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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Western Sahara: Victim of King Hassan's Expansionist Policy |
Author: | Saxena, S.C. |
Year: | 1993 |
Periodical: | Indian Journal of African Studies |
Volume: | 6 |
Issue: | 2 |
Period: | October |
Pages: | 19-39 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Western Sahara |
Subjects: | national liberation movements international politics history 1950-1999 colonialism Politics and Government Inter-African Relations |
Abstract: | This article outlines the history of Western Sahara, covering the UN recognition of the right of the Saharawi people to self-determination in the 1960s; the failure of Spain, the colonial power, to carry out its obligations in regard to the territory's decolonization; the expansionist designs of Morocco and Mauritania; the report of the UN Visiting Mission of June 1975; the Green March organized by King Hassan on 6 November 1975; the tripartite secret negotiations between Spain, Mauritania and Morocco which culminated in the signing of the Madrid Accord on 14 November 1975, dividing Western Sahara between Morocco and Mauritania and enabling Spain to retain 35 percent royalty from the Bou Craa phosphate mines; the armed struggle by the Polisario Front; King Hassan's proposal for a referendum at the OAU summit in Nairobi in June 1981, intended to thwart the admission of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) to the OAU; the joint UN-OAU Settlement Proposals approved by Morocco and the Polisario Front in 1988; the deadlock over the identification of Saharawis entitled to vote in the proposed referendum; the criteria for eligibility; the compromise formula and the remaining differences between the two parties; and renewed attempts by Morocco to scuttle the referendum process. The West could do a lot to pressurize King Hassan and force him to remove the hurdles in the way of a UN-supervised referendum in Western Sahara. Unfortunately, however, the problem of Western Sahara does not appear to be high on the West's list of priorities. Note, ref. |