UKIP’s Rise Casts Gibraltar’s Future into Question: Spanish “Reconquista” or a “Monaco of the Strait”?

The recent rise of the far-right United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), which wants the U.K. to leave the European Union (E.U.), has shaken up British politics.  Next month’s general election is not at all shaping up to be the usual American-style horse race between the left-of-center Labour Party and right-of-center Conservative Party, with the more lefty Liberal Democratic Party (currently in a coalition government with the Conservatives) as a side show.  In last year’s elections to the European Parliament, UKIP became the largest party in the U.K.’s delegation, but the UKIP phenomenon is far from being a flash in the pan, even though the largely toothless European Parliament attracts far more protest votes than the more consequential general elections do: UKIP is actually the third-largest party in the U.K. now.  And a further complication is the surge in support for the separatist Scottish National Party (S.N.P.) (at Labour’s expense) after last year’s narrowly defeated independence referendum in Scotland.  Next month’s election will have serious geopolitical consequences as no British election in recent memory has.

This means that Conservatives and Labour have to some extent resigned themselves to the groundswell of populist centrifugal forces likely to define the U.K.’s future.  Prime Minister David Cameron has already capitulated to UKIP by promising, if he is reelected, to hold a referendum on continued E.U. membership, and during the run-up to the Scottish referendum his government instituted a raft of new powers of self-government, for not only Scotland but Wales and Northern Ireland as well.  These developments are convergent: UKIP would also like a more decentralized Britain.  But Nigel Farage, UKIP’s bombastic leader, a self-described libertarian, has scoffed at the S.N.P.’s and the Scottish public’s overwhelming desire to stay in the E.U. but leave the U.K.  He has called Scottish nationalism a “fraud” which aspires merely to “swap your masters from Westminster to Brussels.”  (See article from this blog here and here on the question of whether Scotland could leave Britain but stay in the Union.)

Nigel Farage—now destroyer of empires, as well?

One unexpected reverberation of this political earthquake is policy toward the U.K.’s overseas territories.  In the past, Farage has called for a special Member of Parliament to represent colonies like Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands.  Presumably this would overlay the current self-government in those territories which fill the role an M.P. in London would for most areas of governance.  As Farage points out, citizens in the overseas territories have no say in those functions still reserved to Westminster: currency, defense, and foreign relations.  (This is similar to Puerto Rico’s relationship to the United States (as discussed earlier in this blog).)

The rethinking has already begun in Gibraltar: the territory’s Chief Minister, Fabian Picardo, said this week that in the event of a “Brexit”—as the media have dubbed UKIP’s hoped-for secession from the E.U.—Gibraltar would want to stay in the Union.  “The only existential threat to our economy,” Picardo told the conservative Daily Telegraph, “is one where we are pulled out of the European Union against our will and denied access to the single market.  I think everybody who is serious about the subject, even those whose views I don’t share, talk about retaining access to Europe as a member of the European economic area.  I know that there are many in the U.K. who advocate the U.K. moving out of the E.U. who consider themselves to be very good friends of Gibraltar, but they need to understand the economics of this.”  Gibraltar is the only overseas U.K. territory that is not in the E.U. (though some far-flung possessions of E.U. member states are in it, notably French Guiana and other French territories like Réunion and Mayotte in the Indian Ocean and Guadeloupe and Martinique in the Caribbean, as well as Spain’s special municipalities of Ceuta and Melilla and its Canary Islands, which are all geographically African).

Picardo’s words echo the position not only the S.N.P. in Scotland but of Plaid Cymru, the nationalist party in Wales: both demand that their countries be allowed binding local referenda on E.U. membership in the event of a U.K.-wide vote on the question.  The E.U. is only really unpopular in England, not in other parts of the U.K.  But in Gibraltar the statement represents a serious reversal of thinking on the status of “the Rock,” as locals call the two-and-a-half-square-mile peninsula jutting off Spain’s mainland.  Gibraltarians, after all, have never favored independence.  In a 2002 referendum on Gibraltar’s status, confirming a similar result in 1967, more than 98.97% of the 30,000 or so residents opposed any change in status.  This ranks among history’s most thunderously near-unanimous votes against changing the status of a territory, alongside similar polls in the Falkland Islands (where residents in 2013 backed the status quo 1,513 to 3) and the Cocos Islands (where, in 1983, only 9 out of 261 wanted independence from Australia).

These Gibraltar residents don’t care which flag flies over them.

But is Picardo thinking of what would amount to independence—continued membership in the E.U. on its own? (it would make it the Union’s tiniest member state, smaller by far even than Luxembourg or Malta)—or is he thinking of joining Spain?  Surely not the latter, since Spain’s ongoing claims on the territory are the chief source of Gibraltarian indignation that has energized opposition to change.

A quick history review: the Spanish claim go goes back to 1700, when the death of Spain’s childless King Carlos II, left him with no clear successor.  Carlos was a member of Austria’s Habsburg dynasty, so the Britain, Prussia, and Portugal wanted the crown to pass to the Austrian kaiser’s son, Archduke Karl—um, I mean, Carlos—while France and Bavaria backed a candidate from France’s royal family, the House of Bourbon.  Thus began the War of the Spanish Succession.  The Bourbons and their supporters prevailed: the prospective Carlos III stayed Karl and later became Holy Roman Emperor, and a Bourbon sits on the throne in Madrid even today.  But the end of the war in 1714 sorted out lots of outstanding territorial squabbles around the world among the European powers: France gave big chunks of Canada to Britain, for example, and Spain lost numerous colonies, including Sicily and what are now the Netherlands and Belgium.  Since the British and Spanish were in the midst of a long struggle for naval supremacy, Queen Anne of Great Britain negotiated hard, and successfully, for her consolation prize, Gibraltar, ownership of which meant theoretical control of trade through the narrow passage between the Mediterranean Sea and the open Atlantic.

No Mediterranean climes for Archduke Karl; he had to settle for this measly job.

The Spanish have never gotten over this, even now that shared membership in the E.U. means the border between Gibraltar and the Spanish mainland amounts to very little (though Spain routinely tests British patience by imposing punitive border controls from time to time).  Spanish political candidates thunder on about taking back the Rock whenever patriotism needs to be whipped up before an election.  The Spanish royal family even boycotted Queen Elizabeth II’s diamond jubilee in 2012 over the issue (as reported on at the time in this blog)—which in terms of historical memory and emotional maturity is sort of equivalent to what it would be like if David Cameron refused to shake hands with Barack Obama because he was still pouting over mean things said about King George III during the Boston Tea Party.

Cars lined up during one of Spain’s capriciously imposed border delays

On the Spanish side, nationalists have been eyeing Gibraltar hungrily in the wake of UKIP’s rise as well.  Professor Alejandro del Valle Gálvez, a Gibraltar expert at Spain’s University of Cádiz, says the time is ripe for Madrid to pursue “the democratic control of the British base, a modus vivendi agreed on legal and finance issues whilst negotiations take place for a definitive international status for Gibraltar that is accepted by all parties.”  In other words, they want to push and push until Gibraltarians give in and resort to Spanish rule.  Del Valle envisions the current British territory and the “Campo de Gibraltar”—the adjacent administrative district in Spain’s autonomous Andalusia region—to merge as a city-state that could become a “Monaco of the Strait.”  (A big difference, of course, would be that the Principality of Monaco allows citizens to choose who governs them, in conformity to international norms.)

