Gibraltar complains about the performance of a Navy patrol boat near the Rock
Defense recalls that the boat was sailing in "waters under English sovereignty"
The Government of Gibraltar on Tuesday denounced an incident between a English Navy patrol boat, the P74 Atalaya-with a merchant ship in an area to the east of the Rock and the British colony considers its territorial waters, but are not recognized as such by the Treaty of Utrecht, by which Spain ceded the Rock to Britain in 1713. According to Gibraltar Executive reported in a statement, the English patrol boat approached the merchant ship and ordered him to weigh anchor and leave the area because he lacked permission to anchor in these waters that Spain considers its sovereignty.
After detecting the movement of "warship" English, Gibraltar Port Authority ordered the boats anchored in the area to the east of the Rock to remain anchored, while informing them that "Spain has no jurisdiction" over those waters. Subsequently, a rubber dinghy in the Royal Navy, British Army, came to meet the English to warn him that he was in his alleged waters. According to Gibraltarians, then went to place a larger ship, HMS Scimitar, but the English patrol boat had already left the area.
The Gibraltar Government called the incident "a direct and very serious challenge to British sovereignty over Gibraltar waters." Defence Ministry sources said yesterday that the action of the P74 Atalaya "occurred in the waters of English sovereignty and respect for international law and established procedures."
In recent years, coinciding with the fundraising for elections in Gibraltar next November, the government of the Rock, led by Peter Caruana, is putting on the table various incidents Civil Guard patrol boats in what it considers its waters. On August 24, 2010, patrol police and customs in Gibraltar, escorted by a Royal Navy vessel, harassed a vessel of the armed who had just arrested two drug traffickers in the disputed waters. Source
newspaper "El Pais"
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