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Interview with Hany Abdel-Aziz
Special Representative of the Secretary-General to MINURSO
The United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara
not be ignored, namely Algeria and
Mr Abdel-Aziz has a long and
Mauritania.
distinguished career in the UN:
he has been the Director of The political role in this mission is main-
Mission Support of the United ly the concern of the Personal Envoy of
Nations Mission in the Congo the Secretary-General, who some time
(MONUC); Chief of Staff of the ago was James Baker III. It was then the
Joint UN/AU Mediation Sup- responsibility of several other persons,
port Team for Darfur (JMST); and at present it's the American ambas-
Chief Administration Officer sador Christopher Ross. The political is-
of the United Nations Mission sue is totally in his hands, and that is a
Q: You are the Special Representa- major difference between this and other
in Chad; Chief, Administrative
tive of the Secretary-General to the missions. This division of labour works
Services Division of the United
Peacekeeping Mission in Western very well.
Nations Economic and Social
Sahara. Could you tell us about
Commission for Western Asia in
your work? Q: Since you arrived in MINURSO,
Beirut/Lebanon (ESCWA); Chief,
what do you consider to be your
Publishing Service at UNOG;
The work of the Special Representative main achievements?
Chief, Central Support Services of the Secretary-General (RSG) for this
at the United Nations Office in mission is in a sense very particular. By The monitoring of the ceasefire is going
Geneva; Chief Administrative the terms of the Security Council Resolu- very well. There are new elements in this
Officer in the United Nations tion, it has only some of the attributes of sub-region due to what is happening in
Humanitarian Mission in Iraq an RSG, but at the same time it is reques- the Middle East and North Africa, like
(UNOCHI) and of the United ted to cover as wide a range of functions the increase of terrorist activities and the
Nations Mission in the Central and attributes as any other peacekeeping spread of small arms from North Africa
African Republic (MINURCA); mission. This mission resembles more towards the Sahel, which is adjacent to
Head of Civil Affairs for Sara- the first generation of peacekeeping Western Sahara. In the Sahel you have a
missions, like those in the Middle East. multitude of groups, non-groups, AQIM
jevo (UNMIBH); and from 1993
(Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb) and
to 1996 Senior Political Adviser
Q: What does this mean exactly? non-AQIM, criminal groups, and all of
and second in command of the
these have links -- as everybody knows.
UN political office in Burundi.
It means that the core functions are es- They represent a sub-regional threat,
sentially the monitoring of the ceasefire. especially following what is called the
He took up his assignment in
You can compare this to other more mo- Arab Spring and, in particular, the events
MINURSO almost two years ago dern and complex peacekeeping missions in Libya.
where he is widely respected with different types of components going
for the work he is doing. We had from radio to civil affairs. This makes this Q: Are you worried about the secu-
the exceptional opportunity to mission a little atypical, but still very sen- rity situation?
see the true functioning of a sitive, extremely delicate from all points
peacekeeping mission and how of view and in need of tremendous fi- Yes, I am very worried about the secu-
it works during our recent stay nesse in dealing with the parties concer- rity of our personnel --both civilian and
in Laayoune. Here is our inter- ned. This also concerns the neighbouring military -- but much more about the
view with Mr Abdel-Aziz. Member States who also have a stake in military because they are unarmed and
the situation, and who cannot and should are easy targets in a very empty territory
8 International
