Esta entrada también está disponible en:
Español (Spanish) 
Português (Portuguese (Portugal)) 
Deutsch (German) 
Français (French)
Por Isabel Lourenço – PUSL.- Staffan de Mistura, personal envoy of the Secretary General of the United Nations was on an “organised visit” by the occupier Morocco to the occupied territories of Western Sahara.
This lightning visit, which began on 4 September in El Aaiun, the occupied capital of Western Sahara, was made possible after several refusals by Morocco. And yet this visit lacks any objectivity since it was organised by the occupying power with a well-planned agenda and without any prior announcement in order to avoid demonstrations by the Saharawi population organised in time.
However, there have been several attempts at peaceful demonstrations which have been brutally dismantled by the occupying authorities and there have also been arrests and disappearances of Saharawi activists and young people.
According to the Spanish news agency EFE, “The UN envoy then continued his journey to the city of Dakhla, also in Western Sahara, although it is not known who he met, since his schedule is kept secret.”
Can the Saharawis still trust the promises of the United Nations?
Since taking office in 2021, Morocco has repeatedly refused to authorise the visit of the UN Secretary-General’s personal envoy to Western Sahara, because Morocco wanted to impose on him the places he should go and the people he should meet in the occupied territories. It had already done the same with envoy Christopher Ross, which clearly demonstrates the excessive indulgence of the United Nations in the face of the intransigence and manoeuvres of the Moroccan occupation regime.
The personal envoy had to wait two years to enter Western Sahara, no doubt with the help of the United States, keen to reengage in the region.
The United Nations only officially announced Staffan De Mistura’s visit when he arrived in El Aaiun, the occupied capital, on 4 September 2023.
In addition to the military and media siege imposed on the occupied territories of Western Sahara, and in order to anticipate the visit, the Moroccan authorities mobilised their intelligence services throughout the city. Saharawi activists and peaceful demonstrators were kept under close surveillance, harassed in the streets of the city and beaten up, with the aim of intimidating them and preventing them from approaching or talking to the UN Secretary-General’s personal envoy to Western Sahara.
Unfortunately, all this took place under the passive gaze of MINURSO (United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara), and in the presence of UN envoy Staffan De Mistura, who was visiting Aaiun.
Despite the media silence surrounding the visit, Staffan de Mistura was able to hold an initial two-hour meeting with Saharawi personalities and associations, who informed him of the real situation experienced by the Saharawi people under Moroccan occupation, after 32 years of waiting for the United Nations’ promises to organise a referendum on self-determination.
We recall that the same happened during the visit of the last personal envoy Horst Koehler who also took note of what he was told in a similar meeting with Saharawis but which was then totally ignored in his report, as well as the ferocious repression of the Saharawis during his visit in June 2018.
These visits can be assessed as a well-rehearsed and prepared theatre with the right sets and hired extras and actors, since Morocco then schedules meetings with “tribal representatives” and “successful businessmen” to sell the idea of a wonderful territory full of opportunities and development, as if the efficient exploitation of resources that don’t belong to them and the construction of infrastructure for Moroccan settlers justifies the occupation and violence against the Sahrawis.
The US intervention, the situation in Africa and the realignment of forces at global level
Interestingly, this visit coincides with the visit to Rabat on 7 September 2023 by Assistant Secretary for North Africa Joshua Harris and US Ambassador Puneet Talwar, who met with Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita.
Harris underlined US appreciation for Morocco’s crucial efforts on a wide range of regional and global challenges, including resolving instability in the Sahel, supporting elections in Libya and promoting equal measures of freedom, security and prosperity for Israelis and Palestinians.
Harris reviewed his recent regional travels, affirmed full US support for UN Secretary-General Staffan de Mistura’s Personal Envoy, and discussed the importance of engaging with the Personal Envoy in a spirit of realism and compromise, as he intensifies efforts to achieve a lasting and dignified political solution for Western Sahara, and also reaffirmed that the United States continues to regard the Moroccan autonomy plan as serious, credible and realistic, and a potential approach to fulfil the aspirations of the people of Western Sahara, according to a statement published on the official website of the US embassy in Rabat (https://ma.usembassy.gov/deputy-assistant-secretary-harris-affirms-enduring-partnershipand-support-for-un-political-process-for-western-sahara-with-foreign-minister-bourita/).
However, EFE reports that “The United States recalled in Rabat that Morocco’s autonomy plan for Western Sahara is not the only proposal on the table, but just another “potential approach” to finding a way out of the conflict. Washington expressed its “full support” for the visit of the UN envoy for Western Sahara, Staffan de Mistura, to the territory this week.”
This statement reveals a subtle change in the language of the US, which obviously does not want to alienate Morocco, an important ally in the various wars provoked and maintained by the US, but which is aware that the situation in the Sahel and Francophone Africa is explosive and that it will have to review its position in support of France (Morocco’s sister ally).
The current situation in Africa, with coups in several countries and changes in attitude towards the neo-colonial economist and exploitative power, as well as new alliances with countries outside the continent that are not former colonisers, must be evaluated in all US actions and relations if it wants to continue its presence in Africa.
The US, which has shown how it can abandon potential allies without any prior warning, as was the case with Germany and France in recent weeks, defends only the interests of its oligarchic machine, rarely taking into account the warnings of the US military. The economic interests of the 1% of their population are above everything and everyone else.
We’ll see what happens next, never forgetting that the US has several conflict fronts open at the same time, that the realignment of forces at global level is a fact and that the US foreign debt is in the hands of China.
Security Council and Western Sahara
Will Staffan de Mistura include in his report the real situation of the Saharawi people and the fact that Morocco, in addition to extreme violence and apartheid, also uses drones to kill civilians? Could this have been taken into account and reflected in the UN Secretary General’s report and in the Security Council resolution next October?
Since the 1991 ceasefire, the UN has never taken good decisions. The UN has not given the necessary guarantees for the implementation of the peace plan, nor the means to force Morocco to respect it, international law is ignored and if the Saharawi people wait for the United Nations, which from time to time sends a “personal envoy of the SG” like a carrot in front of a donkey, the situation will only become more explosive.
Will the Security Council, or rather the 5 permanent members (USA, France, UK, Russia and China) have the courage to change this situation and put an end to the massacre and slow genocide of the Saharawi people?
