The Saharan people had suffered in refugee camps under foreign rule for almost 30 years.

Because they have an entire economic system that's dependent on that oil foreign oil, oil from other parts of the world that they don't own.

In its action against colonialism, the United Nations had adopted various texts, including the Millennium Declaration, in which Heads of State or Government reaffirmed the sovereign equality of all States, respect for their territorial integrity and political independence, and the right to self determination of peoples which remained under colonial domination or foreign occupation.