As
Weisbrod-Weber
Gets W.
Sahara,
Ladsous' Water
Down, Eritrea
Water Up?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
June 15 --
Back on May 9
Inner City
Press reported
that
Morocco was
trying to
block the
appointment of
Wolfgang
Weisbrod-Weber
as head of the
UN mission in
Western
Sahara.
A letter
of appointment
was sent to
the UN
Security
Council, on
which Morocco
is six months
into a two
year elected
term. But
Morocco
objected.
After
more than a
month's delay,
on June 15
Wolfgang
Weisbrod-Weber
was finally
named
SRSG of the
MINURSO
mission. But
the status of
envoy
Christopher
Ross
is less clear.
Since
Morocco says
they've lost
confidence in
him, he
hasn't
traveled to
the region; he
is in limbo.
Western
Sahara
was the topic,
after higher
profile
Malvinas /
Falkland
Islands, in
the so-called
Committee of
24 on Friday.
Inner City
Press went and
asked Frente
Polisario
representative
Ahmed Boukhari
about the
confirmation
of Wolfgang
Weisbrod-Weber,
and how
Morocco's
blocking
of Ross
differed, if
it does, from
Polisario
having lost
confidence
in previously
envoy Van
Walsom.
Boukhari
said
that Ross was
neutral, while
Van Walsom
"issued his
own report,
against
Western Sahara
independence."
He said that
Ross had
never made
such a
comment,
noting that
the UN's
reports on
Western
Sahara are
edited by,
among others
"Herve
Ladsous, who
is
French."
France
supports
Morocco.
As
Inner City
Press
reported, the
two versions
of the last
report on
Western Sahara
were watered
down to drop
allegations
against
Morocco of
limiting
freedom of
movement of
the
peacekeepers.
Inner
City Press
exclusively
learned on
Friday that a
similar
amateurish
post-publication
is taking
place on the
forthcoming
report on
Eritrea. The
report already
has a number
(S/2012/412)
and has been
on
the UN's ODS
Official
Document
Service.
But
unlike the
Western Sahara
watering down,
in this case
it's a matter
of watering
UP -- Ethiopia
and others are
said to want
the report to
be more
damning of
Asmara. And so
it goes at the
UN.
, 
