Melilla

*Ciudad Autónoma de Melilla*
Autonomous City of Melilla

Flag	Coat of arms

Area
– Total
20 km² (8 mi²) Population
– Total (2005)
– Density
65,488
3274.4/km² Demonym
– English
– Spanish
---
melillense Statute of Autonomy March 14, 1995 ES ES-ML Parliamentary
representation
– Congress seats
– Senate seats 1
2 President Juan José Imbroda Ortíz (PP) Ciudad Autónoma de Melilla Melilla is a Spanish exclave on the Mediterranean coast of North Africa, neighbouring Morocco. It was reconquered by Spain in 1497. Traditionally considered part of Andalusia for historical reasons, it was administered as part of Málaga province prior to the March 14, 1995 Statute of Autonomy, and was a free port before Spain joined the European Union. As of 1994 it had a population of 63,670. Its population consists of Christians, Muslims, Jews and a small minority of Hindus. Both Spanish and Tamazight (Amazigh language) are spoken there.

ISO 3166-1 reserves EA for Melilla and Ceuta.

Political status

Morocco has claimed Melilla, along with Ceuta and various small Spanish islands off the coast of Africa (Plazas de soberanía), drawing comparisons with Spain's territorial claim to Gibraltar. The Spanish government rejects these comparisons (as do the inhabitants of the cities), on the grounds that both Ceuta and Melilla are integral parts of the Spanish state, whereas Gibraltar, an overseas territory, is not considered part of the United Kingdom. It must also be mentioned that the history of Melilla is practically identical to that of any other town in southern Spain, passing through Phoenician, Punic, Byzantine, Vandal, Visigothic, Muslim and then Christian hands. It was reconquered only five years after the city of Granada and has been in Spanish hands practically as long as Spain has existed.

Melilla and Ceuta are the only two remaining European territories located in mainland Africa. The amateur radio call sign used for both cities is EA9. They count as one separate "entity."

Economy

The principal industry is fishing; cross-border commerce (legal or smuggled) and Spanish and European grants and wages are the other income sources.

Melilla is heavily dependent on Morocco. All of its fruit, vegetables, and fish are imported across the border. About 36,000 Moroccans come into the city daily to work, shop, or sell goods.

History

Melilla was a Phoenician and later Punic establishment under the name of Rusadir. Later it became a part of the Roman province of Mauretania Tingitana. As centuries passed, it went through Vandal, Byzantine and Hispano-Visigothic hands. Melilla was on the frontier of the Kingdom of Tlemcen and the Kingdom of Fes when Juan Alfonso Pérez de Guzmán (also known as Guzmán El Bueno), the 3rd Duke of Medina Sidonia reconquered it in 1497, a few years after Castile had taken control of the Nasrid kingdom of Granada, the last remain of Al-Andalus.

The limits of the Spanish territory round the fortress were fixed by treaties with Morocco in 1859, 1860, 1861 and 1894. In the late 19th century, as Spanish influence expanded, Melilla became the only authorized centre of trade on the Rif coast between Tetuan and the Algerian frontier. The value of trade increased, goat skins, eggs and beeswax being the principal exports, and cotton goods, tea, sugar and candles being the chief imports.

The Spaniards had had much trouble with the neighboring tribes—the turbulent Rif, independent Berbers (Amazighs) hardly subject to the sultan of Morocco. In 1893 the Rif berbers besieged Melilla, and 25,000 men had to be dispatched against them. In 1908 two companies, under the protection of El Roghi, a chieftain then ruling the Rif region, started mining lead and iron some 20 kilometers from Melilla. A railway to the mines was begun. In October of that year the Rif revolted from the Roghi and raided the mines, which remained closed until June 1909. On the July 10 the workmen were again attacked and several of them killed. Severe fighting between the Spaniards and the tribesmen followed. The Rif having submitted, the Spaniards, in 1910, restarted the mines and undertook harbour works at Mar Chica. But hostilities broke out again in 1911 and the Rif, inflicting grave defeats on the Spanish (see Disaster of Annual), were not pacified until 1927.

General Francisco Franco used the city as one of his staging grounds for his rebellion in 1936, and a statue of him is still prominently featured.

Architecture

Melilla sports the only Gothic arch in Africa.

During the change from the 19th to the 20th century, Melilla was prosperous. A new bourgeois class expressed its prestige in the architectural style of Modernisme, the Catalan version of Art Nouveau, which was then in vogue in Spain. The workshops inspired by Catalan architect, Enrique Nieto, continued in the modernist style, even after it went out of fashion elsewhere. So Melilla has the second most important concentration of Modernist works in Spain, after Barcelona.

Multiculturalism

Melilla has been praised as an example of multiculturalism, how people of three different religions can live side-by-side in harmony within a small area. However, the Christian majority of around 65% has been shrinking while the number of Muslims has been steadily increasing from its present 30% of the population, and Jews have been leaving for years (from 20% of the population before World War II to less than 2% today). Almost all of its residents consider themselves Spanish, although many Muslims of Moroccan origin also call themselves Imazighen or Amazigh, and Europeans call them Berbers.

However, in contrast to its image as a multicultural utopia, the Muslim population suffers the highest unemployment rate, the lowest rate of high school graduates, and the lowest representation in the city government. Many Muslims complain that Tamazight is looked down upon as a second-class language. It is not taught in schools and is rarely heard on the state television station. There has only been one Muslim president, Mustafá Aberchán of the Coalition for Melilla political party, installed in 1999 and whose term lasted only one year before his being ousted. Aberchán claims that the current president, Juan José Imbroda, once said that, "Melilla was not 'ready' for a Muslim president." The coalition currently holds seven out of 25 seats in the local parliament.

Members of Imbroda's conservative Popular Party, meanwhile, counter that the coalition promotes religious sectarianism. Imbroda himself insists that Melilla will never be ceded to Morocco "because no one wants to go backwards."

Immigration

There is considerable pressure by African refugees to enter Melilla, a part of the European Union. The border is secured by the Melilla border fence, a six-meter-tall double fence with watch towers, yet refugees frequently manage to cross it illegally, avoiding the attempts by Spanish police to take them back to their home countries. Detection wires, tear gas dispensers, radar, and day/night vision cameras are planned to increase security and prevent illegal immigration. In October 2005, over 700 sub-Saharan migrants tried to enter Spanish territory from the Moroccan border. Many of them were shot in the back by the Moroccan Gendarmerie. Amnesty International and Médecins Sans Frontières have accused the Moroccan government of dumping over 500 refugees in the Sahara Desert without food or water supplies.

References

Wilkinson, Tracy, "Spain's Little Piece of Africa", Los Angeles Times, January 11, 2006

External links

Gourt Home::Gourt :: Melilla