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On W.
Sahara, 2 No
Votes, 3
Abstentions,
So France Can
Lobby Next SG
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, April
29 -- When the
UN Security
Council voted
on a draft
resolution
on Western
Sahara on
April 29,
there were two
no votes -
Venezuela and
Uruguay - and
three
abstentions:
Angola, Russia
and New
Zealand.
Criticized
outside the
Council was France's
(and Spain's)
role, seeking
to delay even
reporting on
MINURSO for 90
days -- so as
to impact the
selection of
Next Secretary
General, some
say.
After
Morocco
threatened and
threw out the
civilian
component of
the UN's
MINURSO
mission, Inner
City Press
obtained the
UN's Western
Sahara report
as it had been
approved by
Deputy
Secretary
General Jan
Eliasson on
April 18, and
exclusively
in full text
published it
on Scribd here.
This came days
after the UN
of Ban Ki-moon
and Cristina
Gallach,
Spain's
highest UN
official,
threw its
journalistic
files out onto
First Avenue.
Video
here and here (Periscope).
Inner City
Press obtained
from
diplomatic
sources an
updated "Group
of Friends"
draft
resolution,
below, and
reported that
those
expressing
opposition
include
Angola,
Uruguay and
Venezuela, and
to some
degree, it
seems, New
Zealand.
On the evening
of April 28,
the
still-moving
Western Sahara
draft was put
on the UN
Security
Council's
schedule for a
10 am vote.
Inner City
Press called
this a
negotiating
tactic, and it
was - on the
morning of
April 29, the
vote was
pushed back to
11 am.
Inner
City Press
arrived at the
Security
Council and,
under the
lesser UN pass
to which
Spain's
Gallach
reduced it,
was unable to
access the
Council
stakeout, even
though
diplomats were
seen entering.
Inner City
Press spoke
with diplomats
and sources in
the hall by
the escalators
-- thank you,
Cristina
Gallach and
Ban -- and has
learned both
of a
back-channel
offer to
return a
portion of
those expelled
from MINURSO,
and of a
reason for the
French -
Moroccan
insistence on
a delay of 90
days for the
Security
Council to
hear if
Morocco is
still
blocking.
Consider the
timing of the
selection of
the next
Secretary
General, and
of the ability
of Security
Council
members
particularly
veto-wielding
France to
demand of
candidates
their
position, or
concessions,
on this
Western Sahara
colonialism
issue. We'll
have more on
this.
* * *
These
reports
are
usually also available through Google
News and on Lexis-Nexis.
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for Sept 26, 2011 New Yorker on Inner City
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