Spanish Party Urges Compensation for Rif War Chemical Weapons Victims in Morocco

The left-wing Catalan independence party wants to seize the opportunity of the adoption of the law on democratic memory to ask the Spanish government to compensate the Moroccan victims of the Rif War, reports ABC. This point is part of the amendments it has proposed to this law currently being examined by Congress.

See: Spanish Government Urged to Apologize for Chemical Weapons Use in Rif War

Several Moroccan civil society organizations have repeatedly demanded economic compensation for the descendants of the Rif for the alleged use of chemical weapons such as phosgene, diphosgene, chloropicrin and, above all, mustard gas, by Spain against the civilian population. These relatives of the "victims" of this war are estimated at 50,000 and the "war reparations" to be paid by Spain have been estimated at 10 million euros, according to Moroccan sources.

See: article 41192

If the proposal of the Catalan left-wing party is taken into account, Spain, in addition to the financial compensation it will have to pay to the victims or their relatives, will also have to "apologize" to Morocco for the use of chemical weapons and strengthen the hospitals of Nador and Al Hoceima with oncology units.

In 2005, a parliamentary group of the Republican Left had initiated a bill to recognize the use of chemical weapons by Spain during the Rif War. But the initiative did not prosper, the main political forces at the time having voted against it.