Morocco exposes Algeria’s ‘double speak’ on MINURSO and human rights
Morocco had expressed its firm rejection of Algeria’s double speak as it desperately seeks to expand the mandate of the UN mission to the Sahara, MINURSO, to include human rights.
Speaking in a public debate at the Security Council, Algeria’s representative to the UN, reiterated his country’s call for the MINURSO to include human rights monitoring, using false statements such as all peacekeeping missions are doing so.
The call came after the Security Council excluded- in a resolution last November- the Algerian proposal while extending the mandate of the MINURSO for another year.
In response to the Algerian representative, Moroccan diplomat Majda Moutchou debunked the claim as fake news, noting that 7 out of 11 UN peacekeeping missions do not include a human rights mandate.
MINURSO has a ceasefire monitoring mission, she said, adding that “the mandate has been clearly defined by the Security Council, and any attempt by the Algerian delegation to distort its role is either misinformed or deliberately misleading.”
She explained that Algeria is not well-placed to raise human rights given the grave violations taking place in the Tindouf camps, where it has kept thousands of Sahrawis under the mercy of a ruthless militia that has been using them as political pawns.
Algeria has often used the issue of self-determination in a bid to unsettle Morocco in vain.
Mrs. Moutchou made it clear that the principle of self-determination cannot be used to undermine the territorial integrity of sovereign states and asked the countries that use this principle to achieve their own narrow foreign policy agendas to apply it at home.
Between the lines, her statement could refer to the plight of the Kabyle people who have been demanding their right to self-determination and independence from the yoke of Algerian occupation and the Cape independence movement in South Africa, a country that has also traded on self-determination.
Algeria had better put pressure on its Polisario proxies to allow the resupply of the MINURSO teamsites, which have encountered obstacles in performing their mission east of the berm. This came in recent UN Secretary General’s reports as an issue that blocks the mission from performing its ceasefire mission.
The recent UN Security Resolutions highlight the need to align the strategic focus of the MINURSO to ceasefire monitoring alone and commended the work of the Moroccan Human Rights Council in the Sahara territory.
Human Rights in Algeria
Algeria cannot hide the sun with a sift. A country with dim human rights records that continues to deny access to independent human rights observers in the country, including in the Polisario Tindouf camps, where abhorrent practices such as slavery, child soldiers, and extrajudicial killings are rampant.
Mary Lawlor, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, expressed disappointment over the continued harassment and criminalization of human rights defenders in Algeria.
The Algerian authorities have shut down several human rights groups, including affiliates of the League for the Defense of Human Rights (LADDH) and other independent organizations. This includes actions against Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International, as Algerian authorities have restricted their activities and presence in the country.
Algeria should rather look itself in the mirror and address the serious rights violations in its territories, including the area in Tindouf it relegated as a rear base to the Polisario separatist militias.