At a news conference in New York on Monday, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon addressed the issues raised by the hunger strike of Western Sahara activist Aminatou Haidar. The relevant excerpts follow:
On Aminatou Haider, did you propose to Morocco any specific steps to find a solution? And also, would you join the High Commissioner for Human Rights' call to respect her right for her to return to her country?
As you know, I had talked with the Foreign Minister of Spain, as well as the Foreign Minister of Morocco the other day on this issue. I believe that this really requires that the United Nations needs to do more on political negotiations.
I am going to discuss with my Personal Envoy, Mr. Christopher Ross, to expedite this political process. I raised this humanitarian situation of Ms. Aminatou Haider, and I have asked them to take special consideration on that issue.
I hope the Foreign Minister of Morocco will discuss this matter within their countries to play a positive and favourable consideration on this issue. At the same time, I will also continue to promote these political negotiations on the Western Sahara issue.
Should Aminatou Haidar go back to Western Sahara? Is this what you asked the Moroccan Foreign Minister for?
My concern is for her health. She has been staging this hunger strike for, by this time, 25 or 26 days, and I am told that her health situation is deteriorating. I expressed my very serious concern about her health. On humanitarian grounds, they should take all possible measures. In that regard, I have offered my willingness to take all necessary measures agreeable to the Moroccan side...
Mr. Secretary-General, it is a question about Madame Haider again. You said you hoped the Moroccan Government takes full consideration. What does it mean? Can you specify more about that? Do you want for Madame Haider to come back to Morocco, to Western Sahara?
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I am not going to discuss all that I discussed with [Foreign] Minister [Taieb El Fassi] Fihri of Morocco.
First of all we need to find a way where Ms. Aminatou Haider could stop her hunger strike, and how to accommodate the situation. This has many complex considerations. That is why, while I tried to address this issue, on this particular hunger strike issue, at the same time we need to see the broader political issues.
Because of these stalled negotiations on the Western Sahara issue, we need to promote further expedited progress in the negotiations. The fifth round of negotiations should start as soon as possible. But we need to create some political confidence among the parties concerned. Mr. Christopher Ross has been traveling and working very hard. The recent consultation which was held in Vienna last August was quite an encouraging one. So we will try to build on that.
On Western Sahara, Mr. Secretary-General, you know there are many people in the camps in Tindouf, and no one knows how many are there and who are there. According to Mr. [António] Guterres when he was in the region lately, Algeria and the Polisario refused that their people be [in a] census. Is there anything, Mr. Secretary-General, you can do to see a census taken in this area? Thank you.
Again, while I am deeply concerned about the situation of refugees in that area, this issue should be addressed in a broader context through negotiations. That is the best way at this time. But I am also working hard to address this particular hunger strike issue, so that we can address all these issues - health conditions, and humanitarian conditions, all these issues.
