United Nations call upon Spanish Government to end torture.

Last week the United Nations Committee against Torture released a report after examining the Spanish state’s practice. After persistent ignoring of the international institution’s recomendations the conclusions couldn’t be any other way than to ask the Spanish authorities to end the incommunicado regime and to criticise the light penalties imposed on those found guilty of torture.

The Committee says in the report that “once again we have to express our concern – a concern shared by all the relevant regional and international human rights protection bodies - about the incommunicado regime used by the Spanish state in the terrorism offences, which could go up to 13 days. This regime breaches all the protections typical of a State of Law against ill-treatement and torture.”

Last week the Director of the Spanish branch of Amnesty International met with Navarre Parliament MPs to tell them it’s time to recognise the existence of torture and to implement measures to make it disappear. The protests of Spanish unionist representatives engendered a powerful response from the AI Director who said: “When we release human rights abuses reports about China everybody respects AI’s stand. Why is the opposite here?”.

Commemorations of Basque pro-Independence Left’s leaders murdered by the Spanish state.

25 and 20 years ago respectively on November 20th Basque pro-Independence Left’s leaders Santi Brouard and Josu Muguruza were assassinated by Spanish death squads. Santi was murdered in the pediatric nursery where he worked  and Josu in a hotel in Madrid where he was to attend the first session of the Spanish Congress to which  he had been elected.  Josu and other Herri Batasuna elected MPs were going to use their turn to speak  to launch a peace proposal.

Both leaders were very much respected and loved and proof of that was in the very succesful events organised during the weekend in the Basque Country to commemorate their lifes and political legacy. On Friday morning the police harassed the commemoration event and hundreds packed a handball court that evening in Bilbao for a very moving rally. Sinn Féin MLA Paul Maskey also took part and expressed the Republican movement’s solidarity and support for the democratic process.

A speaker said the Basque pro-Independence Left was born to win and that it’s time to collect the fruits of many years of struggle and to gather forces to achieve the democratic framework.

Judge rules against extradition

Beñat leaving court

‘Charges are politically-motivated and must be dropped’

Judge Tom Burgess ruled last Wednesday that the Spanish authorities’ extradition warrant against Belfast-based Basque activist Artruro "Beñat" Villanueva was “invalid”. The judge rejected the warrant, which claimed that Mr Villanueva was a “member of an illegal terrorist organisation” (Jarrai) from 1994-2000, on the grounds that it did not include any particularities or details of specific offences alleged to have been committed.

The judge further ruled that there was no specific evidence cited in the warrant that proved Mr Villanueva’s membership of the organisation.
On Friday the Prosecution decided to appeal the ruling.

Welcoming the judgment today, Don’t Extradite the Basques Campaign spokesperson Kevin Morrison said: “The judge’s ruling demonstrates the validity in the message that the Don’t Extradite the Basques Campaign has been putting forward – that the extradition warrant against Benat was politically motivated.

“We urge the British government to acknowledge, after today’s ruling, that the cases against both Basque men being sought by the Spanish government are flawed and politically-motivated. The extradition request against Iñaki de Juana must also now be rejected.”

Arturo “Beñat” Villanueva

Mr. Morrison went on to say: “There were several fundamental flaws in the arrest warrant against Beñat, and the lack of particularity – the fact that there are no exact dates, locations or details of participation in any offence by Beñat – made the warrant invalid in the judge’s view.”

“While Jarrai is a solely political organisation, it was declared illegal by the Spanish authorities in 2005 and categorised as a “terrorist” organisation by Spain’s Supreme Court in 2007.

“During the period of Beñat’s alleged membership of Jarrai, the organisation was legal. The non-retrospectivity legal principle was clearly being breached by the terms of the warrant for his extradition.

“Beñat is being targeted by the Spanish authorities for carrying out political, public and peaceful youth work in the Basque Country. His only ‘crime’ was his political ideas in favour of Basque independence and socialism.”
‘Reject warrant against Iñaki de Juana’

Mr. Morrison continued: “The Don’t Extradite the Basques Campaign will continue to oppose the ongoing extradition process against Iñaki de Juana, who is also being targeted on spurious grounds by the Spanish government.

“We believe both men are clearly being persecuted solely for their political opinions, not for any criminal activity. We believe they will not receive a fair hearing with the Spanish judicial system and that they face the risk of torture.

“We urge the Spanish government to rethink its criminalisation strategy against the pro-Independence movement, particularly at this moment in time when significant initiatives towards reviving the peace process have been taken this week by the Basque Abertzale Left movement.

“We urge the British government to acknowledge, after today’s ruling, that the cases against both men are flawed and politically-motivated, and to reject the extradition request against Iñaki de Juana.”

The pro-independence left commits itself to a peaceful and democratic process.

110 prominent pro-independence left activists were present last Saturday at a press conference in Altsasu in the Basque Country. There is no doubt it was an extraordinary event that strenghtened the importance of the ocassion.

A three-page declaration entitled “A first step in the democratic process: principles and intentions of the nationalist Left” was read to the gathered media. In it, the pro-Independence Left declares without reservations "support for a peaceful, political and democratic process in order to achieve an inclusive democracy, where the Basque people, freely and without any intimidation of any kind, will be able to decide their future.”

The document puts together and summarises numerous ideas, statements, press releases, interviews that have been carried out during the past year including Batasuna’s debate document launched a month ago.  However, it also includes new commitments like the acceptance of the Mitchell principles which opened the path to the peace process in Ireland.

The pro-independence left sets the overcoming of the armed conflict as a priority. According to them this conflict has been perpetuated by the current political framework which divides the Basque Country and denies its  people their rights.

The declaration states that “both with correct decisions and errors the pro-Independence Left has brought the liberation process to the phase of political change. Now, the task is to make it irreversible.” For this to happen “new strategies, new political alliances and new tools” are required.

They acknowledge that “the objectives to reach in this new phase are the national recognition of the Basque Country and the right to self-determination and for that it’s necessary to increase the accumulation of forces and to move the confrontation with the Spanish and French states to the front where they are weaker that is the political front. The basic instrument for the new political phase is the Democratic Process.”

