The Western-Saharan Spanish Census and The UN

Abstract

There is a country in Africa which has a population, its territory, a capital just like the others but lacks a flag as a sovereign state. It was a Spanish colony for decades, than its neighbours argued over it. Finally, liberators have arrived but failed to bring the much wanted freedom. The author, Major János Besenyő as the professional officer of the Hungarian Army was a UN observer for a long time in Western Sahara, the existing but unrecognized country of Africa. His article helps to get directions in the stormy history of Western Sahara: we get to know the hostility between the French and the Spanish during colonial times, the expansion of the influence of the Madrid government, its applied colonial policy and the obligate withdrawal after which a conflict broke out between Morocco, Mauritania, and the liberators. Beyond historical events we get a picture of Western Sahara’s natural environment, ethnic groups and about the result of a census which is rather significant to settle the dispute.