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Concept
Settlement Plan
Summary
The Settlement Plan was an agreement between the ethnically Saharawi Polisario Front and Morocco on the organization of a referendum, which would constitute an expression of self-determination for the people of Western Sahara, leading either to full independence, or integration with the Kingdom of Morocco. It resulted in a cease-fire which remains effective to this day, and the establishment of the MINURSO peace force to oversee it and to organize the referendum. The referendum never occurred.
The area of Western Sahara is home to the Saharawi people who became Spanish subjects when Spain colonized the area in 1884. The United Nations (UN) became involved with Western Sahara when the UN asked Spain on December 16, 1965, through a General Assembly resolution, to decolonize the former Spanish territory. King Hassan II of Morocco rejected claims of independence for Western Sahara as early as 1975, despite International Court of Justice findings that Morocco did not have legal ties to the area. However, a Moroccan rule of the area can be traced to Islamic expansion in the area, starting with the Midrarid dynasty (823-977 AD). In October 1975, King Hassan ordered an invasion of Western Sahara, and the United States pressured Spain to withdraw.
After Spain withdrew from Western Sahara in 1976, an ongoing dispute began between the former territory and Morocco. In November 1975, Moroccan troops, ordered by King Hassan, lead 350,000 civilians into Western Sahara in order to "seize the territory for Morocco" in the Green March. After the march, Spain divided the territory between Morocco and Mauritania.
The Polisario Front was formed by Saharwi people in 1973. The group started fighting for the independence of Western Sahara. The group has been backed by Algeria. Polisario's fight for independence caused Mauritania to relinquish its claim on Western Sahara in 1978. In August 1979, Mauritania signed a peace agreement with Polisario and when Mauritania withdrew, Morocco took up occupation of that land as well.
Official source
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Related concepts (6)
Green March
The Green March was a strategic mass demonstration in November 1975, coordinated by the Moroccan government and military, to force Spain to hand over the disputed, autonomous semi-metropolitan province of Spanish Sahara to Morocco. At that time, the Spanish government was preparing to abandon the territory as part of the decolonization of Africa, just as it had previously granted independence to Equatorial Guinea in 1968. The Sahrawi people aspired to form an independent state.
Mauritania
Mauritania, officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania (الجمهورية الإسلامية الموريتانية), is a sovereign country in Northwest Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Western Sahara to the north and northwest, Algeria to the northeast, Mali to the east and southeast, and Senegal to the southwest. Mauritania is the 11th-largest country in Africa and the 28th-largest in the world, and 90% of its territory is situated in the Sahara. Most of its population of 4.
United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara
The United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (بعثة الأمم المتحدة لتنظيم استفتاء في الصحراء الغربية; Mission des Nations Unies pour l'Organisation d'un Référendum au Sahara Occidental; Misión de las Naciones Unidas para la Organización de un Referéndum en el Sáhara Occidental; MINURSO) is the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Western Sahara, established in 1991 under United Nations Security Council Resolution 690 as part of the Settlement Plan, which had paved way for a cease-fire in