Which Country?

I have 11 stamps from this set. Below is one image I found on the net. I found this information on the country that it came from.

"This stamp is from the "Arab Republic of Western Sahara", which has the initials RASD in Spanish. This area was formerly known as Spanish West Sahara, and was originally intended to receive its independence by being divided between Morocco and Mauritania (see a map of northwest Africa), but the Arabic population objected, and the whole matter went to the United Nations, where it has remained unresolved for about 15 years.

The many RASD "propaganda" issues have no postal validity, and are considered local labels by the philatelic community; they are not listed in the Scott Stamp Catalogs. I think 10c to 25c each is a fair estimate of value."

My question is what country does this set belong in? Spanish Western Sahara or Arab Republic of Western Sahara? Does anyone know if the issue was ever resolved in the United Nations?

It can be considered a Cinderella issue of RASD.

Off topic: The Fenek Fox depicted on the stamp/label you have is autochthonic to the Sahara desert. Until the late seventies it was believed that these foxes never expanded to the east of the Nile river in Egypt. In the late seventies few were seen on the Sinai desert (then Israel, now Egypt) and also to the north - in the Israeli Negev desert (Both Sinai and Negev deserts are located in the South Western corner of Asia and not in Africa).

They are extremely cute, and their ears (which they use as elephants use theirs: to cool their body) give them a very unique look - don't you think?

Maybe off topic, but interesting information nevertheless and a good example of how stamps can expand/encourage learning.

Linns.com has a list of stamp issuing countries, active and inactive (as they put it). Their entry for Spanish Western Saharah says that
From the 1960s, Morocco, Mauritania and Algeria all pressed claims to the area. in 1976, it was divided between Morocco and Mauritania, although a nationalist group, Polisario, declared the area independent and continued to wage guerrilla war against Morocco and Mauritania. In 1980, Mauritania gave up its portion of the area to Morocco. Fighting between Polisario and Morocco continues.

I'm not sure that answer the question!! It soounds like a complicated (and ongoing) issue. Perhaps a letter to the two sides asking them to resolve the situation for the sake of your collection? A novel approach to World Peace...

Now that I have a better line on the issues, thanks to modern_who and Seahorse, it seems as if a letter the United Nations could possible be the way to nail down this perplexing question. Now to find out what dept. to address this to...lol

Donna

I jumped over to the United Nations website and found this on the current issues with the Western Sahara. This still doesn't answer the question of what country, but it gives a better insight to the problems.

I think that I can pst this link now. If not I'm sorry. I won't do it again.
http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/m...ground.shtml

Some culinary focus....

I have my collection under...
Sahara~Occ RASD

I have only 10 Donna,
what issues am I missing please?

Hey Rod,

Here's what you are missing so far that I found:

1) Antelope Oryx dammah (animal)
2) Cercis Siliquastrum (flower)
3) Quercus Ilex (flower)

There were 2 that I noticed that I don't have from the set that you showed. I have 11 in all. Only 8 matched. Could you please let me know what the names of the ones that I am missing are . The 1st one was the 3rd in row one; the 2nd was the 3rd in row two.

Since Scott does not recognize these stamps it will be interesting to find out how many are in this complete set.

Donna

You can find a group of 14 of these stamps on ebay (6 plants, 3 birds, 5 animals):

http://cgi.ebay.com/14-SAHARA-OCC-R...300456761451

Donna,
I search the internet an found a similar question on an other forum. Now i'm at that point it would be call Arab Republic of Western Sahara or Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. But the stamps are fore sure local labels with no postage validity. Not listed in Scott. They are propaganda. The country is recognize by many african countries but not by United Nations.

Looking at Rod222 scan I like those stamps. It's nice to show to a young kid and ask "What's that? and what's that?
Daniel

Thanks 22 crows, and thanks Donna,

I'll attach the two stamps you query, and a map
I use for the area.
On the map "Cabo Bojador" is shown, or Cape Bojador,
I think this cape, although it looks like a pimple,
was the furthest South the early Portuguese sailors
reached before they believed any further and the "seas boiled"

I liked the set because I like stamps that feature Equus Africanus
or the African Wild Ass, which I used to think was a donkey,
but it's a horse .

BTW you can see the postal cancels are actually printed on the stamps.

The Polisario ie Sahara Occ. RASD = Republic Arab Sahara Democratic (English: Democratic Arab Republic of Western Sahara)

You can argue that these stamps are a form of propaganda, but this group/entity has a government, controls real territory & are recognized by a number of nations. The territory is the eastern third of Western Sahara while Morocco controls the remainder.

I went to an atlas online to see how the area is being represented. I found this. As you can see Morocco has taken over all of the Western Sahara that was in question. At least that is the way the atlas recognizes it.
http://www.atlapedia.com/online/map...Africa_W.htm

Rod, It seems as if I am missing a third stamp and that would be the purple background flower one that I saw on the link to the ebay pic that 22crows provided for us.
Again, I have provided the Sunday afternoon question of the week...lol
Donna

Western Sahara is essentially divided into two parts by a long "berm", a sand barrier/wall that stretches the whole length of the territory. It's shown as the red line on this Wikipedia map.

Morocco controls all the territory to the west of the berm and SADR/Polisario controls the territory to the east.