the Stealing of Western sahara

Hello friends.
today, I recomend you to read a very good article for understanding the real origen of the problem and why are now on so bad situation. Note that the data are from 1976, and now there is much more habitans.
I leave here the introduction and then the links for get the article because is quite long.
Not only Marocco and spain are the responsibles for our situation, also United State and France are very big responsibles, they always say that they are defending the human rights in the world, but for us there is no Human Rights, not respect for allow us to make a referendum for deciding our future.
OK, Y paste the introduction and below the links.
Thank you


THE STEALING OF THE SAHARA
By Thomas M. Franck *
INTRODUCTION
The Western—or, until now, Spanish—Sahara is a small place, its de¬colonization and the fortunes of its mere 75,000 inhabitants do not attract instant or prolonged public attention. Nevertheless, or, perhaps, in part for that very reason, the disposition of the Sahara case by the United Nations has been monumentally mishandled, creating a precedent with a potential for future mischief out of all proportion to 'the importance of the territory.
The "settlement" of the Saharan issue in favor of Morocco's claim of historic title and the denial of self-determination to the Sahrawi people radically departs from the norms of decolonization established and con¬sistently applied by the United Nations since 1960. This is bound to have an important significance for numerous other irredentist territorial claims such as those of Guatemala on Belize,1 Somalia on Djibouti,2 and Argentina on the Falkland Islands.3 Even as Morocco and Mauritania solidified their hold on the Sahara in February 1976, Marshal Idi Amin of Uganda laid claim to large parts of Kenya and the Sudan on the basis of tribal affinity and history.4 In due course, an Arab Palestine will almost certainly ad¬vance territorial claims against Israel. Indeed it may not be long before Morocco renews its quiescent designs on its partner, Mauritania.5 The
0 Of the Board of Editors. Part of this study was underaken by the author in his
capacity as Director of the International Law Program of the Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace, although the views expressed are his own. The author wishes to
thank Mr. Paul Hoffman, his research assistant at Carnegie, for invaluable assistance.
1 For a recent summary of UN consideration of the Belize case, see The Report of
the Special Committee on the Situation "With Regard to the Implementation of the
Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, UN
Doc. A/10023/Add.8 (Part III), at 15-29 (1975).
2 The London Times has noted that "if the French withdraw completely, it seems
certain that Somalia, on the model of Morocco in Spanish Sahara, will seize it during
the ensuing troubles between the Issa and Afar factions." The Times (London),
Feb. 8, 1976, at 15 (editorial). For a recent summary of UN consideration of this
issue, see The Report of the Special Committee on the Situation With Regard to the
Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Coun¬
tries and Peoples, UN Doc. A/10023/Add.6 (Part II) (1975).
3 Supra note 1, at 3-14.
^The Times (London), Feb. 17, 1976, at 7; id, Feb. 20, 1976, at 6; id. Feb. 25, 1976, at 7.
5 Morocco long opposed the independence of Mauritania. In the historic debate on Resolution 15I4(XV) Morocco accused the French of attempting "to partition Morocco and disrupt its national territorial unity, by setting up an artificial State in the area of Southern Morocco which the colonialists call Mauritania. The population of that area does not even know the word 'Mauritania." If you tell a Bedouin of so-called Mauritania that you are in Mauritania, he will not understand what you are