Brits and Spaniards stare each other down across one of the world’s shortest land borders.

There is another reason that Gibraltar will never choose Spain over independence or leaving the E.U.: Spain itself is among the Union’s economic basket cases, and it is not inconceivable that a “Spexit” could be in the works, too, leaving the Rock with the worst of both worlds.  But Spain’s relationship to the E.U. and the financial crisis that began in 2008 is as complex as Britain’s: in particular, Spain’s most economically successful region, Catalonia, has been pushing as hard for independence recently as Scotland has (though so far against deal-killing pushback from the mother country).  Catalan separatists are eager to avoid the punitive effects of economic mismanagement that they believe Spain—along with the fellow member states Portugal, Greece, Cyprus, and Italy—have brought upon themselves.  If Catalonia were independent, it would never be forced to quit the euro or leave the Union, though what was left of Spain, without its wealthiest region, would be more likely to do either.

So, in my opinion, the solution is obvious: Gibraltar can avoid both UKIP’s economically suicidal policies and Spain’s, and stay in the E.U. as well, by joining an independent Catalonia.  The two entities do not border each other, but Barcelona is certainly nearer Gibraltar than London is.  Catalonia is already a playground for hordes of vacationing Britons.  And there is a deep historical tie: the then quasi-independent Catalonia sided with Britain, not the Spanish, in the War of the Spanish Succession.  In 1704, over 300 Catalans defended the Rock from the Habsburgs; a local beach is named in their honor.  And the king-making Republican Left of Catalonia (Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, or E.R.C.) party in Catalonia’s separatist ruling coalition scandalizes mainstream opinion in Spain by refusing to side with Madrid on Gibraltar (as discussed in an article in this blog).  (Basque separatists, by contrast, want Spain to reclaim Gibraltar, making them more than a bit hypocritical on the question of whether a referendum on being or not being part of Spain should be binding.)

Gibraltar’s flag

On the other hand, if Spain’s King Felipe VI would really and truly like to undo the Treaty of Utrecht, he is perfectly free to step aside and let 54-year-old Karl von Habsburg, a private citizen living in Salzburg, to take over the throne in Madrid.

For use in case of reconquista: outgoing King Juan Carlos places the sash of Captain General
of Spain’s royal armed forces on his son and successor, King Felipe VI.

[You can read more about Gibraltar, Scotland, Catalonia, UKIP, and other movements, both famous and obscure, in my new book, a sort of encyclopedic atlas just published by Litwin Books under the title Let’s Split! A Complete Guide to Separatist Movements and Aspirant Nations, from Abkhazia to Zanzibar.  The book, which contains 46 maps and 554 flags (or, more accurately, 554 flag images), is available for order now on Amazon.  Meanwhile, please “like” the book (even if you haven’t read it yet) on Facebook and see this special announcement for more information on the book.]

Black, White, and Red (and Yellow) All Over: Commie Nun Vows Revolution for Independent Catalonia

Separatist movements in the new Europe often have left and right wings to them.  Nowhere is this truer than in Spain, whose unusual political landscape of ideologically and regionally diverse splinter groups can be seen as part of the continuing aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, including a Fascist dictatorship which, almost uniquely in western Europe, yielded to pluralism only a generation ago.

It is true especially of Catalonia, whose widely popular independence movement (which this blog called one of “10 Separatist Movements to Watch in 2013”) is hurtling toward a referendum next year on separation from Spain.  (See recent articles on the movement here and here.)  There is the region’s ruling Convergence and Union (Convergència i Unió, or CiU), which, to the discomfort of some, includes many political conservatives in its broad pro-independence coalition.  Then there is the Republican Left of Catalonia (Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, or ERC), which takes a more radical-socialist approach.  ERC disdains any attachment to mainstream Spanish politics—promoting unification with the small North Catalonia region over the border in southeastern France in an independent “Greater Catalonia” and (as reported on not too long ago in this blog) bucking the Spanish jingoistic consensus by defending the United Kingdom’s sovereignty in Gibraltar.  (After all, Catalans sided with Britain against Madrid in the Wars of Spanish Succession—and for a while during the Spanish Civil War, as readers of George Orwell know, Catalonia was, of all things, an independent “Anarchist” statelet.)

A Procès Constituent rally in Barcelona.
Good lord, they must be radicals.  Not a Catalan flag in sight.

But now even ERC has been outflanked on the left, by a new group called Constituent Process in Catalonia (Procès Constituent a Catalunya), a non-party movement founded in April 2013 with an agenda far more radical than any other independentist group in the region, Greens included.  One of its co-founders is Sister Teresa Forcades, a Benedictine nun who has now vowed that before or after separation Catalonia needs to undergo a revolution.  “We don’t shy away from the word revolution,” she says, adding, “We have democracy in name, but not in reality because the broad current of opinion, which is that the system must change, is not represented.”  Her co-founder, Arcadi Oliveres, a university economist in Barcelona, agrees: “Thousands of people are being evicted from their homes while thousands of homes lie empty.  This absurdity is based on the sacrosanct idea of private property.  All the property the banks have acquired should be made available as social housing.”

Sister Forcades considers CiU the party of the rich and calls instead for nationalization of banks, withdrawal from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) (though it has yet to be agreed upon if an independent Catalonia could stay in NATO and the European Union if it wanted to), and even abolition of the military.

Sister Teresa says the CiU emperors have no clothes.

Procès Constituent has amassed over 45,000 members since it made its manifesto public earlier this year.  What remains to be seen is whether such expressions of discontent will help or hinder CiU’s larger push for independence.  Poll numbers are faltering, but is CiU’s accommodation to the Establishment and to political conservatives and nationalist xenophobes pushing those numbers down, or are they the only things keeping them up?  As in the rest of Spain, the solution on offer seems to be further fragmentation and factionalism (not that there’s anything necessarily wrong with that).

But Catalan independence is less important for Sister Forcades and her allies than the social changes they wish to see.  “A majority of people in Catalonia already want radical change,” she says, “so we are only trying articulate what already exists.  I don’t think these changes can only happen in an independent Catalonia, but I think it would be better.  However, there is a hunger for change across all of Spain and I think if it only happens in Catalonia it’s doomed to fail.”

Looking ahead to 2014 ...

[For those who are wondering, yes, this blog is tied in with a forthcoming book, a sort of encyclopedic atlas to be published by Auslander and Fox under the title Let’s Split! A Complete Guide to Separatist Movements, Independence Struggles, Breakaway Republics, Rebel Provinces, Pseudostates, Puppet States, Tribal Fiefdoms, Micronations, and Do-It-Yourself Countries, from Chiapas to Chechnya and Tibet to Texas.  Look for it some time in 2014.  I will be keeping readers posted of further publication news.]

