Arguably the world's longest-held prisoners of war went home last week.

The Polisario Front, an armed liberation movement that has fought Morocco for the past 30 years over territory known as Western Sahara, on Thursday released the 404 Moroccan prisoners it held - in some cases, for as long as 20 years.

Polisario leader Mohammed Abdelazziz said that the release signaled "a humanitarian approach" that he hoped would be matched by Morocco. That sentiment was echoed by the Bush administration, which sent US Sen. Richard Lugar (R) of Indiana to oversee the release.

But Morocco, though welcoming the release, downplayed the gesture as conciliatory. The country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the act did not "hide the stubbornness" of the Polisario, since it "conditions this liberation on the political settlement of an artificially created conflict."

This desert region has been controlled by Morocco since 1975. For the Saharawi people, it is their home, a place for which the Polisario Front has fought for decades. For the Moroccans, however, Western Sahara - the "southern provinces," as the government prefers to call the area - is an integral part of their national territory.

Western Sahara became a source of contention in the mid-1970s, when Spain officially ceded sovereignty of the territory, and the Polisario Front sought to secure the land as an independent state for the Saharawi people. Although the International Court of Justice had established the Saharawi's right to self-determination, Morocco sent a massive force to occupy Western Sahara in 1975, initiating a war with the Polisario.

In 1991, the United Nations brokered a cease-fire - the terms of which required a self-determination referendum for Western Sahara - and installed a peacekeeping force, called MINURSO. After political wrangling delayed the referendum, UN special envoy James Baker attempted in 1997 to negotiate a solution. But his efforts failed when Morocco rejected the plan in 2003.

Today, Moroccan officials profess willingness to discuss a solution to the 30-year conflict, but they refuse to negotiate an open referendum. Laayoune councilman Moulay Ould Errachid backs a federalist approach to the problem, one that would allow greater autonomy to Western Sahara. "But," he says, "we will not debate Moroccan sovereignty with anyone."

Morocco's refusal to hold the referendum is, for Brahim Gali, the Polisario's representative in Spain, a violation of international law and a clear indication that Morocco fears such a vote.

"We don't know if a majority of Saharawi would vote for independence," says Mr. Gali, "but we're not afraid of elections. The one who is afraid is the one who won't let the vote go forward."

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