Thousands take to the streets against repression and criminalization

-The Basque Left movement has called on people to mobilize against the war strategy agreed by the Spanish Socialist and Basque nationalist PNV.

The Basque left movement has blamed Jose Luis Zapatero’s government for the break down of negotiations. Since then, the Spanish government in cooperation with the Basque Nationalist Party has been implementing a strategy of war and criminalization against the Basque Left movement.

Regular banning of demonstrations and commemorations, police heavy handedness, the arrest of the whole of the national executive of Batasuna and other daily arrests are just a few examples of the repressive strategy against the Basque left movement.
In order to respond to this, the Basque left movement have called on people to get to the streets and protest.



-On Thursday a delegation of the main Basque trade union ELA, led by its general secretary, visited the Batasuna leader Arnaldo Otegi at the Donostia/San Sebastian jail. Otegi has been imprisoned since last June. This imprisonment has been denounced by the majority of Basque society as an attack against peace efforts. ELA’s leader Jose Elorrieta showed his solidarity with Otegi and expressed his concern at what he defined as a very low democracy level in the Spanish state



-On the same day Gipuzkoa’s provincial Assembly called for the immediate release of Arnaldo Otegi and the rest of the pro-independence leaders arrested. Tha assembly also condemned the Spanish government. The proposed motion supported a peace process which would lead to the right of self-determination for the Basque Country.



-The accused tried at the so called 18/98 show trial called on the Basque people to mobilise. They expect to be sent to prison as soon as they announce their sentence in the next couple of weeks. They have called a national demonstration and a one hour strike.

52 political, social and cultural activists were judged by the Spanish Special Court in its longest trial ever. It went from November 2005 to March 2007 and was called a show trial due to the lack of guarantees for the defence and the clear political aim to criminalize pro-independence ideas.

The majority of Basque political parties, trade unions, grassroots organizations and international observers criticised the attack against civil and political rights.

The accused denounced that the Spanish state wants to silence the Basques. It wants to destroy organizations, media and institutions created by Basque society.



-Pernando Barrena, Batasuna’s spokesperson accused the Spanish government of trying to blow up all the bridges built during the negociation process. He also warned the Spanish government of the fact that they will need to fill many football stadiums of detenees to finish with the left pro-independence movement.

He said they expect more detentions in the next months before the Spanish elections in March.


-Basque pro-independence former MEP Karmelo Landa and international department member Haizpea Abrisketa met MEP’s and journalists last week in Brussels. They explained how the Spanish government “threw away the key of the peace process” after putting in prison the whole of the pro-independence executive. They said that nowadays there are no democratic conditions in the Basque Country as civil and political rights are constantly under attack.

They remembered the motion passed by the European Parliament in October 2006 in favour of a peace process and called on MEPs, European governments and institutions to push in favour of a conflict resolution like in Ireland.



ARRESTS and ATTACKS


-After four days incommunicado, the 4 young people arrested in Donosti San Sebastian were released. They suffered threats and abuse from Spanish police. They were accused of attacks against the police and of being part of the local Direction of Segi, the pro-independence youth movement.

Dozens of pro-independence youths held a press conference to denounce the criminalization of the youth movement. A march was also organised under the slogan “Against fascism, independence!”.


PRISONERS

-The Basque political prisoner Inaki Bilbao who was on hunger and thirst strike for 9 days was sent back to prison from the hospital where he was taken to after having serious health problems. The doctors stood against the move as he wasn’t entirely recovered. Inaki Bilbao had to go into hunger and thirst strike last 22nd of October to protest against the isolation situation he suffers. Inaki is held in a jail at more than 700 miles away from the Basque Country.


-Basque political prisoner Inaki Erro has been in prison for 20 years. Prisoners support group in his home town organised last week a public talk with former prisoners who explained the audience the hard living conditions they suffer in jail. They also highlighted the need to show support to Inaki who is in isolation in a prison in the south of Spain. A picket line was also organised as by law he should be released after completing the three quarters of his sentence. There are many Basque political prisoners in this situation effectively kidnapped.


-Prisoner Angel Figueroa has been transferred from a prison in the Basque Country to Cordoba South of Spain.

The Basque political prisoner Angel Figueroa is one of the inmates who is suffering from serious ill health. He has serious epileptic attacks as well as sclerosis in his right side. His illness has been diagnosed as chronic last week.

This transfer comes at a time when Basque society has been demanding the release of prisoners who suffer from terminal or chronic illnesses.

Angel is 36 and has been in prison for 13 years. The anti repressive group Askatasuna says that Angel’s condition has worsened due to the prison conditions that Basque political prisoners are subjected to. Angel was diagnosed with epilepsy more than 20 years ago, but in the last 13 years he has been in jail he has not been treated properly to fight his illness.

In Askatasuna’s words, the Spanish government is trying to kill Basque prisoners, by keeping them in prison with serious illnesses.

In Angel’s case, his condition has worsen, by the fact that he has now been transferred from a prison in the Basque Country to the South of Spain.

As mentioned in previous weeks, there are 12 other Basque political prisoners suffering from terminal illnesses and Basque society has been demanding for their immediate release.


-During the week more than 50 towns saw protests in solidarity with the Basque political prisoners. Far away from the Basque Country another solidarity protest took place as well. The pro-independence movement of Britanny held a rally outside the Rennes jail were Basque political prisoner Argi Perurena is currently held.

They accused the French state of implementing the same dispersal policy as the Spanish. They also accused the French government of sending Basque prisoners to torture when they are extradited to Spain. They denounced the criminalization campaign against the pro-independence movement and sent solidarity greetings. Britanny has been for many decades a welcoming place for Basques and dozens of Bretons have been arrested for their help throughout the years. One of them died in prison.


-50 people traveled to Valencia last Saturday to support Inigo Muerza. He was released after 7 years in prison. 300 people gathered in his home town to welcome the political prisoner. But the Basque-Spanish police charged against them, broke windows at the local pro-independence pub and arrested two young men.
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- 200 people gathered at the squated youth centre in Gasteiz/Vitoria to welcome the former political prisoner Gotzon Kortazar. This rally was also banned by the three western Basque provinces government. As we can see all welcoming events to Basque prisoners are systematically banned and attacked by the Basque-Spanish police. However, they haven’t managed to stop the support that thousands of people give to activists and volunteers.






News November 6th to 13th
-Last Tuesday hundreds of people protested in the historical city of Gernika against fascism. This town is world wide known as 70 years ago Spanish fascists helped by German nazis bombed Gernika and killed more than 400 civilians.

On Tuesday morning a trial was called against three Spanish soldiers who attacked a pro-independence pub during the summer. They were defended by a notorious Spanish fascist lawyer.

At the time of the trial house windows, shops and pubs shut down, Basque flags were hanged at balconies and a demonstration was called. Hundreds of people gathered behind a banner that said “The Basque Country is a nation, fascism out”. Demonstrators were attacked by the Basque-Spanish police. Riots spread around Gernika while the fascists arrived protected by the same police. A 19 year-old was arrested and police car windows were broken.

Inside the court the pro-independence pub staff were harrased and intimidated by the fascist squad.


-Once again the Spanish general prosecutor, appointed by the government, proudly claimed that the judiciary has been tougher with Basques during 2006, when ETA’s ceasefire was on. Tougher than when the conservative party was in power. No doubt, the Spanish government weren’t on ceasefire…



-The Basque diaspora in Mexico is organising a week long programme of events. They will remember the Basque rebel Xabier Mina who took part in the Mexican war of independence against Spain. They will also highlight the current situation in the Basque Country. Many debates and films will take place, in which Mexican and Basque historians, human rights lawyers and journalists will take part.


-The pro-independence trade union LAB organised a rally in Irunea/Pamplona last Friday. 400 representatives gathered to hear general secretary Rafa Diez call for union particularly within the trade union movement to achieve a structural political change to a democratic situation. He said they have to become an engine for self-determination and to strengthen the working class and pro-independence project as well.

Getting tough in the streets, even tougher in the prisons

Main News 30th October-6th November


The Basque political prisoner, Ainhoa Mujika has been taken out of isolation.

The director of Soto del Real prison in Madrid, has agreed to lift the isolation regime that was imposed on Ainhoa Mujika following weeks of protests from her fellow inmates.

In the last few weeks, prisoners in Soto del Real have been campaigning to end the policy of isolation against Basque Political prisoners. And there are currently no Basque prisoners left on isolation in this prison

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Gorka Betolaza has been transferred from France to Spain. He was arrested in September in the Northern part of the Basque Country. The French police arrested him following a European arrest warrant issued by the Spanish State.
Gorka is part of the trial show against ‘Jarrai Haika Segi, the Basque youth movement. He has been transferred to a Spanish jail to complete his sentence of 6 years.
Last September over 20 young people were arrested and jailed as part of this trial show. They have all been charged of being members of an illegal organisation and have been jailed for 6 years.


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The pro-amnesty movement has denounced the life sentence that has been inflicted to the Basque political prisoner Andoni Altza.

