New York, Oct 8, 2017 (SPS) -The United Nations Secretariat on Friday apologized after its news centre released erroneous reports on Western Sahara attributed to petitioners, and promised to closely examine the issue.
Urged by the 4th Decolonization Committee to publish a communiqué about twisted statements attributed to petitioners about Western Sahara, the representative of the Secretariat apologized to Algeria and stressed that the press released had been corrected.
The Secretariat is examining the issue, said the representative in response to concerns expressed by Algeria over this blunder made by the UN news centre.
Algeria's Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Mohammed Bessedik replied to this communiqué and said that the news centre should also apologize to the fourth Committee too.
President of the 4th Committee Rafael Dario Ramirez Carreno previously sought clarifications and demanded apologies for "these mistakes." He also shared Bessedik's viewpoint.
"The debate is greatly undermined when twisted statements are attributed to a petitioner," said Ramirez, who called on the Secretariat to explain the situation in a communiqué.
"The news centre must give clarifications about these mistakes," he affirmed.
"Today, the news centre has not only made mistakes in press releases and statements of petitioners, worse still, it has attributed a statement to a legitimate representative of the Sahrawi people who has not taken the floor yet," denounced Bessedik.
In a statement to APS, the representative of the Polisario Front said "he requested an inquiry about this serious mistake." (SPS)
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