Spain’s Minister of the Interior and the pro-Spanish forces and media said there was nothing new in the statement and tried to criminalise it as usual.

The Basque parties welcomed the statement as positive and asked ETA to make a move.

More support messages came from abroad also. Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams said: “Their unconditional declaration of support for a peaceful, political and democratic process should be welcomed by the friends of the Basque and Spanish peoples, by all friends of the quest for peace in the Spanish State. This political initiative needs space to bloom. I reiterate my call in recent days for all involved to create the space.” Mr. Adams was refering to a previous statement last Friday in which he asked for the immediate release of Arnaldo Otegi and the other Batasuna leaders imprisoned a month ago.

International mediator Brian Currin also welcomed the declaration from Venice where he was attending along with Sinn Féin, Batasuna and the Kurdish Workers Party’s represenatives conference on democratic and peace processes.

Prisoners’ relatives ask for a “solidarity flood”.

Hundreds of Basque political prisoners’ relatives met last Sunday for their association’s annual conference. At the end of it they held a giant press conference supported by different parties, trade unions and community groups.

The speakers said this has been a very hard year for them and their relatives as conditions in the jails are deteriorating. Prisoners’ rights are breached on a daily basis: dispersal policy, life sentences, ill prisoners kept in jail, solitary confinment and isolation, threats, insults, beatings, communication obstacles, continuous and arbitrary prison transfers without notice ...

Even relatives and friends are harassed and criminalised and are forced to put their lives at risk in long road trips for a visit which then lasts only 40 minutes.

For that reason the relatives appealed to Basque society and especially to political parties, trade unions and social organizations to make a “solidarity flood” together in order to put an end to all the attacks and bring the prisoners home. As a first step they called for a national demonstration on the 2nd of January.

The Basque Political Prisoners’ Collective also released a statement over the weekend to protest against the new personal search measures imposed upon their relatives and friends before visits. The Collective said that the Spanish Government has an incredible lack of respect for dignity and that all these abuses are not going unnoticed by Basque society or the international community.

In fact just last week the Spanish Government took the first steps to reform the current Penal Code so that ex-prisoners will be under permanent control for up to 10 years after they have their sentences to the full. Other measures include the creation of more types of “terrorist offences”.

Campaign for northern Basque Country’s recognition getting stronger.

More than 400 people gathered at a rally in Azkaine’s handball court, near Baiona, last Saturday, organised by the Group in Favour of Autonomy.

After years of French scorning the Basque people’s demands a strong campaign for Basque institutions in the north begun. In the 80’s the armed organization Iparretarrak led the way and in the 90’s local mayors and councillors organised and and launched new campaigns. Huge demonstration and signature collections showed the support of the majority of people and political representatives across the board.

Now the French state is in the middle of a territorial administrative zone reorganization but continues to ignore the Basque people’s demands.

It’s in this context that different Basque nationalist forces are coming together to ask for recognition of the Basque Country’s own institutions and the right to decide their own future.
At last Saturday’s rally speakers told the audience that thanks to their hard struggle they had been able to keep the Basque Country alive and that through struggle they would make their dream a reality.

Basque extradition would be ‘grossly inhumane’

As Iñaki de Juana’a two-day extradition hearing began in Belfast on November 12, supporters rallied in a demonstration called by the Don’t Extradite the Basques Campaign.

Michael Culbert, director of the ex-prisoners’ group Coiste na n-Iarchimí, addressed the supporters, who included republican ex-prisoners, local Sinn Féin councillors, members of Belfast’s Basque community and others.

“The case against Iñaki is motivated by vindictiveness on the part of the Spanish government despite the fact that there is no evidence against him. The charges are spurious and absurd,” Culbert said at the rally.

The Spanish authorities are trying to extradite the former prisoner and hunger-striker, who served 21 years in Spanish jails, from Belfast, where he moved immediately after his release in August last year, on charges of “glorifying terrorism”.

The arrest warrant is based on a single media report of somebody at a rally in Donostia/San Sebastian last August, which was celebrating de Juana’s release from prison, reading a letter that used the popular Basque expression “Aurrera bolie” (“Kick the ball forward”). The Spanish authorities claim this phrase constitutes a call for the continuation of armed struggle.

De Juana was not present at this rally and denies writing such a letter, which Spanish police admit they cannot produce.

Judge Tom Burgess ruled in March that “glorifying terrorism” was an extraditable offence that had an equivalent under the British Terrorism Act 2006. He said that he did not have to study the quality of the evidence against de Juana, as that was a matter for the Spanish courts.

The defence team in last week’s hearing argued two main points: that the Spanish authorities were knowingly abusing the extradition process, and that extradition would cause a disproportionate threat to de Juana’s health.

Edward Fitzgerald QC, defending, said he believed the Spanish authorities were abusing the extradition process because they knew they did not have any evidence against de Juana, and that the case was politically motivated.

He explained that while the defence had repeatedly requested the case files of evidence against his client, the Spanish authorities had refused to provide any such information or respond to the requests.

Referring to an article published in the pro-Spanish daily newspaper El Pais, which said the prosecution’s case against de Juana “was like trying to build the Titanic with toothpicks”, Fitzgerald said the description was accurate.

“This is an absurdity, but the fact it’s an absurdity doesn’t make it harmless. It makes it dangerous given the consequences,” he said.

The defence also pointed out that the involvement of the Spanish Association of Victims of Terrorism organisation in all stages of the case against de Juana, –from urging it to be launched, to working closely with the prosecution and continuing to monitor the case – reflected the lack of independence on the part of the prosecution.

While the judge had ruled in March that it was not his role to examine the evidence against de Juana, the defence argued that the total lack of evidence of a crime from the prosecution was itself evidence that the charges were politically motivated.

‘Grossly inhumane’
Senior university lecturer at Cambridge University, Dr Adrian Grounds, an expert on the impact of imprisonment on the psychological health of detainees, testified that in his independent opinion, de Juana would face a very serious deterioration in his health and likely, if not certain, death through hunger strike if he was extradited.

Dr Grounds, who had interviewed de Juana for eight hours, said that de Juana’s previous experiences in Spanish prisons had been extremely traumatic and that while he was “a very strong, ideologically committed and resilient person”, his prison experience had left him suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and absolute exhaustion.

