The Rock of Gibraltar: a mountain of stone rising from the tip of the Iberian Peninsular. With a few apes on top.
Hardly seems much to fight over.
But tell that to Spain - still smarting almost 300 years after it lost Gibraltar to the British.
Jose Spiteri, Director General, Spanish Foreign Ministry: We’ve always regarded it as Spanish territory that was taken away from us by force in the 18th century and of course our aim during all this time, and will continue to be, is to recover it.
Joe Bossano, Chief Minister, Gibraltar: Why should a lump of limestone with six square kilometres and thirty thousand people be a most important thing as a symbol for every Spaniard, it doesn’t make sense.
Indeed, nothing much makes sense in this modern day colonial stausch. Britain has the colony of Gibraltar, but doesn’t really want it.
Spain does want it, but can’t get it because Britain doesn’t want anybody else to have it.
And Gibraltarians, well they just want to be left alone.
Life under siege is getting a bit tedious.
Bossano: We have survived 15 sieges, the last one lasted 15 years. We are a people with part of our genetic make-up making us determined to hang on to our rock which is our home like limpets - nobody is going to dislodge us from this place.
But plenty have tried.
Strategically placed between Europe and Africa, Gibraltar has been coveted and conquered by many a kingdom.
In fact neither the British nor the Spanish named the Rock.
Gibraltar comes from Gibel Tarik meaning Tarik’s mountain. And Tarik was a Moor.
It was from these Moroccan shores - just 20 kilometres south of Gibraltar - that the Moors swept north on their Islamic conquest in the 8th century.
Today there are still strong links between Gibraltar and Morocco.
But if you believe the Spanish, they’re no longer blood ties, but drug ties. Hashish.
Spain claims smugglers based on the Rock are running drugs between Morocco and the Spanish coast.
Proving - in Spain’s eyes - that Gibraltar needs some harsh discipline - discipline that Mother England is too lax to give.
Spiteri: Half the launches operating out of Gibraltar are into drug trafficking and of course it has been absolutely dramatic the drugs coming in directly from Gibraltar from the launch operation. It was 8 tonnes in ‘92, and 13 tonnes in ‘93, and climbed to 34 tonnes in ‘94 and we expect 50 tonnes a year. It’s absolutely outrageous.
Reporter: Who do you blame for that, Gibraltar or Britain?
Spiteri: Oh I blame both. In fact I would blame more Britain for it.
Bossano: Well I think what the Spanish are playing at is that it happens to be a convenient smokescreen if they want to put pressure on Gibraltar because it is the one thing that nobody is going to chastise them for.
Allegations of Gibraltarian drug smuggling are just the latest salvo fired by Spain in its war over Gibraltar. According to the locals the Spanish have never accepted the British sovereignty of the Rock - they want it back and are apparently doing everything in their power to make life here unbearable.
For starters, you can’t get into or out of Gibraltar in a hurry. At the frontier with Spain queues often snake back for kilometres.
Locals say Spanish customs officials are on a “go-slow” campaign - one designed for maximum frustration. And it’s working.
Motorists and pedestrians can wait for hours to get across the border. Businesses - sometimes days.
Not that frontier hassles are anything new - in 1967 General Franco shut the gates for 15 years.
Man in queue: It pisses me off, but you know.
woman in queue: I don’t think it’s very nice to be here with this heat and I don’t think it’s fair.”
And customs didn’t think it was fair that we were there asking questions..
Guards: You must stop.. in Gibraltar it’s possible, in area of Spanish, not possible, please.
Spiteri: We are fed up by complaints of Gibraltarians. I think it’s about time people would listen or Gibraltarians listen to Spanish complaints.
Financially, however, Gibraltar does have something to complain about.
And its current problems began not with the Spanish, but with the British.
Twenty years ago the port was home to a bustling UK defence industry.
But then they shut up shop - leaving Gibraltar’s economy high and dry.
Gibraltar fought back, by trying to boost its independent economic fortunes through tourism.
