978-1-4222-3430-3

In 1979, Mauritania agreed to side with the Polisario and pull out of Western Sahara. In response, Morocco began building a fortified wall running diagonally through the territory. The Polisario now controls the smaller area south and east of the wall, and Morocco controls the rest. Throughout the 1980s,the Polisario fought a guerrilla war with Moroccan forces. Finally, in 1991, both sides agreed to accept a UN peace plan. The plan called for a cease-fire and a referendum.The referendum would offer the people of Western Sahara a choice between becoming an official province of Morocco and independence. As of 2014, no referendum had taken place in Western Sahara. The difficulty has been in determining who is eligible to vote. After the cease- fire, Morocco began sending settlers into the territory. The question raised is whether these people should be allowed to vote on the future of a region they have lived in for only a short time. Morocco has also ignored the UN’s requests for a referendum, since it claims such a vote would be unnecessary.The United Nations is still working hard to find an acceptable plan for the future of Western Sahara and a resolution to the conflicts between Morocco and the Polisario. In April 2014,the Security Council reaffirmed all its previous resolutions on Western Sahara and reiterated its call for all parties and neighboring states to find an acceptable solution to the decades-old problem. * * * Clearly, the process of decolonization is not always simple. People and nations often have very different views as to the best future for a territory. These differences of opinion can lead to violence and also contribute to the unique situations facing each of the Non-Self-Governing Territories on their way to self-determination.

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United Nations