De Juana was subjected to repeated beatings while in jail, and Dr Grounds cited the abuses carried out against Basque political prisoners documented by the UN’s Committee on the Prevention of Torture as well as reports by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

He was held in solitary confinement for more than 17 years of his total 21 years in jail. When protesting against attempts to lengthen his term after he had completed his 19-year sentence, de Juana endured first a 63-day hunger strike and then a 115-day strike during which he was force-fed while shackled to his hospital bed.

Dr Grounds said that to return him to the Spanish prison system would very likely result in de Juana going on a hunger strike to the death. He said that in his opinion, this would partly be a political act of protest, but it would also reflect de Juana’s inability to return to the conditions that had caused his exhaustion and PTSD.

Fitzgerald said: “Would it now be inhumane to put him back in custody on the basis of what someone says someone read out at a rally though no-one has the document? We say it's grossly disproportionate and inhumane to do that.”

Amnesty International denounces police impunity.

Last week AI published a report where it highlighted the impunity of Spanish police in torture cases. The damming report says there is no political will to put measures in place to prevent torture. AI describes the current system of investigation and punishment of torture as a “black hole”.

The report suggests several procedures and actions to the Spanish and Basque Autonomous Region’s governments to end torture. These include the creation of an independent body to investigate the complaints (up until now it’s the same police accused of the abuse who “investigate” the accusations), setting up video and audio systems in interrogation centres and ensuring that the police wear identification numbers or names on their uniforms.

For many years now AI has asked the Spanish authorities to stop torture and to end the incommunicado period during which it usually happens. The Spanish authorities have continuously ignored AI’s recommendations.

Just two weeks ago the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions spoke against the imprisonment of Batasuna’s spokesperson Professor Landa. The report was initially ignored by the Spanish government but last week judge Baltasar Garzon rejected it and accused the UN body of lack of information on the case.

Six months of illegitimate government in the Basque Autonomous Region.

Six months ago the Spanish Labour Party/PSOE took over the three western Basque provinces' regional parliament with the support of the Spanish Conservative Party/PP.

It was the end of 30 years of Basque Nationalist Party/PNV government. The change was possible as a result of the banning of the pro-independence left. In this way the political apartheid imposed by the Spanish authorities reached one of its objectives.

The same type of government is in place in the other Basque regional parliament of Navarre where the Spanish unionist right wing holds power thanks to the support of the Spanish Labour Party and the banning of the pro-independence left.
These strange coalitions show the nature of the state pact against the Basque people’s will for change and democracy.

During the first six months of the Basque Autonomous Region’s government political tension has increased with an extremely repressive summer against all displays of solidarity with political prisoners, the banning of demonstrations and the efforts to make Basque national symbols disappear from public places.

The latest controversy came about last week when the regional Education Minister expressed her aims to make all references to the Basque Country as a nation disappear from the curriculum. She went on to say that Basque language medium education was offensive for 80% of the population.

The objectives of the pro-Spanish political offensive are clear: to turn the three western Basque provinces into a “normal” Spanish region and to make the unionist vision of the region the “neutral” vision in opposition to the “biased” nationalist vision.

Weekend celebrations show the strength of Basque social movement.

Last Saturday thousands of young people took over the streets of Arrasate to celebrate the National Student’s Day. The day of events was organised by Ikasle Abertzaleak/Nationalist Students, the largest student organisation in the Basque Country with local groups in secondary schools and universities.

This year's event, organised under the slogan “Drawing the future”, saw debates during the morning around the capitalist and patriarchal system’s effects in education. In the afternoon there was lunch and a demonstration followed. At the end of it speakers from the Basque Country, the Catalan Countries and Ireland spoke about their different student struggles. The day ended with a music festival.

Also on Saturday the Basque international solidarity organization Askapena/Liberation organised its annual Internationalist Day. 300 people gathered in Altsasu for a day packed with events, with a special focus on solidarity with Palestine and the boycott campaign against Israel.

Last weekend also marked the 30th anniversary of the creation of Euskal Herrian Euskaraz/In the Basque Country in Basque. For the last three decades this grassroots organisation has been working hard in defence of, and to promote, the Basque language.

In a press conference they announced many events will be organised in coming months to celebrate the anniversary but more importantly to strengthen the organisation and the two fundamental axes of their work: denouncing and defending the movement against the attacks and the development of a strategy that will lead to a Basque Country that will live in Basque.

Last Saturday more than 1,000 members of the largest trade union Basque Workers Solidarity/ELA gathered in the south of Navarre to pay tribute to the more than 3,000 people executed by the Spanish fascist forces during the 1936-39 war in this Basque province. Among the executed were socialists, anarchists, communists, nationalists...and many ELA members also. This tribute is part of a broader process of recovering the historical memory set in place by many different grassroots organisations created over the past few years across the Basque Country.

Prisoners’ relatives harassed.

Last weekend many Basque political prisoners lost their right to visit their loved ones after refusing to submit to being searched by guards in dozens of Spanish jails. It seems like this is another step up by the Spanish authorities in the harassment relatives have to endure to visit the 742 Basque political prisoners. 

Friends and relatives have to travel hundreds of miles every weekend to visit them in 85 jails across France and Spain putting their lives at risk on the road. Two of them had to be taken to hospital last weekend and 16 have lost their lives during the past 20 years.  

Even the prisoners’ relatives association has been recently targeted in a criminalisation campaign by the Spanish authorities and media. 

Prisoners in different jails started protests against these new searching measures. 

 

BASQUE INFO RADIO PROGRAM

You can now listen to this week's Basque Info radio program whenever it suits you just by clicking here http://tinyurl.com/ygtkjla 30 minutes of news, music and an interview with Batasuna's representative in Brussels about the new political initiative.

"IT'S TIME TO COLLECT THE FRUITS OF LONG YEARS OF STRUGGLE"

Last Wednesday South African attorney and international mediator Brian
Currin addressed a conference in Donostia/San Sebastian. Expectations
were high due to the work Brian Currin has carried out in conflict
resolution in South Africa, Rwanda, Ireland and the Basque Country.

Brian Currin arriving to the conference.

