 |
| An eye-witness account at sea |
In an exclusive eye-witness account regarding Wednesday night’s incident off the Moles in British/Gibraltar Waters, between the local authorities and the Guardia Civil (GC), Panorama has spoken to someone who witnessed the scenes at first hand out in the bay.
The eye-witness who had planned to go out at the first sign of a Spanish fishing vessel appearing and being accompanied by the GC did not have long to wait. This was the case when our witness went out in his boat and positioned it very close to where this serious incident was already unfolding; his first reactions were ‘it was unbelievable’.
He went on: “These people (referring to the GC) arrived in force, there were about 4 or 5 Guardia Civil vessels, a small flotilla, I saw the very large GC launch that they use in the straits in anti-immigration and other large operations, there were also two of the more commonly used GC launches and at least one GC rhib, they arrived escorting three fishing vessels with 3 small 'lucero' boats, a total of six boats.
The Royal Gibraltar Police and the Gibraltar Defence Police were waiting also in the area, it was HMS Sabre from the Gibraltar Squadron. I arrived very shortly after all these vessels had gathered off the south mole.
They stopped by the detached mole but later ended by the south mole about 250/300 metres away from the mole. During this time and at various points two of the boats appeared to be fishing within the laws of Gibraltar by legal means, although the third fishing vessel started to get its fishing (net) gear ready to put in the sea, it was then that I saw one of the fast launches from one of the local enforcement agencies who came close to the fishing boat. The local enforcement rib appeared to be conducting manoeuvres to impede the Spanish fishing vessel from dropping its nets, which they succeeded to do for quite a while, a very dangerous but effective manoeuvre I must say.
The GC launches who were close then attempted to get in between the fishing boat and the local police manoeuvres in stopping these people from fishing with nets.
At one stage I saw the fishing boat which was successful in lowering a small type net into the water, although I’m not sure if they actually caught any fish, as it was dark and as there was so much activity between the enforcement agencies, things were extremely tense!
I also saw the local police launches who went alongside the GC launches, I could see that at this point there was a period of some very tense conversation going on between our boys (police) and the GC. During this time there were instances were the boats, as they were alongside each other, were touching or hitting against each other, normal when you come alongside another boat at sea because of the state of the sea. Although I did not see any intentional ramming of vessels with one another, but I have to say, that the potential for something like that to have happened was certainly there!
Then the GC helicopter came over with a thunderous noise and hovered above all of the boats, again using very intimidating and dangerous manoeuvres ignoring our air space, it all appeared like a pre-determined plan by the GC.
Such was the atmosphere that at one point we were approached by one of the local police crafts, who informed us that we were too close to the incident proper and advised us to move away ‘just in case we got rammed.’
Although I did not see the Gib Squadron vessel within the area where all the activity was taking place, I did see that they were close at hand.
The two local police launches from the RGP and GDP in my view acted very professionally, they tried their best to stop the Spanish boats from fishing, even with the presence of a number of GC launches which really outnumbered the local police forces.
It is my opinion that after seeing all this at first hand that this problem is not about fishing anymore! It may have started out like that, but it is now politically motivated by Spain."
25-05-12 'Panorama' Gibraltar's on-line Daily
