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On Western Sahara, US Speaks, Spanish Judge Rules, Ban Ki-moon Cancels Briefing, Morocco Letter Here
By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, April 9 -- The UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara, which has yet to hold any referendum, gets reviewed this month in the UN Security Council, with the UN's ambiguous position on (not) including human rights monitoring in the mission's mandate once again coming to the fore.
Now on April 9 the US has issued a statement as in other years, and Inner City Press in fairness publishes Morocco's anti-African Union letter to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, here. Ban, meanwhile, canceled the day's noon briefing for a bland "press encounter" on Yemen and Yarmouk; no Western Sahara questions to the UN were possible.
The US State Department on April 9 said:
"The Secretary [John Kerry] reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to a peaceful, sustainable, mutually agreed-upon solution to the Western Sahara question. The United States’ policy toward the Western Sahara has remained consistent for many years. The United States has made clear that Morocco’s autonomy plan is serious, realistic, and credible, and that it represents a potential approach that could satisfy the aspirations of the people in the Western Sahara to run their own affairs in peace and dignity. The United States supports the negotiations carried out by the United Nations, including the work of the UN Personal Envoy of the Secretary-General Ambassador Christopher Ross, and urges the parties to work toward a just, lasting, and mutually agreed political solution. The United States also supports the role of the UN Mission for the Referendum on Western Sahara (MINURSO). The Secretary and the Foreign Minister affirmed their shared commitment to the improvement of the lives of the people in the Western Sahara and discussed appropriate ways to meet that goal."
Ignored in that, but not here, is a finding by a court in Spain: "A Spanish judge Thursday upheld genocide charges against 11 Moroccan ex-officials accused of atrocities in Western Sahara, a court ruling showed -- a penultimate step towards a possible trial. Judge Pablo Ruz upheld accusations against the 11 ex-security officials and governors of ethnically motivated torture, killings and detentions in the former Spanish colony between 1975 and 1991, the ruling said."
On April 7, Inner City Press asked UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Stephane Dujarric about a letter sent to Ban by the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, which cites “ the need to provide MINURSO with a human rights mandate.”
Dujarric replied that he hadn't seen the letter. Video here. Inner City Press reported that Ban's chief of staff Malcorra had, in fact, seen it. When Inner City Press asked again on April 8, Dujarric said the letter was "processed" video here -- and we can verify, it was circulated.
(Reuters, which didn't ask and openly panders to the mission(s) most opposed to a MINURSO human rights mandate, brags it is responsible, while both trying to get other media thrown out of the UN, here and FOIA-ed here then trying to censor that, here: laughable. As was writing that the AU letter was "seen by Reuters" after it was published online in full by another publication.)
Now, Inner City Press puts online the Polisario's letter to Ban Ki-moon, here, in part because the UN ban Polisario from speaking at the UN Security Council stakeout while, for example, allowing current private citizen Hilary Clinton to speak there, with UNCA the UN's Censorship Alliance hand-picked for the softball first question.
The new Free UN Coalition for Access opposes censorship and seek to amplify the voices that are being kept away from the microphone, so puts this online.
FUNCA has now also put online Morocco's Foreign Minister Salaheddine Mezouar's letter, which says:
"The African Union prejudged, in a biased manner, the outcome of the p
Titre original
On Western Sahara, Morocco FM Writes to UN Against African Union
On Western Sahara, US Speaks, Spanish Judge Rules, Ban Ki-moon Cancels Briefing, Morocco Letter Here
By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, April 9 -- The UN Mission for the Referendum…