Purpose of The Visiting Mission
The mission intended to investigate the political situation in the Spanish Sahara, as well as the conflicting claims to the territory:
- Spain had administered the Spanish Sahara since the Berlin Congress in 1884, but had announced it was pulling out of the territory. A Madrid-backed political party, the Partido de Unión Nacional Saharaui (PUNS), argued for a gradual transition to independence and demanded privileged relations between Spain and a future Western Sahara.
- The Polisario Front, an indigenous anti-colonial organization that was waging a guerrilla war against Spanish forces since 1973, claimed the country for its inhabitants, the Sahrawis, and demanded immediate independence.
- Morocco invoked historical ties between its royal family and the Sahrawi tribes, claiming the territory as its Southern Provinces.
- Mauritania referred to common ethnicity (of Sahrawis and Moors) and historical territorial connections, to claim it as a northern part of the country; Tiris al-Gharbiyya.
- The United Nations had since 1966 demanded that a referendum among the native population should determine the future status of the territory.
Read more about this topic: United Nations Visiting Mission To Spanish Sahara
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