Catalans Link Arms for Independence While Their President Pulls Back from Separatist Precipice

Hundreds of thousands of Catalans, perhaps more than a million according to some accounts, linked arms in a dramatic human chain across their small nation on September 11th to notify the world that they crave independence from the Kingdom of Spain.  But the stunt proved to be less of a momentum-building event to carry the message through to a referendum next year on secession and more of an awkward backdrop to the newest statement by Catalonia’s president and the ruling separatist party’s leader, Artur Mas i Govarró, who seems suddenly to be climbing down from his previous confrontational stance toward Madrid.

Artur Mas, greeting a separatist rally last year.  He might not get such a warm reception today.

Initially, Mas’s Democratic Convergence of Catalonia party (Convergència Democràtica de Catalunya, or C.D.C.) had defiantly said it would hold a referendum on independence whether the Spanish government approved or not, and it would be binding.  But Madrid made it perfectly clear that any such referendum would be constitutionally impermissible.  Now, on September 14th, Mas came right out and said that no referendum would be held against the wishes of the central government.  Since the central government’s implacable position is well known, this is tantamount to Mas canceling the referendum.  He said that instead the 2016 elections would be interpreted as a symbolic plebiscite on the future direction of Catalonia’s status—a rather weak substitute indeed.

The human chain stretched over 400 kilometers, from the French border in the north to the internal border with Spain’s autonomous Valencia region to the south.  It ran mostly along the coast, including some of Catalonia’s nude beaches (see photo above).  It took place on la Diada, Catalonia’s national holiday, which commemorates this year the 299th anniversary of the reabsorption of Catalonia into Spain after Spain’s defeat by the United Kingdom (whom the Catalans backed) in the Wars of Spanish Succession.

The route of last week’s human chain

The stunt was directly modeled on the Baltic Way, a similar human chain in 1989 which snaked through Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania in a mass demand for independence from the Soviet Union.  (Recognizing this, a Catalan reporter asked Latvia’s prime minister, Valdis Dombrovskis, whether he would recognize an independent Catalonia.  “Provided there is legitimacy of the process, I would say, theoretically, why not?” he replied, leading to a formal protest from Madrid and the recalling of Spain’s ambassador in Riga.)

Only a little over half of all Catalans support independence, actually, but more than 80% tell pollsters they want a referendum.  This, one would think, is enough of a mandate for Mas to take a less conciliatory tone.  But Mas’s climbdown is a political gamble in more immediate ways.  The coalition that C.D.C. dominates, Convergence and Union (Convergència i Unió, or CiU) coalition, does not have enough seats to rule on its own and relies on the support of the Democratic Left of Catalonia (Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, or E.R.C.), which typically takes more controversial hard-line stands, such as recognizing the legitimacy of British rule in the disputed colony of Gibraltar (as reported recently in this blog) and calling for unification with the much smaller Catalan region just over the border in southeastern France.  The E.R.C. has always been more committed to a referendum than C.D.C., so now the ruling coalition may collapse.  That would put secession even farther out of reach.

The human chain across Catalonia might simply mark the end of the line for the small nation’s dream of independence.

[Also, for those who are wondering, yes, this blog is tied in with a forthcoming book, a sort of encyclopedic atlas to be published by Auslander and Fox under the title Let’s Split! A Complete Guide to Separatist Movements, Independence Struggles, Breakaway Republics, Rebel Provinces, Pseudostates, Puppet States, Tribal Fiefdoms, Micronations, and Do-It-Yourself Countries, from Chiapas to Chechnya and Tibet to Texas.  Look for it some time in 2013.  I will be keeping readers posted of further publication news.]

Ban Ki-Moon, in Andorra, Breaks U.N. Silence on Catalonia, Scotland; Says Processes Must Respect People’s Will

Andorra’s prime minister, Antoni Martí, appearing in Andorra this week with the U.N. secretary general, Ban Ki-Moon, and their respective flags.

Ban Ki-Moon, secretary general of the United Nations (U.N.), broke his silence on Europe’s two looming independence referenda—in Spain’s Catalonia region and in Scotland—stating that any secessions must be peacefully negotiated.  But he also added that the will of the people should be respected.  The United Kingdom is committed to allowing Scotland to form a new state if its referendum next year shows a majority want it, but Ban’s comments can be interpreted as a rebuke to the Spanish government, which has repeatedly said that Catalonia is forbidden from holding a referendum and that its results, if held, would have no legal force.  The Catalan government is also planning an independence referendum for 2014.

Ban’s comments came during an official state visit to the Principality of Andorra, a mountainous city-state along the border between Spain and France.  The official language of Andorra is Catalan, though it is only spoken by 39% of its 85,000 or so residents.  Another 35% speak (other) varieties of Spanish. The heartland of the Catalan nation is the Autonomous Community of Catalonia, Spain’s northeasternmost region, where Catalan is a co-official language, but a minority also speaks it in southeastern France, where the central government refuses to grant any minority languages any kind of official status.  Andorra joined the U.N. only in 1993, becoming the world body’s third-smallest member-state, behind Liechtenstein and San Marino, though since 1971 its official anthem has been the “Hymn of the United Nations,” composed by the legendary Catalan violincellist Pablo Casals—who gave a fiery speech on Catalan identity on the occasion of the anthem’s adoption.

The Catalan-speaking lands

Usually, the U.N. speaks of the rights of nations and states, but tends to stay out of separatist conflicts—even in cases such as those of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, whose occupation by the Soviet Union the U.N. never recognized, but never did anything about.  Ban’s remarks this week are unusual because they imply a principle of a right to secession—which is anathema to two veto-wielding member-states on the U.N. Security Council, the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China, both of which are plagued violent internal struggles by separatist minorities.

Ban Ki-Moon at a Real Madrid soccer match earlier this year

It is unclear whether Ban feels strongly enough about the right of peoples to self-determination to remove Gibraltar, a U.K. possession on the Iberian Peninsula, from the U.N.’s list of “Non-Self-Governing Territories”—since it is self-governing (under U.K. suzerainty) and since in a 2002 referendum Gibraltarians voted overwhelmingly to stay British.  (See my recent article on this blog for more on the parallels between Catalonia and Gibraltar.)

Separatism, as we can already see, is a can of worms, and Ban may regret opening it.  But for now, Catalans are applauding him.

[You can read more about Catalonia and many other sovereignty and independence movements both famous and obscure in my new book, a sort of encyclopedic atlas just published by Litwin Books under the title Let’s Split! A Complete Guide to Separatist Movements and Aspirant Nations, from Abkhazia to Zanzibar.  The book, which contains 46 maps and 554 flags (or, more accurately, 554 flag images), is available for order now on Amazon.  Meanwhile, please “like” the book (even if you haven’t read it yet) on Facebook and see this interview for more information on the book.]

Catalan Nationalists Side with Britain on Gibraltar Question, Shocking Spaniards

Border delays are part of the new cold war over Gibraltar, and Catalan nationalists are siding with London.

