United Nations, March 23 (RHC)-- The United Nations has convened a new round of talks between the Kingdom of Morocco and the Western Saharan liberation movement known as the Polisario Front, aimed at resolving the 43-year-old conflict. 

Morocco has occupied Western Sahara since 1975, and no other country on Earth recognizes its sovereignty over the territory.  Thousands of Western Sahara’s indigenous people -- the Sahrawi -- have since been tortured, imprisoned, killed and disappeared while resisting the Moroccan occupation. 

Earlier this week, Moroccan authorities assaulted a peaceful assembly of women in the streets of the Western Saharan capital Laayoune as they demonstrated in favor of a referendum on the status of the territory.