By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, April 26, with video -- Since the US proposed and then agreed to withdraw a proposal to include human right monitoring in the mandate of the UN mission in Western Sahara, questions have abounded: why?
Inner City Press asked US Ambassador Susan Rice on April 25, after the resolution on the rights-less mandate was approved by the Security Council, if it would be possible to get “the whole story.”
Ambassador Rice replied, “the story's done, we have a resolution.”
But of course, the story is NOT done. Inner City Press spoke to other ambassadors on Thursday afternoon. Some bragged that Rice had been undercut by the State Department, that she'd proposed the human rights monitoring without full support in Washington, and had to walk it back after Morocco's response, which included canceling military training operations with the US.
Two well placed ambassadors exclusively told Inner City Press of another explanation, though: that once Morocco tried (and failed) to get (American) UN envoy on Western Sahara Christopher Ross replaced, there had to be some response by the US, and this was it.
This makes the introduction to the “Friends” of Western Sahara of a resolution with rights monitoring included, and then its withdrawal, make more sense: it was a message.
Not exactly as the Frente Polisario would have you believe -- a pure human rights message -- but a message nonetheless. Was the message received? Watch this site.
Footnote: We've extracted from the video of French Ambassador Gerard Araud's April 25 stakeout, mostly about Mali, the question on Western Sahara by Inner City Press, and Araud's answer and put it online, here. Araud said France “didn't oppose” human right monitoring in the UN mission's mandate, but “that's typical UN approach.”
It is rare for France, glad to have a veto on the Security Council, to criticize the UN. But perhaps its muscle flexing in Mali, if not the shameful endgame in Central African Republic and now Guinea Conakry, has given France a new attitude at the UN.
Araud claims there has been “a steady improvement on human rights in Western Sahara” - that's not at all clear from Christopher Ross' reports - and to “ask the penholder” (that is, the US, see above).