They demand his immediate release. Andoni was arrested in 1991 and according to the law at the time he should have been released in 2001 after completing the ¾ of his sentence. However he was refused to be freed.
Last November Andoni completed his full sentence. However the Spanish court applied a new condemnation which has extended his sentence until 2018.
The pro-amnesty movement demands his immediate release and has criticised the attitude of so called democratic political parties which are doing nothing in front of such injustice.






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Inaki Bilbao Basque political prisoner has abandoned his hunger and thrust strike after 9 days.
Inaki was hospitalised last Thursday, after loosing nearly 2 stone since the beginning of his hunger and thrust strike on the 22nd of October.
He was protesting against the harsh prison regime that Basque political prisoners are arbitrarily subjected to in the new prison of Puerto III in Cadiz.

According to the anti repression group Askatasuna, from the day Bilbao was transferred to the new prison, he was put in an isolation cell in which the only contact was prison officers. Basque prisoners were also unnecessarily searched.

Puerto III prison, was opened last June. There are currently 6 Basque Political prisoners who are subjected to an extremely hard prison regime.
This modern high security prison has been design for 500 prisoners, 70 of them who are complete isolation.
According to prisoners, there is no natural light in the cells as the windows are covered with steel.
The regime is so strict that prisoners are only allowed to have things in twos. 2 T-shirts, 2 books, 2 pairs of sock…
Some of the prisoners have actually described Puerto II as the Spanish Guantanamo.

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Meanwhile protests have been taking place in solidarity with Inaki and all the Basque prisoners throughout the Basque Country.

Protests to defend the right of Basque political prisoners as individuals and as a collective but also to demand political status

And like every Wednesday, in several universities students called protests in support of the prisoners.



Families of terminally ill prisoners have asked for support to bring the loved one’s home alive.

The Spanish and French governments are trying to kill our relatives. That is what family members of prisoners who are suffering terminal and chronic illnesses have claimed.


Last week family members requested the release of terminally ill prisoners. Following the clear lack of support from Basque institutions this time again they have called on Basque citizens to put pressure to demand the release of these prisoners.
They asked for help to bring them back alive and not in coffins.

There are currently 12 Basque political prisoners suffering from terminal illnesses. They are being prevented from receiving proper medical treatment.

In the case of prisoner Rego Vidal, who was supposed to be repatriated to the Basque Country was denied the transfer at the last minute. His medical has also mysteriously disappeared.
Prisoner Gotzone Lopez Luzuriaga who is suffering from cancer has been denied her last 4 radiotherapy sessions.
To add to this, this year 3 prisoners with psychological problems have tried to mill themselves this year.
Facing this serious situation, family members have been meeting representatives of Basque institutions who have not been very supportive.
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A demonstration has been called in favour of autonomy for the 3 Northern Basque provinces.

Basque nationalists from different political views have called on citizens from the provinces of Lapurdi, Behe Nafarroa and Zuberoa to take part in the demonstration in favour of autonomy in the French controlled part of the basque country.
This group of people wish to send a very clear message to the French government and to the newly elected conservative president Nicolas Sarkozy, to implement the rules of democracy by acknowledging the rights of the Northern Basque Country to have its own institutions.

The demonstration will take place of the 15th December in Baiona.

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The Tahiti pro-independence movement expressed their support for Batasuna after the arrests of the leadership at the beginning of October. Tahiti is a French colony in the Pacific. They have broad autonomy but it’s always endangered by the French government. One of the Tahiti pro-independence spokesperson took part at a conference promoted by the Basque left about autonomy in the north of the Basque Country last week and shared their experiences.

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One of the main news item in the Basque and Spanish media last week was the Basque Main Court’s decision to start a trial against the the three western Basque provinces prime minister, members of the Spanish labour party and Batasuna for holding meetings during ETA’s ceasefire.

Most of political leaders said that this step is a clear criminalization of dialogue and a persecution of political ideas. Batasuna added that the Spanish government is using all means to avoid a democratic framework for the Basque Country and remembered nowadays nobody trusts the so-called Spanish justice system.

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7 young people, aged between 19 and 22, were arrested in the early hours of last Tuesday in a Spanish police operation in Donostia/San Sebastian and accused them of taking part in numerous attacks against police, banks and other Spanish economic targets in the last months.

The Spanish Home minister linked this operation to another two which happened in the last couple of months. We were talking about one of them just two weeks ago. 18 young people have been arrested in total.

Hundreds of people protested in different neighborhoods in Donostia/San Sebastian in the afternoon asking for the end of repression and the release of the arrested nationalist youths. 1000 gathered in a centralized demonstration on Wednesday and 1500 on Saturday again. Barricades were erected in different parts of the city during the week.

Askatasuna, the anti-repression movement, denounced the police operation and warned of the risk of being tortured by the police.

Batasuna said the PSOE, the Spanish labour party wants to show before next elections in March that they can be even tougher than the right wing Popular Party but increased repression won’t stop the popular demand of real democracy for the Basque Country.
Today, 7 days after the arrests the youth are still incommunicado after after having spent 5 days on police hands and two in prison.

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The post office in Zalla, close to Bilbao was attacked last Wednesday and two banks in Irunea/Pamplona and a Basque-Spanish policeman’s wife’s shop in the coastal town of Ondarroa during the week. These kind of attacks are usually claimed as a response to repression.

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The legacy of the so called Spanish civil war is still very much alive in the Basque Country. Many associations have been formed in the last couple of years to remember those killed by fascism and their beliefs. Even here in West Belfast a mural remembering the 70th anniversary of the bombing of the Basque town of Gernika was painted over the summer. It reflects perfectly the suffering of the Basque people. This is why these associations have denounced the so called Law of historic memory passed by the Spanish parliament last week. According to them this law doesn’t give a proper answer to their demands of recognition of the Franco dictatorship victims and doesn’t punish those who supported it. Protests were held in many different towns along the Basque Country during the week.


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ANV, Basque Nationalist Action, is the oldest of the left pro-independence parties and fought in the front in the 1936-1939 war to defend the Basque Country against Spanish fascism. Nowadays Spanish fascism is threatening them once again. There are constant calls from Spanish media to ban ANV as they did with Batasuna and the Spanish government just passed a law where they jeopardize the fundings they owe ANV for all the properties stolen during the war if they finally get banned.

Last week ANV organised a press conference where they announced they will stand at the next Spanish general elections in March and dismissed any trial to get them out of them. They want to carry the pro-independence banner to Spain and defend this option as the only one to ensure the Basque Country will become a state once again as it was 500 years ago.

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For three days MEP’s and politicians from all around Europe took part at the first meeting of the Gernika Net for Self-determination at the historical Basque town. Among them was Francie Brolly from Sinn Féin. This association was formed last April during the events organised on the 70th anniversary of the fascist bombing to defend internationally the right of the Basque County to self-determination right. Before the first meeting they were welcomed by the Gernika’s mayor who said: As you all know 70 years ago the fascist bombs destroyed this city. They wanted to destroy Gernika and his tree, the symbol of Basque freedom. Lots of people died but we want you to know that today the Basque people we continue fighting on defence of our rights until we achieve self-determination.

After the meeting a Flemish MP and Lloyd Quinan from the Convention for Scottish independence visited Arnaldo Otegi, Batasuna’s leader in jail. At the prison gates they spoke to the media and denounced once again the irresponsibility of the Spanish government who instead engaging in dialogue they imprison the pro-independence leaders.

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Al Jazeera English, the influential world wide TV channel broadcasted a special report on the Basque Country last 10th of October during People and Power show. The programme called “Basque battles” came up following the arrest of 23 members of the Basque "Batasuna" party. People & Power presented an exclusive report filmed during the build-up to these arrests.

They investigated the banning of pro-independence Basque parties by the Spanish government in local elections due to their alleged links with ETA.

You can watch it by clicking on our Images section just on the right hand side of the blog.

Repression spreads

News 23rd-30th October

ATTACKS

-30 people from the coastal town of Ondarroa were attacked by the Basque-Spanish police last Tuesday at 8am. They were protesting against the political discrimination of the left pro-independence movement.

As mentioned last week, hundreds of pro-independence candidates who stood in the last elections were undemocratically banned. In Ondarroa, banned candidates got the majority of the votes but were ignored. Instead an undemocratically elected commission was appointed to rule the town.

Since then many protests have been taking place including a general strike.

Last Tuesday’s protest showed clearly the lack of democracy in Ondarroa and more generally in the Basque Country. Citizens were not allowed to access a council meeting which was called on purpose at 8am in a neighbouring town to avoid protests. Instead they were brutally attacked.



-In Bilbao and Hernani events to remember those killed by the Spanish police where banned. The Spanish Special Court and the local authorities decided to ban commemorations remembering people killed by police forces.
The organizers said that this has been happening for the last couple of years. They denounced the hipocrisy of those banning these commemorations while awarding Spanish torturers and killers in the police force.



A group of residents in the town of Bergara, Gipuzkoa, have condemned the aggressive behaviour of the Ertzaintza Basque – Spanish police.
According to the residents, the police charged against hundreds of people including children who were enjoying a street party.
“After a popular meal in the square of the town, people were enjoying themselves singing and dancing”, says a resident.
After midnight the police surrounded the the square, creating shock, fear and tensions among people. The police destroyed the good party atmosphere, particularly when it decided to beat 11 people and arrest 2 others.
Residents have complained saying that the police behaviour was heavy handed and completely inappropriate.


