On W.
Sahara, Morocco
Vote Oct 7
Triggers
Letter, Only
25 of 83 UN
Back But Ban's
Dujarric Says
"Upward"
By Matthew
Russell Lee,
Follow up to
Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 27
-- The UN of
Ban Ki-moon,
which gave in
to Morocco's
demand to pull
out 83 members
of its MINURSO
mission in
Western Sahara
and has yet to
get most of
the returned,
is now
proposing to
given in
further,
sources
exclusively
told Inner
City Press on
September 8.
On September
22, when Inner
City Press
asked
Morocco's
foreign
minister
Salaheddine
Mezouar about
MINURSO it was
told it is
already “fully
functional."
But when Inner
City Press
asked Ban
Ki-moon's
deputy
spokesman
Farhan Haq how
many of the 83
expelled staff
are back, the
answer was
only 25. UN
transcript
below.
On September
28, Inner City
Press asked
the UN's lead
spokesman
Stephane
Dujarric if
Christopher
Ross will
travel tot he
region, if Ban
will meeting
on the topic
in the region
before the
climate change
meeting in
Morocco, and
what's the
plan to get
the
peacekeepers
back. He
referred
vaguely to an
"upward" direction.
The POLISARIO
Front has
written to Ban
to complain
that Morocco
intends to
include
Western Sahara
in its
legislative
elections on
October 7.
Inner City
Press tweeted
the letter,
from the 38th
floor, here.
Ban is asked
to "intervene
immediately."
But on
September 28
Ban gave a
speech
apparently not
list on his
schedule, on
at October 7
he will be
traveling.
Watch this
site.
Inner City
Press:
last week, I'd
asked Stéphane
[Dujarric]
just to
provide the
number, of the
83 MINURSO
(United
Nations
Mission for
the Referendum
in Western
Sahara) staff
who had been
ejected or
evicted or
ousted from
Western
Sahara, how
many have
returned.
Do you have
that number?
Deputy
Spokesman:
Well, in terms
of that, I
don't have
numbers to add
to the initial
group of the
25
international
civilian
personnel, who
returned by 26
July.
However, the
UN Secretariat
and the
Mission
continue to
expedite the
recruitment
process of
existing
vacancies.
The mine
action
component of
the mission
has also
finalized its
relocation to
Tindouf, in
order to
resume its
operational
activities.
In terms of
routine, the
Mission
continues to
operate under
existing
arrangements
and
procedures.
Full
functionality
has not been
fully
restored.
ICP
Question:
Great.
Thanks.
I guess I just
wanted to
understand, is
there… so
you’re… the…
the… the
people that
were actually
working there
at the time
that were told
to leave, are
they going
back, or are
you just
recruiting new
people for
positions that
were already
vacated at the
time that they
were
ousted?
I just want to
understand.
Deputy
Spokesman:
Well, some of
the people…
the lists had
a number of
discrepancies.
Some of the
people who
they had asked
to leave had
been gone for
some time, had
gone on to
other jobs or
been… had gone
back to other
areas.
At this stage,
what we're
trying to do
is do the
recruitment to
make sure that
all of the
tasks that are
needed to be
performed are
fulfilled by
people.
Back on
September 22
Ban's lead
spokesman
Dujarric would
not comment on
this. From the
UN transcript:
Inner City
Press: On
Western
Sahara, just
now, earlier
this morning,
the Foreign
Minister of
Morocco said
flatly that
full
functionality
has been
restored.
And so, I
wanted to
know, from the
Secretariat
side, have all
83 been
returned?
What is the
number?
Just
factually.
Spokesman:
I have no… I
mean, I heard
what the
Foreign
Minister
said.
I'm not going
to comment on
what he
said. I
will get you
an update of
what the
staffing level
is on MINURSO
[United
Nations
Mission for
the Referendum
in Western
Sahara] as
soon as I can
get one.
Seven hours
later,
nothing.
* * *
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