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Western Sahara dossier still pending at UN 40 years later
Former Spanish colony not already decolonized, self-determination referendum never been held · Spanish pro-Sahrawi group delivers letter to UN's Ban Ki-moon, blames organization for not doing enough to protect rights of Sahrawis
The Sahrawi question was indeed one that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was faced with -albeit unexpectedly- during his visit to former colonial power Spain over the last week. As Ban visited Segovia, that city's Association of Friends of the Sahrawi People gave a letter to the South Koran diplomat which echoed the claims of the Sahrawi movement, according to local media El Norte de Castilla and Radio Segovia.
The letter recalls that the UN had in 1943 declared Western Sahara to be a non self-governing territory and, therefore, it had to be decolonized. However, Spain did not prevent Morocco from seizing the territory between November 1975 and February 1976, through the occupation of the then-Spanish colony via the Green March.
The text delivered to Ban complains that, faced with those events, the UN turned a blind eye. This opened the door to a 40-year-long era of Moroccan occupation which, pro-Sahrawi activists argue, has brought persecution, torture, killings and exile to many Sahrawis.
The Spanish pro-Sahrawi group asks the UN to promote initiatives to achieve a just and definitive solution in accordance with the Sahrawi people's right to self-determination through a free, democratic and transparent referendum, as a final step of the decolonization process.
Bofre that day, the letter says the UN should demand from Morocco the immediate release of Sahrawi political prisoners. International observers should be allowed free access to the territory, and the wall separating the Moroccan-controlled areas from the Polisario Front-controlled regions -which are mostly desert areas- should be dismantled.
In order to carry out this mission, the pro-Sahrawi group suggests the UN put in place an operation similar to the UN Transitional Administration for East Timor, which was invested with broad powers to effectively decolonize the Indonesian-occupied former Portuguese colony.