ARRESTS
-Last week we mentioned the arrest of 7 young men in Getxo in Bizkaia. They are accused of sabotages between 2003 and 2005. Askatasuna, the prisoners defense group, denounced that these accusations are made up by the Spanish Home office.
No evidence has been presented in court, when the Getxo 7 were put before the judge.
All of the arrested were tortured and one of them had to be taken into hospital.
Askatasuna said that 144 people have been arrested since ETA’s ceasefire ended, four months ago. 71 of them have ended up in jail.


2 political prisoners jailed in France have been left in the hands of the Spanish State.

According to Askatasuna, the antirepressive organisation, Urtzi Garcia was arrested last 24th of September in the Northern Basque Country. He was arrested in a police operation along with 14 other people. After being jailed in France, he has now been transferred to a Spanish prison.

The second prisoner, who has been also jailed in France for quite some time has been extradited to Spain for 6 months.
According to recent legislation, prisoners jailed in France can be extradited for a specific period of time at the request of the Spanish court.

Borja Urberuaga, who is in his twenties was arrested in Baiona, North of the Basque Country.
He was arrested by the French police following information sent by the Spanish Civil Guard.
According to Askatasuna the antirepression group, a car stopped suddenly when Borja was walking in the streets of Baiona. Two police officers got out of the car and arrested him.
Borja who is originally from Gernika, has been charged with taking part in street riots and has to complete his sentence in the Spanish State.
Borja is being kept in a French Jail in the town of Pau until the French authorities decide to send to Spain to complete his sentence.


-The Spanish Special Court decided to open a case against the youth association Kaskagorri. It happened after the so called Victims of Terrorism group denounced that the youth association was organizing events in favour of Basque political prisoners during Bilbao’s main festivals in August.
The Basque youth movements website called Gaztesarea has also been accused of hosting Kaskagorri’s website and for supporting terrorism.
This is just another case of the Spanish witch hunting against all forms of solidarity with prisoners or in defense of pro-independence positions.
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-Train stations, buses and banks were attacked over the weekend in different Basque towns in response to the Spanish repression.



Over 8000 people gathered in different towns across the Basque Country last Friday in support of Basque Political prisoners. The protests focused on the ill treatment of Basque prisoners in the French and Spanish jails.

There are currently a dozen prisoners suffering from chronic and terminal illnesses. Gotzone Luzuriaga is one of them. She suffers from Breast cancer and awaiting treatment.
Etxerat, the association of relatives of Basque political prisoners has condemned the fact that the French and Spanish governments are playing with their relatives lives with total impunity.
Total impunity, when provoking serious illnesses that often cannot be cured, by not releasing prisoners who have completed their sentence, by not providing proper medical treatment, by scattering all the prisoners in Spanish and French jails
Over the last 2 decades 22 prisoners have lost their lives in French and Spanish jails.
Etxerat has called on Basque citizens to come out and protest against these measures and to put pressure on the Spanish and French governments.


BATASUNA

- The parliament representing the three western Basque provinces of the Basque Country called for the immediate release of the leadership of Batasuna.
The 19 members of the the left pro-independence movement were arrested while holding a meeting at the beginning of October.
The parliament asked for the respect of all ideas and the defense of freedom of speech, reunion and association.



-Gerry Adams asked for the release of Batasuna’s leadership in an interview broadcasted by the Basque public TV last Wednesday. The leadership of Batasuna was arrested on the 4th of October. Adams said that in his view the Basque left pro-independence movement has a clear will for peace and has tried hard to get to a resolution. Adams said that it has been a big mistake to arrest those trying to build peace. He defended dialogue and negotiation as the way to achieve an end to a long conflict. Adams also said that “If this is going to happen at a certain point why not do it now instead of prolonging the terrible consequences of it”.

When asked about Sinn Féin’s involvement as mediators during the negotiation process between ETA and the Spanish government as well as Batasuna and the Spanish social-democratic party, Gerry Adams kept the information private.


-Meanwhile in Barcelona 100 people gathered to show support to the Batasuna’s leadership imprisoned and to defend the struggle the Basque pro-independence movement

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OTHER
-Irunea/Pamplona saw the 4th annual national general debate on the estate of the Basque Country. It was organised by the National Debate Forum.
It is this forum’s task to bring people together and to put proposals forward to rebuild the Basque Country as a nation.
The main conclusion of this year was that a political change is about to happen. And that it is crucial that this change happens around the main key issues of self-determination and end of partition.



-The 77 year old left pro-independence party ANV/Basque Nationalist Action celebrated its 11th Congress last Saturday.
Participants renewed their commitment to build a peace scenario based on the Basque Country’s right to self-determination.
The party that fought Franco’s fascist coup, 70 years ago, faces constant threats of being banned by Spanish authorities.


Batera is collecting signatures to ask the French government to have a consultation around the creation of a Basque department in Northern part of the Basque country.
The platform Batera is campaginin in favour of a Basque administrative department within the French State.

To have a consultation around the issue, Batera needs to collect a total number of 46000 signatures by next March.
30000 have already been gathered and the platform has called on individuals as well as trade unions, community organizations and associations to support the campaign.

THOUSANDS TAKE TO THE STREETS TO PROTEST

Hundreds of towns, villages, factories, universities and high schools in the Basque Country witnessed any kind of protests against the arrest of the Batasuna's leadership by Spanish police on the night of the 4th of October. 23 were lifted and 17 of them were put in prison. Antoher one was arrested last Tuesday and the police are looking for some more.

Rallies, marches, barricades, sabotages and all kind protests took place along the Basque Country for the last days against what the pro-independence movement defined as a "declaration of war". The Spanish government wanted to make them pay for the failure of the negotiation process and to cover the disapointment created when the Spanish representatives at the table rejected the proposal drafted by the international mediators and accepted by the both ETA and Batasuna.

The arrests caused outrage at the Basque Country among all sectors, political parties and trade unions as well as internationally.

Protests took place in many parts of the world. In Ireland Dublin, Cork and Belfast gathered dozens of people and called for a national picket line this Saturday 20th of October at Cultúrlann, Falls Road in Belfast at 1pm.

BATASUNA´S LEADERSHIP ARRESTED

23 MEMBERS OF THE BATASUNA´S LEADERSHIP ARRESTED BY SPANISH POLICE LAST NIGHT. THEY WANT TO PUNISH THOSE LOOKING FOR A JUSTICE BASED PEACE.

STOP SPANISH WAR MACHINERY! RESPECT THE BASQUE PEOPLE! SUPPORT PEACE, DEMOCRACY AND FREEDOM FOR THE BASQUE COUNTRY!!

PICKET LINES IN IRELAND

BELFAST SATURDAY 6TH 1PM WHITEROCK ROUNDABOUT, FALLS ROAD
CORK TUESDAY CHECK LATER FOR MORE DETAILS

SHOW YOUR SUPPORT AT BY ADDING FREEBATASUNA ON YOUR EMAILS, WEBSITE, BLOG...
http://free-batasuna.blogspot.com/2007/10/freebatasuna.html

Basque Autonomous police attacks demonstratiom

There was no margin to negotiations, neither the usual order to charge was heard. It sufficed that the demonstration arrived at the first line of the police cord so that the festival in the Boulevard of San Sebastian was finished and began the battle. It was an unequal fight: citizens with a simple banner set against armed agents that had loaded the rifles with plastic balls some seconds before: "Clack, clack", was clearly heard.

Only some few predicted what came later. The majority of the prior comments they opted for estimating that the Basque Harkis ,the collaborationist police, they would not be capable of charging, and even less using plastic balls, in a place packed of people that were going to support their prisoners... or to their oarsmen (day of boat races). Some and other they would finish united by the same indignation.

Up till then, the Boulevard was a festival, an incessant moving of brass band and of shirts of all the colours. But in the corner of the City Hall, the way in which the Ertzaintza was prepared to receive the demonstration could not pass unnoticed, more than 200 police officers composing two rows superimposed perfectly aligned. Only their eyes could be seen... and the rifles. "Then they will say that there are arguments", predicted with irony a senior nationalist. Of course, the reason that the Ministry of Interior gave to veto the demonstration -to avoid the possibility of incidents- came to be a joke of bad taste.

The hearts accelerated at 13.45 o'clock, when the Boulevard exploded in a single shout of growing intensity: "Presoak kalera, amnistia osoa". The banner carried by members of the former prisoners and pro-amnesty movement was being carried from the bandstand, rotated before the City Hall and driven forward to the barrier of Basque police officers. The command raised the hand, but hundreds of people continued advancing. The headings of the two groups touched, and there was no time for words: the police charged in two seconds, the Boulevard was a field of battle, with kicks to close range, crash of broken glasses, yells of panic and people of all ages rolling on the floor.

Tens of injured, young and old people, numerous arrested and four hours of pitched battle were the consequence of this serious violation of the fundamental right for freedom of expression , right that was violated and stamped on by the collaborationist police from PNV.

A TURBULENT SUMMER

Askapena's Step by Step Bulletin.

