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On W.
Sahara,
Polisario
Spoke But UNTV
Didn't Archive,
Spox Cites DPI
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, May 2
-- 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.
Even
while Uruguay
spoke in the
Security
Council, UN
Spokesman
Stephane
Dujarric
started up
“his” noon
briefing
(which ended
with a
profanity
directed at
Inner City
Press, sound
later edited
out on UNTV).
After that,
finding
Morocco's Omar
Hilale at the
stakeout,
Inner City
Press asked
him to whom
his King
referred, in
criticizing UN
officers: only
Christopher
Ross? Or USg
Jeff Feltman
too? Hilale
said he would
not criticize
by name.
Algeria was to
do a stakeout
right after,
but most
correspondents
left. So at 3
pm there was
another UNTV
stakeout, at
first by Sabri
Boukadoum of
Algeria. Inner
City Press
asked him if
Polisario
could speak,
he said, Why
not? But there
is a history
of blocking,
even of
turning off
the UNTV
cameras.
This time,
when the
representative
of Polisario
took to the
microphone to
read a
statement (Tweeted
photo of
statement here)
a UN Security
guard came
over, and the
feed and sound
went dark.
More
correspondents
came, and the
sound went up
again. Inner
City Press for
the Free
UN Coalition
for Access
asked, You
have a right
to speak here,
right? Yes,
was the
answer.
But the
resulting
video was
never put on
the UN's
website. So on
May 2 Inner
City Press
asked Ban
Ki-moon's
spokesman Stephane
Dujarric, UN
transcript
here:
Inner City
Press: for a
time the sound
and picture
went out but
then it came
back up, which
seemed to be
appropriate.
But I'm
noticing now
in terms of
the archive
version, it's
not up.
What is the
UN's position,
you say he has
every right to
be in the
building, if
he is, in
fact, invited
and
accompanied by
the Permanent
Representative
of a Member
State, why is
the video of
his stakeout
not on the UN
archives?
Can you find
out?
Spokesman
Dujarric:
We can check
with DPI
(Department of
Public
Information).
But by
8 pm on May 2,
nothing.
Meanwhile DPI
chief Cristina
Gallach,
Spain's
highest UN
official and
responsible
for UNTV, has
ousted and
evicted Inner
City Press,
and now mulls
handing its
long time
office to
French or
Morocco media.
We'll have
more on this.
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.
* * *
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reports
are
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News and on Lexis-Nexis.
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