By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
April 24 --
After the UN
Security
Council's open
meeting on
Western
Sahara, there
was a lull at
the press
stakeout.
South
Africa's Baso
Sangqu had
spoken in the
Council
chamber,
decrying the
watering down
of the report
on the MINURSO
mission and
invoking the
UN Charter's
Article 100,
which says
that UN staff,
for example
like Herve
Ladsous
the fourth
Frenchman in a
row to run UN
Peacekeeping,
should not do
the bidding of
their
countries.
But
Sangqu
indicated that
he would not
be speaking at
the stakeout.
So who
would?
The
Frente
POLISARIO's
representative
to the UN
Ahmed Boukhari
came out, and
to
the
microphone.
Inner City
Press went
over, listened
and asked him
a
series of
questions,
about
MINURSO's
freedom of
movement, the
Arab
Spring, a
possible visit
to Western
Sahara by the
King of
Morocco.
Boukhari
called
this last a
"provocation,"
and said that
Morocco would
try
to use the
"settlers" to
make the King
look popular
in
Western
Sahara.
While
this went on,
a cluster of
Moroccan
diplomats
stood off
camera
appearing
increasinly
agitated. They
summoned over
UN staff; a
moment later,
Inner City
Press was
asked
regarding
Boukhari, "Who
is this
guy?"
Well,
he's the
representative
to the UN of a
party to a UN
mediated
conflict. Once
in the past,
it is true,
the UN TV
camera was
turned off
while
POLISARIO
spoke.
But
when Inner
City Press
inquired, the
answer given
was that the
electricity
had,
by chance,
gone off just
then. This
time, will
Boukhari's
stakeout go
online on the
UN Webcast
archives? It
should, just
as stakeouts
by a
non-governmental
democracy
activist from
Yemen went up.
Inner
City Press
asked Boukhari
another Arab
Spring
question, then
was told to
stop,
that there was
another
speaker
waiting.
Morocco's
Ambassador
Loulichki came
around the
corner and to
the
microphone. He
spoke in
Arabic and
then French,
then said he
would take the
first question
in
English, from
Inner City
Press.
Thanking
Loulichki
for this,
Inner City
Press reminded
him of the
question
asked but not
answered ten
days previous,
about freedom
of movement
for MINURSO in
Western Sahara
compared to
that being
demanded in
Syria.
Loulichki
responded
that he lived
there in 1999
to 2001 and
that 90% of
MINURSO
personnel
live out among
the
population,
they go to
movies and
play soccer
and
could not be
monitored.
Likewise, when
Inner City
Press asked if
Morocco had
opposed any
ongoing
presence in
Dakhla by UN
political
affairs
officer, said
that a team
had been
allowed for
five days,
after last
September's
violence.
Inner
City Press
asked about
the promised
referendum on
self-determination.
Loulichki
said that
James Baker in
2000, as the
UN's envoy,
had deemed
this
unfeasible,
that a
compromise
should be
negotiated.
But in the
Council
chamber on
Tuesday, at
least as
translated,
Loulickhi said
that Morocco
owns Western
Sahara. What
kind of
compromise is
that?
Watch this
site.