But not even the apes can convince enough day-trippers to brave the frontier queues.
Millner: Spain is trying to harm the economy of Gibraltar. It’s introduced these measures at the border to try and stop tourists coming in - hit the shops on the main street.
John Millner is the British representative overseeing Gibraltar’s offshore banking industry - a new venture which is proving more successful than tourism.
Millner: Well it is important. It represents something in the region of 20% of GNP and it employs 15-20% of the labour force.
But now that too has come under fire, with Spain accusing Gibraltar of money laundering.
Spiteri: There’s about 50 thousand opaque non-transparent societies and certain amount of banks, and certain amount of change houses and where’s the economy to sustain 50 thousand societies.
Reporter: Is it being used as a centre for laundering drug money or any criminal money?”
Millner: No. No. No evidence to support that at all.”
Reporter: So why do you think Spain has levelled these charges against Gibraltar?
Millner: I think it has this misguided view that if it is tough enough to Gibraltar, then the Gibraltarians will go down on their knees and plead with Spain to take them over.
But Gibraltarians are planning nothing of the kind. As far as they are concerned this is a battle for survival.
And history has taught them that when under siege, the only way to survive economic strangulation is to smuggle.
In the shadows of Gibraltar’s Eastern beach, smugglers are loading up their boats for the dash to Spain.
It’s an almost nightly ritual. But you are more likely to get stopped by local police if you’re a foreign TV crew than if you are a smuggler.
Spain claims British and Gibraltarian authorities aren’t serious about stopping the black market trade even though it’s costing the Spanish government dearly in lost tax revenue.
Spiteri: In the period ‘89, ‘94 that was around 420 million pounds worth of taxes lost, half of which should have gone to
the budget of the EU.
That’s about one billion dollars, money which Spain says is lining the pockets of smugglers like Mark.
Mark: The initial adrenalin rush for me.. like.. it’s scary. A lot of people can’t handle it you know.
Mark lives for the adrenalin surge of the smugglers’ boats, which can cut across the water at 120 kilometres an hour.
A lot of cigarettes arrive in Spain here - on the beaches of La Linea. A few hundred metres from the frontier.
The Spanish civil guard patrols the beaches, from land and sea. But catching the smugglers is difficult - the confrontation dangerous for those on both sides of the law.
Spiteri: These past two nights have been absolutely outrageous, our patrol boats were attacked, acid thrown from one of the smuggler’s boats into the face of customs officials - it’s absolutely outrageous.
Mark has not been hurt in his scrapes with the law, but many of the smugglers have - one of his friends was shot dead.
Mark: And it was silly you know - for the sake of five grand cigarettes you lose your life.
Spain says the British colony of Gibraltar has slipped out of control.
But Gibraltarians say they’re just trying to make a living, while constantly under attack from the Spanish.
And if there are any problems Spain has brought them upon itself.
Bossano: If we had a situation which we don’t have where we had a country next door that had a normal European democratic relationship with us and that was being put at risk because there was a traffic of duty paid cigarettes or anything else, tax evasion or whatever then the wise thing to do for the government or Gibraltar would be to take some action over that in order not to spoil the good neighbourly relationship but that is not the scenario.
Reporter: You don’t have good neighbourly relations?
Bossano: Regrettably not.
In the hallowed halls of the Foreign Ministry in Madrid, there is talk of only one possible solution.
Spiteri: Well, the best first solution is that Gibraltarians clear the table of all the rubbish that has been accumulated through illicit trafficking all these years; that Gibraltar has a transparent, clear sound economy not based on illicit trafficking and once Gibraltar is established on a sound basis then maybe they will be interested in talking to us about something else.
But if Spain hopes that “something else” is Spanish sovereignty over The Rock - it may be fighting for another 300 years.
For now, it’s the British who still have sovereignty over the Rock.
And legend has it they’ll stay here until the Barbery Apes leave.As for the apes - well like the British - they’re not yet signalling their intentions.
