By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, The UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara, MINURSO, which has yet to hold any referendum, gets reviewed this month in the UN Security Council, with the UN's ambiguous position on (not) including human rights monitoring in the mission's mandate and on exploitation of natural resources once again coming to the fore.
On (the lack of) human rights monitoring, on April 15 Inner City Press asked UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric:
Inner City Press: there are reports and I wanted to know whether you or MINURSO [United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara] know if they are true of a, quote, Moroccan crackdown on demonstrations in [inaudible] directed at the idea of there being a human rights monitoring mechanism so it…
Spokesman Dujarric: We will ask our colleagues in MINURSO.
But nine hours later, no answer, no information. No monitoring.
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