With these lines, Askapena ends the August recess. We warmly greet our readers, we wish to find them with a renewed forces to keep on after the summer, and we encourage them to keep on devoting part of their time to us.

As for us, we renew the information commitment made to the people who receive, read or spread our "Step by Step". They give us an incentive to carry on. The new people who ask us to add their names to our mailing list confirm that our effort is not useless. Our "Step" reproduced in other informative nets reaffirm us in our aim. We will keep on contributing the experience of our people, and all their daily efforts. Our aim is an internationalist one, to share our process experience and analysis in case they are useful for other causes; your critics are also very useful for us. And, the main point, we try to establish internationalist relations on the basis of the daily fight, as a base of our mutual solidarity. Friends, the History belongs to us because we build it by our popular daily fight.

Regarding the Basque situation, the summer is about to end up has been a time of political turbulence. The base of these turbulence is the unsolved Basque question. The Spanish society, who has been dragging a chronic crisis, can not ignore its consequences. The next Steps will analyze this question in depth; today we will make just an approach.


PSOE's turbulent waters

The situation in Nafarroa produce an important crisis. The PSOE did not respect the people's will claiming a change. The PSOE prioritized the Estate interests, putting them before democracy. They ignored the Nafarroa society will, and the one of their own electors. The prioritized their Estate pacts with the PP, and with the system in order to keep the extreme right win UPN governing Nafarroa. As a result, the Spanish unity project become strengthen, but the Basque society realized the deep PSOE's dependence on the Spanish system. The Navarra Socialist Party made a fool of themselves, and their members feel frustrated and upset. Some voices claim more independence from state PSOE.

In their fight against the Basque nationalism, the PSOE encourage among their members belligerent attitudes, which now turn against themselves. The more belligerent against the Basque people groups do not allow the Socialist party to move an inch their from aggressive positions: for instance, Fernando Savater, and the Member of the European Parliament Rosa Diez are firmly against any approach but the military fight against ETA; they reject any attempt to dialogue with the nationalism, and so they have decided to break away from PSOE in order to create a new party.


PP's turbulent waters

Something similar happens to PP. Betting on fascism is not innocuous; at the end it contaminates the ones who do so. Aznar's obsessive effort to eliminate the Basque nationalism even at the price of eliminating the democratic principles finally contaminated the whole party which unconditionally followed him. The PP did not eliminate the Basque national conscience, but inside the party grew the most dictatorial and virulent styles. The leadership of the party is on the more reactionary hands who do not allow the party to get rid of this fascist burden. Any attempt inside the party (for instance, the ones made by the mayor of Madrid) to move towards center-right come up against opposition that block any attempt of internal democratization. The PP party has become a reactionary cavern.


PNV's turbulent waters

The aim of the bourgeois and collaborationist PNV is crystal clear: to keep their special bonds with the Estate bourgeoisie. This is what allowed the PNV during the last thirty years to be the best guarantor of the Imperialist interest in the Basque country. In return, they govern the Basque autonomous region (three Basque western provinces). PNV do not want any change towards sovereignty. Their harmful role in the process, that tried to solve the conflict with dialogue, made it very clear. Their positions made up with the more inflexible Spanish ones, so their work during the process involved asphyxiating the Basque Left who promoted a change in the democratic frame. The only clear aim of PNV is to keep and increase their power to rule the Basque self-governing region institutions.

How to get it? This is the question and the reason of their internal contradictions. The direction of the party believe that the best way to seduce the Basque society is to forget sovereignty messages and adopt a pragmatic attitude: to ally themselves with the Estate and with the constitutional sectors settled in the Basque Country (an strategy that did not have good result in last May elections). A sector of the party think that the best way to get the Basque society confidence is to keep the sovereignty message, which is more in keeping with the Basque will. To support this idea they affirm that president Ibarretxe got good results for his party supporting this idea against Madrid's ones. Both tendencies are no so different in the facts.

But the contradiction extends to the Basque government. The president and the two parties supporting him defend the idea of a referendum in order to make a kind of staging of the right to decide. This view conflicts with the PNV leadership who trys to avoid any unnecessary conflict with the Estate because for them the most important is a total collaboration with it.


Euskal Herria, September 3, 2007.

Car bomb attack in Basque town of Durango

08/24/2007

Whoever set off the bomb in Durango, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Bilbao, fled in a car and then detonated it in a vacant lot in the nearby town of Amorebieta-Etxano, according to the Spanish Interior Ministry office in the Basque capital, Vitoria-Gasteiz.

The blast caused serious damage to the Civil Guard station and residential barracks in Durango, shattering windows and damaging police cars parked outside, authorities said. Several nearby apartment buildings were also damaged.

The attack happened shortly after 3:15 a.m. (0115 GMT). There had been no warning, the Interior Ministry said.

Police believe the bomb contained some 80 kilograms (175 pounds) of explosives and was packed with shrapnel, the Spanish national news agency Efe said. It was not immediately known how many people were in the station at the time of the attack.

The injured officers were treated for cuts from flying glass, but were released from a hospital in a nearby town several hours later. ETA called the cease-fire in March 2006, but grew frustrated with a lack of government comitment in ensuing peace talks .

Britain orders extradition of three Basque citizens

A British judge ruled on Friday that three Basques acussed of being members of the Basque armed group ETA should be extradited to Spain to face terrorism charges, court sources said.

However, the ruling was immediately appealed and the three suspects were remanded in custody until the appeal can be heard, probably not until October or November at the earliest.

In a 27-page ruling, the judge, Caroline Tubbs, rejected arguments put forward by the defence counsel, Richard Gordon, that the three were being prosecuted for their political beliefs. She said they should be returned to Spain to face charges.

Ana Isabel Lopez, Zigor Ruiz and Inigo Albisu are accused by Spanish authorities of planning to set off a bomb in Spain's northern city of Santander. This have been compeltelly denied by them and their defense. They were arrested under a European warrant in the northern English city of Sheffield in April where they were living and working.

Navarre sold to Spanish unionists

Sanz, last week's elected unionist Navarrese president, is congratulated by Spanish conservative leader Rajoy.

Barrena denounces the "gifts" of the PSOE to "extreme right" 17/08/07


The Basque pro-independence left abertzale makes the "PSOE-PSN" responsible for letting UPN (right wing Navarrese party) maintain under its control the Navarrese Government one more a legislature. "The reality is that the party of Chivite, Zapatero and Blanco (PSOE/PSN) has given unlimited power to the most retrograde right of all Europe to continue applying the policies defined these past legislatures: economic planning in accordance with the multinationals, continuous backward movement concerning the social cost, privatization of services, granting the education policies to the private sector…".


The member of the national executive of the Basque pro-independence left, Pernando Barrena, also emphasized that it is not only the management of province what is into the hands of UPN: "it evidences that the PSOE also grants Sanz (head of UPN) the capacity to continue boycotting from the institutional scope the possibility of a process that would allow the people of Navarre to recover our right to freely decide our future".

Barrena considers "evident" that the PSOE "not only has sold its Navarrese militants, but also that has sold Nafarroa in order to alleviate the PP pressure until the Spanish elections of 2008".


Pernando Barrena remembered that, even, the direction of the PSOE "has finally admitted that it never contemplated another possibility of government in Navarre than the UPN because "Navarre is a State subject"", which "sides with the argumentation of the Basque pro-independence left, that many occasions has denounce that a change of government was not possible without a real change in the framework". Barrena actually indicated, "that one has been Nafarroa Bai's great error, to think that a change of government was possible not to change anything".

Barrena affirmed that "in the negotiations with the PSN, Nafarroa Bai only contemplated the historical abertzales vindications in order to reduce them until unsuspected limits: neither change of the Law of the Basque language, nor a debate on the institutional status of Navarre, or a commitment towards the peace process".

The Erzaintza arrests Igor Maiora in Gasteiz (Araba) 14/08/07

The autonomous police arrested a youth in Gasteiz after the Ertzaintza (autonomous police) supposedly found his DNA in the scene of a street attack. Askatasuna (organism of legal attendance to the Basque political prisoners) has denounced his arrest as well as the PNV and the Ertzaintza performances.

The autonomic police searched his house for two hours and a half and confiscated acomputer and several CDs, different neighbours declared that the police left the house in a complete mess. When finished the Ertzaintza also searched meticulously the Pub where he works.



Igor Maiora was sent to the Madrilian prison of Soto del Real after declaring before the judge of the Spanish National Hearing Juan del Elmo. According to what indicated Spanish media agencies, Maiora is accused of a crime of "terrorist damage" related to the burning of a cash machine.


100 kilos of cloratita, two limpet mines, pistols and machine guns found in Biarritz (North of the Basque Country) 14/08/07

The material was found, according to French official sources, after the owner of the garage decided to go inside when got no news of the person who had rented it several months ago. This source affirmed that the tenant had paid the money from 1 st February to 30th July.

The French Police assured to have found about 100 kilos of cloratita deposited in can, five kilos to penthrite, a much more powerful explosive that according to the Police ETA has sometimes combined it with cloratita to harness its impact.

The Police also sayed to have found two limped mines, more than 170 detonators, three pistols and several machine guns. It is being investigated if one of the three pistols belonged to the ones stolen in Nimes in October of 2006.

