* U.N. council to vote on draft resolution on Tuesday
* U.N. accused of softening criticism of Morocco in report
By Louis Charbonneau
UNITED NATIONS, April 23 (Reuters) – The U.N. Security
Council has reached a deal on a draft resolution to renew the
mandate of the peacekeeping force in the disputed territory of
Western Sahara this week, envoys said, but the Polisario Front
independence movement and South Africa are disappointed.
The renewal of the mandate of the peacekeeping force, known
as MINURSO, marks an annual battle in the council between
Morocco, backed by France, and African nations supporting
Polisario.
The African countries have repeatedly called for U.N.
peacekeepers to be given the task of monitoring alleged human
rights abuses.
Morocco and France, its former colonial master, have
resisted the idea that the peacekeepers should report on rights
abuses in Western Sahara, a sparsely populated tract of desert
that has phosphates, fisheries and, potentially, oil and gas.
Former British diplomat Carne Ross, who heads the
Independent Diplomat, a group that advises Polisario, wrote in
the Guardian newspaper last week that Western Sahara is the
“forgotten first source of the Arab Spring.” He was referring to
the Moroccan authorities’ deadly crackdown on protests there by
the Saharawi population in late 2010.
While the Security Council has never formally assigned the
peacekeepers the role of human rights monitoring, Morocco has
faced pressure to allow language on human rights in the
resolutions on Western Sahara. Rabat insists the territory
should come under its sovereignty, but the Polisario contends it
is a sovereign state.
The latest draft calls on both sides to respect human rights
and welcomes Morocco’s decision to set up a national council on
rights and grant access to the Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights
Council. Previous resolutions had made only a vague reference to
the “human dimension” of the conflict.
The Polisario, which represents the Saharawi people, waged a
guerrilla war against Moroccan forces until the United Nations
brokered a ceasefire in 1991 with the understanding that a
referendum would be held on the fate of the territory.
The referendum was never held and attempts to reach a
lasting deal have floundered.
The new draft resolution has the council “stressing the
importance of improving the human rights situation in Western
Sahara and the Tindouf camps, and encouraging the parties to …
to ensure full respect for human rights.”
U.N. BEEFED UP CRITICISM OF MOROCCO
The draft resolution, which would extend the peacekeepers’
mandate until April 2013, is scheduled to go to a vote on
Tuesday, council diplomats say. Polisario and temporary council
member South Africa are disappointed with the text.
“Certainly, human rights have been once more sacrificed by
the Security Council in Western Sahara … as a result of
France’s blind support to his client in the region, Morocco,”
said Polisario’s representative in New York, Ahmed Boukhari.
South Africa’s U.N. Ambassador Baso Sangqu told Reuters he
wanted tougher language on human rights and a demand that
Morocco end its restrictions on, and monitoring of, MINURSO.
A U.N. report to the 15-nation council on Western Sahara has
been a focus of controversy this month. The United Nations
circulated three different drafts to the council before settling
on what it said was the “final advance copy.”
This elicited allegations from Polisario and several council
delegations, above all South Africa, that the secretariat had
caved in to pressure from Rabat and Paris to soften the report’s
criticism of Morocco. Sangqu said the changes were “deplorable”
and intended to “neutralize” its criticism.
An analysis of the first draft of the U.N. report, obtained
by Reuters, which was sent directly by the head of MINURSO, Hany
Abdel-Aziz, to the U.N. Department of Peacekeeping Operations
shows that much of language most critical of Morocco was added
by the United Nations in New York.
That suggests allegations that the U.N. somehow tried to
whitewash Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s report on Western
Sahara to the Security Council are unjustified.
Parts of the report added by the U.N. secretariat include
paragraphs suggesting Morocco has been spying on MINURSO and
that the mission was forced to use Moroccan diplomatic license
plates on its vehicles. The report said that “raises doubts
about the neutrality of the mission.”
Also added to the original draft was a paragraph that says
the U.N. force is “unable to exercise fully its peacekeeping
monitoring, observation and reporting functions, or avail of the
authority to reverse the erosion” of its ability to function.
Although there were some changes between the three versions
of Ban’s report sent to the council, those revisions were
minimal compared to the criticisms of Morocco that were added
after the first draft reached the peacekeeping department, which
is headed by Herve Ladsous of France.
Morocco, a temporary council member, has declined to comment
on Ban’s report and the criticisms of Rabat contained in it.
(Reporting By Louis Charbonneau; editing by Christopher Wilson)
