"No reason" for escalation in Western Sahara, UN says

There is "no reason, none" for the escalation of the situation in the Western Sahara after Morocco ordered withdrawal of 84 international staff members on the UN Mission in West Sahara to protest UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's use of the word "occupation" in describing the status of the disputed territory, Farhan Haq, the deputy UN spokesman, told reporters here Monday.

The United Nations is continuing discussions with Morocco and other concerned countries "to make sure tensions can be de-escalated," Haq said at a daily news briefing here.

Over the weekend, the UN withdrew 73 international civilian personnel from the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) headquarters, Haq said.

The Moroccan government's support for the UN Mission deteriorated in response to Ban's use of the word during his first visit earlier this month to refugee camps in Algeria for the Sahrawis, as the region's native inhabitants are known.

West Sahara borders Morocco, Algeria and Mauritania.

However, Haq expressed concern that the Moroccan government's request for the civilian personnel to leave would not only pose a "risk of return to heightened tensions," but also have broader implications for other UN peacekeeping missions.

"If the people of the region can be threatened by a possible renewal of hostilities because a government took offence at a single word, how can we guarantee the stability of any peacekeeping mission?" Haq asked.

He called for the UN Security Council to step in, since he said that the UN peacekeepers in Western Sahara were there due to a Security Council mandate.

"We are seeing how to go about this, but this is also an issue on which the Security Council is being apprised," he said, adding that Morocco's actions threaten the future of the U.N. mission.

"Ultimately, while we appreciate the efforts of mediating states it is also a question for the Security Council to handle in terms of making sure that their mandates are respected," he said.

Georges Rebelo Chikoti, foreign minister of Angola which holds the Security Council presidency for the month of March, told reporters Monday afternoon that the members of the 15-nation Security Council are still discussing the council's response to the situation.

Haq said that the decision to follow the request from the Moroccan government to remove the personnel was about security and logistics and did not reflect "any evaluation of the status of the territory" by the United Nations, or namely Morocco's particular claim to the area.

So far, only civilian staff have been withdrawn from the mission, but Haq said that a new request has been received from the Moroccan government to close the MINURSO military liaison office in Dakhla "in the coming days," which, he said "would be (the) first request directly targeting the military component."

Western Sahara has been contested by Morocco, Mauritania and the Frente POLISARIO, supported by Algeria since colonial power Spain withdrew in 1976.

The UN mission there has overseen relative stability since it was established in 1991.
 Xinhua -globaltimes.cn
22/3/16
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