Spanish
Historian: We Have No Right to Leila
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Leila
does not enter into Spanish sovereignty, says de Madariaga.
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LONDON,
July 20 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The crisis between Spain
and Morocco about the islet of Leila off the Moroccan coast is "a
false litigation", wrote the Spanish historian Maria Rose de
Madariaga in the July 17th edition of the Spanish daily newspaper
"El Pais".
The
crisis simply "does not have reason to exist," said De
Madariaga. Perjil - the Spanish name for Leila - does not enter into
Spanish sovereignty, and Morocco has every right to consider it
“freed territory” on the basis that Spain, in 1956, ended its
colonization of the north of the country, including the two enclaves
of Ceuta and Melilla.
De
Madariaga recommended resolving the dispute in a diplomatic way
instead of using force, saying that the more diplomatic of the two
countries is the stronger.
In
his book “Morocco .. The Work of Spain in North Africa”, published
in 1941, another historian, Thomas Vijiras, says: “We have
thoroughly reviewed all agreements struck from March 1, 1699 to
December 29, 1916 between Spain and Morocco and between Spain and
other countries related to Morocco. We have not found a single
reference to Perjil. The Tatwan agreements did not mention the islet
either.”
The
historian further distinguishes between sovereign Spanish enclaves and
other enclaves under Spanish protectorate. Both the French-Moroccan
treaty in 1912 which placed Morocco under the French protectorate, and
the French-Spanish treaty in the same year which granted Spain areas
of influence in the north of Morocco, did not mention Perjil, adds the
historian.
The
London-based pan-Arab newspaper, Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat, reported Friday,
July 19, that Morocco had grown fed up with getting grants then aid in
return for the use of its maritime reserves by virtue of its maritime
agreement with the E.U. Under European pressure, Morocco extended the
treaty to 1996 in return for the E.U.’s cooperation in developing
the Moroccan maritime sector and upgrading Moroccan ports.
The
problem is not the 360 million dirham that Morocco received from
Europe in annual recompense for the use of its fish reserve, the paper
said, but the fact that Spanish boats in particular do not respect the
terms in the agreement which help preserve Moroccan maritime reserves.
Between
150-200 thousand Spaniards, who used to work in the fishing sector in
southern Spain, have become jobless, Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat reported. The
huge annual fish consumption in Spain (30 kg per capita), plus a
strike called by Moroccan fishermen (on whom fish markets in Spain
greatly depend) in April and May 2002 for improving their work
conditions, has created a crisis for the Spanish government. 
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