Sahara Issue: UN Does Not Take Sides, Says UNSG Spokesman
The United Nations does not take sides in the Sahara issue, said, Tuesday in New York, UNSG spokesman Stéphane Dujarric.
"The UN does not take sides. The MINURSO reports what it observes. The mission has to cover a very large zone. It goes and reports what it sees," he said at the daily press briefing, answering a question on allegations by some media outlets on this issue.
"Again, it is not a matter of taking sides. It is a matter of reporting what we see, as will do the Secretary-General in his report," to the security council, Dujarric added.
The permanent representative of Morocco to the United Nations, ambassador Omar Hilale, sent on Sunday a letter to the UNSC president Gustavo Meza-Cuadra, in which he warned that the relocation of any "polisario" facility, be it civil, military, administrative, or of any kind or nature whatsoever, from the Tindouf camps in Algeria, to the East of the security structure in the Moroccan Sahara, "constitutes a casus belli".
“This illegal act by the other parties, seriously threatens the UN political process that the UN Secretary General and his Personal Envoy work tirelessly to relaunch. With their repeated violations, which are now extended to several zones in the East of the security structure in the Moroccan Sahara, the other parties seriously condemn any chance of relaunching the political process,” stressed Hilale in the letter.
He also mentioned the continued illegal presence of armed elements of "polisario" in the Guergarate buffer zone is a flagrant violation of the Military Agreement N.1, noting that “this is an inadmissible defiance of the Security Council, the United Nations and its Secretary General, Mr. Antonio Guterres, who had demanded, in his statements on 25 February 2017 and 6 January 2018, as well as in his report S/2017/307, dated 10 April 2017, the total respect of the status quo and free of movement in the buffer zone of Guergarate. In this report, he also expressed his deep concern by the continued presence of "polisario" in this zone and asked the Security Council to urge "polisario" to completely and unconditionally withdraw from the buffer zone in Guerguerate."
The "polisario" has, once again, three days ago, violated the Military Agreement N.1, in another area of the Moroccan Sahara, namely in Mahbes, Hilale said, adding that several armed elements of the "polisario" have entered this area, aboard military vehicles, and have set up tents, dug a ditch and built constructions using sandbags.
“More gravely, "polisario" is preparing to transfer the premises of some of its administrative and military facilities, from the Tindouf camps in Algeria, where they have always been established since the start of the dispute in 1975, to the area East of the security structure in the Moroccan Sahara, which includes the localities of Bir Lahlou and Tifariti,” he warned.
"The UN does not take sides. The MINURSO reports what it observes. The mission has to cover a very large zone. It goes and reports what it sees," he said at the daily press briefing, answering a question on allegations by some media outlets on this issue.
"Again, it is not a matter of taking sides. It is a matter of reporting what we see, as will do the Secretary-General in his report," to the security council, Dujarric added.
The permanent representative of Morocco to the United Nations, ambassador Omar Hilale, sent on Sunday a letter to the UNSC president Gustavo Meza-Cuadra, in which he warned that the relocation of any "polisario" facility, be it civil, military, administrative, or of any kind or nature whatsoever, from the Tindouf camps in Algeria, to the East of the security structure in the Moroccan Sahara, "constitutes a casus belli".
“This illegal act by the other parties, seriously threatens the UN political process that the UN Secretary General and his Personal Envoy work tirelessly to relaunch. With their repeated violations, which are now extended to several zones in the East of the security structure in the Moroccan Sahara, the other parties seriously condemn any chance of relaunching the political process,” stressed Hilale in the letter.
He also mentioned the continued illegal presence of armed elements of "polisario" in the Guergarate buffer zone is a flagrant violation of the Military Agreement N.1, noting that “this is an inadmissible defiance of the Security Council, the United Nations and its Secretary General, Mr. Antonio Guterres, who had demanded, in his statements on 25 February 2017 and 6 January 2018, as well as in his report S/2017/307, dated 10 April 2017, the total respect of the status quo and free of movement in the buffer zone of Guergarate. In this report, he also expressed his deep concern by the continued presence of "polisario" in this zone and asked the Security Council to urge "polisario" to completely and unconditionally withdraw from the buffer zone in Guerguerate."
The "polisario" has, once again, three days ago, violated the Military Agreement N.1, in another area of the Moroccan Sahara, namely in Mahbes, Hilale said, adding that several armed elements of the "polisario" have entered this area, aboard military vehicles, and have set up tents, dug a ditch and built constructions using sandbags.
“More gravely, "polisario" is preparing to transfer the premises of some of its administrative and military facilities, from the Tindouf camps in Algeria, where they have always been established since the start of the dispute in 1975, to the area East of the security structure in the Moroccan Sahara, which includes the localities of Bir Lahlou and Tifariti,” he warned.