This siege of Gibraltar could be very long indeed.
Hardly seems much to fight over.
But tell that to Spain - still smarting almost 300 years after it lost Gibraltar to the British.
Jose Spiteri, Director General, Spanish Foreign Ministry: We’ve always regarded it as Spanish territory that was taken away from us by force in the 18th century and of course our aim during all this time, and will continue to be, is to recover it.
Joe Bossano, Chief Minister, Gibraltar: Why should a lump of limestone with six square kilometres and thirty thousand people be a most important thing as a symbol for every Spaniard, it doesn’t make sense.
Indeed, nothing much makes sense in this modern day colonial stausch. Britain has the colony of Gibraltar, but doesn’t really want it.
Spain does want it, but can’t get it because Britain doesn’t want anybody else to have it.
And Gibraltarians, well they just want to be left alone.
Life under siege is getting a bit tedious.
Bossano: We have survived 15 sieges, the last one lasted 15 years. We are a people with part of our genetic make-up making us determined to hang on to our rock which is our home like limpets - nobody is going to dislodge us from this place.
But plenty have tried.
Strategically placed between Europe and Africa, Gibraltar has been coveted and conquered by many a kingdom.
In fact neither the British nor the Spanish named the Rock.
Gibraltar comes from Gibel Tarik meaning Tarik’s mountain. And Tarik was a Moor.
It was from these Moroccan shores - just 20 kilometres south of Gibraltar - that the Moors swept north on their Islamic conquest in the 8th century.
Today there are still strong links between Gibraltar and Morocco.
But if you believe the Spanish, they’re no longer blood ties, but drug ties. Hashish.
Spain claims smugglers based on the Rock are running drugs between Morocco and the Spanish coast.
Proving - in Spain’s eyes - that Gibraltar needs some harsh discipline - discipline that Mother England is too lax to give.
Spiteri: Half the launches operating out of Gibraltar are into drug trafficking and of course it has been absolutely dramatic the drugs coming in directly from Gibraltar from the launch operation. It was 8 tonnes in ‘92, and 13 tonnes in ‘93, and climbed to 34 tonnes in ‘94 and we expect 50 tonnes a year. It’s absolutely outrageous.
Reporter: Who do you blame for that, Gibraltar or Britain?
Spiteri: Oh I blame both. In fact I would blame more Britain for it.
Bossano: Well I think what the Spanish are playing at is that it happens to be a convenient smokescreen if they want to put pressure on Gibraltar because it is the one thing that nobody is going to chastise them for.
Allegations of Gibraltarian drug smuggling are just the latest salvo fired by Spain in its war over Gibraltar. According to the locals the Spanish have never accepted the British sovereignty of the Rock - they want it back and are apparently doing everything in their power to make life here unbearable.
For starters, you can’t get into or out of Gibraltar in a hurry. At the frontier with Spain queues often snake back for kilometres.
Locals say Spanish customs officials are on a “go-slow” campaign - one designed for maximum frustration. And it’s working.
Motorists and pedestrians can wait for hours to get across the border. Businesses - sometimes days.
Not that frontier hassles are anything new - in 1967 General Franco shut the gates for 15 years.
Man in queue: It pisses me off, but you know.
woman in queue: I don’t think it’s very nice to be here with this heat and I don’t think it’s fair.”
And customs didn’t think it was fair that we were there asking questions..
Guards: You must stop.. in Gibraltar it’s possible, in area of Spanish, not possible, please.
Spiteri: We are fed up by complaints of Gibraltarians. I think it’s about time people would listen or Gibraltarians listen to Spanish complaints.
Financially, however, Gibraltar does have something to complain about.
And its current problems began not with the Spanish, but with the British.
Twenty years ago the port was home to a bustling UK defence industry.
But then they shut up shop - leaving Gibraltar’s economy high and dry.
Gibraltar fought back, by trying to boost its independent economic fortunes through tourism.
But not even the apes can convince enough day-trippers to brave the frontier queues.