Some sources indicated that a mobile phone and diverse documentation in Basque was also found in the garage, digital tracks are intensely being searched for in order to identify ETA members.


Seven street attacks against cash machines and another one against the Peace Court of Zornotza (Bizkaia) 15/08/07

Seven cash machines of Zornotza were burned and the Peace Court attacked after street rioting. A similar attack caused damages in a PNV office of Donostia, and to a vehicle of the city council of Gasteiz.


Freed the two youth arrested in Donostia (Gipuzkoa) after supposedly attacking a bus 16/08/07


According to what informed the Home Department of the Government of Lakua both youth arrested by the Ertzaintza after the confrontations in Donostia were freed till trial day. Both arrested, a neighbour of Azpeitia (town of gipuzkoa) 20 years old and a 21 years old youth from Barcelona have been accused of "public disorders" and "attack against agents of the authority".


During the incidents registered by second consecutive night in the Guipuzcoan capital, that celebrates the festivities of Aste Nagusia, groups of youth faced the Ertzaintza with pyrotechnic rockets, crossed containers and tried to burn an urban bus. According to the Home department, an agent of the autonomic Police was hurt.


Three devices deactivated, after a warning, in a golf complex in Angelu (North of the Basque Country) 16/08/07


The French Police neutralized three incendiary devices in a golf complex of Angelu. An anonymous caller had previously alerted the emergency services of the positioning of the devices, one of which was a small gas cylinder. One of the devices had been placed in the golf course, another one in a contiguous hotel and the third before a residence of mentioned complex. These attacks are part of an ongoing campaign against housing speculation in the North.


London admits the Euro-order against Albisu, Lopez and Ruiz 18/08/07

The court of London admitted the Euro-order against the three Basques arrested the past April in Sheffield "for not believing Spain will hold them incommunicado". Askatasuna (legal organism in favour of the Basque political prisoners) will challenge this sentence in all the possible judicial scopes.



The sentence believes in the supposed Spanish commitment of not holding the prisoners incommunicado once are handed over to the Spanish authorities; Therefore, and as Askatasuna stressed, "the relation between incommunicado and torture is admited in these declarations"

Askatasuna hardly criticized the decision of handing over the prisoners and once again denounced irregularities committed from the very beginning in the process against the three Basques arrested in Sheffield; the Euro order "is based in lies", it evidences presented were obtained "under torture". They therefore denounced, "The Euro-order is based in torture".


Olano blames the PSOE and the PNV for opening the confrontation route 19/08/07

The spokesman of Askatasuna Juan Mari Olano reprobated the attitude of the PSOE and the PNV, and invited the citizens to participate in the creation of "a social weave, beginning from the work places up to the institutes" for amnesty and self-determination, which he defined as the bases for the resolution of the political conflict.

Around 1,500 people took part in the demo of Donostia to demand amnesty and self-determination, and in defence of the Basque political prisoners' rights.

The Basque pro-independence left "goes ahead with the liberation process"

13/08/07

Convinced that "only with dialogue and negotiation" the solution "to the political and armed conflict" will be reached, the Basque pro-independence left reiterated before 5,000 people its commitment to retake the negotiating process on the basis of the Basque citizens' capacity of decision.


Joseba Alvarez, member of the national executive of the Basque pro-independence left, analyzed the PNV's (Basque Nationalist Party) behaviour these past months, and mentioned the PNV's slogan "Aurrera doan herria / A country that goes forward". Alvarez commented that "the PNV does not care about anything" not the apartheid against the Basque pro-independence left "nor the 600 Basque political prisoners in the Spanish and French jails, some with fulfilled sentences already or, others seriously ill, others like Gatza that have spent 27 years in prison, and others like Arnaldo Otegi that have been jailed for taking part in the negotiation process".

Joseba Alvarez commented that "the only thing that goes forward are the PNV's businesses, the businesses of imposition, such as the HST (High Speed Train), the Incinerator or the Super port of Pasaia".

Alvarez also dennounced the PNV's performance in the negotiations carried out in the Sanctuary of Loiola between the PNV, the Basque pro-independence left and the PSOE. "the PNV said no to both territoriality and to democracy for the Basque Country", next alluded to recent declarations of the former Spanish president Felipe González, who said that "Imaz is the best thing that has happened to the Basque Country". "The main person in charge at the time of the GAL applauds Josu Jon Imaz (PNV president) and says that he is the most intelligent head of Euskadi. It is shameful - continued Alvarez-, the enemy only plays with the traitors, and that is what Imaz is doing at the moment".

Alvarez insisted that "dialogue and negotiation are the only alternative" and placed the Basque pro-independence left as "the alternative" to build another kind of country, remembering that despite the criminalisation campaign, despite the banning of many Basque pro-independence left candidacies by the Spanish state "we reached 190,000 votes" in the last elections held in the south of the Basque Country.

Great success at West Belfast's Féile an Phobail's Basque Day

Hundreds of people took part at the events organised by the Belfast Basque Committee during the West Belfast's Féile an Phobail's Basque Day. The day started with the unveiling of a solidarity mural on the Falls Road. It was Pat Rice, long live friend of the Basque Country, who had the honnour to do it in front of a 60 people crowd who were displaying flags and banners. The mural was painted by famous muralist Danny Devenny and claims self-determination for the Basque Country.

Afterwards a demonstration walked the Falls Road to Cultúrlann.

There a talk under the title of "Perspectives on the Basque peace process" was launched with a high profile pannel formed by Máirtín Ó Muilleor, Belfast Media Group editor, Eoin Ó Broin political writer and activist and Batasuna's spokesperson Pernando Barrena. 100 people attended the event and did questions about repression, history and future of the Basque Country.

A solidarity picket line was hold afterwards along the Falls Road.

At 5pm was time to fill the stomachs at the Basque food stall in St. Mary's just before taking to the Andytown Leisure Cente were Fermin Muguruza and the Afro-Basque Brigade made dance till late more than 500 people.

The Belfast Basque Committee wants to congratulate everybody for a fantastic day, specially comrades from the Dublin and Cork Basque Committees who attended the events.

There was not an agreement because Madrid lacks maturity -Otegi

07/29/2007

The spokesman for the outlawed Batasuna talked about the so-called "Loiola talks" between PSOE, PNV and Batasuna from the Martutene prison, where he is serving a 15-month sentence.

Spokesman for the outlawed party Batasuna Arnaldo otegi said that the peace process that started after ETA's announcement of a ceasefire has not failed and progress has been made. However, he adds that there has been not an agreement because the Spanish Government "lacked political maturity".

"I am not talking about failure. It can be said that we have made some progress but we have not reached any final agreement because the Spanish Government lacks ambition and political matutity", Otegi said in an interview for the Basque daily Gara from the Martutene prison, in Donostia-San Sebastian where he is now serving a 15-month sentence.

Arnaldo Otegi, the 48-year-old leader of the outlawed Batasuna party, was found guilty by a lower court of defending terrorism - a crime in Spain - through remarks he made in 2003 at a rally in memory of an ETA leader on the 25th anniversary of his death.

The leftist politician said the "process should be taken up again with guarantees and firm foundations" and added that only a "political agreement that places the Basque Country within a democratic framework can solve this conflict".

According to Otegi, the problem that burdened the peace process was the "homogeneous" position of the two majority Spanish parties PSOE and PP.

Two small bombs explode on Tour de France route after ETA warning
07/25/2007

No one was hurt. The blast was preceded by a call to the highway authorities in name of the armed Basque group ETA.

Two small explosive devices detonated Wednesday in the Basque Country along a route used by the Tour de France cycling race after a warning call by the armed Basque group ETA, the Interior Ministry said. No one was injured.

The explosions occurred outside Belagua, a town in the Navarra region, the Interior Ministry office in Navarra said, where the race itinerary took cyclists into on Wednesday.

The devices exploded 40 minutes apart on opposite sides of the road after a caravan of Tour-related publicity vehicles, which precedes the riders, had passed. The race's route was not changed, an official with the Navarra office said on condition of anonymity because of department rules.

The devices were inside plastic food containers and involved "a small amount of explosives,'' this official said. They exploded on bluffs overlooking the road and kicked up some earth but caused no injuries, he said.

Spain and France strengthen fight against ETA
08/01/2007

The French minister highlighted 23 people have been arrested over the last few months.

French Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie met with her Spanish counterpart Alfredo Perez-Rubalcaba in Paris on Tuesday.

The ministers highlighted their strong will to fight against terrorism and organised crime. Alliot-Marie expressed her country's determination to collaborate with Spain in their fight against the Basque armed group ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna) and mentioned the number of arrests obtained since the beginning of this year.

"You were able to see that over the last few months important results were obtained. Since the 1st of January of this year, 23 people were detained, six have been extradited," she said.

Last week, French police detained three suspected members of the ETA .The suspects, two men and a woman, were arrested in the city of Rodez.

They did not immediately release their identities, but Spain's Interior Ministry identified one of them as Juan Cruz Maiza Artola, chief of ETA logistics.

Spanish Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba thanked and congratulated French security forces.

British court to rule in August on Basque political refugees

Three suspected members of the Basque armed group ETA will hear on Aug. 17 whether they are to be extradited to Spain to face terrorism charges, a British court said on Friday.

