UN chief disappointed at protest in Morocco

  • 15/03/2016
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (Reuters)
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (Reuters)

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has told Morocco's foreign minister he's angered and disappointed by a demonstration in Rabat that he said was a personal attack on him over remarks he made about the disputed territory of Western Sahara.

Tens of thousands of Moroccans marched through the capital on Sunday (local time) to protest Ban's position on Western Sahara and rally support for the king.

Ban "conveyed his astonishment at the recent statement of the government of Morocco and expressed his deep disappointment and anger regarding the demonstration that was mobilised on Sunday, which targeted him in person", the UN chief's press office said in an unusually tough statement.

"He stressed that such attacks are disrespectful to him and to the United Nations," said the statement, which was issued after he met with Moroccan Foreign Minister Salaheddine Mezouar.

Rabat accused Ban last week of no longer being neutral in the Western Sahara conflict, saying he used the word "occupation" to describe Morocco's presence in the region that has been at the centre of a dispute since 1975.

The UN acknowledges he used the term. Monday's statement said there was a misunderstanding over his use of the word "occupation", noting it was Ban's "personal reaction to the deplorable humanitarian conditions in which the Sahrawi refugees have lived in for far too long".

The UN statement issued on Monday evening said Ban asked Mezouar for "clarification regarding the reported presence of several members of the Moroccan government among the demonstrators".

State news agency MAP said three million people attended Sunday's march, although those figures could not be confirmed.

Some protesters said they were bused for free to the march and that trains had also been free for the day of the rally.

The dispute over the region in the northwest edge of Africa has dragged on since Morocco took control over most of it in 1975 after the withdrawal of former colonial power Spain.

The Polisario Front, which says the territory belongs to ethnic Sahrawis, fought a war against Morocco until a UN-brokered ceasefire in 1991, but the two sides have since been deadlocked.

Polisario, backed by Morocco's regional rival and neighbour Algeria and a number of other African states, wants a referendum promised in the ceasefire agreement on the region's fate.

Morocco says it will not offer more than autonomy for the region, rich in phosphates and possibly offshore oil and gas.

Reuters