Elon Musk is not known for keeping a low profile. In the last week, he proposed on Twitter that a referendum be held in the four disputed provinces of the Ukraine, under UN supervision, to determine the future of the people and hopefully end the war. As expected, the reaction was quick and emotional. Pro-Kremlin twits pointed out that recent (2012?) elections showed pro-Russia parties winning majorities, and anti-Russia twits pointed out the overwhelming anti-Russia vote as the Soviet Union crumbled. 

I served as an observer for the then Organization for Africa Union (OAU) to the Western Sahara, where a referendum was to be held and again traversed this sad region in 2011. A short history: The Spanish Colony of Western Sahara covered a vast and undeveloped region somewhere between Algeria, Morocco, and Mauritania. Spain decided to cut its expenses to a region that had little to offer and to hand control to the local population. To settle disputes between the various claimants, the International Court of Justice heard claims from Morocco, Mauritania, and Algeria but decided that these claims were not proven and so awarded the people in the area the right to self-determination. 

A civil war ensued, and Morocco took control over most of the territory at the cost of its relations with its neighbors and members of the then OAU, which had enshrined the right to self-determination of peoples in its Charter. In 1994 the Summit of the OAU reached an agreement with Morocco on a referendum under United Nations supervision, based on the 1973 Spanish census, to determine what the inhabitants of the region wanted. This implied having local sheiks identify the potential participants in the referendum and their descendants. Some biblical scenes ensued. I well remember watching the stars, bright as gems, on a desert night at a refugee camp of 20 000 people in the Sahara, with the thermometer at 113 degrees Fahrenheit at midnight. The camp and refugees are still there today, thirty years later. 

Morocco was only in 2017 admitted to the African Union, where the Western Sahara enjoys membership, and has been making diplomatic progress towards being recognized as legitimate overlord of this region. The African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, however, last month ruled against the  illegal occupation of Western Sahara by Moroccan military forces. 

The issue is simple: Can the King of Morocco decide to subject people to his rule and enforce that decision by military right? On the same principle, can Russia, by militarily seizing four provinces of Ukraine and holding a referendum, claim its loyalty? 

Political self-determination of peoples is enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations and should be sacrosanct. Any attempt to subject people without their consent threatens the very foundation of our political system.

Mr. Musk may agree that self-determination and democracy are good for business.