698 TOE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL LAW [Yol, TO1
readjustment. This paramountcy of contemporary self-determination over historic claims and the alleviation of ancient wrongs is based on two con¬siderations. First, there is the assumption that any other approach would lead to endless conflicts, as modern states found themselves under pressure to join a general reversionary march backward to a status quo ante of uncertain age and validity. Second, it is widely observed that states or even colonies with established boundaries and fixed populations, however unjustly or serendipitously arrived at, soon develop a cohesive logic of then- own that should not be lightly overriden.
It is for these reasons that African states have insisted that each colony, in the final stage of decolonization, must exercise its "right" of self-deter¬mination within the cortanes of established boundaries. Even though, in some cases, this tends to perpetuate certain historic injustices or cultural hardships, it has been recognized that other alternatives are worse. To at¬tempt a wholesale redrawing of the map of Africa on the basis of ancient claims or of tribal links could only lead to chaos, war, and the unraveling of a continent's state system. Africa's post-independence leaders under¬stood that, while there were injustices, they could better be dealt with through functional arrangements between sovereign states such as regional common services and markets, rights of unhindered movement across frontiers, and, perhaps, federations.
So it was at the insistence of the Third World that the landmark UN Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples,19 while proclaiming that "[a]U peoples have the right to self-determination" 20 also warned that "[a]ny attempt aimed at the partial or total disruption of the national unity and the territorial integrity of a country is incompatible with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations."21 The Organization of African Unity has reenforced the rule that territories must exercise their right to self-determination within established colonial boundaries.22 If a territory wishes to join with one or several neighboring states, it should have the right to manifest that preference in the process of decolonization, but it must be the free choice of the majority in that particular colony, and a territory with recognized boundaries may neither be absorbed nor dismembered against the will of its inhabitants.
UN PRACTICE IN IMPLEMENTING THE RULE OF SELF-DETERMINATION WITHIN ESTABLISHED COLONIAL BOUNDARIES
The record of democracy in the new states (or, for that matter, in a majority of the old) would scarcely overjoy Montesquieu or J. S. Mill. In
i9G.A. Res. 1514, 15 GAOR Supp. 16, at 66-67, UN Doc. A/4684 (1966).
20 Id, Art 2.
si Id. Art. 8.
«OAU Assembly AHG/Res. 17(1), Cairo Ordinary Session, 17-21 July 1984. See also The Charter of the Organization of African Unity, Article 3(3), which pledges "respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of each State and for its inalienable right to independent existence."

IS7S] THE STEALING OF THE SAHABA 355
"sleeping dogs of historic title" have tended to be constrained by the inter¬national community's insistence that established boundaries must be re¬spected and can only be changed with the free consent of the people living in each territory. Morocco and Mauritania, by their takeover of the Sahara without the consent of its people, have succeeded in frustrating the application of this norm and have taken the international system a blatant step toward a new set of mutually shared expectations about state behavior—incipient new norms—which are much more likely than their predecessor-rules to be conflict-inducing, even if their outlines are as yet dimly perceived.
The precedent is destabilizing in another, broader, way. The successful Moroccan-Mauritanian use of force to take control of the Western Sahara has strengthened the tendency of Third World states to pursue their na¬tional interest with military self-assertion rather than law and diplomacy, Nothing in international relations succeeds like success and in both Angola and the Sahara the use of force has been shown to work without significant opposition from the rest of the international community. These African events have had their echo in Asia with the Indonesian occupation of East Timor, another place where historic, geographic, and ethnic claims were asserted out of the barrels of rifles.8 To the extent that this lesson is taken to heart, it makes the world an increasingly dangerous place—a considera¬tion compounded by the Third World's leap into sophisticated weaponry.
The disposition of the Sahara case has already had a dramatic effect on world order, Some 80,000 Sahrawis have become refugees,7 creating great hardships as well as a severe strain on the facilities and budget of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. There has been active fighting involving the Algerian-supported Sahrawi liberation movement POLIS All! 3 (Frente Popular para la Liberation de Saguia el ilamra y Rio de Oro), with the Mauritanian Government reporting a two-day battle with heavy casualties in April 1978,8 two months after the Sahara had formally been "pacified" by the Moroccan and Mauritanian armies. Within the Organization of African Unity, the issue has been intensely divisive. Its political com¬mittee in February recommended support for the liberation forces, thereby provoking Morocco and Mauritania to threaten a walkout.0 Although the split was temporarily averted,10 Algeria and others have unilaterally recog¬nized a Saharan government-in-exile and Rabat and Nouakchott thereupon severed diplomatic relations with Algiers.11 It will not be long before other states are compelled to choose sides.12
talking about." 15 GAOR 947, at 1271 (1960) (remarks of Mr. Ben Aboud, Rep¬resentative of Morocco).
*It is estimated that nearly 80,000 Timorese have been killed in the course of the territory's decolonization. N.Y. Times, Feb. 15, 1976, at 11.
7The Times (London), April 2, 1976, at 7.
8 N.Y. Post, April 28, 1976, at 17.
9 N.Y, Times, Feb. 27, 1976, at 3,
'•o Id. March 1, 1976, at 3.
«Id. Feb. 28, 1978, at 6; id. March 8, 1976, at 7.
http://saharaoccidental.blogspot.com/2008/11/historical-document-documento-historico.html

URL of the docs in pdf:
The Stealing...
http://arso.org/TMFranck1976e.pdf

El Robo....
http://arso.org/TMFranck1976s.pdf