-Caveat Lector-
From
http://www.observer.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,605579,00.html
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Patriotic Gibraltar protests at 'disloyal' handover to Spain
A referendum may lead to Tony Blair's biggest defeat as residents
brand proposals a betrayal. Giles Tremlett reports from the Rock
Giles Tremlett
Sunday November 25, 2001
The Observer
Emilio Peire is standing outside the House of Assembly in Gibraltar's
John Mackintosh Square wrapped in a Union Jack, talking darkly about
Tony Blair, betrayal and the end of empire.
Normally Peire, a fit-looking 78-year-old with a dapper moustache,
brings his flag out only for the Queen's Birthday parade, but now it
is being brandished in protest on behalf of one of Gibraltar's myriad
political clubs, The Rock Firm War Veterans Group.
'We are not Spanish. I was with the Royal Artillery's 175 anti-
aircraft unit,' protests the old soldier, whose family arrived from
Genoa in the eighteenth century. 'Mr Blair has entered negotiations
for the transfer of sovereignty to Spain against our wishes.'
Like most Gibraltarians when they are not speaking Spanish, Peire
addresses strangers as 'sir' and talks in the quaint, precise English
that disappeared from Britain in the Sixties.
As residents of one of the last remnants of empire, he and his fellow Gibraltarians
take being British seriously. This may be the Mediterranean, just a dozen miles from
the north African coast, but here you can find helme
ted bobbies, bright red letter boxes, ploughman's lunches, mature cheddar cheese and a
branch of Dorothy Perkins.
The Queen's birthday remains a public holiday and the latest memorial to their Second
World War veterans was erected in Casemates Square two years ago.
Peire was one of several hundred angry protesters packed into the square on Friday
night waiting to hear local politicians reply to the announcement by Foreign Secretary
Jack Straw and his Spanish counterpart, Josep Pique
, that they planned to solve a 300-year row over the Rock's sovereignty by next summer.
Gibraltar's 30,000 people are convinced that Britain, embarrassed by the problems the
Rock causes it within the European Union, plans to hand them over to Spain. They, in
turn, are determined to hand Blair his most embarr
assing political defeat ever by overwhelmingly rejecting whatever deal is agreed under
the 'Brussels process' when it is put to a local referendum.
The appearance of the elected Chief Minister of Gibraltar, Peter Caruana, provokes a
burst of hysteria in the square. 'You can stick the Brussels process up your arse,'
the crowd chants. Caruana tells them he has a plan f
or a new constitution so that 'the UN can delete us from their list' of colonies', and
which would lead to 'a non-colonial relationship' with Britain.
The Chief Minister is swept away in a shiny, chauffeur-driven Rover, number plate GB1.
Wherever he is going, it cannot be far - it rarely takes more than 10 minutes to walk
from one spot to another in the two-and-a-quarte
r square miles of Gibraltar.
The square is suddenly a mass of shouting. 'We will all become refugees,' bawls one
woman. 'This is like Eritrea,' screams a man. 'I wasn't born to be a prostitute,' a
woman calls out in Spanish. 'I have the Treaty of Utr
echt here,' says a young man, reaching into his bag for a copy of the 1713 agreement
that formalised Britain's armed takeover of the Rock.
Gibraltarians' hatred of Spain is rooted in the time, under General Franco's
dictatorship, when the border was sealed and those with relatives in the Spanish
border town of La Linea had to shout their family news to them
across no-man's-land on Sundays. But now that hatred is being matched by a growing
dislike of their traditional colonial masters in Britain.
'We feel like neglected and betrayed children,' warns Harry Parody, a cab driver. 'The
referendum is already lost.'
Peter Cumming, the only local politician prepared to voice support for some sort of
deal with Spain, says: 'Riots are my prediction for the short-term. I hope Jack Straw
doesn't come here for his own sake.'
It would not be the first time Gibraltarians have rioted over proposals to turn them
into Spaniards. When they last held a referendum on the issue, in 1967, those who
supported a deal with Spain were dealt with violentl
y.
The chief 'dove', as the group of politicians who favoured a deal were called, had his
yacht sunk and his car torched. Others saw their shops and businesses wrecked in a
sudden outpouring of rage when it was discovered th
ey had visited Franco's Ministers in Madrid. Even now people refer to them as
'traitors'.
When it came to the vote, only 44 people said they wanted to join Spain; 12,138 said
they did not.
Caruana is married to the daughter of the man whose yacht was scuttled in 1967. A
referendum could not be won without his support and that, so far, is being withheld.
'There is no prospect of Gibraltar accepting any propo
sal on sovereignty,' he says.
Spain has done little to promote its own cause here. Pique announced this week that he
would triple the number of phone lines into Gibraltar and allow people to be operated
on in Spanish hospitals. But he also reiterated
that Spain's only real objective was to regain sovereignty.
Younger Gibraltarians go to the discos and bars in La Linea at the
weekend. They speak Spanish among themselves and, even though it is
against the rules, this is the language of school playgrounds. Rich
Gibraltarians spend weekends, and most of the summer, in their villas
in the luxury Spanish resort of Sotogrande.
In time, some say, they might be persuaded to view Spain as a friend,
but not now. 'They should lift the border restrictions now and then
come back and ask the referendum question in 20 years' time,' says
one.
'I'll vote against. But I think, one day, we will end up being
Spanish,' admits David Francis, a 21-year-old with a pierced eyebrow
and neatly-kept dreadlocks.
For the Rock Firm War Veterans, and most other Gibraltarians, that is
treasonous talk.
Guardian Unlimited � Guardian Newspapers Limited 2001
End<{{{
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