Once again in the “strange bedfellows” department: the main leftist separatist party in Catalonia seems to be siding with the United Kingdom in the dispute with the Kingdom of Spain over Gibraltar, a tiny British colony abutting the Spanish mainland which the Spanish crown ceded to the British in 1713 after a nasty war.  The Chief Minister of Gibraltar, Fabian Picardo, received a letter August 12th from the Republican Left of Catalonia (Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, or E.R.C.) party, written in English and Catalan (Spanish translation not enclosed).  It read, in part, “We most sincerely regret the improper bullying and harassment that the Spanish government is applying on the citizens you represent.”

The Esquerra Republicana leader, Oriol Junqueras i Vies,
drapes himself in the E.U. and Catalan flags.
(Union Jack not pictured.)

The “bullying and harassment” refers to Spain’s recent escalation of its quixotic saber-rattling over “the Rock,” as the colony is known, including naval cat-and-mouse games in Gibraltarian waters, a renewal of the diplomatic war of words, and a punitive slowdown of the border-crossing procedure.  (Though both Spain and the U.K. are in the European Union (E.U.), the U.K. is not part of the passport-free “Schengen Area,” and Gibraltar implements laws in many ways as though it were a separate E.U. member-state.)

Ongoing territorial claims on Gibraltar are popular in Spain, despite the fact that they violate the Treaty of Utrecht and despite the fact that in two referenda, in 1967 and 2002, Gibraltarians voted nearly unanimously (98.6% and 98.97%, respectively) to remain British.  And of the minuscule number of dissenters, most were opting only for some sort of shared condominium with Spain, not annexation.  But Spain’s political mainstream and even the royal family are adamant.  Queen Sofía even gave Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee a miss last year in anger over Gibraltar (as reported at the time in this blog).

Gibraltar’s flag

The dispute over Gibraltar is somewhat analogous to that over the Falkland Islands, which are claimed by the Argentine Republic even though Falklanders have let it be known in a referendum this year that they overwhelmingly want to be part of the U.K.  (Only three people voted against the status quo—and they, too, were probably preferring independence to conquest by Argentina.)  Though the claims of the Argentine and Spanish governments have no legal basis and use geographical proximity as their only argument, they have nonetheless become pet causes of anti-establishment leftists in Britain, the United States, and elsewhere—extending to these situations familiar, and far better grounded, complaints about Anglophone meddling in the Spanish-speaking world during the colonial and Cold War periods.  The left-wing Guardian newspaper in England recently said that the continuing British rule in Gibraltar and the Falklands (which are, in fact, self-governing) “den[ies] the logic of history and geography.”  The Guardian seems to feel that history and geography carry their own logic which trumps democracy every time.  (For all its faults, the U.K. has a very clear policy that it will not attempt to hang onto territories where the majority reject British rule.)  Even the newly enthroned Pope Francis, an Argentine, calls the Falklands part of Argentina.  Then again, he also believes all that stuff about the virgin birth and turning water into wine, so his critical-thinking skills are not necessarily top-notch.

Pope Francis would like to dislodge Protestant infidels from Argentina’s near abroad.

The United Nations, though it is not taking sides, still keeps Gibraltar on its finger-wagging list of “non-self-governing territories,” even though Gibraltar is self-governing—one of many fictitious delusions on the U.N. list.  (This list was critiqued in detail in an article on this blog.)

Catalonia’s ruling nationalist party, the Convergence and Union (Convergència i Unió, or CiU) coalition, is also wisely staying out of the Gibraltar dispute while it heats up.  The E.R.C., keep in mind, is a far-left party.  It has only 21 of the Catalan parliament’s 135 seats.  It is also the one Catalan nationalist party which pushes for reunification with traditionally Catalan lands that lie within France (the so-called Northern Catalonia, in the Pyrenées-Orientales département).

The Catalan-speaking areas (shown in grey) extend into France.

But there is a history to these events.  The same Treaty of Utrecht that made Gibraltar British also abolished the autonomy of Catalonia and Valencia.  In fact, 350 Catalan troops participated in the 1704 conquest of Gibraltar by Britain, during the War of Spanish Succession.  Remembering this, one Catalan nationalist group has asked the autonomous region’s president, Artur Mas i Gavarró, to invite Picardo to a 2014 event marking the 300th anniversary of the Treaty of Utrecht.

Catalans also involved themselves in the first Anglo-Spanish tussle over the Rock, in 1704.

But there is also a modern political logic to the E.R.C.’s cozying to London, and it is a logic which may emerge into the political mainstream in Barcelona in the following months as Catalans prepare for a referendum on independence from Spain in 2014.  As reported at the time in this blog, the Spanish government said last year that it might veto any vote on Scotland becoming a member of the E.U., in case Scotland should secede from the U.K. following its own 2014 referendum (and once the question of whether it would need to reapply for membership is settled).  This raises the prospect of the governments in Madrid and London entering a mutual veto pact as a way of stoking Scottish and Catalan fears of ejection from the E.U., thus influencing their referenda.  Catalonia would be motivated to prevent that.  U.K.–Catalan trade is considerable, and there are cultural exchanges as well, if you can classify as cultural exchange the fact that there are whole resort towns in Catalonia full of fish-and-chips shops, English pubs, Daily Mail vending machines, and hamlets of vacation homes where only English can be heard—a new Mediterranean quasi-nation of sorts which it would be tempting to call Chavalonia.  Britain doesn’t really want Catalonia out of the E.U. any more than it wants Scotland out of it, so it makes sense for Catalan nationalists to emphasize and strengthen their ties to London, just as it makes sense for Scots to improve relations with Madrid.

Relations between England and Catalonia have not always been warm,
but they may be improving.

The question of Gibraltar will not be settled soon.  Most Spaniards still feel that it should be made part of Spain against the wishes of its residents, and mainstream Spanish politicians are always eager to cater to jingoistic bluster; hating the English is a national pastime.  But Catalans, starting with the fringe leftists, may be starting to realize that if they want Madrid to respect and recognize their people’s wishes, it would be hypocritical not to treat the wishes of Gibraltarians the same way.

[Also, for those who are wondering, yes, this blog is tied in with a forthcoming book, a sort of encyclopedic atlas to be published by Auslander and Fox under the title Let’s Split! A Complete Guide to Separatist Movements, Independence Struggles, Breakaway Republics, Rebel Provinces, Pseudostates, Puppet States, Tribal Fiefdoms, Micronations, and Do-It-Yourself Countries, from Chiapas to Chechnya and Tibet to Texas.  Look for it some time in 2013.  I will be keeping readers posted of further publication news.]

Rohingyas Sidelined, Cyrenaicans Are Back, Reactions to Obama Victory, More Tibetan Self-Immolations, Jämtland, Falklands Referendum Text: The Week in Separatist News, 4-10 November 2012

Burma’s Rohingya people: no country wants them.
Burma’s so-called opposition movement should care, but they don’t.

