I've long hated Ban Ki-moon. Let me think, now: "hate"? Yes, that's the right word. His sanctimoniously pious posturing, always "deploring" this and "denouncing" that. There's not a trendy lefty cause that he doesn't poke his prissy voice in.
Now, Ahmed Charai in the WSJ, tears Ban apart for "incompetence and malfeasance" that "have set back efforts to broker a resolution to a long dispute in the Sahara [Morocco]". Snip:
After Mr. Ban's "occupation" remarks, Moroccan Saharans took to the streets of the southern provincial capital of Laayoune. Some 180,000 people marched in peaceful protest to the headquarters of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum of the Western Sahara (Minurso). The government denounced Mr. Ban's actions and announced plans to reduce Minurso staff and pull Moroccan peacekeepers out of U.N. missions world-wide. According to a U.N. statement, Mr. Ban "expressed his deep disappointment and anger regarding the demonstration" saying it was "disrespectful to him and to the United Nations." This was a remarkable condemnation of a peaceful protest.By stoking passions instead of acting as a peacemaker, Mr. Ban has undermined the credibility of the institution which Moroccans had accepted as a venue for peace talks, and in which they had placed their hopes. He has also further exposed his habitual betrayal of the U.N.'s founding charter.
Mr. Charai, the publisher of the Moroccan news magazine L'Observateur, is on the board of directors of the Atlantic Council and an international councilor of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
