Spanish Army to Repatriate Remains of Hundreds from Moroccan Cemeteries to Melilla

At the time, these people, whose identity it is impossible to know according to the researchers, were buried by their relatives in the most precarious conditions and were the subject of desecration. The remains of these Spaniards, found in various Moroccan cemeteries and in the rocks of Al Hoceima and the rock of Badis, off the Moroccan coast, will be exhumed and transferred by the Spanish army to a cemetery in Melilla where they will be better preserved and protected. "It is our moral responsibility," explained sources from the army to Vozpopuli.

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The oldest remains date back to 1860 and are those of soldiers who fought during the conquest of Tetouan. They were buried by their relatives in several Christian cemeteries. At the independence of Morocco in 1956, the territories then under Spanish protectorate, including the cemeteries where many Spaniards were buried, passed into Moroccan hands. Except that these cemeteries, once Moroccan, were abandoned to their fate, neglected, "unprotected and receiving no care from the Moroccan or Spanish authorities," according to the Spanish consulate in Tetouan.

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The list of cemeteries concerned has been published by the researcher Francisco Javier Garcia Gonzalez on his blog. These are those of Fnideq, M’diq, Chefchaouen, Ksar El Kébir, Ras El Ma, Zeghanghane, Al-Aroui, Zaïo, Selouane and Targuist. The remains found in these cemeteries have been recovered and gathered in larger and more monitored spaces in Nador, Larache, Tetouan and Al Hoceima.

Vozpópuli had access to unpublished plans of some of these cemeteries, in particular those of Al-Aroui, about thirty kilometers from Melilla and Al Hoceima. The Indortes Foundation, led by Brigadier General Salvador Fontenla Ballesta, is working with its own funds to rehabilitate some of these cemeteries, including those in Larache and Tetouan. Its objective is to "promote the memory, conservation and surveillance of the cemeteries and tombs of Spanish combatants who fell in combat, without distinction of era, place, belief or ideology".