Spanish riot police clashed with Catalan voters in Barcelona on Sunday as the controversial referendum on breaking away from Spain began.
Spanish national police began to seize ballot boxes and voting papers from Catalan polling stations, the Interior Ministry said.
An Al Jazeera correspondent at one confrontation saw several people with bleeding faces after they were beaten by security forces. Some people who attempted to vote and fought with riot police were taken away in ambulances after being injured. At another polling station, would-be voters chanted "we are people of peace" and "we are not afraid". Half a dozen armoured police vans and an ambulance stood ready nearby, the witness said.
Catalans were defying rain and police orders to leave designated polling booths as the referendum got under way on the region's secession that has challenged Spain's political and institutional order.
Organisers have asked people to block entrances and use passive resistance during voting, which started 9am (07:00GMT).
Spanish riot police smashed their way into a polling station in Sant Julia de Ramis, near the Catalan city of Girona, where Catalan President Carles Puigdemont was expected to vote.
Civil Guard officers with shields used a hammer to smash the glass of the front door and lock cutters to force their way in. Scuffles erupted outside between police and people waiting to vote.
A video on the El Pais newspaper's website showed helmeted riot police in a standoff with a group of angry voters at one Barcelona school. Voters raised their hands and shouted "out".
Police have been ordered not to use force but to empty schools where polling stations deemed illegal have been set up.
"The government today is in a position to affirm that we can celebrate the referendum of self-determination - not as we wanted, but [it will have democratic] guarantees," Catalan government spokesman Jordi Turull told a news conference on Sunday.
People were concentrating in doors and hallways to block the entrance by riot police. Pictures from other voting stations showed crowds grouped in formation outside.
Joaquim Bosch, a 73 year-old retiree at Princep de Viana high school, where a crowd of 20 people was growing, said he was uneasy about a possible police response to the crowds."I have come to vote to defend the rights of my country, which is Catalonia," Bosch said.
Tens of thousands of Catalans are expected to attempt to vote in a ballot that will have no legal status as it has been blocked by Spain's Constitutional Court and Madrid for being at odds with the 1978 constitution.
The Spanish interior ministry said in a statement on Saturday the "majority" of public buildings that had been identified as referendum sites had "stayed shut" and "only a few" are occupied by people "with the only aim" of obstructing police work.
In Madrid, thousands of people rallied on Saturday in favour of Spanish unity.
Waving red and yellow Spanish flags, the demonstrators gathered in the central Plaza de Cibeles, in front of the capital's town hall, chanting "Catalonia is part of Spain" and "I am Spanish, Spanish, Spanish," - a cry usually heard during national team football matches.
The central government in Madrid had previously said 1,300 of 2,315 designated voting stations have been sealed off by police, who have been mobilised in the thousands in the region.
Regional separatist leaders have pledged to hold the referendum and called on 5.3 million eligible voters to cast ballots.
Defiant crowds gathered before dawn on Sunday in Barcelona and towns across Catalonia at schools and other facilities designated as polling stations. They were joining parents, children and activists who occupied the buildings over the weekend.
Throughout history, maps have been redrawn as countries have been founded, empires have fallen, and borders have shifted. And this week, if two would-be nations have their way, we will be redrawing maps once again.
Catalonians plan to vote on their independence from Spain on Sunday. Remarkably, it will be the second independence vote in just one week: Iraqi Kurds held their referendum on independence on Monday, where secession from Iraq won 93 per cent approval.
However, cartographers may not be needed quite yet. Both Iraqi Kurds and Catalonians are facing widespread international opposition to their independence. There is no legal right to secession under international law, and, in many cases, the path to independence can be bloody and its results inconclusive.
Over the past quarter century, there have been only nine new countries created out of a little less than 200 total. And the experiences of these countries produce some mixed lessons for others hoping to follow their path:
South Sudan: South Sudan declared independence from Sudan on July 9, 2011, after a violent war with the ethnically Arab north that had lasted decades. Almost 99pc of voters had supported independence in a referendum, and the new country was swiftly recognised by the international community. The United States played a key role in South Sudan’s journey to statehood.
Kosovo: Kosovo declared independence from Serbia on Feb 17, 2008. The country had been administered by the United Nations since 1999, when Nato bombed Serbia and forced then-president Slobodan Milosevic to withdraw his troops from the ethnically divided province.
Montenegro and Serbia: The single nation of Serbia and Montenegro, formed after the collapse of Yugoslavia in 1991, changed into the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro in 2003, and finally into the two separate states of Serbia and Montenegro in 2006. It was Montenegro that ultimately ended the relationship, with a referendum on May 21, 2006, that found just over 55pc wanted to end its ties with Serbia. On June 3, Montenegro declared independence. A few days later, Serbia followed suit.
East Timor: East Timor, now also known as Timor-Leste, achieved independence on May 20, 2002, but the country had effectively voted for independence years before, when a referendum delivered a vote that clearly rejected the proposed “special autonomy” within Indonesia. After that referendum, there was brutal violence in the region with pro-Indonesian militias attacking citizens, and a special UN force had to be deployed to the country.
Palau: Geographically part of the larger Micronesia island group in the western Pacific Ocean, Palau is the least populated country on this list, with a little over 21,000 people living on about 250 islands. It became independent on Oct 1, 1994, 15 years after it had decided against becoming part of Micronesia due to cultural and linguistic differences.
Eritrea: The United Nations established Eritrea as an autonomous region within the Ethiopian federation in 1952. However, when Ethiopia, under emperor Haile Selassie, annexed the region in 1962, it sparked a civil war that lasted 30 years. In 1991, the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF) ousted the Ethiopian forces, and on April 27, 1993, the country declared independence after a referendum.
The Czech Republic and Slovakia: On Jan 1, 1993, Czechoslovakia was dissolved by parliament into two countries: The Czech Republic and Slovakia. After the “Velvet Revolution” ended one-party Communist rule, it was the “Velvet Divorce”. Immediately after the split, there appeared to be some trepidation: The New York Times noted “wide regret” at the end of the nation that was formed after World War I. However, the contemporary view is that the split was a (relative) success: “The split was really smooth,” Slovakian journalist Pavol Mudry told the BBC in 2013.
What lessons can be learned?
There has been no easy path to independence in recent years. Of the nine nations above, four were formed as a direct result of civil war. Five were the result of the collapse of communism in Europe — a unique historical watershed and one that produced all sorts of upheaval. A number remain troubled states: Eritrea has been dubbed the “North Korea of Africa”.
Countries like South Sudan and Kosovo had major international backers like the United States in their bid for independence — something neither Catalonia nor Iraqi Kurdistan have. Even then, their paths to independence have been rocky. Kosovo still lacks recognition from a number of states and has not applied for UN membership, while its economy remains underdeveloped. South Sudan is still beset by ethnic violence and famine.
Even clearly successful independence bids have their drawbacks. Montenegro has joined Nato and hopes to join the European Union, but just last year, there was a coup attempt, and there have been long-standing corruption allegations. Over two decades after independence, the Czech Republic officially created a new name, Czechia, after a bitter internal debate about its lack of international recognition.
But it isn’t just Catalonians or Iraqi Kurds who should study history — Spanish leaders in Madrid or Iraqi leaders in Baghdad should pay attention, too. In many of the above cases, it takes decades for the demand for independence to reach a tipping point. And as the still-lingering hopes of Scottish independence after the failed 2015 referendum have shown London, once the genie is out of the bottle, it is very difficult to put it back in.
