when they sought EU's intervention over what they said was a military
threat from Madrid.
Four MEPs stated in a letter to Brussels that the country's
authorities threatened the northeastern region where demands are
growing for independence. "We are writing to you to convey our deep
concern over a series of threats of the use of military force against
the Catalan population," they wrote to European Justice Commissioner
Viviane Reding.
The MPs recalled that hundreds of thousands of people had taken to the
streets of Barcelona on September 11 this year, the Catalan national
day, calling for independence. The popular protest helped to convince
the powerful region's president, Artur Mas, to call snap elections on
November 25 with the aim of organizing a referendum on
"self-determination".
But the MPs said many people including senior members of the military
had since said that Spanish armed forces had a constitutional duty to
guarantee the territorial integrity of Spain.
"Such threats limit Catalan and Spanish democracy as well as freedom
of expression and protest for people in Catalonia. In these
circumstances, the European Union should intervene preventively to
guarantee that the resolution of the Catalan conflict be resolved in a
peaceful, democratic manner," the letter, dated October 22, said.
It also urged Brussels "to make a public statement insisting on the
withdrawal from the public debate of any military threat or use of
force as a way of resolving this political conflict".
http://www.b92.net/eng/news/world-article.php?yyyy=2012&mm=10&dd=24&nav_id=82822
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