By examining the particular histories of these two cases, the authors also illustrate how these classifications contribute to the different treatment of Somaliland and the SADR by the international community and the AU. [...] During the war, the Siad Barre regime massacred an estimated 200 000 members of the Isaaq clan in what has been described as the ‘Hargeisa Holocaust’.29 Somaliland officials have repeatedly claimed the borders of the former British Somaliland not for colonial nostalgia but to retain a separate entity The US saw the Horn of Africa as a strategic arena from 1945–1990. [...] Furthermore, although the people of Somaliland consented to the union with South Somalia to form the Somali Republic (Somalia), during the procedure of unification the people of the north were not consulted adequately. [...] The following October, the court rendered its opinion, maintaining that ‘historic claims’ to the territory were ‘irrelevant to the issue of self-determination’.58 It further declared that self-determination could only be reached by ‘free and genuine expression’ of the will of the territory’s population.59 Morocco’s response to the ICJ’s ruling was to stage the so-called ‘Green March’ of over 300 0. [...] The Polisario Front, meanwhile, claims the right to self-determination on behalf of the Sahrawi people, who have been relegated to refugee camps in the wake of Morocco’s occupation.82 The accords, however, violate international law since Spain, as the initial colonial authority, was not entitled to transfer authority over the territory.83 In 1963, Western Sahara made the UN list of Non-Self-Govern.
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- South Africa
