The mystery of the Polisario last minute change about the human rights issue during the Malta informal negotiations, was finally unveiled. The front had, nevertheless, itself insisted on putting this point in the agenda of the negotiations on the Western Sahara before being persuaded by the Algerian intelligence services not to do so. The dangerous Algerian DRS, led by the holding appointment for life, the lieutenant general Mohammed Médiène “Taoufik” has in fact taken the Polisario’s guard against the counter-offensive which may have been prepared by the Moroccan delegation about this issue.
The Polisario has thus asked the UN mediator, the American Christopher Ross, to move officially this point from the agenda to allow a “smoother running of debates”. According to sources close to Algiers, the orders given by the DRS to the Polisario were clear: withdraw the examination of the presumed human rights violations so as not to give the opportunity to the Moroccan delegation to highlight the reforms recently introduced in Morocco by King Mohammed VI.
Moreover, the Polisario and Algiers are afraid that the Moroccan delegation tackles the last developments in Libya and the accusations relayed by the Italian press saying that the Polisario provided guerrillas to the guide of the revolution, against payment of undetermined amounts of money, but probably very huge ones, to Mohamed Abdelaziz. Another point which weakens the Polisario position about the human rights issue, is the attitude of the UN Secretary General and the Security Council. In his last report, just before the renewal of the Minurso mandate in 2010, Ban Ki-moon has carefully avoided the human rights issue which has, nevertheless, been the hobby-horse of the Polisario and the Algerian diplomacy in the United Nations.
