{"id":10192,"date":"2012-04-23T16:26:59","date_gmt":"2012-04-23T14:26:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/04\/un-set-to-renew-western-sahara-force-despite-criticism\/"},"modified":"2012-04-23T16:26:59","modified_gmt":"2012-04-23T14:26:59","slug":"un-set-to-renew-western-sahara-force-despite-criticism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/un-set-to-renew-western-sahara-force-despite-criticism\/","title":{"rendered":"UN set to renew Western Sahara force despite criticism"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>* U.N. council to vote on draft resolution on Tuesday<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>* U.N. accused of softening criticism of Morocco in report<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>By Louis Charbonneau<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>UNITED NATIONS, April 23 (Reuters) &#8211; The U.N. Security<br \/>\nCouncil has reached a deal on a draft resolution to renew the<br \/>\nmandate of the peacekeeping force in the disputed territory of<br \/>\nWestern Sahara this week, envoys said, but the Polisario Front<br \/>\nindependence movement and South Africa are disappointed.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The renewal of the mandate of the peacekeeping force, known<br \/>\nas MINURSO, marks an annual battle in the council between<br \/>\nMorocco, backed by France, and African nations supporting<br \/>\nPolisario.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The African countries have repeatedly called for U.N.<br \/>\npeacekeepers to be given the task of monitoring alleged human<br \/>\nrights abuses.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Morocco and France, its former colonial master, have<br \/>\nresisted the idea that the peacekeepers should report on rights<br \/>\nabuses in Western Sahara, a sparsely populated tract of desert<br \/>\nthat has phosphates, fisheries and, potentially, oil and gas.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Former British diplomat Carne Ross, who heads the<br \/>\nIndependent Diplomat, a group that advises Polisario, wrote in<br \/>\nthe Guardian newspaper last week that Western Sahara is the<br \/>\n&#8220;forgotten first source of the Arab Spring.&#8221; He was referring to<br \/>\nthe Moroccan authorities&#8217; deadly crackdown on protests there by<br \/>\nthe Saharawi population in late 2010.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>While the Security Council has never formally assigned the<br \/>\npeacekeepers the role of human rights monitoring, Morocco has<br \/>\nfaced pressure to allow language on human rights in the<br \/>\nresolutions on Western Sahara. Rabat insists the territory<br \/>\nshould come under its sovereignty, but the Polisario contends it<br \/>\nis a sovereign state.<br \/>\n\u00a0 <span class=\"label\"><strong>Continued&#8230;<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>* 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) &#8211; 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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-10192","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10192\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}