LAST WEEK'S NEWS

-Last Tuesday Gerry Adams visited the Basque Country invited by Batasuna and expressed the total support of Sinn Fein to the Left Abertzale. He praised the commitment of Batasuna and ETA activists to achieve this historical momentum. He traveled to Madrid and Barcelona aswell to support and defend the Basque process. Martin McGuinness is expected to do the same this week.

-Rajoi, Spanish conservative PP's leader broke relations with Spanish Prime Minister Zapatero because of his aims to meet Batasuna.

-On Wednesday an incredible situation happened when the Spanish police stopped and banned a Batasuna's press conference in Irunea (Pamplona) where they were launching a campaign to boost the process in Nafarroa (Navarre). Barrena, Batasuna's spokeman said that it is difficult to understand such situations. Previously 300 Left Abertzale Navarrese councilors gathered to state their position on Nafarroa's importance in the democratic process and showed the commitment to accept whatever the people in Nafarroa will decide about their future and asked the unionist parties to do the same.

-On Friday Batasuna made public that they already sent a calendar and scheme to achieve a pre-agreement to set the parties' table of negotiations.

-Thousands of people gathered in Donostia, Irunea, Gasteiz and Bilbo to demand the the resolution table's setting.

-The 60 political, social and union activists being judged in the 18/98 show trial in Madrid denounced that after seven months the consequences are terrible and demanded once again the end of this process. During these sevem months they had to travel to Madrid 23 times, did 23.000 kilometers and had three road accidents. One of them died during the trial of heart attack and three fell very ill.They have already done 30 years in prison among all of them and everyone has to confront every month expenses of 3,000 euro plus th 4,393,000 euro they paid on bails. They thanked the Basque people who through different fundraising events collected 210,000 euro to support them.

-On Saturday hundreds of people protested in Gasteiz against the 18/98 show trial.

-Thousands of people signed a petition to demand a referendum on a Basque Institution in the North. This demand is been rejected by French governments once and again despite the majority position of northern Basques to have their own province and recognition of the existence of the Basque Country. This new campaign aims to collect 46,000 signatures and call the referendum. This would be a first step for re-unification of the Basque Country.

-Hundreds of councilors gathered in Lizarra despite the check points set by more than 100 of the Spanish Guardia Civil (military police body)commemorateate the 75th anniversary of the historic 1931's Basque Councils Assembly that demanded an autonomy statute for the four provinces in the south. This event was called by Udalbiltza (the only national Basque Institution)as part of the campaign to relaunch it.