Mr. Currin said he knew the Basque pro-independence left was involved
in a strategic debate and that he had been given details about a new
political initiative. He revealed that in July last year, Batasuna had
asked him to write a report on the anti-aparthied United Democratic
Front experience in South Africa. Then that strategy was discussed
between September and December.
 
During the conference he said he trusted the Basque pro-independence
left and he encouraged others to support the new political initiative.
He went on to say that he thought the initiative was praiseworthy and
that it has the potential to have a deep impact in the political
situation in the Basque Country. According to Mr. Currin, a democratic
process based on the new political initiative would receive
international support.
 
He began his speech by talking about the recent arrests of prominent
Basque pro-independence activists such as Batasuna spokesperson
Arnaldo Otegi. He said he was sure the Spanish government knew about
the new proposal and that with the arrests they wanted to prevent it
from being launched.
 
Mr. Currin said that the Basque pro-independence left should be
legalised and its members released from jail and that the democratic
process should be carried without violence.
 
The conference is available on line at:
http://www.irishbasquecommittees.blogspot.com/
 
During the same week veteran pro-independence leader Rufi Etxeberria
was extensively interviewed by the Basque newpaper Gara. He was
recently released on bail after two years in jail for his Batasuna
membership and then arrested the following week along with Arnaldo
Otegi and another eight prominent left nationalist activists just to
be released on bail once again.
 
In the interview he says “it’s time to collect the fruits of long
years of struggle and not to let them go.” Mr. Etxeberria thinks that
there are appropriate existing political and social conditions to
promote a democratic process and to achive a new democratic framework
in the Basque Country.
 
For that he considers that the pro-independence left has to reorganise
and strengthen and that it has to become legal. He also thinks a new
broad political and social pro-independence movement has to be created
to promote a democratic framework and at the same time to develop a
pro-independence strategy.
 
As a third step Mr. Etxeberria speaks of the need to build a popular
wall to stop all the repressive attacks and to demand the release of
all political prisoners.
 
Finally he says that the negotiation process has to be rebuilt taking
into account the experiences and contents of the last process and that
a Forum for a Democratic Solution should be put in place.
 
On Monday the pro-independence left decided to make the debate
document available online.  In a statement it said that they wanted
everybody to be able to know about it from the original source in a
way to defeat the Spanish authorities' efforts to prevent the new
political initiative and to overcome the ongoing media hysteria and
criminalisation campaign.

Last weekend the National Forum of Debate met at its annual
conference. More than 200 delegates of different organisations took
part and evaluated the work done during the past year. The Forum was
created in 2003 to make a national analysis of the Basque Country’s
political, economic, social and cultural situation and to promote
national building strategies. This year’s conference decided to
establish a commission to promote a common and plural pro-independence
space for citizens to be active in the process of political change.

YOUTH ACTIVISTS JUDGED FOR THEIR POLITICAL WORK

Last week five young activists were judged in the Spanish National
Court accused of being members of the Basque pro-independence youth
organisations Jarrai, Haika and Segi. Two of them were transfered from
jail. The other three had been previously released on bail.
Nevertheless they were imprisoned at the end of the trial while
awaiting sentence.

The five youth activists in the Spanish Special Court.

All of them had been on the run when another 31 activists were tried
in 2005, 23 of whom were sentenced to six years in prison in 2007. The
Spanish authorities sought the extradition of four more but French
authorities rejected three of them on the basis of political
persecution and lack of evidence. The fourth is Arturo “Benat”
Villanueva who is currently fighting extradition from Ireland.

Eight young activists were sentence to six years in prison last week
for being members of the outlawed youth political organisation Segi.
115 more are awaiting trial.

During the trials all of them defended their right to do political
work in favour of independence and stated that the trials were
political.

ARRESTS AND RELEASES

Basque solicitor Joseba Agudo was arrested last week by French police
after the Spanish police searched his offices. He works mainly with
Basque political refugees and has been accused of working for ETA.
 
South American solicitors protested the arrest and accused Spain of
being an inquisitorial state.
 
An alleged ETA member was arrested in France and later imprisoned last week.
 
Basque political prisoner Amaia Urizar was released after doing 5
years in jail. She was arrested when she was 22 years old and her
testimonies of torture shocked Basque society. She explained how she
was raped by the Spanish police with a gun and how she had to endure
long sessions of questioning while being suffocated in a bath.

Amaia Urizar in the Spanish National Court.

Five people were arrested and three of them imprisoned last week
accused of being members of a Spanish fascist group in Irunea/Pamplona
and were accused of different attacks on pro-indepdendence properties
and activists over the last six months. Basque pro-independence left
activists and organisations exposed the hypocritical attitude of the
pro-Spanish establishment as the fascists weren’t treated the way
pro-independence activists are treated when arrested under the
anti-terrorist law. They said the police operation followed a
previously writen script and that it doesn’t intend to resolve or stop
the dirty war.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIATOR COMMENDS BATASUNA'S NEW INITIATIVE

South African mediator Brian Currin analyses the chances for peace in the Basque Country and talks about the facilitation work he has been carrying out with the pro-independence left.

WEEKLY BASQUE INFO RADIO PROGRAM

Listen to this week's Basque Info. Along with our news section this week you'll find an interview with Basque Human Right's Watch's spokesperson.

PRO-INDEPENDENCE UNITY DEBATE HIGH ON AGENDA

Basque Info 28/10/09 

•  Arrests and demonstration speed up debate about nationalist common strategy.
  
• Thousands demand official recognition for Basque language in the north. 
  
• United Nations against arbitrary political imprisonments.
• Widespread support for Basque prisoners’ repatriation.

-Arrests and demonstration speed up debate about nationalist common strategy.

On the 17^th of October more than 37,000 people rallied against the arrest of ten prominent Basque pro-independence activists in previous days. The powerful response to the attack and the unity showed by all sections of Basque nationalism has deeply worried the Spanish establishment and it has created great hope in Basque society. 


The days following the protest have seen nationalist politicians talking once again about the political nature of the arrests. According to them the Spanish authorities wanted to prevent the Basque pro-independence movement from developping a new strategy based on exclusively political and democratic means . That’s why most Basque nationalist parties and trade unions have extensively spoken in recent days about the need to build a united strategy to confront the Spanish state in political terms. Some discussion documents have been also produced and the debate is already under way.



