Washington, June 16, 2016 (SPS) - Morocco tried to foil a technical mission of the United Nations, dispatched in Laayoune, to negotiate the return of the staff of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINUROS), expelled by Morocco, said Ahmed Boukhari, representative of the Polisario Front at the United Nations.
“The information that we have is that the Moroccan authorities tried to divert this technical mission from its purpose,” said Boukhari, in 2016’s session of the UN special committee on decolonization , called also Committee of 24, held in Nicaragua.
The Moroccan authorities tried to divert this mission from its objective by giving a tourist aspect to the visit of the UN delegation which visited Friday Laayoune to discuss the restoration of MINURSO, according to Boukhari.
Morocco also circumvented the technical discussions, scheduled for this purpose, by directing the meeting with the UN mission towards a political debate on the issue of Western Sahara, said the Sahrawi official.
The Polisario Front’s representative considered that the “disrespectful” attack against Ban ki-moon and the unilateral decision to expel the civilian component of the MINURSO show that “the occupying power opted for a confrontation with the international community to put an end to the peace process.”
In this regard, Boukhari reiterated the resolution of the Security Council, adopted in April, underlining the urgency to fully implement MINURSO mandate, by enabling it to organize a self-determination referendum.SPS
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