Morocco protests Spain's hostility acts against Moroccan delegation in Seville
Morocco-Spain, Politics, 11/26/2001

The Moroccan government has strongly protested the treatment inflicted on a Moroccan delegation in Seville and the measures adopted against the delegation's 13 members.

Moroccan minister of foreign affairs and cooperation, Mohamed Benaissa, on Saturday held phone talks with his Spanish peer, Joseph Pique, and conveyed him the Moroccan government's "strong protest" following the treatment inflicted on the Moroccan delegation and the measures adopted against the delegation members, a statement by the Moroccan foreign department said Sunday.

The delegation members were first taken for questioning by Spanish security agents, were publicly searched down town before they were firmly invited to immediately quit the Spanish territory, the statement said.

The delegation members, flanked by security agents, were forced to go back to the port of Algesiras aboard their vehicles. All along the road from Seville to Algesiras, Spanish security agents relayed to escort them.

The Spanish security services argued, when taking these various measures, that the presence of the 13 Moroccan nationals in Seville and their nationalist behavior, as they were holding the Moroccan national flag, might harm public order. Morocco rejects such a pretext as thousands of sympathizers of the separatist theses were allowed, just few hours later, to stage a demonstration in Seville, the statement said.

The statement, which recalled that the delegation included four newsmen, namely Abdelaziz Battali from Le Matin du Sahara, Mohamed Bahi from Assahara, Khalil Abdelouahed from Assahifa and Hassan Aarab from Al-Hadath, said these newsmen were prevented from fulfilling their information duty on Spanish soil, that is yet open, without any restrain, to the opponents of Morocco's territorial integrity.

The Moroccan government strongly protests this unfriendly measure that is contrary to the ethics of the profession, whose rights are violated when it is question of Moroccan journalists.

"This is an act of blatant, unjustified and unjustifiable hostility vis-a-vis Morocco and the whole Moroccan people," the statement said adding that Benaissa informed Pique that the Moroccan government will examine, the soonest possible, this situation in order to adopt, of need be, the required measures and decisions.

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