Spaniards unwelcome in W Sahara
2005-07-25 08:46
El Ayoun - Morocco said on Sunday it had turned back a group of six Spanish citizens at the airport at El Ayoun, capital of Western Sahara, because of their "hostile intentions" to it.
It was the sixth Spanish group to be refused entry into El Ayoun since the end of May.
The Western Sahara is a former Spanish colony annexed by Morocco in 1975.
The local authorities say they believe the groups are making the trip to "sow discord in the southern provinces" and "support the 'separatist arguments of the Polisario Front".
Polisario, backed by Algeria is conducting a military campaign for independence for Western Sahara.
Unwelcome visitors
The group refused entry on Sunday had flown in from the Canary Islands on a scheduled flight. Among the six men was a member of parliament.
Two Spanish reporters were aboard the aircraft and were told they could enter but preferred to stay on the plane.
The Moroccan news agency Map said the six men were told "in the light of their prejudices and malevolent intentions they were not welcome in a city that was part of a sovereign country with its own laws which should be respected".
Morocco, Map continued, as a state governed by law "has every latitude to welcome whom it wishes and refuse all those who nurture hostile intentions, the sole aim of which is to sow ill-feeling and disorder in the provinces of the south".
Moroccan Prime Minister Driss Jettou said earlier this month Rabat would not accept that people hostile to its institutions or the territorial integrity of the kingdom should arrive in Western Sahara without prior warning.
Increased traffic to El Ayoun after clashes
Since May 24, when local people clashed with security forces, a series of parliamentarians, reporters and non governmental organisations have made the trip to El Ayoun.
Morocco last year rejected a United Nations-backed plan to resolve the dispute over the territory by granting autonomy to the region for five years and thereafter holding a referendum on self-rule.
The Polisario Front, which has been fighting against Moroccan rule for three decades, approved of the plan, which was drafted by former United States secretary of state James Baker.
- AFP