Morocco World News
Rabat, August 29, 2012
Spanish soldiers on Wednesday arrested four Moroccans who tried to penetrate into the Badis Islands (Vélez de la Gomera in Spanish), which located a few hundred meters away from the Moroccan city of Al Huceima and is under Spanish sovereignty.
According to the news site Hespress, the four people were subjected to excessive of violence by the Spanish police as soon as they sat foot in the Island. The four people intended to hoist the Moroccan flag in this disputed tiny island.
This “march”’ was organized at the initiative of Moroccan MP, Yahya Yahya known for his activism in defending the sovereignty over this island, as well as on the enclaves of Sebta and Melillia and other islands located in northern Morocco.
“We tried this morning to access to the occupied Badis peninsula Badis, a Moroccan territory controlled by Spain. We did that peacefully while carrying the Moroccan flag, but the Spanish military intervened with excessive use of violence and arrested 4 of us before brandishing their weapons in our faces”, Yahya Yahya was quoted by Hespress as saying.
Like the Jaafariya Islands and Leila island, Badis island is a bone of contention between Morocco and Spain, as both countries claim their sovereignty over this rocky territory.
In 2002, Leila Island made headlines all over the world, when the Spanish government decided to send a war ship to dislodge 17 Moroccan soldiers who landed in this island located 300 meters away from the Moroccan coast and planted the Moroccan flag.
While Morocco has never recognized Spanish sovereignty over this tiny Island, Madrid claims that the latter has been under its sovereignty since 1564.