Ana Isabel Lopez, Zigor Ruiz and Inigo Albisu were arrested under a European warrant in the northern English city of Sheffield in April. Askatasuna, the Basque political prisoners and refugees support group, denounced the arrests and highlighted that three of them were living and working in England for a long while and they were refugees escaping from Spanish repression and torture.

The Spanish arrest warrant accuses them of being part of a "reserve" cell of ETA. The three, who remain in custody, seemed relaxed during their four-hour appearance at Westminster Magistrates' Court in London.

Defence counsel Richard Gordon argued there was no detailed evidence against them and that a confession implicating Ruiz in an attack on a Spanish naval base in February 2006 had been obtained from another ETA suspect under torture.

Prosecutor Melanie Cumberland rejected the allegations, stressing that Spain was a signatory to the European Convention on Human Rights. She also disputed arguments that the three, all Basques, were being prosecuted for their political beliefs. "Spain is a trusted extradition partner," she said.

Both parties said they would appeal if they lost the case.

The Spanish Army marched in Donostia, protected by the Ertzaintza 17/07/07

In the occasion of the Day of Carmen and unlike last year, that marched within the military quartering of Loyola, the three branches of the Spanish Army, as well as important representatives of the Civil Guard and the Spanish Police, along with few political representatives, marched in Donostia among the protests of the neighbours of Alde Zaharra and the pro-amnesty movement.

Although only marched a few meters, the great unfolding of the Ertzaintza (Basque autonomous police) and other bodies of the SSF (Spanish Security Force) mirrored the importance of the military act.



Batasuna sees possible to stop the HST thanks to social struggle 18/07/07

Eusebio Lasa and Joseba Permach, members of the Basque pro-independence left executive, stated in a press conference the reinforcement and strengthen of the Basque social struggle against the HST (High Speed Train). Thanks to it, they believe its paralysation to be possible.

They also underlined that the past 27th May elections were a reflection of what the affected towns feel about it "those political formations that have deceived the citizenship by trying to impose the HST have been punished". And those formations that have played "consequently" have won the elections in the affected localities.

The Basque pro-independence left clearly knows that behind this project there are enormous economic and political interests. Moreover, behind this macro-project it is clearly noticeable the "neo-liberal model" of the PNV (Basque Christian democrat party), UPN (right wing Navarre party) and PSOE (Spanish "socialist" party in government).



2 and 5 years imprisonment sentence to fourteen youth accused of collaborating with ETA 19/07/07

The National Hearing has condemned 14 people to 2 and 5 years imprisonment for "collaboration with armedorganisation". The judges have acquitted Garikoitz Urizar, Gorka Rivadulla, Asier Arriola, Sergio Regueiro and Ibon Perez, five of the youth accused. These 19 people were arrested in 2004, and denounced to have undergone tortures. Haritz Totorika, Amaia Urizar, Iker Arzeluz and Aitziber Sagarminaga have been sentenced to 5 years imprisonment. Nagore Bilbao has been the condemned to 2 years and 7 months, and Immaculada Basabe, Mikel Lizarribar, Gaizka Larrinaga, Janire Couceiro, Iñaki Peña, Sonia Martin, Igor Zearreta, Leire Urrutia and Egoitz Fernandez, to two years.



To impose a false end, to hinder a democratic framework 19/07/07

The opinion article of Josu Jon Imaz published last weekend in diverse newspapers has caused a small earthquake in the Basque political scene. The Basque pro-independence left has criticized the terms which the PNV president li3mits the possibilities of a consultation to the Basque society. This article deepens now on those critics.

Beyond the electoral results, we are staking a new departure point that is not seen like a drama in the Spanish state, a new consensus, thirty years later, without the warding of the Franco regime, aided by a true democratic transition, with the participation and the commitment of the Basque pro-independence left. A new political agreement that will regulate and qualify the mechanisms to grant the word to our town, that starting off from the current reality and being flexible in forms and accounting, will contemplate as a base and limit, the democratically expressed free will and of our country.

The PNV plays dirty once again. Preparing a new fraud to the collective opportunity to give a structural and scrupulously democratic solution to the national negation of this Country, to honestly and negotiatedly untie the knot of the conflict and all its consequences.

The PNV has postulated itself, both in the negotiation table as well as publicly, as a loyal partner for a new historical fraud. A long time ago, it signed a strategic contract: to close the doors to national independence. That is its game. In the short term, to bid for the rejection of the process as a particular interest, and in the long one, as already said Imaz: To captivate Spain as a project.

Its scheme to make of the Spanish legality principle a limit to the freely expressed will of the Basque people, to bid for an agreement with the autonomic branches of the state parties in terms of statutory reform, turning the popular consultation into a mere appendix of entertainment and accompaniment.

The Basque pro-independence left does not want to build a process of democratic solutions against the PNV. And it considers that the sensitivity and political culture of the PNV must commit itself with a decisive agreement of guarantees and vocation of durability.

We believe that the word of the Basque people is the base and the limit of a democratic resolution scene and we take the principle of legality as a guarantee and channel of the democratic expression of the popular will, never as a limit or restriction. To take the process as a statutory reform and the consultation as a legitimation of the scheme is simply not to close the wound that feeds the conflict.

The PNV would better leave the imposition of a false end of the conflict and the prevention of a democratic framework scheme aside to make an honest effort to search and build a democratic resolution from the collective. Effort that means the following exercise: To close well an historical cycle of national negation, territorial division and imposition, to close well a cycle of armed confrontation and general suffering, in order to open, with strength, from the accumulation of majority social energies and political change commitments, a scene of peace and democracy.

The PNV continues in their old scheme. Its bid is a bet for the police route and to set the democratic resolution of the conflict aside. This way it assures the mechanisms of political hegemony and individual economy.

There are two reasons that also underlie in PNV's old and updated bid. On the one hand, it means to agree that the historical bid of resistance and struggle of the Basque pro-independence left was right before the shoddy work of thirty years ago and to live it like a drama. Well, the Basque pro-independence left neither needs the PNV to grant it the historical reason, nor wants medals nor political prices for itself. The positioning of the Basque pro-independence left is and will be the defence of a Country that considers itself a nation and that has the right to its free self-determination. Nothing else and neither nothing less.

On the other hand the PNV is scared of a democratic scene because it considers that in that framework the Basque pro-independence left is an option of popular strength, that could dispute the PNV's hegemony, and that building the Basque Country from the transforming left, with policies that will connect with social majorities can take the reins of the country towards national independence. That fear makes the PNV, at times that require great bids and hard decisions, at times of historical ambition and statistical height, to show itself meek, submissive and always by the side of the master of Madrid. Renewing its old bid of feeding the conflict.



Alvarez calls to apply 182.2 article of the Electoral Law 20/07/07

The member of the Basque pro-independence left executive, Joseba Alvarez, brought to collation that all the political parties, with the exception of Aralar, have participated in the management of the Spanish Law of Parties "usurping" , only in Gipuzkoa, to the Basque pro-independence left a total of 95 councils.

It remembered that in Gipuzkoa the Spanish courts "illegalized" 26 candidacies by, and added that as consequence 95 "usurped" seats and town halls of which "65 have already been stolen", 30 are still to be hold.

Alvarez denounced that the PNV is the political party that gains more from this mathematical operation with 23 "stolen" positions, four of them without been occupied yet, followed by EA (Basque social democrats) with "10 completed robberies and three without been completed".

He continued stating that the PSE ("Basque socialist" party) has also taken possession of 12 seats that do not correspond it, waiting to take another one, followed of the PP (spanish right wing party in the opposition) that "has already usurped" the 17 positions for which it was not chosen in the 27th May elections. EB ("Basque" left wing party) has taking 3 "illegitimate" councils.

Alvarez underlined that in Lizartza the PP governs just by 27 votes and by people who "had not even appeared in the list".

Immediately afterwards it exposed the existing difference between Lizartza and Aretxabaleta, since in this last one Aralar (Basque "left" party) has "publicly" announced that will carry out "until the end" the application of article 182,2 of the Electoral Law.

Alvarez ended denouncing that, as a result of the application of the Law of Parties, "the correlation of forces within the city councils has changed". This reality that supposes "a cheated institutional majority", emphasized, opens the way to the consummation of macro projects such as the incinerator plant, the outer port of Pasaia or the High Speed Train.



A police raid in Castelló in search of two presumed members of ETA 20/07/07

The SSF (Spanish Security Forces) are searching for two people consider members ETA in Castelló. The police operative began after one of them left a taxi when detecting a police control. Inside the vehicle, he would have left a bag with material to make bombs.

The taxi driver, surprised by this attitude, went to the Civil Guard control, to give account of what happened.

The search was extended after the taxi driver warned that the man greeted another person in the station where he took the taxi.



London postpones the Euro-order decision after admitting the arguments of the defence 21/07/07

The court of Westminister has delayed the Euro-order decision against Iñigo Albisu, Zigor Ruiz and Ana Lopez to be able to study with precision the arguments presented by the defence among them the possibility of being tortured when arriving to the Spanish state.

