Portal:Western Sahara
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| Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic-controlled areas ("Free Zone") | |
The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) (Arabic: الجمهورية العربية الصحراوية الديمقراطية al-Jumhūrīyah al-‘Arabīyah aṣ-Ṣaḥrāwīyah ad-Dīmuqrāṭīyah, Spanish: República Árabe Saharaui Democrática) is a partially recognized state that controls a thin strip of area in the Western Sahara region and claims sovereignty over the entire territory of Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony. SADR was proclaimed by the Polisario Front on February 27, 1976, in Bir Lehlou, Western Sahara. The SADR government controls about 20–25% of the territory it claims.[1] It calls the territories under its control the Liberated Territories or the Free Zone. Morocco controls and administers the rest of the disputed territory and calls these lands its Southern Provinces. The SADR government considers the Moroccan-held territory to be occupied territory, while Morocco considers the much smaller SADR-held territory to be a buffer zone.
Western Sahara is the name of a disputed region in northwest Africa. The legal status of the territory and the issue of sovereignty are unresolved; the territory is contested by Morocco and the Polisario Front (Popular Front for the Liberation of the Saguia el Hamra and Rio de Oro), which in February 1976 formally formed a government-in-exile of what it refers to as the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR). The Polisario views the SADR as incorporating the entire territory of Western Sahara, referring to the region controlled by Morocco as the "Occupied Territories" and the remainder, of which it claims control, as the free zone. Morocco also claims the entire territory, which it refers to as its "Southern Provinces". The Moroccan government refers to the Polisario controlled regions as its "buffer zone", claiming these regions as part of Moroccan territory. On the ground the Moroccan controlled zones are physically protected by a series of defensive works constructed by the Moroccan armed forces and manned by an estimate 160,000 Moroccan troops. It is estimated that several thousand Polisario troops are present in the area behind the Moroccan Wall of defense, which they regularly enter. Troop movements of Polisario are regularly subject to severe condemnations by the UN. The government-in-exile of the self-proclaimed SADR is headquartered in the Sahrawi refugee camps in the vicinity of the town of Tindouf in Algeria, situated close to the Algeria-Western Sahara border.
Western Sahara was appropriated by Spain at the Berlin Conference in 1884 along with other provinces that were returned to Morocco (Sidi Ifni and Tarfaya). After the colonial era the Polisario Front has fought guerrilla war against Morocco, and Mauritania for independence of Western Sahara. The war ended in a 1991 UN-brokered cease-fire; a UN-organized referendum on final status has been repeatedly postponed. Today, 50 states, mainly from Africa and Latin America, recognize the SADR as the legitimate government in Western Sahara. It is a member of the African Union, but not the United Nations nor the Arab League. Morocco is considered by the UN and many other countries as the administrative power of Western Sahara, though they don't recognize its sovereignty over it. Several thousand Sahrawis live in refugee camps in Tindouf, Algeria.
Template:/box-header The history of Western Sahara took a new turn in the 14th century, when Arab tribes, the Beni Hassan, first travelled to this region. The society of the Western Sahara survived the invasion. Both Berber and Arab features persist today. The region was still largely organised in tribes when the Spanish arrived in Río de Oro in the late 19th century. Resistance was organised by Morocco and led by the caid of sultan Hassan I Ma al-'Aynayn, but the territory would be cut off from Morocco by Spain and France for colonization at the Berlin Conference in 1884. Today, the region is the last area in Africa to remain on the United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories. Template:/box-footer
- ...that hundreds of Sahrawis remain "disappeared" after years of violent conflict and repression?
- ...the music of Western Sahara has been imported into the United States with a boxed set and an album by the world music record label Nubenegra?
- ...while the president of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic Mohamed Abdelaziz seeks independence for Western Sahara, his father is a member of the Royal Advisory Council for Saharan Affairs, and is defending the Moroccan position?
- List of Western Sahara-related topics
- Culture of Western Sahara
- Djema'a
- Green March
- Madrid Accords
- Border Wall (Western Sahara)
- Politics of Morocco
- Politics of Western Sahara
- Western Saharan cuisine
- The United Nations page for MINURSO.
- A clearing-house of SADR and Polisario-related information in English, French, and Spanish, including several UN and SADR documents.
- CORCAS official English homepage
- The Kingdom of Morocco's official page on the Western Sahara.
- Sahara Press Service, the official press service of the SADR.
- Oxford Refugee Studies Centre's research guide and other resources for the refugee situation.
Template:/box-footer Template:/box-header El-Ouali Mustapha Sayed (c. 1950-1976) was one of the founders of the Polisario Front, an organisation that fights for the independence of Western Sahara. Born in a Sahrawi bedouin family, Mustapha became interested in the politics of Western Sahara when he met other Sahrawi students at the universities in Morocco. El-Ouali became a member of the communist party of Morocco[citation needed] and received a military training in Gadaffi's Libya[citation needed]. In 1970 he participate in Sahrawi demonstrations in Tan Tan, being detained and tortured. He then organized the predecessor of the POLISARIO, the "Embryonic Movement for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Río de Oro" in 1971. In addition to being the Secretary-General of the POLISARIO, he became the first President of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic in 1976. On June 9 of that year, he was killed in combat, fighting in Nouakchott, Mauritania's capital. Template:/box-footer
Template:/box-header "Whoever is afraid of the referendum, is afraid of the truth" - Xanana Gusmão, first President of East Timor [1] Template:/box-footer
- List of Western Sahara-related topics
- List of active autonomist and secessionist movements
- List of cities in Western Sahara
- List of conflicts in the Maghreb
- List of territorial disputes
- List of political parties in Western Sahara
- List of Spanish colonial wars in Morocco
- List of stateless ethnic groups
- United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories
- Wikipedia:WikiProject Western Sahara
- Wikipedia:WikiProject Countering systemic bias
- Wikipedia:WikiProject International law
- Wikipedia:WikiProject Unrecognized countries
Template:/box-header Help expand this list on the Western Sahara WikiProject Template:/box-footer
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