Millner: Spain is trying to harm the economy of Gibraltar. It’s introduced these measures at the border to try and stop tourists coming in - hit the shops on the main street.
John Millner is the British representative overseeing Gibraltar’s offshore banking industry - a new venture which is proving more successful than tourism.
Millner: Well it is important. It represents something in the region of 20% of GNP and it employs 15-20% of the labour force.
But now that too has come under fire, with Spain accusing Gibraltar of money laundering.
Spiteri: There’s about 50 thousand opaque non-transparent societies and certain amount of banks, and certain amount of change houses and where’s the economy to sustain 50 thousand societies.
Reporter: Is it being used as a centre for laundering drug money or any criminal money?”
Millner: No. No. No evidence to support that at all.”
Reporter: So why do you think Spain has levelled these charges against Gibraltar?
Millner: I think it has this misguided view that if it is tough enough to Gibraltar, then the Gibraltarians will go down on their knees and plead with Spain to take them over.
But Gibraltarians are planning nothing of the kind. As far as they are concerned this is a battle for survival.
And history has taught them that when under siege, the only way to survive economic strangulation is to smuggle.
In the shadows of Gibraltar’s Eastern beach, smugglers are loading up their boats for the dash to Spain.
It’s an almost nightly ritual. But you are more likely to get stopped by local police if you’re a foreign TV crew than if you are a smuggler.
Spain claims British and Gibraltarian authorities aren’t serious about stopping the black market trade even though it’s costing the Spanish government dearly in lost tax revenue.
Spiteri: In the period ‘89, ‘94 that was around 420 million pounds worth of taxes lost, half of which should have gone to
the budget of the EU.
That’s about one billion dollars, money which Spain says is lining the pockets of smugglers like Mark.
Mark: The initial adrenalin rush for me.. like.. it’s scary. A lot of people can’t handle it you know.
Mark lives for the adrenalin surge of the smugglers’ boats, which can cut across the water at 120 kilometres an hour.
A lot of cigarettes arrive in Spain here - on the beaches of La Linea. A few hundred metres from the frontier.
The Spanish civil guard patrols the beaches, from land and sea. But catching the smugglers is difficult - the confrontation dangerous for those on both sides of the law.
Spiteri: These past two nights have been absolutely outrageous, our patrol boats were attacked, acid thrown from one of the smuggler’s boats into the face of customs officials - it’s absolutely outrageous.
Mark has not been hurt in his scrapes with the law, but many of the smugglers have - one of his friends was shot dead.
Mark: And it was silly you know - for the sake of five grand cigarettes you lose your life.
Spain says the British colony of Gibraltar has slipped out of control.
But Gibraltarians say they’re just trying to make a living, while constantly under attack from the Spanish.
And if there are any problems Spain has brought them upon itself.
Bossano: If we had a situation which we don’t have where we had a country next door that had a normal European democratic relationship with us and that was being put at risk because there was a traffic of duty paid cigarettes or anything else, tax evasion or whatever then the wise thing to do for the government or Gibraltar would be to take some action over that in order not to spoil the good neighbourly relationship but that is not the scenario.
Reporter: You don’t have good neighbourly relations?
Bossano: Regrettably not.
In the hallowed halls of the Foreign Ministry in Madrid, there is talk of only one possible solution.
Spiteri: Well, the best first solution is that Gibraltarians clear the table of all the rubbish that has been accumulated through illicit trafficking all these years; that Gibraltar has a transparent, clear sound economy not based on illicit trafficking and once Gibraltar is established on a sound basis then maybe they will be interested in talking to us about something else.
But if Spain hopes that “something else” is Spanish sovereignty over The Rock - it may be fighting for another 300 years.
For now, it’s the British who still have sovereignty over the Rock.
And legend has it they’ll stay here until the Barbery Apes leave.As for the apes - well like the British - they’re not yet signalling their intentions.
This siege of Gibraltar could be very long indeed.