RABAT (AFP) - Morocco celebrated 50 years of independence in royal pomp and
circumstance with an official ceremony at the ornate Rabat mausoleum of former
kings.
Prime ministers of the country's two former colonial powers, France and
Spain, attended the ceremony.
In a speech on the esplanade, King Mohammed VI said he was determined
"to strengthen the privileged partnerships between France, Spain and
Morocco by showing a political acumen that will throw off the complex of having
been colonized."
The north African nation's monarchy was joined for the formal ceremony in
front of the Rabat mausoleum by Dominique de Villepin and Jose Luis Rodriguez
Zapatero of the European countries, along with Senegal's Prime Minister Macky
Sall and Madadascar's Senate speaker Rajemison Rakatomaharo.
The royal guard turned out in red and green full dress uniform with their
blue fezes for the honour duties and the national anthem.
The ruins four hundred columns bear witness to a royal bid at the end of the
12th century to build the world's biggest mosque.
The work ended when Sultan Qaqoub el Mansour died in 1199, though a minaret
44 metres (150 feet) high is still there and survived an earthquake that sent
other structures crumbling in 1755.
To mark the modern era, the king inaugarated a new November 16 Square near
the mausoleum before inviting his hundreds of guests to lunch.
Rows between Morocco and Spain over two enclaves on the north African coast
that Rabat wants back -- were forgotten for the event.
The enclaves, Melilla and Ceuta have caused upheaval recently because of
violence and then mass expulsions involving poverty-stricken Africans who made
their arduous way to these wired off outposts of
European
Union
territory in hopes of getting into Europe.
Both Zapatero and de Villepin gave speeches about strong ties and friendship
and solidarity among the peoples of Morocco and the onetime colonial powers.
Bernadette Chirac, wife of the French President Jacques
Chirac, was among the hundreds of guests while one of the smallest
participants was crown prince Moulay Hassan, who is two and a half.
A cousin of the king known to the local press as the "Red Prince",
Moulay Rachid, because of his outspoken views on reforming the monarchy, handed
out decorations, including posthumous ones to France's president Charles de
Gaulle and the founding president of Senegal, poet Leopold Sedar Senghor.