TOP STORY:
AUNG SAN SUU KYI THROWS BURMA’S DISENFRANCHISED ROHINGYAS
UNDER THE BUS IN ATTEMPT TO COURT WEST

Suu Kyi Throws Burma’s Persecuted Rohingyas under the Bus.  The so-called hero of the Burmese opposition movement, Aung San Suu Kyi, told the British Broadcasting Corporation (B.B.C.) on November 3rd that she will not take sides in the ethnic violence between predominantly-Buddhist Arakanese (also called Rakhine people) and predominantly-Muslim Rohingyas in Burma’s western Rakhine (a.k.a. Arakan) state.  Speaking after a meeting with the European Commission’s president, José Manuel Barroso, who expressed concern over her silence, Suu Kyi, who is Buddhist and has been on an aggressive campaign to court the favor of the West, said, “I am urging tolerance but I do not think one should use one’s moral leadership, if you want to call it that, to promote a particular cause without really looking at the sources of the problems.”  Meanwhile, she is calling for more government troops to be sent to Arakan.  Hundreds have been killed since June in religious-based violence in Burma (also known as Myanmar), but most of the Arakanese–Rohingya violence has been in the form of Buddhist ethnic cleansing of the stateless and disenfranchised Rohingya Muslims, which has, along with Suu Kyi’s despicable dissembling and silence, roused the ire of the Muslim world and of the international human-rights community.

... and elsewhere in Burma ...

10 Dead in Week of Violence between Burmese Military, Kachin Independence Army.  10 people were killed this week and others injured in the decades-old civil war between the Burmese military and the Kachin ethnic minority.  Two young Kachin boys and one boy from the Shan ethnic group were wounded on November 2nd by shelling from government troops in the village of Nbala Hka in Kachin State.  No fighters from the Kachin Independence Army (K.I.A.) were injured in that incident.  On November 4th, a K.I.A. lance corporal was killed in fighting, along with a young boy caught in the crossfire.  The next day, a Burmese army major and seven other soldiers died on November 5th at Dung Waw, in northern Shan State.  In these clashes, the government troops have been backed by two local militias, the Mungbaw Militia and the Kutkai Militia.

AFRICA

[For the latest developments in Nigeria, including the Biafra and Boko Haram conflicts, see this week’s “Nigerian Separatism Update.”]

Libya’s Cyrenaican Nationalists Return to Streets; Leader Escapes Assassination.  The movement for autonomy or independence for Libya’s wealthier, eastern region, Cyrenaica, took a back seat first after parliamentary elections earlier this year (as reported in this blog), and then more recently because Cyrenaica’s capital, Benghazi, became the focus of anti-terrorist activity after the United States ambassador was murdered at the U.S. consulate there.  But this week a thousand or so demonstrators again took the streets of Benghazi to demand more federalism.  A conclave of Cyrenaican nationalists urged the federal government in Tripoli to draft “a constitution on the basis of the legitimate constitution of 1951,” which was more heavily federal until Idris, king of Libya, centralized the government in 1963, leading eventually to a western revolt by Col. Moammar al-Qaddafi.  Then, the head of the military wing of the pro-autonomy Cyrenaica Transitional Council (C.T.C.), Hamid al-Hassi, survived an assassination attempt on November 4th that left one of his bodyguards dead and two wounded.  The assassins ambushed Hassi and his entourage in an armed vehicle while they were on the way to Hassi’s farm, in or near Benghazi, the Cyrenaican capital.

Demonstrators with the flag of the formerly independent Emirate of Cyrenaica

Ansar al-Dine Sends Envoy to Algeria Seeking Mediation in Azawad Dispute.  Days after the United States’ secretary of state, Hillary Rodham Clinton, attempted to enlist the government of Algeria to play a central role in returning the separatist Azawad region to the control of Mali’s government, a spokesman for Ansar al-Dine, one of the two Islamist militias which govern the territory, said that the group had sent a state-level delegation to Algeria.  The spokesman said that Algerian mediation was the key to resolving the crisis.  The spokesman referred to it as “a 49-year-old problem, which involves a region and a marginalized people.  Although they have the right to live in dignity like other peoples of the world, the people of the [Azawad] region did not even have the right to live like animals.”  Meanwhile, Ansar al-Dine representatives also met November 4th in Burkina Faso with representatives of the Malian and Burkinabe governments under Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) auspices.  Later, Mali’s foreign minister, Tiéman Coulibaly, denied reports he had met any Ansar al-Dine representatives.

Mali Arrests French Terrorist Linked to Azawadi Separatists.  The Republic of Mali’s ministry of defense reported the arrest this week of a radical Islamist named Ibrahim Ouattara, who is a citizen of France and is linked to the Islamist rebels that control the Azawad region of northern Mali.  Ouattara, who is 24 years old, was traveling with false documents identifying him as a citizen of Senegal when he was nabbed in Sevare, in the disputed Mopti province in central Mali, not far from Azawadi-controlled territory.  Ouattara was released from prison earlier this year in France, where he had served a two-year term for plotting to assassinate a Muslim cleric in Paris he deemed too moderate.

Zanzibar Police Arrest over 100 for Roles in Separatist Riots.  More than 100 suspected members of “street gangs” blamed for last month’s sectarian violence in Zanzibar have been arrested, according to police on November 3rd.  The suspects include members of Uamsho, the Islamist militia which seeks Zanzibar’s independence from Tanzania.  Police said more than 60 of those arrested have been charged with crimes.

Moroccan Police Greet U.N. Envoy by Torturing, Urinating on Sahrawi Protesters.  Protesters and police in Western Sahara, a territory illegally occupied by the Kingdom of Morocco, battled in the streets on November 1st during a visit by the United Nations’ controversial envoy to the disputed territory, Christopher Ross.  According to reports from the Polisario Front, the main Sahrawi rebel group, several were injured in the fighting, which occurred in the city of Laayoune.  Two activists, 26-year-old Benchri Bentaleb and 27-year-old Hassana Abba were arrested and tortured by police, according to the Polisario report, which stated, “The police urinated on both men, insulting them and wounding them with a knife near the heart with the purpose of engraving there the flag of Morocco on their skin.”  Later, on November 6th, Moroccan authorities expelled 25 Europeans from Western Sahara, including four from Norway who belong to Sandfast, a pro-Sahrawi activist group.  The other Europeans are from Spain and affiliated with the United Left Party.  A Moroccan report said the four Scandinavians were from Sweden.

Christopher Ross, the United Nations’ Western Sahara envoy, has an audience with Morocco’s king.

Puntland Militia Kills 2 Civilians in Somaliland Border Region, Part of Alleged Blood Feud.  A militia apparently under the control of the security apparatus of the de facto independent Puntland State of Somalia raked a tea shop with machine-gun fire on November 6th in Dhahar, in a border area claimed by both Puntland and the independent but unrecognized Republic of Somaliland, killing two.  The victims were members of the Warsangeli clan, and clan elders in Dhahar—which is in what the Federal Republic of Somalia still delusionally calls its own Sanaag province—put the blame on Puntland’s deputy minister of security, Abdijamal Mohamed Osman, who is himself Warsangeli and is suspected of carrying out blood feuds.  But Puntland sources say one of the dead men was Hassan Ismail Sardheye, a wanted member of the al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamist militia al-Shabaab.

