Moroccan King Attends Prayers in Disputed Western Sahara
Morocco's King Mohamed VI attended weekly Friday prayers during a rare visit to Western Sahara, official media reported, ahead of a U.N. vote on the disputed territory.
MAP news agency said the king attended the prayers alongside the visiting interior minister of the Ivory Coast, Hamed Bakayoko.
Mohamed's visit to the city of Dakhla comes ahead of an April 23 U.N. Security Council vote to renew the mandate of peacekeepers in Western Sahara, which was annexed by Morocco in the 1970s.
Rights groups have been pressing the United Nations to task the peacekeepers with human rights monitoring, echoing calls made by the United States last year which were rejected by Rabat.
Earlier this month the king warned U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon of "perilous options" in the Western Sahara, saying the U.N. role there should remain unchanged.
Mohamed's warning came after Ban called for "sustained, independent and impartial" monitoring of human rights in Western Sahara in a report released to the Security Council on April 10.
Morocco annexed the former Spanish colony in the late 1970s but has come under mounting fire from rights organizations over its record in the 90 percent of the territory it controls.
Ban in his report noted steps taken by Morocco to improve the situation in the disputed territory and also welcomed the pro-independence Polisario Front's stated willingness to cooperate with U.N. human rights bodies.
Morocco has proposed wide autonomy for the disputed territory under its sovereignty, but this is rejected by the Polisario, which has campaigned for independence since 1973 and insists on the right of the Sahrawi people to determine their own future in a U.N.-monitored referendum.
Mohamed's visit to Dakhla was the first by the king in years to the Western Sahara. No official details were available on his program, and several sources insisted it was a private trip.
Source: Agence France Presse
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