The pro-independence left welcomed the positive reactions after the arrests and released a statement drawing some conclusions: the loss of legitimacy by the Spanish state and its repressive measures, the social demand for the Basque pro-independence left to be able to take part in politics, the existence of conditions to go further towards a democratic scenario and the leadership showed by the pro-independence left when it launched a strategic proposal for debate among its grassroots and society.  


This new agenda has created anger and frustration among the Spanish authorities. In the weeks before the arrests the Spanish Interior Minister met with Basque nationalist parties and media to ask them to support his strategy against the pro-independence left. 


Some reports say that days before the arrests Arnaldo Otegi, Batasuna’s spokesperson, met in London with international mediators, who took part in the negotiation process until 2007, to explain to them the Basque pro-independence left’s new strategy. Otegi also told them they expected to be arrested when it was launched. 


The arrests of the pro-independence leadership have become a boomerang against the Spanish authorities and their strategies and has strengthened Basque nationalist unity and international support. 


Basque activists indicted in different political cases held a press conference last week to express their hope that the 37,000-strong demonstration will lead to more common initiatives to stop Spanish repression and to support civil and political rights. They said it’s time for Basque society to denounce and respond to the permanent attacks against the Basque Country. They reminded those present that more political trials like those against the Basque councillors national institution Udalbiltza, dozens of pro-independence youth activists and the Basque language newspaper editorial team will begin in coming weeks.

-Thousands demand official recognition for Basque language in the north.
More than 5,000 people rallied in the northern Basque town of Baiona to ask the French authorities for legal recognition of the Basque language. Basque is not official in the north of the Basque Country despite the huge popular support due to the French government’s hard line against languages other than French within the state. 

Politicians of all backgrounds took part in the demonstration. Among them were the Region’s General Councillor and French right-wing party RPR’s spokesperson Max Brisson, French Socialist Party and Green Party’s local branches’ senior members, mayors and councillors...Among all of them Basque nationalists were a majority. 


Speakers at the end of the rally told the French authorities “they won’t put the Basques in a museum’s cage. The Basque language needs official status."


-United Nations against arbitrary political imprisonments.

Last week the United Nations’ Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions spoke out about the case of Batasuna’s spokesperson Karmelo Landa. He was arrested and imprisoned, accused of being a member of the outlawed Batasuna party. 


According to the report Landa was badly treated after his arrest and humiliated in prison. The report claims his detention and imprisonment are absolutely arbitrary. The UN working group considers that mere political activism is not an offence and that the Spanish authorities are breaching numerous international human and civil rights such as the right to a fair trial, freedom of speech and association. They also asked the Spanish authorities to immediately release Landa. 


The Spanish authorities have once again disobeyed United Nations recommendations. 


The Basque Human Rights Watch Behatokia welcomed the report and said it could apply to any other of the dozens of Basque political and social activists imprisoned.
 
-Widespread support for Basque prisoners’ repatriation.
More than 2,500 people have already signed a petition launched by the Basque prisoners’ relatives’s association Etxerat to demand the repatriation of their loved ones.   


Last Saturday a massive press conference was held outside the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao to launch the petition. Among the dozens of people who were showing support for the demand at the press conference were well known political, cultural and social activists, writers, journalists...etc. 


Speakers at the press conference spoke against the criminalisation campaign launched by the Spanish authorities and media against Etxerat.  


The petition called Elkartasun Uholdea (Solidarity Flood) demands the repatriation of Basque prisoners and the recognition of all their rights. 


Last week former Basque political prisoner Josetxo Otegi was handed over to the Spanish police by French authorities. He had been on hunger strike for more than two weeks to protest against this illegal practice and the risk of being tortured. He was finally released and was welcomed in his home town of Donostia/San Sebastian. 


Also last week 40 councillors tried to meet the French government’s secretary of state in Baiona. They wanted to ask him anout the whereabouts of former Basque political prisoner Jon Anza who went missing six months ago. The French official refused to meet the people’s representatives and they handed over a letter denouncing the French authorities’ lack of interest in finding out what happened and their complicity in the disappearance.








 

INTERNATIONAL MEDIATOR DEFENDS BATASUNA'S PROPOSAL

South African international mediator Brian Currin confirms and commends Batasuna's new political initiative and ask others to back it. He assures the suggested democratic process would get international support.

BOOMERANG EFFECT AGAINST SPANISH ATTACKS

Basque Info 21/10/09
• Forceful response to attack against the Basque pro-independence movement.
• Another sucessful display of support to the Basque language.
• Largest ever demonstration against High Speed Train.
• More political trials and more arrests.


-Forceful response to attack against the Basque pro-independence movement.

On Tuesday 13 October, 10 prominent activists, including Batasuna leader Arnaldo Otegi and former general secretary of the LAB trade union Rafa Diez, were arrested and accused of trying to "reorganise the leadership" of the Basque pro-independence left movement. Five of the 10 were arrested in a raid on the national headquarters of the LAB union in Donostia.

On Friday Judge Baltasar Garzon sent Otegi, Diez and three others to jail, accused of "membership of a terrorist organisation" and of trying to reconstitute the pro-independence Batasuna party on the "orders of ETA". Batasuna was outlawed in 2003.

Hundreds of people took to the streets and students organised strikes in the aftermath of the arrests.

A massive protest was held on Saturday 17 October in Donostia/San Sebastian to protest against the Spanish government's new wave of arrests against the Basque pro-independence movement.

More than 37,000 Basques protested against the arrests under the slogan "For liberty, all rights for all” in a very significant demonstration of unity among Basque society. The demonstration had been called by the majority of trade unions and supported by all Basque nationalist and progressive political parties.
The demonstration was the largest in the Basque Country in many years and even the pro-Spanish media had to recognise the huge success.

Statements of support also came from across the world like the World Federation of Trade Unions and the European Free Alliance. In Ireland, Sinn Féin MEP Bairbre de Brún and the Irish Basque Solidarity Committees cqalled for an end to such repression and the immediate release of those arrested and told the Spanish government they need to engage in dialogue with those they seek to demonise and criminalise. “This is the only way to reach a lasting settlement in the Basque Country” they concluded.

