During theThird Rif War inSpanish Morocco between 1921 and 1927, theSpanish Army of Africa deployedchemical weapons in an attempt to put down theBerber rebellion against colonial rule in the region of theRif led by the guerrillaAbd el-Krim.[1] In 1921, following theRifian victory in theBattle of Annual, which was considered the worst Spanish defeat of the 20th-century, the Spanish army pursued a campaign of retribution involving the indiscriminate and routine dropping of toxic gas bombs targeting civilian populations, markets and rivers.[2]
These attacks in 1924 marked the first widespread employment ofchemical warfare in the post-WWI era[2] and thesecond confirmed case ofmustard gas being dropped from airplanes. While Spain signed theGeneva Protocol a year later, which prohibited the use of chemical and biological weapons, such use was not illegal in non-international armed conflicts.[3][4][2]
While Spain pursued its chemical campaign in secrecy from the public,French intelligence provided Spain with weapon systems including tear gas and smaller gas agents, and a German company helped Spain obtain more effective chemical agents.[2] The gas used in these attacks was produced by the "Fábrica Nacional de Productos Químicos" (National factory of chemical products) atLa Marañosa nearMadrid; a plant founded with significant assistance fromHugo Stoltzenberg, a chemist associated with clandestine chemical warfare activities in the early 1920s[5] who was later given Spanish citizenship.[6]
The Spanish bombings were covered up but some observers ofmilitary aviation, likePedro Tonda Bueno in his autobiographyLa vida y yo (Life and I), published in 1974, talked about dropping toxic gases from airplanes and the consequent poisoning of the Rif fields. Likewise, Spanish Army air arm pilotIgnacio Hidalgo de Cisneros, in his autobiographical workCambio de rumbo (Course change), reveals how he witnessed several chemical attacks. Years later, in 1990, two German journalists and investigators,Rudibert Kunz andRolf-Dieter Müller, in their workGiftgas gegen Abd El Krim: Deutschland, Spanien und der Gaskrieg in Spanisch-Marokko, 1922-1927 (Poison Gas against Abd El Krim: Germany, Spain and the Gas War in Spanish Morocco, 1922-1927), proved with scientific tests that chemical attacks had indeed occurred. The British historianSebastian Balfour, of theLondon School of Economics, in his bookDeadly Embrace, confirmed massive use of chemical arms after having studied numerous Spanish, French and British archives. According to his research, the strategy of theSpanish military was to choose highly populated zones as targets. Additional evidence is found in a telegram from a British official, H. Pughe Lloyd, sent to the British Minister of War.[7]
According toSebastian Balfour, the motivation for the chemical attacks was based primarily on revenge for the defeat of theSpanish Army of Africa and their Moroccan recruits theRegulares[8] at theBattle of Annual on July 22, 1921.[9]
The Spanish defeat at Annual left 13,000 Spanish and Moroccan colonial soldiers dead according to the official count, many of them killed after surrendering to the Rif armies, and led to a major political crisis and a redefinition of Spanish colonial policy toward theRif region. The political crisis ledIndalecio Prieto to say in theCongress of Deputies: "We are at the most acute period of Spanish decadence. The campaign in Africa is a total failure, absolute, without extenuation, of the Spanish Army."
The Minister of War ordered the creation of an investigative commission, directed by the respected generalJuan Picasso González, which eventually developed theExpediente Picasso report. Despite identifying numerous military mistakes, it did not, owing to obstructions raised by various ministers and judges, go so far as to lay political responsibility for the defeat. Popular opinion widely blamed KingAlfonso XIII who, according to several sources, encouraged GeneralManuel Fernández Silvestre's irresponsible penetration of positions far fromMelilla without having adequate defenses in his rear.
Spain was one of the first powers to use chemical weapons against civilians[10] in their use against the Rif rebellion. Between 1921 and 1927, the Spanish army indiscriminately usedphosgene,diphosgene,chloropicrin andmustard gas (known asIperita[11]).[12][13] Common targets were civilian populations, markets, and rivers.[13]
Spanish leaders justified their usage of gas by dehumanising the natives as uncivilised beings. The Spanish king reportedly called them "malicious beasts". In a secret letter to the king, a general described the Rif Moor as "completely irreducible and uncivilized... They despise all the advantages of civilization. They are hermetic to benevolence and fear only punishment".[2] In a telegram sent by theHigh Commissioner ofSpanish MoroccoDámaso Berenguer on August 12, 1921 to the Spanish minister of War, Berenguer stated:[14]
I have been obstinately resistant to the use of suffocating gases against these indigenous peoples but after what they have done, and of their treacherous and deceptive conduct, I have to use them with true joy.
Spain used mustard gas as a force multiplier against native tribes who used rough terrain to their advantage.[2]
On August 20, 1921, Spain asked Germany to deliver mustard gas viaHugo Stoltzenberg, although Germany was prohibited from manufacturing such weapons by theTreaty of Versailles of 1919. The first delivery occurred in 1923.[14] The use of chemical weapons against the Rif was first described in an article of a (now defunct) Francophone daily newspaper published inTangier calledLa Dépêche marocaine dated on November 27, 1921.[15][16] HistorianJuan Pando has been the only Spanish historian to have confirmed the usage of mustard gas starting in 1923.[14] Spanish newspaperLa Correspondencia de España published an article calledCartas de un soldado (Letters of a soldier) on August 16, 1923 which backed the usage of mustard gas.[15]
According to military aviation generalHidalgo de Cisneros in his autobiographical bookCambio de rumbo,[17] he was the first warfighter to drop a 100-kilogrammustard gas bomb from hisFarman F60 Goliath aircraft in the summer of 1924.[18] About 127 fighters and bombers flew in the campaign, dropping around 1,680 bombs each day. Thirteen of these planes were stationed in the military air base of Seville.[19] The mustard gas bombs were brought from the stockpiles of Germany and delivered toMelilla before being carried on Farman F60 Goliath airplanes.[20]
Chemical weapons used in the region are alleged to be the main reason for the high occurrence of cancer among the population.[21][22]
The Association for the Defence of Victims of the Rif War considers that the toxic effects of chemical warfare during the war are still being felt in theRif region.[23] Head of the Association of Toxic Gas Victims (ATGV) in the Rif said 50% of cancer cases in Morocco are concentrated in the Rif region and added that, “Research has shown there are strong indicators that the cancer is caused by the gases that were used against the resistance in the north.”[24]
However, no independent scientific study has proven a relationship between the usage of chemical weapons and the high rate of cancer in the area.[25]
On February 14, 2007, the Catalan party of the Republican Left (Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya) passed a bill to theSpanish Congress of Deputies requesting Spain to acknowledge the "systematic" use of chemical weapons against the population of the Rif mountains.[26] The bill was rejected by 33 votes from the governingSocialist Labor Party and the opposition right-wingPopular Party who form the majority in the Spanish parliament.[27]
Durante la guerra del Rif (1921-1927), la última pesadilla colonial, España fue una de las primeras potencias en utilizar armas químicas contra población civil.
Tras tan estrepitosa derrota, el ejército español no tuvo reparos en utilizar productos como fosgeno, difosgeno, cloropicrina o el mismo gas mostaza contra la población civil.
Juan Pando en su reciente libro Historia secreta de Annual han documentado su uso