HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK ---------------------------
[Self-determination and the rights of non-contiguous subjugated peoples - e.g., Corsica, Ireland, Canary Islands, Greenland, Diego Garcia, French Guiana, Guam, the Azores, the Malvinas, the Marshall Islands, French Polynesia, the Dutch Antilles - are only raised when NATO wants to bomb and fragment a defenseless non-member.] UK and Spain close to Gibraltar solution Giles Tremlett in Madrid Saturday January 12, 2002 The Guardian Britain and Spain have found a potential solution to their 300-year-old row over who owns Gibraltar, through the simple procedure of sharing it indefinitely, it was reported yesterday. Although neither Britain nor Spain was officially prepared to confirm the news, both said they believed they were still on track to sign an agreement that would put an end to the row by the summer. Spain's acceptance of an open-ended power sharing deal, reported in Spain's El Pais, would be a big shift from its historic demand for the return of Gibraltar to Spain. Previous potential deals, all unacceptable to the vast majority of Gibraltarians, had always included a fixed period of power sharing followed by a Hong Kong-style handover to Spain. The handover, under a Spanish proposal which has been on the table for a decade, would have happened within 50 to 100 years. The problem with the new solution, which would imitate the co-sovereignty that France and a Spanish archbishop share over the tiny Pyrenean mountain state of Andorra, remained, however, whether the people of Gibraltar could be persuaded to back it. The Foreign Office has explicitly promised that any deal that affects sovereignty would be put to a referendum of the Rock's 30,000 inhabitants. "We want an agreement... that Gibraltarians can be convinced to accept," a spokesman at the British embassy in Madrid said yesterday. Gibraltarians have always fiercely opposed any deal that might give Spain a say in their future. Fifteen years of isolation under General Franco - who sealed the frontier between the Rock and Spain - and more than 20 years of officially sanctioned harassment by Spanish border guards since then have done nothing to dispel the mistrust. Spain took a first timid step towards winning hearts and minds when, at a November meeting between the foreign secretary Jack Straw and the Spanish foreign minister Josep Pique, it agreed to give Gibraltar 100,000 extra phone lines and provide some health services to the people there. Spanish officials said yesterday they were aware any deal would have to be approved by the people of Gibraltar. "Our agreement, however, will be with Britain," a foreign ministry spokesman said. El Pais reported that officials on both sides believed that, even if it was rejected by the Gibraltarians, a deal between the two countries would still amount to significant progress in the dispute, which continues to cause problems in Brussels with Spain blocking some EU legislation because of its impact on Gibraltar. Officials from both sides were meeting yesterday to thrash out the agreement, to be signed by Mr Straw and Mr Pique in the summer. A spokesman at the British embassy said sovereignty was the main item on the agenda. "We always said sovereignty is one of the aspects. It is what it is all about," he said. When Gibraltarians last voted, in 1967, on whether they wanted to join Spain, 44 people were in favour while 12,138 were against. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Send FREE video emails in Yahoo! Mail! http://promo.yahoo.com/videomail/ ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: [email protected] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