The Dublin Basque Solidarity Committee organised a protest outside the GPO on Sunday.

Batasuna responded to the arrests by saying: "The aim of these arrests is to stop political initiatives that the Basque pro-independence movement was due to activate - political initiatives to resolve the ongoing conflict and to create a democratic scenario for the Basque Country."

On Monday 19 the Basque pro-independence newspaper Gara published extracts from a 36-page debate document presented for discussion among the grass roots by Batasuna’s leadership. This discussion and its practical conclusions is what the Spanish government seems to fear and what they wanted to prevent with last week’s arrests.

In the document a new effective strategy is suggested. Batasuna’s leadership wants to promote a democratic process without any violence and external interference.

The latest arrests are part of the Spanish government's ongoing campaign of repression against political, social, labour and cultural organisations that are in favour of self-determination for the Basque Country. The central thesis of this criminalisation campaign, as formulated by Judge Garzon, is that “everything that surrounds ETA is ETA” , that is, any group or individual that shares ETA's goal of Basque independence, regardless of what methods they use, is part of ETA.

This process has often been led by politicians and the media but is given a 'democratic' cover and institutionalised by the Spanish courts through a series of judicial rulings initiated by Garzon in 1998.

The repression against all expressions of Basque nationalism has escalated dramatically during the summer, with the Madrid government working in concert with the Spanish chauvinist coalition government that took power in the south-west of the Basque Country in March.

-Another sucessful display of support to the Basque language.
Up to 100,000 people attended the annual day long festival to support the Basque language schools in the province of Navarre. This year’s edition was organised by the local school of Lakuntza with the slogan “Txikiak, handi” (The small ones are big).

Young and old came from across the Basque Country to enjoy lots of different activities like gigs, sport, food, street animation, workshops, cultural displays... 3,000 volunteers worked hard to make sure everything went well.

The money raised will help to build a new building for the Lakuntza Basque medium school.

These massive festivals are organised in each province of the Basque Country every year and become both a great way to fundraise for the vitally necessary Basque medium schools and to promote the Basque language.

Each year a different school organises the festival. It takes around 300 volunteers working for two years to organise it.


-Largest ever demonstration against High Speed Train.
12,000 people demonstrated in Baiona in the north of the Basque Country last Saturday against the construction of a new High Speed Train railway.

Over the last few years different plans to build High Speed Train railways across the Basque Country have been opposed by large sections of Basque society with the pro-independence left movement at the core of the protest campaigns.

ETA has also intervened with small bombs and the killing of a main contractor.

The High Speed Train would put the Basque Country’s future at risk due to the environmental destruction and huge consumption of energy and public funds.

-More political trials and more arrests.
Last Friday seven members of the Pro-Amnesty movement were arrested and taken to prison to fulfil the remaining sentences imposed against them by the Spanish Supreme Court for their political work against repression and in favour of the Basque political prisoners. They had been waiting for the outcome of their appeal.

Another 13 members of the movement were already in jail after all of them were sentenced to between 8 and 10 years in prison. Basque political prisoners do their time to the full.

The hard sentence has been understood within a context of political repression aimed to weaken the pro-independence movement and prevent new political developments that could take the Basque Country to a new scenario of peace and democracy.

Last week the first of a long list of trials began against alleged members of Segi, the pro-independence youth organisation. Over the last two years 16 police operations were launched in different parts of the Basque Country and 123 local youth activists were arrested, of whom 69 reported being tortured and 91 were imprisoned. All of them were well known youth movement activists in their towns involved in cultural, political and social public work.

Demonstrations, fasts, strikes, massive press conferences...have been organised recently to denounce these show trials and support the youth.

Two alleged ETA members were arrested by the French police on Monday 19 in Britanny. The Spanish media portrayed them as members of the ETA’s political office and tried to make conections with last week arrests of 10 prominent pro-independence activists.

MAJORITY OF BASQUE TRADE UNIONS CALL NATIONAL DEMONSTRATION AGAINST ARRESTS

CALL FOR URGENT SOLIDARITY WITH THE BASQUE TRADE UNION L.A.B.
TO ALL FRATERNAL CENTRES

14TH October 2009

Yesterday afternoon, 13th October, the Police invaded the national headquarters of the LAB trade union and arrested five activists of the Basque pro-Independence Left, among them the ex-General Secretary of LAB, Rafael Diez Usabiaga. This was all within a police operation in which a total of ten people have been detained.
This attack seeks to criminalise political and trade union work within the Basque Country.

From the Headquarters of LAB we rededicate ourselves to the trade union struggle in defence of the Basque working class and in the Right which our nation has to decide its own future. Our best response is to continue working and in struggle.
Alongside this message we send a communication directed at all trade union centres and fraternal organisations.

• We seek the setting free with immediate effect of our brother, Rafael Diez Usabiaga, ex-Secretary General of LAB, as well as of all the other arrested people.
• We also denounce at the same time the attack on our headquarters in Donostia/ San Sebastian and demand that there be no future attack on our headquarters.
• We call for support for the mobilisations that will take place in the coming days in the Basque Country to protest these actions.
• We seek solidarity from all trade unions of the class across the world and we ask them to send us their messages of solidarity to the following electronic address: nazioartea@labsindikatua.org

SPAIN AGAINST POLITICAL RESOLUTION TO THE CONFLICT

Listen to Basque Info reports and interviews on the last Spanish attack against the Basque pro-independence left. 10 prominent activists were arrested yesterday and they have been acussed of reorganising the movement's political leadership to try to stand in next elections.

NEW REPORT POINTS AT SPANISH POLICE FOR JON ANZA'S DISAPPEARANCE

You can listen to this week's Basque Info including the main news of the week and an interview with political analyst Inaki Soto:



Basque Info 6/10/09
• First hearing against Basque political exile Arturo “Benat” Villanueva held in Belfast.
• New report points at Spanish police for Jon Anza’s disappearance.
• Despite criminalisation Basque prisoners’ relatives will keep the solidarity flame alive.
• United Nations Special Rapporteur criticises Spanish authorities.
• Huge support for Basque language.

