Laura Secorun Palet,  OZY,  4 April 2016

Because they are out of sight, but they shouldn’t be out of mind. Imagine you have to live in the exact same place for 40 years. And now picture that place is a settlement made of mud in the middle of the desert, surrounded only by vast stretches of dusty nothingness. That’s how the people of Western Sahara live.
Forty years ago, the Saharawis went to war with Morocco, who had annexed Western Sahara into their kingdom against their will….(cont.)

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Photo credit: UN Photo.Evan Schneider

Nick Scott, External Relations Officer at Independent Diplomat
Huffington Post, 31 March 2016

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s first ever trip to Western Sahara has sparked a furious reaction from the Moroccan government.

Nick Scott’s hard-hitting article explores why the Security Council has failed to seriously grapple with the conflict over the past quarter century and points out that the Moroccan reaction to challenges over Western Sahara is always aggressive, both publicly and behind the scenes. Morocco often gets its way simply because it’s willing to raise the stakes when others are inclined to back down in order to reduce tensions…(cont.)

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UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon

Foreign Policy In Focus, March 28, 2016

Anna Theofilopoulou writes
“The peace process has just suffered the latest of many setbacks. This time, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon undertook an ill-advised visit to North Africa, which did not include Morocco, the key player in the conflict. Instead of energizing the stalled talks over Western Sahara as he intended, the secretary-general’s visit likely put them in a deep freeze until his successor takes office….(cont.

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Edith Lederer, US Federal News Radio,  March 23, 2016 7:57 pm

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — A U.N. official warned Wednesday that the U.N. peacekeeping mission in the disputed Western Sahara will have to shut down unless Morocco reverses its unprecedented expulsion order.
The official, who is familiar with the latest controversy over Western Sahara, said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon wants the Security Council to take action to protect the U.N. peacekeeping mission known as MINURSO….(cont.)

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Daily Press Briefing by the Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General, 23 March 2016

“Western Sahara:  First off:  an update on Western Sahara.

We have sent a note verbale to Morocco’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, in reply to the note verbale sent by the Government of Morocco on 16 March.
The note makes clear that we are deeply concerned that the recent actions taken by the Government of Morocco are contrary to Morocco’s legal obligations as agreed under the Status of Mission Agreement for the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO).  That agreement includes a legal obligation for Morocco to ensure ….(cont.) ”

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By Louis Charbonneau, Reuters, Canada

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The United Nations Security Council must act to ensure Morocco’s decision to expel personnel from a U.N. peacekeeping mission in the disputed territory of Western Sahara does not set a bad precedent for other missions, a U.N. official said on Wednesday.
The controversy over U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s use of the word “occupation” ….(cont.)

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Business Standard, 18 March 2016

Morocco has ordered 84 international staff members in the UN peacekeeping mission for Western Sahara to leave within three days, in protest at recent comments by the UN secretary-general about the disputed territory. The UN called the move “unprecedented.”

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By Edith Lederer,  Associated Press
UNITED NATIONS — Mar 24, 2016

The U.N. Security Council announced its support for the U.N. peacekeeping mission in the disputed Western Sahara late Thursday, calling for the controversy between Morocco and the U.N. secretary-general to be addressed so the mission can resume full operation.

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