Spanish government required to explain use of toxic gases in Rif
By Bachir Niah | Morocco TIMES 7/29/2005 | 12:10 am
The Catalan left wing party has demanded an explanation from the Zapatero government over the use of toxic gases against the Rif population during the Spanish occupation of north Morocco.
A group from the Catalonian left wing party in the central parliament in Madrid submitted, Tuesday morning, a motion questioning Zapatero's government about Spain's use of poisonous gases against resistance in the Rif, north Morocco, between 1922-1927.
Soon after the submission of the motion, the Catalan group, which supports the government, convened a press conference at 11 a.m. in the Catalonian parliament. The conference discussed the dimensions and repercussions of the “Rif war,” and the use of poisonous gases against the population of the north.
Ilyass Omari, head of the “Association of Toxic Gas Victims" (ATGV) in the Rif, Rosa Madriana, professor and researcher on the history of the Spanish occupation in the north of Morocco, Maymouna Acherki, professor in Rabat, and Rachid Rakha, a Moroccan newspaper director, were also present at the conference.
In a phone conversation, Ilyass Omari told Morocco TIMES that 50% of cancer cases in Morocco are concentrated in the north. He added that “research has shown there are strong indicators that the cancer is caused by the gases that were used against the resistance in the north.”
Omari stressed that using gases is a crime according to the international law, clearly cited in 1925 Geneva Convention. “It is a crime against humanity” he said, adding “We told the Spanish in the conference about the land that is no longer arable in the north as a result the use of toxic gases."
The local "Association of Toxic Gas Victims" (ATGV) was established in July 2000 in Al Hoceima, northern Morocco. It aims at exerting pressure on the Moroccan, Spanish and French governments to a acknowledging the “truth”.
According to investigations conducted by the ATGV, the effects of the alleged toxic bombing of the region can still be noticed. The association claims to have documented an abnormally high prevalence of cancer among the population of the Rif.
Rabat hospitals allegedly have recorded that 60% of the nation's cases of larynx and stomach cancer originate from the region said to be gased.
In 1921, when Spain occupied Morocco's northern coast, the Rif Mountains and some southern areas, Berber chiefs mounted a fierce rebellion in the Rif to free the region from the European colonizers.
The "Rif War", as it is known internationally, is recognised as one of the most forceful demonstrations of African resistance against European colonisers. Berber groups, only armed with outdated rifles, managed to fight back the colonial troops.
According to an article in Afrol News, Only the historian Juan Pando has confirmed the use of toxic gases in the war. Pando, basing himself on written Spanish sources, claims that Spanish planes dropped the chemical arms over the Rif Mountains from 1923 onwards.
The Spanish used gases in aerial attacks over the Rif in order to win the war, according to oral traditions in the area.
Mohammad Farji, a Rifi man approaching 100 years of age, still has vivid memories and clear flashbacks. In the late twenties of the twentieth century "chemical attacks were launched by the invading Spanish troops into northern Morocco,” he told the correspondent of Islam online.
The old man recalled how the Spanish troops attacked the countryside with internationally-banned weapons, devastating his small farmland and thousands of acres of fertile lands.
In 1990, two German researchers, Rudd Bert Knoz and Ralph Deiter Muller, issued a book entitled "Poisonous Gas Against Al-Khatabi." It contained horrific details, in addition to secrets that were not previously disclosed. These included Germany 's selling chemical gases to Spain between 1922 and 1927 and helping Spain build a factory for chemical weapons in Toledo.
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