-First hearing against Basque political exile Arturo “Benat” Villanueva held in Belfast.
Last Monday a hearing was held in Belfast's high court against Basque political exile Arturo “Benat” Villanueva. The defendant’s barrister argued the case based on the lack of particularity in the Spanish European Arrest Warrant. No place, date or degree of participation is specified in the warrant and that should be enough to turn it down. The nature of the warrant strengthens the political character of it and the lack of arguments for the extradition.

45 people held a support rally outside the court buildings. Supporters heard from Andersonstown Sinn Féin representative and newly co-opted Belfast City Councillor Caoimhín Mac Giolla Mhín, who has been involved in solidarity work with the Basque Country for many years.

Speaking at the event, Mr Mac Giolla Mhín said: “The Spanish government is intensifying its campaign of criminalisation against a wide range of peaceful political, cultural and youth organisations that support independence for the Basque Country.

“We can see the impact of this campaign here in Belfast, where the Spanish authorities are pursuing Iñaki de Juana and Arturo Beñat Villanueva solely for their political ideas and not for any criminal activity.

“Sinn Féin support the petition against the extradition attempts. We demand that the Spanish government respects the fundamental human, civil and political rights of the Basque people as laid out in the UN Declaration of Human Rights and that it ends its campaign of criminalisation against the Basque pro-independence movement.

“We support the human right of Iñaki and Beñat not to be persecuted by the Spanish government for their political opinions.

“We call on the British government to immediately reject the extradition requests and to refuse to collaborate with the Spanish government in this political persecution.

“And we fully support the right of Iñaki de Juana and Arturo Beñat Villanueva to live freely in Ireland.”

Sinn Féin MEP Bairbre de Brún also showed her support.

The judge will take a decision in coming days. If he doesn’t agree with the defendant’s arguments a full hearing will be called.

The Campaign is calling another protest for when Iñaki de Juana’s hearing begins in November.

-New report points at Spanish police for Jon Anza’s disappearance.
ETA militant Jon Anza went missing on the 18th of April. Since then his organisation and his family have claimed he was probably kidnapped and killed by Spanish security forces. For the last 6 months the Basque Country has seen demonstrations and posters flooding the streets asking for Jon’s whereabouts while the mass media and politicians remained silent.

Last week Basque newspaper Gara revealed that according to trusted sources Jon Anza would have been dragged off a train going to the southern French city of Toulouse by Spanish police and then taken for interrogation. Jon, who was very ill and almost blind at the time, would have been killed by the Spanish police during the questioning. Then he’d have been buried in some unknown place in France. The degree of the French authorities' participation, if any, is also unknown.

Another four Basque pro-independence activists have been kidnapped, interrogated, threatened and even some tortured by some sort of Spanish para-police forces during 2009.

Immediately after the new report was published Baiona’s general prosecutor called a press conference and said she was following the case very closely and was ready to take into account any new evidence surrounding the case. In contrast with the great interest shown by northern Basque and French media the main media in the southern Basque Country and Spain as well as the politicians kept silent after the new report emerged.

Many of Jon Anza’s friends held a press conference and denounced the establishment’s silence and the lack of investigation around Jon’s disappearance. They said an authoritarian state has set up a true state of exception in the Basque Country. They called on the Basque people to rally against the dirty war and for a democratic solution to the conflict on the 12th of October, the Spanish national day, in all Basque southern capitals.

-Despite criminalisation Basque prisoners’ relatives will keep the solidarity flame alive.
Spanish media and politicians have recently suggested the Basque political prisoners’ relatives association Etxerat should be banned. At a press conference last week Etxerat’s spokespeople said their association is made up of people coming from all political backgrounds in the Basque Country. They said they were forced to organise themselves to denounce the government’s brutal policies against their relatives in jail and the cruel dispersal policy that forces families to travel hundreds of miles to visit them.

Despite the criminalisation campaign against them they said that while the criminal prison policies are implemented and their relatives’ rights are denied they’ll keep the love and solidarity candle lit.

At another press conference in Irunea/Pamplona’s main square one hundred people who have been arrested and indicted for showing their public support to the 741 Basque political prisoners said that nowadays people are being arrested for things that weren’t an offence during the Franco regime. They said that for any prisoners’ picture the police takes away they will replace it with one hundred.
Over the last weekend Basque Region’s Interior Minister’s house appeared covered with dozens of Basque political prisoners’ pictures.

370 people gathered in the village of Errezil to show support to their local political prisoner Maritxu Uzkudun who has recently seen her sentence extended for another 12 years. According to the law she should have been released last August after 18 years in jail but due to the new measures imposed by the Spanish government the tribunals are prolonging Basque prisoners' sentences, implementing an effective and anti-constitutional life sentence.

A Basque prisoner’s friend suffered an accident last weekend on his way to a jail visit. As a consequence the car was completely destroyed. Accidents like this and even more serious happen every weekend when thousands of people travel from the Basque Country for hundreds of miles to visit their loved ones in jail. 16 relatives and friends have been killed during the last 20 years in this way. The Spanish authorities dispersal policy is an illegal added punishment against the Basque prisoners’ relatives and friends. The 741 Basque political prisoners are scattered in 82 jails across France and Spain.

-United Nations Special Rapporteur criticises Spanish authorities.
United Nations Special Rapporteur for Human Rights and Counter-Terrorism Martin Scheinin delivered a conference in Bilbao last week. In 2008 he published a report where he criticised the Spanish government’s Parties’ Law, the Basque prisoners’ dispersal policy and the incommunicado detention period.

During his conference he told the audience the Spanish government didn’t follow his recomendations. Scheinin repeated his arguments against the use of the terrorism offence definition being extended to political conducts and organisations.
He shared the panel with the Basque Autonomous Region’s Interior Minister and he said he didn’t think it was right to take down prisoners’ pictures.

-Huge support for Basque language.
More than 100,000 people attended the annual Gipuzkoa province’s Basque language schools’ festival in Donostia/San Sebastian last Sunday.
The six-kilometre circuit was flooded with the huge crowed and sometimes it was overwhelmed. Six different rest areas were organised where the participants could enjoy food, drinks, street animation, workshops, clowns, live music and more.
Once again the Basque people showed their support to the national language and the money raised will help to build new premises for this year’s organiser school.
Annual festivals of this kind are organised in each of the Basque provinces with similar success.