The judge who takes the extradition case of these three Basque political prisoners will also consider the new argumentations presented by the defence around the different abuses given within the judicial process. The decision to handing them over to the Spanish state has been therefore postponed until the next 17th August.

Madrid admits that the process "was collapsed" from beginning 22/07/07

The 29th December 2006, a day before ETA exploded a car bomb in the airport of Madrid-Barajas, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero insisted on his messages of optimism towards the dialogue process.

The Spanish Government has taken six months to publicly assume that, as both the political spokesmen of the Basque pro-independence left as well as the own armed organization expressed repeatedly, the so called "peace process" "was collapsed not long after the cease-fire", that began the 24th March 2006. "We could say that never really started; that is the truth: it never really took off", affirms the Spanish home minister. "It had a hesitant beginning and, from then on, things got complicated", added Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba.

SUPpORT THE CAMPAIGN ASKING FOR THE RELEASE OF ARNALDO OTEGI.

YOU CAN SIGN IT AT THIS WEBSIDE: WWW.ARNALDOASKATU.ORG or send a message.

The under-signed raise the necessity to release Arnaldo Otegi for the reasons exposed next:

1 - We understand that the political interlocution is the basic instrument to maintain the necessary communication to forward alternatives, as well as to debate and negotiate them between the parts involved, in order to be able to articulate the political agreements with which the Basque Country will reach a scene of peace and freedom.

2 - For that reason, we believe that Arnaldo Otegi's imprisonment is a very serious incident, since he is one of the main interlocutors of the Basque pro-Independence Left and, as it is publicly known he has carried out very important work in the search of a democratic solution to the political conflict that suffers the Basque Country.

3 - Consequently, those of us who subscribe this document forward to the public opinion our rejection to Arnaldo Otegi's imprisonment for being a political background measure, and at the same time request his release to the pertinent judicial authorities.

New phases will be open and the process will continue

EUSKAL HERRIA Step by Step
ASKAPENA's information service, Nº 186

The previous phase is over. The Spanish government neither wanted to negotiate nor knew how to do it. They put the process under so much strain, and so many times, that they managed to broke it. Two negotiating sides (PSOE and PNV) left the negotiating table letting the third one down. Unilaterally ETA decided to finish the truce unilaterally declared by them. The government get back in the failed path of repression, and they dream about reaching a new Anti-terrorist Pact.

The ones who conspire to block the process see their aim reached. The ones who worked hard to get a solution are already suffering the breaking-off consequences. The ones who dreamt about new times feel disappointed and frustrated. Some essential questions raise in this context: And, now? The opportunity we had is definitively lost? We will go back to the starting point in order to start again?

In the following lines we will try to answer these questions. The path we have walked during these year is not useless. It is not possible to go back to the starting point. Even though the phase ended without reaching an agreement, the process keeps on and will keep on. The solution is still far, but more and more closer. Our aim is not short term, we have not give up hope, and these are the information our conviction is based on.

The Spanish society

It fells more and more less motivated in keeping endlessly the confrontation. Due to the long years of the conflict and the different repressive failure strategies, it become convinced that something must be done. According to opinion tolls, more and more Spanish people agree to try new ways leading to resolution. The ones who supported a total war (PP) did not get during the last elections the good results they expected to get. The ones who supported a combined war (PSOE and their servants) did not get good results either. Nobody won; it was their rotten democracy that lost more as it gets more and more abstention.

The Basque society.

The Basque soceity is also very tired seeing that the years pass, and the conflict is unsolved. ETA's violence is strongly criticized by the Basque society, and more and more, State violence too. The ones who support State violence (PNV) were punished by the electorate. The Basque society increasingly think that the so-call transition was a deception and that the autonomic model was a trap; they feel that it is necessary to advance towards a new frame, that our lives and our future is being decided in Madrid regardless of the choice of our people, they feel that there is not separation of powers in Spain, that Euskal Herria is not able to choose.

The number of people who agree to talk with ETA in order to reach an agreement is growing, and so the number of people thinking that it is a political problem that needs political solutions; many people think that the Parties Law means coming back to Franco times and the illegalization process is absolutely unfair. There are also people who hope to recover the Anti-terrorist Pacts against the Basque left, but they are fewer and fewer, and less convinced: previous experience confirmed that these pacts are useless.


The Basque left

They have showed themselves to have an unimaginable capacity to survive. Their leaders are in prison, their headquarter are closed down, their funding are cut, their party is illegalised, their demonstrations are repressed, their activists are marked people? Their predictions and wills are not fulfilled. It is not a majority force, but it is not unimportant either. This force has shown capacity to survive, to regenerate, to renew its leadership, to have a bearing on the political life, to adapt to new situations, to offer political alternatives...

The reason for its strength is clear: the people belonging to it are coherent, and its proposals agree with the will of the people. Anoeta's Proposal (two negotiating tables as a resolution method) any the Anaitasuna Proposal (a self-government for the four territories [within the Spanish State], where the will of the citizens is respected and the pro-independence possibility is not rejected) are ratified. The Basque Left repeat that dialogue and acceptance of the majority's will is the only alternative.

Internationalisation of the conflict

Important steps have been taken in this field, and this conflict has more and more space in the international agendas: the Vatican, the European Union, UN General Secretary mentioned the situation we are living. Many important international voices established guidelines: "It is necessary to pass from the dialogue phase to substantial negotiations" (Nelson Mandela); "Only if all the sides, in equal conditions, are present at the negotiation table, fruitful negotiations are possible" (Gerry Adams); "Dialogue and negotiation are the only tool able to resolve political problems and to build a real peace" (Statement made by six personalities who supported the process); "Conditions must be created so that all the sides take part in the process...It is necessary to deal with the roots of the conflict in order to reach a lasting solution" (Roelf Meyer, South Africa Ministry of Defence during the years when apartheid was overcome); "Try to end up a conflict by repression means to make it even harder" (Matteo Zuppi, San Egidio Community, specializing in mediation).

The meetings that marked the end of negotiations took place at the end of May, and at the same table where ETA and the Spanish government were seated, a large international representation was also present.

Conclusion


In this crucial moment, sad and tense moments too, there are some facts that become more and more clear for the Basque society: The only alternative to process is more process. We are in one point where the dialogue process relies on a more and more solid social base. These months of intense political dialogue have been extremely important for all the ones who take part in it. The agreement has not been reached, but the work shared with the adversary has not been useless.

Even though PSOE had a negative attitude, they know that there is not another way to solve the conflict but to initiate it again. If in a time they though that superficial solutions would work to solve the conflict, now they know that it is useless. The ones committed to the process we need perseverance and courage to keep on persisting with it despite all the opposition and aggressions. The present breaking-off is neither an irreversible end nor a back to the starting point.

WHAT HAPPENED IN THE WINGS?

On March 22, 2006, the armed Basque organization ETA announced an indefinite cease-fire that would start on March 24. Fourteen months later, on June 5, 2007, ETA announced the end of the cease-fire and the reopening of the armed struggle at all the fronts, starting at midnight of June 5.

Today, our aim is to inform about what happened in the wings during the months when the miscarried normalization process was open.

Chronology of a new failed attempt

Preliminary.

Since 2000, there have been non official talks between the Basque left and the Spanish PSOE (Socialist Party). In these talks both of them agreed that the point was dealing with a political conflict that needed a political approach.

The indefinite cease-fire.

As a result of these talks, and aiming to facilitate them, ETA announced an indefinite cease-fire. The logic next step would have been an honest dialogue between both sides. Unfortunately what happened was just the opposite. Once deactivated the armed confrontation, PSOE as well PNV put a strategy previously plotted into practice: denature the process by transmitting the public opinion that the process was just a technical one (disarmament of ETA-resolution of the Basque political prisoners issue), at the same time that they intensified the judicial and police harassment against the Basque left. By doing, so equality of conditions was denied to the other side by the one formed by PSOE-PNV, in other words, a shameful manipulation of the good will of the other side in order to erode it, to have it on the ropes, and if possible, to eliminate it.

The first crisis.

As a result of this change by PSOE and the PNV after the truce declaration by ETA the process reached a deadlock within two months. Before May 2006, the talks underwent their first and grave crisis. In order to unblock it, the Basque left tried to reactivate the encounters with the political parties. In that context we have to locate a very closely followed by the mass media meeting maintained by PSOE and Batasuna in a Bilbao hotel. The PSOE leaves the way free so that the phase of negotiation would advance. Nevertheless, the public projection by the media as for the reached agreement was fatal. In the press conference after the encounter - that happened to be positive - the representatives from the PSOE deceived the citizenship. They said that they had attend the talks not to the solve a crisis, but to remember Batasuna "that it had homework to be done". Despite this rude disinformation, the aim was fulfilled since the crisis was surpassed.

The second crisis.

This crisis took place on August 2006. In the 6 July meeting, so widely announced by the media, PSOE as well as Batasuna committed themselves to reach a pre-agreement before the 31st of July. The dates previously agreed were exceeded without reaching the aim. In a press conference Batasuna's spokesmen tlak about the crisis and the blockade. A little later, PSOE and PNV executives gave green light to reach a pre-agreement which should be debated later by all the Basque agents. The crisis is solved with this decision which means a qualitative jump: for the firs time a true political negotiating table among the three interlocutors is formed with the same aim: to give a definitive and political solution to an old political conflict.

