By Lamine Ghanmi RABAT, Jan 31 (Reuters) - The United Nations has pledged to investigate vandalism blamed on its peacekeepers in the disputed Western Sahara where cultural treasures including prehistoric rock engravings have been disfigured by graffiti. Evidence suggests that its troops were responsible for some of the graffiti and a formal inquiry has been launched together with action to prevent further vandalism, said a statement by a U.N. mission in the northwest African territory. Cultural riches of the Western Sahara, where Polisario guerrillas seek its independence from Morocco, include rock engravings depicting animals as well as remains of prehistoric buildings and places of worship buried in the desert. The statement by the U.N. mission, know by its French acronym MINURSO, said it was committed to maintaining the highest standards among peacekeepers but that much of the graffiti had been done by others over many years. A local rights activist said tourists and peacekeepers had caused the damage. "MINURSO's officers as well as European tourists and arts traffickers have squandered the old cultural riches of the region," said Noureddine Dharif, a teacher and rights activist living in Laayoune, Western Sahara's main town. "They either disfigured the paintings with graffiti or removed many of them to be smuggled abroad for sale," he told Reuters by telephone. "Both MINURSO's people and tourists use powerful vehicles to travel on the territory and steal from the ruins," he added POLISARIO PRESSURE The U.N. mission came under pressure from the Polisario and Western archaeologists to put an end to "cultural vandalism" from graffiti in the Western Sahara. It said it had acted after the situation was brought to its attention by the Polisario in mid-2007. U.N. envoy for Western Sahara Julian Harston had apologised to Polisario's representatives early this month for the "unthinking actions of some MINURSO members in the past", the mission's statement said. "Harston ... undertook to investigate the matter further and explore the possibility of remedial damage," it added. Morocco took control of most of Western Sahara in 1975 when colonial power Spain withdrew, prompting a guerrilla war for independence that lasted until 1991 when the United Nations brokered a ceasefire and sent in peacekeepers. The desert territory of 260,000 on Africa's Atlantic coast holds phosphates, rich fisheries and potentially offshore oil. Rabat is trying to persuade Polisario to accept its plan for Western Sahara to be an autonomous part of Morocco. Polisario proposes a referendum among ethnic Sahrawis that includes an option of independence. U.N. peacekeepers in the territory come under the U.N. Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO). (Reporting by Lamine Ghanmi; Editing by Charles Dick)
Secondary school students shout slogans during a protest held in front of a local school in the center of Algiers January 20, 2008. Students demonstrated in major cities across Algeria against ...