Puntland Puts Out Arrest Warrants for Exiled Opposition Leaders.  The government of the de facto independent Puntland State of Somalia on November 4th put out arrest warrants for opposition leaders living abroad (i.e., in other parts of Somalia, as well as outside Somalia), should they ever decide to return to Puntland.  Those on the wanted list include Gen. Abdullahi Said Samatar, who lives in London.  And on November 7th police in Bosaso, in Puntland, arrested a former secretary to a former president of Puntland, Mohamud Muse Hersi.  It is not yet known why he was arrested.  Meanwhile, Abdiweli Mohamed Ali, the recently superseded prime minister of the Somali Republic (now Federal Republic of Somalia), of which Puntland is nominally a part, criticized the heavy-handedness of the regime in Puntland, saying, “Today there is no freedom of expression in Puntland.”  Ali is himself from the Puntland region.

Abdiweli Mohamed Ali has no kind words for the regime in Puntland.

EUROPE

Who’s Who of Spanish Celebrities Sign Manifesto Urging Catalans Not to Secede.  Several hundred Spanish public figures have put their names to a manifesto published November 4th in the Madrid daily newspaper El País asking Catalonia not to secede from Spain.  The signatories include the filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar and the Peruvian-Spanish novelist Mario Vargas Llosa, the First Marquis of Vargas Llosa.  The same day, a Catalan newspaper published a survey showing 50.9% of Catalans favoring a split.

Pedro Almodóvar wants Spain to stay united.

Catalan Opinion Poll Projects Victory for 2 Separatist Parties on November 25th.  A new opinion poll in Catalonia predicts a victory for Convergència i Unió (CiU, or “Convergence and Union”), the Catalan nationalist party, in the regional elections set for November 25th.  It projects that CiU will end up with 63 or 64 seats out of 135 in the Catalan parliament.  Together with the more stridently separatist Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (E.R.C., or “Republican Left of Catalonia”), projected to end up with 17 seats, this will allow those wishing to secede from Spain to form a coalition government.

Catalonia’s Sikhs Back Independence from Spain, Drawing Punjab Parallel.  Reports emerged this week that residents of Catalonia who are from the Sikh religious minority tend to support independence from Spain.  Nearly three-quarters of Spain’s 21,000 or so Sikhs live in Catalonia.  Said one, “I feel in harmony with the people here because we have been facing the same problems with India over Punjab”—referring to the state in western India which was convulsed by Sikh separatism in the 1980s.

79% of Scots Want to Keep Pound after Independence; Smaller Majority for NATO, E.U.  A new opinion survey in Scotland this week revealed that 79% of Scots would like to keep the British pound as the nation’s currency if it secedes from the United Kingdom, but only a slight majority, 55%, favor keeping Scotland in the European Union (E.U.) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).  Only a minority want Scotland to adopt the euro as its currency.

Salmond Vows to Resign in 2014 If Independence Referendum Fails.  On November 8th, the day that he became Scotland’s longest-serving First Minister, Alex Salmond, the 57-year-old head of the Scottish National Party (S.N.P.), said he would resign if the 2014 referendum on Scottish independence on which he has staked his career fails to pass.  “You mustn’t repeat the mistake of some politicians and say you’ll go on and on,” he said, “but these are inspiring times and I’ve no immediate plans for retirement.”

Alex Salmond

Gibraltar Protests Spanish Naval Incursion into Territorial Waters.  The Spanish navy made an incursion into Gibraltar’s territorial waters on November 6th, prompting the colony’s chief minister, Fabian Picardo, to complain of Spain’s “scandalous and illegal act of aggression.”  The United Kingdom’s Royal Navy Gibraltar Squadron apparently confronted the Spanish naval vessel and chased it away.

Protesters Demand Accounting of Kosovo War M.I.A.s before Talks with Serbia.  After protests in Pristina last month (as reported at the time in this blog) following a cursory meeting between the Serbian and Kosovar presidents, the streets of Kosovo’s capital were filled with protesters again this week, this time demanding that the de facto independent state’s government back away from negotiations with the Republic of Serbia, which still claims it, until the fate of 1,700 Kosovars missing since the 1999 Kosovo War are accounted for.  The radical nationalist political party Vetëvendosje!, which favors Kosovo’s unification with the Republic of Albania, joined the protest.

Serbs Block Road to Protest Imprisonment of Serb by Kosovo.  Dozens of Serbs blocked a road in the Serb-governed North Kosovo portion of the de facto independent Republic of Kosovo for an hour on November 6th, in protest over a Serbian dissident jailed by Kosovar authorities.  The road blockage, in Rudare, a village in the municipality of Zvečan near the border with the Republic of Serbia, was organized by the Serbian National Council of Kosovo.  The prisoner, Slavoljub Jović, is charged with attempting to murder a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s Kosovo Force (KFOR) in Rudare in June.

A Serb roadblock in North Kosovo

Most Serbs Would Choose Kosovo over E.U. Membership, Poll Says.  59% of those polled in the Republic of Serbia said, in a poll released this week, that if they had to choose between Serbian membership in the European Union (E.U.) and keeping Kosovo in Serbian territory, they would choose Kosovo.  Only 27% chose the E.U.  Among those claiming allegiance to the Serb Progressive Party (S.N.S.), Serbia’s ruling party, the number preferring Kosovo was 78%.

Politician, Folk Singer Wants Jämtland Made a “Reservation” for “Indigenous Swedes.”  A folk singer and member of Sweden’s right-wing populist political party Sverigedemokraterna (“Sweden Democrats”) wrote a half- (or perhaps three-quarters) serious letter to the kingdom’s prime minister this week, outlining what she called the “indescribable chaos” wrought by a generous immigration policy and proposing the establishment of “a ‘Swedish reservation,’ where we can continue to follow our traditions and our Swedish culture.”  The singer, Marie Stensby, suggested that her home region, Jämtland, along the border with Norway, be made the site of such a reservation.  Jämtland, said to be more egalitarian and laid-back (in short, more Norwegian) than other parts of Sweden, was its own peasant republic in the Middle Ages and has been the focus of a tongue-in-cheek separatist movement since the 1960s.

The coat-of-arms of Jämtland

Chechnya’s Muslim Advisor Proposes Ban on Muslim Funerals for “Terrorists.”  The chairman of the Chechen Republic’s Muslim Administration, Sultan Mirzayev, called this week for a ban on Muslim funerals for what he called “terrorists.”  The government of the republic, which is run by an authoritarian president appointed by the Russian Federation’s central government, has not yet commented on the proposal.

