* U.N. council to vote on draft resolution on Tuesday
* U.N. accused of softening criticism of Morocco in report
By Louis Charbonneau
UNITED NATIONS, April 23 (Reuters) – The U.N. Security
Council has reached a deal on a draft resolution to renew the
mandate of the peacekeeping force in the disputed territory of
Western Sahara this week, envoys said, but the Polisario Front
independence movement and South Africa are disappointed.
The renewal of the mandate of the peacekeeping force, known
as MINURSO, marks an annual battle in the council between
Morocco, backed by France, and African nations supporting
Polisario.
The African countries have repeatedly called for U.N.
peacekeepers to be given the task of monitoring alleged human
rights abuses.
Morocco and France, its former colonial master, have
resisted the idea that the peacekeepers should report on rights
abuses in Western Sahara, a sparsely populated tract of desert
that has phosphates, fisheries and, potentially, oil and gas.
Former British diplomat Carne Ross, who heads the
Independent Diplomat, a group that advises Polisario, wrote in
the Guardian newspaper last week that Western Sahara is the
“forgotten first source of the Arab Spring.” He was referring to
the Moroccan authorities’ deadly crackdown on protests there by
the Saharawi population in late 2010.
While the Security Council has never formally assigned the
peacekeepers the role of human rights monitoring, Morocco has
faced pressure to allow language on human rights in the
resolutions on Western Sahara. Rabat insists the territory
should come under its sovereignty, but the Polisario contends it
is a sovereign state.
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