Jun 17 - YGTV Speaks To Denis Matthews At The United Nations
YGTV’s reporter
in New York spoke to Denis Matthews, Chairman of the Self Determination for Gibraltar Group, about his speech and the prospects of delisting in the future.
YGTV: Can you give me a quick summary of the key points of your speech?
Denis Matthews: The salient facts are that the Treaty of Utrecht handed Gibraltar over for ever and subsequent treatises confirmed British sovereignty. I also tackled the issue of territorial integrity which is governed by a resolution whose language is absolutely precise and clear.
The resolution talks about any attempt aimed at the total or partial disruption of a territory and that to me is specific to the present – you can’t aim to disrupt a territory when the event itself already happened 300 years ago.
YGTV: You’ve been coming to the U.N for many years – could you tell us whether in that time you’ve become less optimistic? Has there been any sense of progress in that time?
Denis Matthews: It’s hard to say. In a sense there has been some progress. The U.N now recognises that the right of people to self-determination is absolutely paramount. They used to say that in the old days but never really conformed to that principle. Something which quite surprised me was that the chairman came down to talk to us. He spoke to the Chief Minister and had a quick word with me because he interrupted me at one point because he thought that I was slating the Spanish government a bit too much but that is good because Gibraltar wants to engage with the Committee of 24 and anybody else at the U.N who has anything to do with decolonisation. This helps us to have an exchange of views to see how we can progress the whole thing. That was in important step forward today and it gave me an opportunity to explain that what I was saying about corruption in the political class in Spain is also being said by the Spanish media and has been established by opinion polls.
YGTV: Do you expect any progress in the next five or ten years? The latest offer is for a team to visit Gibraltar or even attend or host a seminar on decolonisation – how realistic are these proposals?
Denis Matthews: It’s very hard to assess but, as I said earlier, it was a very positive step for the chairman to have come down and talked to us. I am not an old hand like Joe Bossano but I don’t think that this is normal practice – they just sit there and listen to people and that’s it. The chairman might even be prepared to go a little bit further and send a visiting mission to Gibraltar and that would be very positive because then he would see what Gibraltar is all about, that we have an identity of our own which is essential because the Spaniards have always maintained that we are a prefabricated community placed in Gibraltar by the British. This isn’t so – we’ve been there for over 300 years and have established our own identity.
YGTV: What would you say to people who think that coming to the U.N is a waste of time?
Denis Matthews: I would agree with them in the sense that we haven’t made any clear progress but what is important is to come here because the Spaniards don’t miss an opportunity to speak and, if you don’t have anybody coming along to oppose what they are saying, their arguments and claims would remain on the record. We have to come and have our say to counteract the Spanish statements – that’s important.