Time of intense dialogue and the two rough drafts.

As it was previously agreed, on September 2006 the dialogue among the three sides becomes more intense. Three meetings were held in September, six more in October, and three more in November. It was an intense experience due to the three interlocutors analysis level: Batasuna, PSOE and PNV. The talks were based on two main points: the necessary political bases for a future agreement, and the establishment of a general scheme for the development of the process.

Four questions were approached, the four of which required consensus: the conception of Euskal Herria as a nation, the right to decide, the respect for all the rights and the institutional organization. Formal aspects were also debated: the method and schedule of the multilateral dialogue (previously, Batasuna and PSOE decided to start up the multy-party table before October 2006).

The intense work during these months gave as a result two rough drafts. The first of them saw the light in September; after reaching this rough draft, October was the most positive month, since it was possible to remarkably advance. At the end of this month a second rough draft saw the light; the bases of a possible agreement that would bring the resolution for the conflict appeared in this rough draft.

The hour of the commitments.

The sixth and last meeting of October was decisive. In that meeting, each one of the interlocutors had to define its position. Batasuna alerted that the rough draft contained gaps and ambiguities that could make it very dangerous at the time of being applied. The first two sections about the recognition of Euskal Herria as a nation and the respect for the rights reached the general agreement. The ones related to the right to decide and the territorial organisation caused discords; Batasuna demand that they have to be more precise so that a fraud could not happen at the time of carrying out a change of the status of Euskal Herria, a point that in private talks the three sides considered absolutely necessary.

Important political proposal of the Basque left.

In order to solve the new blockade, Batasuna put on the table a very important political proposal, which means a big effort done by this political party: an autonomy statute for the four territories in the south of Euskal Herria envisaging the right of the citizens to decide for themselves, and not excluding the option of independence if the Basque citizens decide so. The proposal is close to PNV's ideology and agrees with PSOE's proposals made not many years ago.


The contributions that never materialised since the interlocutors left the table.

The blockade.

After knowing Batasuna's proposal, at the end of October the interlocutors committed themselves to write up their own contributions. They never fulfilled their task. During the three meetings held in November, PNV reiterated that it would change not even one a single comma of the second rough draft; and as for the PSOE, it made important reductions relative to the previous compromises. Regarding Batasuna's new proposal, both PSOE and PNV refused to take it into consideration. As a result, Batasuna reduced its exigency level and it proposed an action line shared with them in order to get closer to a situation of autonomy that did not exclude independence. Not even this readjustment of the proposal was taken into account. PSOE and PNV answered with a second refusal that totally blocked the process. Batasuna keep on waiting for the promised contributions that never arrived. The interlocutors left the table and they have not returned.

Reactions to ETA's press release

ETA announced on the 5th of June that at 12 am on the 6th of June the indefinite cease-fire came to an end. We will not mention the official notice since its content has had an ample echo in the international press. The armed Basque organization justified its decision on the grounds that the conditions to take ahead a peace process did not happen. ETA blamed the Spanish Government not to have fulfilled the previously agreed commitments, in the same way ETA accused the Basque PNV of behaving like a mere PSOE's servant.

After the official notice, the post-electoral pacts went to a second place. The ETA's press release, although everybody had supposed to happen so, provoked an avalanche of reactions with few new elements, and many of them very opportunists. Many political and social agents had scandalously and irresponsibly behaved during the months of the truce. They had been blind, deaf and dumb with the demolishing attitude of the PSOE and the PNV; they did never denounce the non stop aggressions that both parties made in all the fronts to the third interlocutor. It is only now, when ETA is the one to open all the fronts, that they have raised a cry of horror and alarm. We have witnessed another new expression of thought and unique speech: ETA and its accomplices, the Basque patriotic left wing, are the only responsible agents for the failure of the peace process. ETA's enemies have brought to light all the speeches and strategies that they had beforehand prepared. We summarize in this bulletin some reactions that deserve to be taken into account.


The Government of Madrid bets on the repression

President Zapatero made an official appearance on June 5 directing his reflection in four directions: he warned that ETA is wrong again; he also addressed to the Spanish citizenship to keep calm since the situation is under control, according to Mr Zapatero; he also spoke to to the Basque citizenship to explain that he had done everything that was in his hand to obtain Peace; finally, he did asked to the rest of the political forces to be united against terrorism. These explanations are not able to clarify a very serious doubt: a Government who had carried out a great activity before the cease-fire by ETA; why did it change its attitude once ETA interrupted its armed activity?

Zapatero himself gave the answer to this question in an interview on television: he did not try at any moment to solve the political conflict, the only thing that he tried was the end of ETA without making any substantial modification within politics; ETA had to surrender to seductions Zapatero's ways; at the same time, the Spanish Government added that it was going to undertake the strategy of repression against the Basque patriotic left wing (but the question is: has the Spanish government ever interrupted that violent strategy?). What Zapatero had meant was that he was to harden the repressive measures and, saying so he said the truth: Iñaki de Juana, who continued in the Hospital of Donosti, was transferred to the jail of Aranjuez to complete the one year sentence that he has still to serve; the Spanish judge Garzón prohibited to two leaders of Batasuna to travel to South Africa to attend a Congress where they were invited; the spokesman of Batasuna, Arnaldo Otegi was imprisoned once again, new arrests in France, a refugee was transfered from Mexico... In the week from the 11th to the 18th, Zapatero met all the political forces to try to incorporate them to the Antiterrorist Pact that he is reactivating.


The PP bets on repression

Nothing new. The president of the PP accepts the invitation that Zapatero had made to him in order to meet and to approximate strategies in the fight against the Basque fight for independence. In spite of it, he takes advantage of the new situation to continue striking Zapatero. According to the PP, the facts have given the reason to this political party: the only effective strategy to exterminate "the terrorism" consists in closing any route of dialogue and in fighting that claim for independence with all the possible arms; they asked to Zapatero to rectify his antiterrorism policy by going into action. As usual, Rajoy considered that the first measures taken by Government were insufficient: they demand the illegalization of ANV and prevent their candidates to take up the of their post of city council the citizens have granted to them; it did also asked Zapatero to harden the prison sentences... After the meeting on June 11th , Zapatero and Rajoy projected an image of greater antiterrorism consensus.



The Basque Government, rejection to other people's violence and a bet on dialogue

This institution waited several days before making an assessment of the new situation. In order to do so, it reunited the Political Council conformed by three people: the President and a member of each one of the partners of the Tripartite. Its answer consists merely in retaking the Plan for Peace that agreed a few months before, and that was forgotten. The grounds of their positioning were these: a complete rejection of violence, a bet on political dialogue, to reactivate the peace and coexistence plan, and to have total confidence in Basque society.



The PNV, faithful squire of the PSOE, bets on repression

During the talks, the PNV has behaved like an unconditional servant of the PSOE. After the decision of ETA, its servility has become serious: its speech is full of insults and disqualifications against Batasuna, the Basque patriotic left wing; the PNV exculpates itself and the Spanish Government of the failure of the negotiations, holding just Batasuna responsible of what happened. As the PNV has done throughout the peace process, it is preparing the context so that Madrid should act with total impunity against Euskal Herria; on this particular case, it is preparing the Basque society so that it could assume the repressive big wave that the Spanish Government, with the complicity of the PNV, is going to untie against the Basque patriotic left wing.




The opportunism of other social agents

The Basque political parties betting on a policy of reform have followed the path marked by their ship standard, the PNV. They do not use the same degree of belligerence in their speeches, but they all agree in repudiating the only violence that according to them does not exist: the one of ETA. It is curious fast answer by ELA, the trade union, in rejecting ETA's decision: on the very same day, June 6th, it organized a concentration against the armed organization.

From the beginning of the cease-fire, ELA knew the continuous aggressions that the Basque patriotic left wing was undergoing and how risky these aggressions were for the good result of the process. In that case it never summoned a similar concentration; it has only demonstrated initiative to condition the weakest negotiating partners.

Groups sympathizers to the Spanish constitution, like Gesture of Peace initiated their mobilizations against ETA; although, in this case, they could not be the first ones: ELA and Nafarroa Bai were first. Very quickly the Basque Church as well as the Spanish one has taken position against ETA. They are not worry at all about torture and the steps taken to make illegal legitimate political parties. In the case of the Spanish church, they has been actively sabotaging the process.



The Basque left demands the continuity of the process

On June 5, Arnaldo Otegi, spokesman of Batasuna and nowadays in prison, made the first assessment. He pointed out that only ETA is responsible for the breaking-off of the truce. But PSOE and PNV are responsible for the collapse of the process. He did not just look the past, Arnaldo was also confident that a solution will be find. He reasserted what he said on October 2004 regarding the efforts to find a solution to the conflict. He committed himself to redouble the efforts to recreate, with other agents, the necessary conditions that they should allow to reactivate a democratic process. The popular claim to keep on the process to get a negotiated solution is not only possible but also very necessary; there is no another alternative. It is extremely necessary to keep a huge calm and tranquillity in these delicate moments. Some days later the very person passing on this message of serenity was imprisoned.