Sultan Mirzayev

5 Dead as Bombings, Sieges, Ambushes Rock Kabardino-Balkaria, Dagestan.  Two people were injured in two separate explosions in Russia’s southwestern North Caucasus region on November 4th.  In the Kabardino-Balkar Republic, a roadside bomb detonated when a military convoy passed, injuring one serviceman.  The same evening, in Buinaksk, in the Republic of Dagestan, a bomb planted under a police car injured one officer.  A few hours later, authorities captured eight militants armed with weapons and explosives in Dagestan’s Kizlyarsky district.  The following day, in Makhachkala, Dagestan’s capital, a police officer was shot and killed by an unknown assailant.  And on November 7th in Khasavyurt, Dagestan, three “bandits,” including a citizen of Kazakhstan, who were holed up in an apartment building were killed in a siege by police.  One Dagestani interior-ministry operative was injured.  A policeman was killed and seven other police were wounded on November 8th when a roadside bomb hit a police patrol vehicle in Dagestan, followed by an attack by rebels armed with machine guns.

BITS OF ASIA THAT LIKE TO PRETEND THEY’RE PART OF EUROPE

Ivanishvili Says Ties to Russia Can’t Resume While Abkhazia, South Ossetia Recognized.  The Republic of Georgia’s new prime minister, Bidzina Ivanishvili, clarified his position on the secession of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in a news conference on November 1st, saying that Georgia would not restore diplomatic ties to the Russian Federation so long as Moscow continued to extend diplomatic recognition to the two breakaway republics.  Most of the world regards Abkhazia and South Ossetia as part of Georgia, but Russia and a handful of minor nations have recognized the two areas as sovereign states after the 2008 South Ossetia War, in which the Georgian military tried and failed to reclaim them.

[For the latest developments in Kurdistan, including Turkey, see this week’s “Kurdistan Update.”]

ASIA—MIDDLE EAST

[For the latest developments in Kurdistan, including parts of Syria and Iraq, see this week’s “Kurdistan Update.”]

Turkey Begins Trial in Absentia of 4 Israeli Military Chiefs over Mavi Marmara Killings.  Trial began in Istanbul, Turkey, in absentia for four Israeli military leaders in the killings of nine Turkish activists on board the Mavi Marmara, which tried in 2010 to pierce Israel’s illegal blockade of the Palestinian Territories’ Gaza Strip exclave.  Over 500 people are expected to give evidence.  The Israeli government calls it “a propaganda display” and “a show trial, with has nothing to do with either law or justice.”  The defendants are Gabi Ashkenazi, Israel’s former chief of staff; Eliezer Marom, former commander of the navy; Amos Yadlin, former air-force chief; and Avishai Levy, former head of air-force intelligence.

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators outside a courthouse in Istanbul

Israeli Soldiers Shoot and Kill Unarmed Mentally Ill Man at Gaza Border Fence.  Soldiers from the Israeli Defense Forces (I.D.F.) shot and killed an unarmed, mentally ill man at a border fence along the Gaza Strip on November 4th.  The man was 23 years old and did not heed orders to stay out of a buffer zone that Israel illegally maintains around the Palestinian exclave.  Palestinian medics had to wait two hours, until next morning, to retrieve him and later stated that they could have saved him if allowed to attend to him more quickly.  Two days later, three members of an I.D.F. patrol in central Gaza were injured by an explosion, followed by the firing of rockets from Gaza into the Eshkol region of southern Israel.  There were no injuries.  Two days after that, a large tunnel was blown up right near an area where I.D.F. soldiers were investigating further bombs related to the border blast.

South Yemen Separatists Wound 4 Policemen in Ambush.  Separatist militants in the Republic of Yemen’s Lahij province, in the formerly independent South Yemen, ambushed a security patrol on November 4th, injuring four policemen.  The gunmen fled and have not been located.

ASIA—SOUTH ASIA

University Student in Hyderabad Hangs Self to Protest Delay in Creating Telangana State.  At the campus of Osmania University in Hyderabad, which has been the focal point for advocacy for a separate state within India for the Telugu minority, a 20-year-old student hanged himself on November 7th to express support for the cause.  The suicide note from the student, Darshanala Santosh of Adilabad, blamed the federal government for delaying in the creation of a Telugu state, to be called Telangana, out of part of Andhra Pradesh.  It stated he hoped his death would “add fuel to the separate Telangana agitation.”  Then there were riots on campus when police interfered with students’ attempts to take Santosh’s body to a Telangana martyrs’ memorial in Secuderabad.  In the ensuing violence, buses and police vehicles were damaged by stone-throwers and a student was injured by a tear-gas cannister.  Hundreds of Telugus have committed suicide in favor of the Telangana movement over the past several years, including five such incidents since 2009 on the Osmania campus alone.  Some of the suicides have been by self-immolation.

A student activist’s suicide sparks rioting in Hyderabad over Telangana statehood.

Left-Wing Manipur Separatists Claim Bomb Attack; Rebel Arrested in Delhi.  The People’s Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak (Prepak) has claimed responsibility for a bomb attack on a federal Sikh military regiment in India’s Manipur state on November 7th which injured several civilians.  Meanwhile, in Delhi on November 1st, federal police arrested a top commander from the Kangleipak Communist Party (Military Council) (K.C.P.–M.C.) and handed him over to police in Manipur.  The fighter, Ningthouyam “Rocky” Romen, age 27, was wanted on charges of extortion, kidnapping, and terrorism.  Prepak and the K.C.P. are among several rebel factions fighting for independence for Manipur, which was an autonomous princely state, named Kangleipak, in the days of British colonialism.

Canadian Prime Minister Rejects Indian Demands to Crack Down on Sikh Separatism.  The prime minister of Canada, Stephen Harper, was in Bangalore, India, on November 8th and in talks with Indian officials rejected pressure to more closely monitor Sikh radicals living in Canada.  He said his government does monitor violent groups adequately, and he rejected the implication that there was something illegal or improper about merely expressing a desire for an independent Sikh state—to be called Khalistan—in India ’s Punjab region.  “We can’t interfere with the right of political freedom of expression,” he said.

Stephen Harper (right) tries to explain the Canadian concept of freedom of speech:
“That’s right, even for unpleasant ideas.  Fancy that, eh?”

Tamil Rebel Assassinated in Paris in Apparent Factional Dispute.  On November 8th, an unknown gunman in Paris, France, killed a citizen of Sri Lanka who is reportedly linked to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (L.T.T.E.), a now-decommissioned Tamil rebel group.  Those close to the case speculate that a rivalry between Tamil factions was behind the assassination.  The dead man—Nadarajah Matheenthiran, a.k.a. Parithy, a.k.a. Reagan—headed the Tamil Coordinating Committee (T.C.C.), a pro-L.T.T.E. group.

ASIA—EAST ASIA

7 Tibetans Set Selves Afire in China; Demonstrations Rock Eastern Tibet.  Seven Tibetans set themselves on fire in the People’s Republic of China to protest ongoing Chinese oppression of Tibet, including six within a 48-hour span—marking a massive increase in such incidents.  First, a Tibetan artist died from self-immolation on November 4th in Tongren, a monastery town in China’s Qinghai province.  According to the exile group Free Tibet, the man was Dorjee Lungdup, age 25.  Thousands of Tibetans gathered to pay their respects, and the Chinese government deployed security forces to control the crowds.  Internet and telephone communications in the town were shut off.  Then, on November 7th and 8th, came a cluster of six self-immolations, three of them in the Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture in China’s Sichuan province, which has been the center of such activity.  At least two of the six had died, including a 23-year-old single mother named Tamdrin Tso and an 18-year-old former monk named Kalsang Jinpa.  On November 9th, hundreds took to the streets in Tongren in response to Jinpa’s death and also timed to occur during the Communist Party of China’s ceremonial transition of leadership in Beijing.

