The New York Times
by Rick Gladstone
Morocco has asked the United Nations to close a military liaison office in Western Sahara, a spokesman for the organization said on Monday, an indication that an escalating dispute between the Moroccan authorities and Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon over the disputed territory is not abating.
The request came a day after dozens of civilian staff members of a United Nations peacekeeping mission in Morocco that is known by the acronym Minurso left the country under threat of expulsion by the Moroccan authorities, who are furious over comments by Mr. Ban this month describing Western Sahara as occupied.
Morocco has long asserted sovereignty over the vast southern region, where Minurso has been deployed for a quarter-century, helping to monitor a cease-fire between Moroccan forces and the Polisario Front independence group. Longstanding efforts to find a political solution have been frustrated for years.
A United Nations spokesman, Farhan Haq, told reporters that the organization had received a message from Morocco asking the Minurso military liaison office in the coastal city of Dhakla be closed soon. He described the message as Morocco’s “first request targeting the military component” of Minurso.
Moroccan diplomats at the United Nations did not immediately return telephone messages for comment about the request.
The dispute erupted in early March when Mr. Ban visited a camp for Western Saharan people displaced by the conflict, a visit that the Polisario Front regarded as a positive step but that Moroccans viewed with suspicion. The Moroccan authorities said Mr. Ban’s use of the term “occupied” during his visit revealed a lack of diplomatic neutrality, an assertion Mr. Ban rejected. Last Thursday, Morocco gave 84 nonmilitary members of the Minurso operation a 72-hour deadline to leave.
While the deadline was met on Sunday, United Nations officials have expressed anger with Morocco, accusing it of crippling Minurso’s ability to work and disregarding commitments as the host country of a peacekeeping operation. Mr. Haq said the evacuation had come “under duress.”
Members of the United Nations Security Council, which has authority over peacekeeping operations, have been consulting since late last week in attempts to de-escalate the dispute. Mr. Ban also met with Security Council diplomats privately on Monday.
Representatives of the Polisario Front and some United Nations officials have said Minurso’s inability to function could lead to a resumption of armed conflict in Western Sahara, a region roughly the size of Colorado.
