Moroccans hold symbolic rally in islet after Spain's pullout
Morocco-Spain, Politics, 7/23/2002

Several Moroccan non-governmental organizations have staged a symbolic rally on Sunday in the village of Jbel Moussa, which sits between the Mediterranean Islet of Tourah/Leila (less than 200 meters from the Moroccan coast) and Sebta (a Moroccan northern city still under Spanish rule) to mark the Spanish soldiers' pullout from the islet.

The members of several political, media, attorneys and youth organizations who traveled to the region aboard chartered buses and private cars chanted slogans denouncing the Spanish occupation and waved banners calling Spanish and international peace-loving forces to support Morocco's legitimate rights over its territorial waters, if the Mediterranean basin is to live in peace, solidarity and tolerance.

The wisdom and perspicacity demonstrated by Morocco have likewise been held as an attitude that produced to the whole world evidence that Morocco is a country that favors peace, international legality, dialogue and good neighborliness.

The participants in the rally further hailed the Moroccan attitude which, from the outbreak of the crisis when Spain sent an armada to the islet, upheld dialogue as the best solution to overcome obstacles and defuse divergences between the two Mediterranean countries on the basis of their privileged ties, history and shared interests.

The departure of Spanish soldiers from the Islet on Saturday was cheerfully witnessed by inhabitants of the small village who chanted slogans and the national anthem, perched on a hilltop overlooking the islet.

Women launched you-yous as the Spanish forces lowered the flags under a US-sponsored agreement which had Spain pull out troops it sent there on July 17 to drive out six Moroccan security agents sent by Morocco on a mere policing operation to control drug trafficking, illegal immigration and international terrorism in the strait of Gibraltar.

Previous Stories:
  Spain should reconsider relations with Morocco, Spanish official   (7/22/2002)
  Update: Spanish forces withdraw from Morocco's island   (7/20/2002)
  Morocco says islet still occupied by Spain   (7/20/2002)

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