Dorjee Lungdup, burning for Tibetan freedom

Inner Mongolian Activist’s Wife, Son Have “Disappeared,” Rights Group in Exile Reports.  The wife and son of a prominent Inner Mongolian political prisoner in China are missing, according to a United States–based group, the Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center (S.M.H.R.I.C.), which monitors the struggle of the Mongol ethnic minority in the People’s Republic of China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.   For the past two weeks, the S.M.H.R.I.C. has been unable to contact Xinna and her son Uiles (who, like many Mongolians, have only one name).  Xinna’s husband, Hada, has been imprisoned for years and is suffering from ill health and depression.  Xinna and Uiles had recently given interviews to western media to raise awareness of their plight.

The now apparently “disappeared” Inner Mongolian dissident Xinna, in 2009

5 Dead, 9 Wounded in Simultaneous Attacks in Southern Thailand Separatist Region.  Separatist rebels in southern Thailand killed five people and injured nine in separate attacks on November 3rd.  A car bomb at a police station in the town of Rey Soh, in Narathiwat province, killed three and injured six, while a simultaneous blast at a school wounded two.  And a man was killed and his wife injured in a motorcycle drive-by shooting in Ban Duwa, in Pattani province.  Authorities suspect predominantly-Muslim Malays fighting for a separate state in the region.  A rubber-plantation worker was also killed by rebels on the same day.

OCEANIA

1 Activist Assassinated, 1 Beaten and Tortured, Say West Papua Separatists.  The chairman of the West Papua National Committee (K.N.P.B.), a separatist group in eastern Indonesia, said that one of their senior members, Paul Horis, was killed by Indonesian special forces on November 4th.  Meanwhile, the day before, a member of the region’s parliament was beaten and tortured by Indonesian soldiers in Merauke.

NORTH AMERICA

Republicans in Texas, Elsewhere Urge Secession after Obama Win.  The Southern Poverty Law Center (S.P.L.C.), a non-profit organization which tracks hate groups and domestic terrorist groups in the United States, reported on reactions from the radical right wing after Barack Obama, the first African-American president of the U.S., was re-elected November 6th.  The ugliest was at the University of Mississippi (“Ole Miss”), one of the battlegrounds of the desegregation movement in the 1960s, where an angry mob of white students chanted racial slurs, threw rocks at cars, and burned an “Obama/Biden” sign since no actual African-Americans, apparently, were available for burning at the moment.  Many right-wing reactions focused on the changing demographics in the U.S.  On the Infowars website, a commenter who incorporated a racial slur into his or her online handle, wrote, “They have brought about a communist takeover without firing a single shot.  America will resemble Zimbabwe ... in a few years ... all because white people didn’t oppose political correctness 35 years ago.”  “You will never see another white man occupy the White House,” another wrote.  A commenter on the neo-Nazi web forum Stormfront lamented “a truly white minority world,” adding, “The only way to survive this war of annihilation is separatism.  ...  We have to choose regions or states.”  In Texas, one Republican official and widely read Tea Party activist, the treasurer of Hardin County, Peter Morrison, urged Texas to secede from the “maggots” in the other 49 states who voted for Obama, including minorities who he said voted for him only on “an ethnic basis.”  The S.P.L.C. has documented a sharp upsurge in white-supremacist recruitment and activism since Obama was first elected in 2008, much of it focusing on Obama and African-Americans in its rhetoric.

Students at Ole Miss wish it were like the Ole Days, when you could burn more than signs.

Police Form Shield to Separate Anglophone Activists from Militant Quebec Separatists.  Police in Montreal, Canada, formed a human shield on November 4th to prevent violence between two groups of counterdemonstrators in the city’s Place du Canada: the Anglophone-rights group Language Fairness for All (L.F.A.) and a separatist crowd chanting slogans for Quebec’s independence, led by “Major” Serge Provost, founder of the radical separatist militia called Milice Patriotique Québécoise.  There were some reports of scuffles and injuries.

A thin blue line keeps Anglophones and Quebec nationalists from each other’s throats in Montreal.

CENTRAL AMERICA & CARIBBEAN

Puerto Rico Chooses Statehood over Independence in U.S. Referendum.  See this week’s full blog article on this subject.

Parties in Curaçao, Despite Separatist Win, Still Failing to Form Coalition Government.  Two weeks after an election in the Country of Curaçao, squabbling parties, none of which won an outright majority, signed a “declaration of joint effort” this week in lieu of a still-elusive deal for a coalition government.  The Pueblo Soberano (P.S., or Sovereign People’s Party), which favors independence from the Kingdom of the Netherlands, won a plurality, with 23% of the vote, and there were plans for it to form a coalition with the Movimentu Futuro Korsou (M.F.K., or Movement for the Future of Curaçao) and another party called Partido MAN (formerly standing for Movimentu Antia Nobo, or New Antilles Movement), but M.F.K., which won 21% of the vote in the October 20th election, since withdrew from the talks.

Curaçao’s parliament.  Despite the smiles, they can’t seem to agree.

PRACTICALLY BLOODY ANTARCTICA

Falklands Government Finalizes Referendum Question on Remaining in U.K.  The government of the Falkland Islands this week published the form of the question to be asked of the territory’s 3,000 or so residents in a referendum next year, which it is hoped will help put to rest the Argentine Republic’s aggressive claims on the archipelago.  Voters will be asked to give a “yes” or a “no” to the following text: “The current political status of the Falkland Islands is that they are an Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom.  The Islands are internally self-governing, with the United Kingdom being responsible for matters including defence and foreign affairs.  Under the Falkland Islands Constitution, the people of the Falkland Islands have the right to self-determination, which they can exercise at any time.  Given that Argentina is calling for negotiations over the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands, this referendum is being undertaken to consult the people regarding their views on the political status of the Falkland Islands.  Should the majority of votes cast be against the current status, the Falkland Islands Government will undertake necessary consultation and preparatory work in order to conduct a further referendum on alternative options.  Do you wish the Falkland Islands to retain their current political status as an Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom?”  After a consultation period, the ballot text is to be formally adopted on November 21st.

Flag of the Falkland Islands

[Also, for those who are wondering, yes, this blog is tied in with a forthcoming book, a sort of encyclopedic atlas to be published by Auslander and Fox under the title Let’s Split! A Complete Guide to Separatist Movements, Independence Struggles, Breakaway Republics, Rebel Provinces, Pseudostates, Puppet States, Tribal Fiefdoms, Micronations, and Do-It-Yourself Countries, from Chiapas to Chechnya and Tibet to Texas.  Look for it in spring 2013.  I will be keeping readers posted of further publication news.]