Under Spain
A member of an influential family in the Reguibat tribe, Khelli Henna was appointed by the Spanish government to head the Sahrawi National Union Party (PUNS) in 1974. The PUNS, which had been created with the approval of the Spanish authorities, was the only legal political party in Spanish Sahara (also in the whole Spain, except the ruling Falange movement) in the 1974-75 period, had been created to counter the territorial claims from neighbours Morocco and Mauritania, as well as the indigenous independence movement headed by the Polisario Front, created in 1973. It initially advocated autonomy for the territory under continued Spanish colonial rule, but, as the Spanish position evolved, the party and its leader, Khelli Henna, started demanding independence "in association" with Spain, proclaiming themselves completely opposed to Moroccan and Mauritanian designs on the territory.
In April 1975, during a press conference in Paris, Ould Rachid stated:
| “ | "If there weren't phosphates, nobody would vindicate the territory. What Morocco seeks is not the Sahrawi welfare, but
the exploitation of phosphates. We want independence, and the circunstance is given that in the future state of Western Sahara there are phospates deposits." |
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—Khelli Henna Ould Rachid. París, April 21, 1975. |
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