Chahid El Hafedh, 21/06/2015 (SPS) .- “Morocco has no desire to “resolve or even engage on the question of Western Sahara through a genuine negotiating process as called for by the security council”, highlited a report of the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) whose content was revealed on Wednesday June 17 by The Guardian.
“The Moroccan government has been dogged by allegations of human rights violations in Western Sahara for years, and the DPKO go as far to suggest that the cables show that Morocco has no desire to “resolve or even engage on the question of Western Sahara through a genuine negotiating process as called for by the security council”, UN report stated.
According to The Guardian, the cables over Moroccan diplomacy leaked by a cyber-activist, “reveal Moroccan lobbying to ensure human rights were not included in the mandate for Minurso, one of the few UN peacekeeping missions to not have such a mandate. In January 2013, Hilale wrote to say he had asked a UN official “to make Pillay aware of the importance of avoiding all engagement on the eventual expansion of the Minurso mandate to human rights, or on the creation of an independent mechanism in Western Sahara”.
“The DPKO report writes that this implies the Moroccan government were keen to argue “that basic peacekeeping functions such as reporting on developments on the ground and access to all interlocutors do not apply to Minurso”, same report added.
“Earlier this year, despite calls from Ban Ki-Moon, the African Union, Human Rights Watch and the US government to give Minurso a human rights mandate, the UN Security Council voted to renew Minurso’s mission without the mandate. Hilale, now Morocco’s representative to the UN in New York, welcomed the security council’s decision” remembered the London daily.
“Amnesty International told the Guardian that the UN needed to monitor human rights abuses in Western Sahara. “It is difficult to see the point of the UN peacekeeping force’s presence while it fails to monitor human rights violations. It might feel for those facing arrest or torture for claiming the independence of Western Sahara as if the UN are witnessing violations while remaining idle,” said North Africa researcher Sirine Rached”. SPS
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