THOUSANDS COMMEMORATE BASQUE SOLDIER'S DAY

Basque Info 29/09/09

• ETA shows total will for a democratic solution.
• Dead volunteers remembered across the country despite prohibitions.
• 25 Spanish fascist attacks claimed while authorities keep silent.
• Tribunal allows the display of Basque political prisoners pictures.
• Prisoners and extraditions.


-ETA shows total will for a democratic solution.
Last Sunday the Basque pro-independence armed organization ETA released the traditional Gudari Eguna or Basque Soldier’s Day’s statement. In it, ETA announces the internal debate started in May has already finished.

ETA reaffirms its commitment to continue with the armed struggle while the Basque Country’s enemies continue with repression and denial. At the same time ETA says their will has always been to find a political way out to the political conflict. ETA reasserts its will and total disposition to continue seeking this solution.

According to ETA in order to be able to reach a scenario of self-determination in the Basque Country a democratic process has to be developed. For that ETA understands that it’s absolutely necessary that all nationalists come together. ETA says it will promote that path.

ETA also addresses the Spanish authorities by saying “they repeat once and again that they won’t talk to ETA while the armed struggle exists. That’s not the conflict’s main knott! The Spanish authorities know that the problem is not ETA. They know that the problem is with the Basque people’s political will.” ETA goes on to say that by opening the doors to that will the conflict will be solved.

ETA asks the Spanish government: “In a scenario without ETA’s armed struggle, would you be ready to accept a process where all the Basques territories could decide their political future independence included?”

Finally ETA pays tribute to all dead volunteers and prisoners.

-Dead volunteers remembered across the country despite prohibitions.
On the 27th of September 1975 the Franco regime executed two ETA volunteers and three Spanish antifascist militants. Since then the 27th of September is the Basque Soldier’s Day. This year all commemorations were banned by the Spanish authorities and many of them had to take place in secret.

Hundreds of people attended the national commemoration in an unknown venue. Speakers thanked those who attended for the effort they put in. They came from across the country and had to take side roads and cross police check points to get there. The atmosphere was electric and the audience only stopped their chants and cheers when two dancers paid tribute to the dead volunteers and their families.

One of the speakers said that for the last 50 years the pro-independence left has been fighting to keep the Basque Country alive and that it’s needed to strength the pro-independence movement’s leadership and the struggle for independence and socialism. The speaker said the fight must keep on at this very important stage when new opportunities are unfolding. According to the speaker these opportunities appear now thanks to the sacrificies and efforts made by the dead volunteers and others.

Demonstrations and events to remember the dead volunteers were attacked by the police and there were many clashes with pro-independence activists. Six of them were arrested in Donostia/San Sebastian. In the same city but during the morning a rally was organised to remember the 30th anniversary of the assasination of local pro-independence councillor Tomas Alba. The speakers criticised the city council’s attitude of ignoring this case of the dirty war while they pay tribute to the so called “terrorism victims”. In Arrasate they remembered the 25th anniversary of Pakito Arriaran’s death. He was an ETA militant and then he joined the FMLN guerrilla in El Salvador where he died in the frontline against the right wing dictatorship.

In Zarautz’s cemetery the Basque-Spanish police prevented the relatives of Txiki, one of the 1975 executed ETA volunteers from paying him the annual tribute. The volunteer’s 80 year-old mother, outraged and visibly nervous, asked the masked policemen why she couldn’t visit her son’s grave. She asked them: “are you so afraid of the dead?”. Txiki’s brother said this was the first time in 34 years they had to suffer the police’s harassment.

Despite all bannings, threats and attacks, more than 50 events and demonstrations took place across the Basque Country during the Basque Soldier’s Day to remember the dead volunteers.

One small bomb exploded outside a bank in the north of the Basque Country, another one at a Spanish Labour Party’s offices in Lemoa and another one outside a Basque-Spanish police man’s house.


-25 Spanish fascist attacks claimed while authorities keep silent.
Last Tuesday a Spanish fascist organization claimed responsability for 25 attacks in the Basque Country. We have reported these attacks in previous Basque Infos and they include attacks against Basque pro-independence bars and private properties, dead volunteers memorials and death threats.

These attacks have been ignored by the authorities and nobody has been arrested in relation to them.

The Basque pro-independence movement denounced the authorities’ hypocrisy and lack of interest and said these attacks are part of the Spanish repression wave including dirty war.

-Tribunal allows the display of Basque political prisoners pictures.
Last week the Basque regional Justice Tribunal released a decision which allows relatives and friends to display the Basque political prisoners’ pictures in three events in Arrasate. The Basque region’s government reacted with anger as well as the pro-Spanish parties. They now threaten the banning of Etxerat, the Basque political prisoners’ relatives association.

During the summer the Basque-Spanish police has attacked and harassed solidarity events, arrested and indicted people and have taken down pictures. Just last weekend four people were arrested for wearing stickers with Basque prisoners’ pictures.

Last week also the Gipuzkoa’s province’s parliament passed a motion against the attacks against Basque prisoners pictures.


-Prisoners and extraditions.
After 17 days on hunger strike Basque political prisoner Aintzane Orkolaga was finally handed over to the Spanish police by the French authorities. In the end she was released and went back home where friends and relatives gave her a warm welcome.

Basque political prisoner Belen Gonzalez had to be taken to hospital after suffering an internal hemoarrage. Her relatives have denounced the lack of information from the authorities and they expressed their concern about they way she’ll be treated.

Basque political exile Mikel Barrios saw his extradition warrant rejected by the French authorities after being arrested three months ago. The Spanish authorities acussed him of being member of the pro-independence organization Segi but didn’t produce any evidence.

Next Monday 5th of October another Basque political exile, Arturo “Benat” Villanueva will attend in Belfast the first hearing of the extradition case launched against him by the Spanish authorities. They also acussed him of being member of the pro-independence youth organizations Jarrai and Haika. The Don’t Extradite the Basques Campaign has called a protest outside the court buildings at 2pm.