A new Rabat-Madrid crisis emerges over a Spanish royal visit to Ceuta and Melilla, reports Serene Assir Spanish King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia were met with both intense outrage and cheers of welcome when they arrived in Spanish enclaves Ceuta and Melilla. In Ceuta, 5 November, they were cheered with cries of "Ole, ole, ole, we are Spanish," and the next day, in Melilla, Spanish nationals shouted "Long live Spain!" Meanwhile, hundreds from mainland Morocco tried to jump the security fence to protest against the visit, and many managed to enter Melilla before they were forced back out by Spanish security forces. For Morocco, the outrage over the royal visit began last week during the planning stages. Rabat recalled its ambassador to Madrid 2 November, as it has long held that Ceuta and Melilla are occupied territories and interpreted the royal visit as an extension of Spanish colonialism. That Ceuta and Melilla have been under Spanish administration for hundreds of years is not, in Morocco's view, sufficient reason for the enclaves to remain excluded to this day from Moroccan sovereignty. Rabat compares its nationalist feelings on the enclaves to Madrid's with regard to British Gibraltar. This was the first Spanish royal visit to the territories in 80 years -- since the pre- dictatorship era. Spanish Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba, for his part, expressed "surprise" at the outrage and issued statements of hope that relations with its southern neighbour would continue to be strong. Meanwhile, European Commissioner for External Relations and Neighbourhood Policy Benita Ferrero- Waldner visited Rabat Wednesday, to discuss the implementation of decisions relating to the "advanced status" of Morocco as an EU neighbour. With regards to Spanish-Moroccan formal relations, there are strong economic and defence ties, with Spain constituting Morocco's strongest partner in trade after France. Spats between the two countries are not uncommon, and although the current crisis is unlikely to affect long-term trade relations, it is reflective of a tendency towards tension between Morocco and Spain. Most recently, tension between Madrid and Rabat came to a head over the status of Tura island, or Perejil in Spanish, an uninhabited island formally under NATO protection that was declared "no man's land" in 2002, following a controversial invasion by Moroccan forces in July. Meanwhile, on 30 October, top Spanish investigative judge Baltasar Garzon issued a statement announcing the opening of an investigation into alleged Moroccan offences of genocide, assassination, injury and torture in Western Sahara, an investigation that will probe 13 Moroccan citizens' alleged criminal involvement. The investigation will be conducted under Spain's broad provisions for universal jurisdiction, which do not require the presence of alleged offenders in Spanish territory for the duration of investigations, but would require their presence for a potential trial phase. Spain's colonial mandate in Western Sahara ended in 1976, and power over the territory was formally handed over to Morocco. A referendum, announced in 1975 to enable the Saharawis to decide their own fate on independence or integration into Morocco, was suspended and has yet to be held. Morocco holds fiercely to its sovereignty over Western Sahara, whereas the Algerian-sponsored Saharawi Polisario movement has sought independence, mainly from exile over the last decade. Garzon, who sought the extradition of former Chilean President Augusto Pinochet from the United Kingdom under the provisions of universal extradition in 2000, has both been lauded for his juridical work, and accused of political interventionism. In recent years, Spain has taken diverse positions on the question of Saharawi autonomy -- at times publicly showing neutrality but generally supporting autonomy and offering its support to the Polisario, whose leaders often hold conferences in Spanish cities. Currently over half a million Moroccan migrants live in Spain, constituting the highest concentration by nationality of immigrants in the country. The quality of relations between migrants and the state fluctuate. But in mid-October Spanish police's forced demolition of a house, illegally constructed 20 years ago and currently occupied by a Moroccan family, led to outrage, particularly following scenes of police violence against inhabitants of the area rallying to defend the family's right to live there. It was reported that among those beaten were pregnant women. At the time comments in the Spanish press compared the scene of forced demolition and beating by the police, and stone-throwing by the migrants, to scenes in the Gaza Strip, and referred to the incident as "Madrid's intifada".
