Does anybody know where Western Sahara is?

The image shows a view of Saharawi Dakhla's refugee camp, near Tindouf in southwestern Algeria.

Western Sahara was occupied by Morocco in 1975, starting a war which killed 11.000 people. Saharawi refugees from Western Sahara rarely make it into the news, but for the past 30 years up to 165.000 of them have been living in remote desert camps in Algeria, most of them totally dependent on humanitarian aid.

On December 14-16, 2007, the 12th Congress of the SADR (Saharawi Republic without a land) was held. More than 1,500 Saharawi delegates discussed if resuming armed struggle, pursuing negotiations or starting preparations for the resumption of war while pursuing negotiations at the same time.

Then on January 7-9, 2008, a third round of peace talks (Manhasset III) was held in Manhasset, just outside New York City. UN mediator Peter van Valsum said the parties continued to be far apart on the question of independence. Morocco maintained that its sovereignty over Western Sahara should be recognized and affirmed that independence cannot work as ethnic Sahrawis live in four different countries and a referendum is impossible to stage. The Polisario's position was that the Territory's final status should be decided in a referendum including independence as an option.

In March a fourth round of U.N.-sponsored talks ended without solution.

Someday the newspapers will announce a new war starting and nobody will know who, why and what!!!