Press after it
pursued the Ng Lap Seng UN
bribery case in the UN Press
Briefing Room and regarding
DPI's Cristina Gallach is a
case in point.
The
background is that 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.
On March
22 the UN Media Accreditation
and Liaison Unit, cc-ing
superiors in the Department of
Public Information, has warned
Inner City Pres about
"recording... near the
Security Council. You
were mentioned by name in this
regard, and we take the
opportunity of this sensitive
occurrence to remind you that
the Turkish Lounge is not part
of the stake out area and is
off limits to media unless
invited by the delegation."
One irony
is that Inner City Press never
entered or enters this
so-called Turkish Lounge,
while other insider
correspondents do, including
without any invitation. DPI
has a double standard;
Gallach's record in this
regard, on this issue, has
been noted for example here.
This is pure targeting, and
comes as Inner City Press
continues to question and
cover UN lack
of transparency and lack
of commitment to freedom of
expression, for example in Cameroon.
It is the UN's ongoing lack of
rules, including of due
process for journalists, that
allows this. Inner City Press
has responded, in pertinent
part:
"For your
information, on Friday March
17, I was in the press area of
the UNSC stakeout, after the 3
pm meeting. I took a
photograph of the Polisario
delegation, with Christopher
Ross, going up to the 38th
floor. There were diplomats I
recognized to be from the
Moroccan Mission sitting in
the so-called Turkish Lounge.
I did not record any
conversation or take any photo
of them (although in the past,
Moroccan Ambassador Omar
Hilale has invited me to
photograph him and his
associate there).
After I took and tweeted
photograph of Polisario and UN
official Ross going up, a
Moroccan diplomat / associate
walked the UN Security officer
at the turnstile my pass no
longer works on; the officer
came over and told me,
seemingly apologetically, that
the diplomat can said I
shouldn't take photographs.
I said I was within my
rights to take photographs
from the stakeout, but I
nevertheless - in light of
DPI's / MALU's previous
punitive acts with no
due process, and ongoing
restrictions after more
than 1 year - left the UNSC
stakout.
I consider this complaint by
Morocco to be an attempt to
limit coverage of the Western
Sahara issue. Given DPI's /
MALU's previous actions, if
any of this is put in my /
Inner City Press' history or
file with MALU this must be
included to.
This is a formal request to
see my / Inner City Press'
file. And this is, again, a
request to be returned to
Inner City Press' long time
shared office S-303A, and a
statement for the record that
... Inner City Press' office
and resident correspondent
status must immediately be
restored.
Please confirm receipt and
provided the requested
information / file as well as
the list of those waiting for
office space, the
prioritization the UN has
assigned and the reasons
therefor." And days later,
even on the eve of the UN
Security Council session that
Morocco's occupation of the
areas around the Council,
frivolous anti-Press complaint
and wining and dining of
scribes took place, Gallach's
DPI couldn't even get it
together to confirm receipt.
This corrupt DPI: mend it or
end it. We'll have more on all
of the above.
***
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