My colleague on this blog, St. Crispin, has written below about the most recent event in the recent Gibraltar-Spanish clashes over the sovereignty of the Rock. Allow TheEye to provide some background.
The current issue (although only a proxy battle) is the water around the area. Gibraltar was granted in perpetuity to the British Crown in 1713, under
Article X of the Treaty of Utrecht and this was confirmed in later treaties signed in Paris and Seville. Article X was, to put it mildly, the makings of a modern mess. For example it made no reference to the waters around the area, leading Spain to now claim sovereignty right up to the shoreline. According to them the Treaty is apparently carved in stone and must be the basis of all future negotiations....apart from the bits which ban all Jews and Moors from the place, and the slave trade provisions which the Spanish ignore. Cherry-picking, is of course, the order of the day.
For many decades now, we in Gibraltar have learnt to live with incursions by official Spanish vessels into territorial waters which are defined clearly by the
UN Convention on the Law of the Sea of which Spain is also a signatory. Regular readers will remember TheEye reporting breaking news of gunshots fired off the coast and Spanish policemen continuing a
hot pursuit by boat through our harbour and on to land. This isn't new...anyone here in the 1970's will remember the famus standoffs between the Gibraltar guardship and a Spanish warship nicknamed "
Smokey Joe".
However in May 2009 the situation began to escalate, with the first incident of a different and more serious kind. A Spanish fisheries protection vessel entered Gibraltar waters and inspected a vessel's papers in what was not just a case of incursion but also of exercising executive competence and policing powers. Imagine if the Germans did this just outside Hull? Similar incidents and corresponding diplomatic complaints have continued ever since, although not helped by the incompetence and lack-of-spine of the
British Ambassador to Spain - whose only claim to note is being Jeremy Paxman's brother.
On the 28th September
the most incident to date occurred at sea, well within Gibraltar territorial waters, involving the Royal Gibraltar Police and the Spanish paramilitary Guardia Civil. Using physical force against Royal Gibraltar Police officers, the armed Guardia prevented them from detaining a suspected smuggler and, in the process, they enabled, assisted and secured the escape onto the Guardia Civil launch of a person who was already under the lawful arrest and physical custody of the RGP. The man concerned negotiated his return to Gibraltar a few days later for
a formal court appearance and bail - the details of what pressure was put on him are unknown yet.
So, in summary, over the last 18 months or so, Spanish direct action in our waters has passed from the historical, simple incursions, first, to incursions coupled with the exercise of executive powers by them, and now, to an incursion aggravated by interference with, and prevention of the exercise by the RGP of their powers and jurisdiction, aggravated further by the threat and use of physical force against our police officers.
On a legal level the Gibraltar government have always said that if Spain really believes that international legal right is on her side in regard to the territorial waters, then the matter should be addressed in front of the International Court. But instead of exposing herself to the possibility of being shown to be legally wrong, Spain is resorting to intimidation and physical action.
And so to the bit where the Chief Minister, Peter Caruana, goes for the throat, calling on the UK to grow a pair and send in the Royal Navy. In a statement:
In the very recent past, some Gibraltar politicians, press and political commentators have made public statements implying that the RGP and the Gibraltar Government should do something to stop this Spanish behaviour and incursions. I believe this to be a dangerous misconception.
The obligation to defend and uphold Her Majesty's Sovereignty of Gibraltar territorial waters, and thereby the jurisdiction of Her Gibraltar Government and other Authorities, lies, not with the Gibraltar Government or the Royal Gibraltar Police, who lack the Constitutional powers and resources to do it, but with the UK Government, and in particular the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Ministry of Defence, whose Constitutional role and obligation it is.
This is not about the Gibraltar Government buying bigger boats for the RGP so that they can fight physical battles at sea with the armed forces and agencies of a foreign country! This is not their role, and we should all be grateful to them for what they do in that respect, often placing themselves in personal harm's way, beyond the scope of their duties and responsibilities as a civilian police force.
Nor, however much we may resent such incursions, is it a sound political judgement that it is in Gibraltar's wider interests, as some local politicians suggest, for us to pit ourselves in a situation of direct physical battle and confrontation at sea with Spain.
This matter is a UK responsibility, and it is vital that through comments of the sort to which I have referred, we do not signal to the UK that Gibraltar thinks that this is for us to sort out ourselves, thereby letting the UK off the hook, and allowing them to believe that we do not expect them to take effective action to uphold British Sovereignty and Gibraltar jurisdiction of our waters.
I have therefore, this week, written to William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, making all of these points directly to him, and asking him to take effective action to uphold Her Majesty's Sovereignty of British Gibraltar Territorial Waters. This should include the systematic deployment and intervention of the Royal Navy in support and protection of the RGP as they carry out their duties and exercise their civil police jurisdiction to enforce and uphold law and order and the laws of Gibraltar in our waters, exclusively of all others.
So, send in the gunboats! Except
they won't, it seems.
This also comes at a time of similar incidents in the
Falklands and put pressure on the results of the current Strategic Defence Review. At the same time, the Mayor of neighbouring La Linea is threatening
illegal tolls to cross the border into Gibraltar and
taxes on cables passing through the town. Under siege? It feels like it.
TheEye met William Hague when he visited Gibraltar at the last European Elections, although doubts that Hague had TheEye in mind when he
said at the Conservative Party Conference how much he enjoyed the visit. He said then he "
would not let Gibraltar down".
We shall see.
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