A split vote on a mandate renewal for a peacekeeping mission is rare. Mission mandates are usually approved unanimously.
An
indigenous Sahrawi woman walks at a refugee camp of Boudjdour in
Tindouf, southern Algeria March 3, 2016.
In a divisive vote, the U.N.
Security Council on Friday extended for a year a peacekeeping mission in
disputed Western Sahara and demanded urgent restoration of its full
functionality after Morocco expelled international civilian staff.
Rabat's
retaliation against the mission, known as MINURSO, came after United
Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon referred to Morocco's 1975
annexation of Western Sahara after colonial power Spain's withdrawal as
an "occupation." The U.N. has said the expulsions have crippled the
mission
The U.S.-drafted resolution asked Ban to
report back within 90 days on whether the mission's functionality had
been restored. It does not threaten any punitive measures against
Morocco if the mission remains understaffed.
Several council members said the resolution should have gone further in demanding the restoration of MINURSO's full strength.
Highlighting
the disappointment at its contents, the text received 10 yes votes,
just one more than the required minimum, along with two against and
three abstentions. Venezuela and Uruguay opposed it, while Russia, New
Zealand and Angola abstained.
"It should not have
been like this," New Zealand's U.N. Ambassador Gerard van Bohemen told
the 15-nation council. "The resolution should have stated the reality,
that the expulsion of the civilian component has seriously compromised
the mission and its ability to discharge its mandate."
A split vote on a mandate renewal for a peacekeeping mission is rare. Mission mandates are usually approved unanimously.
U.S.
Ambassador Samantha Power said the weeks of haggling over the wording
of the resolution on MINURSO's extension, one of the council's most
heated annual battles, was even more difficult this time.
"This year's mandate renewal was challenging and contentious," she said. "That is an understatement."
Moroccan U.N. Ambassador Omar Hilale
said Morocco would study the resolution. He did not address reporters'
questions about whether Rabat will accept restoration of full civilian
staffing levels.
"The important thing for us is
that the military component should work well and we have already
committed ourselves to provide them with all their needs," he said.
The
Sahrawi people's Polisario Front independence movement wants a
referendum on the idea of an independent Western Sahara. Morocco has
said it would only grant autonomy. While the resolution does not
explicitly call for a referendum, it "reaffirms" previous resolutions
calling for a plebiscite.
Polisario's U.N. representative Ahmed Boukhari
said the resolution was a "step in the right direction but it is not
enough." He blamed veto power France for preventing the council from
threatening punitive measures against Morocco if it refused to let
MINURSO restore full staffing.
French Ambassador Francois Delattre said the resolution was balanced.
The controversy over Ban's "occupation" comment, made during a visit to
refugee camps for Sahrawi people in southern Algeria, is the worst
dispute between the United Nations and Morocco since 1991, when the
international body brokered a ceasefire to end a war between Rabat and
rebels fighting for independence in Western Sahara. MINURSO was
established at that time.
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