NIEUWSOVERZICHT

WEEKLY UPDATE BASQUE INFORMATION CENTRE, WEEK 18, 17 until 24 May

Towards the elections of the 25th of May, the Spanish authorities try in every way to silence the voice of the left independent movement. During the spreading of posters with critics on the coming elections, 15 persons got arrested in Duesto by the Ertzaintza, while in other districts people, who once in the eighties stood as candidate for the now outlawed Herri Batasuna and now wanted to work at the polling booth, where forbidden to work there because they were ‘registered’ by the Spanish police. Most of them worked in previous elections at the polling booths. At the 17th of May in Donostia the police seized 40.000 voting-papers of the left platform ‘Boga Boga’ and of the outlawed platform for self-determination AuB. To try to reach as many people as possible, AuB gives out the voting-papers now through Internet. AuB also sent the papers to the Spanish king, to Aznar and people from the governing PP and PSOE.
Meetings of AuB, because of who’s outlawing 270.000 Basques can’t vote for the party they want to vote for, were also forbidden; at the 20th of May 5000 people in Donstia were denied entrance at the football-stadium of Real Sociedad (currently top of the league in Spain) by heavily armed Ertzaintza’s, the Basque riot-police. They also blocked the entrance of a sport-hall, where also 5000 people wanted to participate in an election meeting. The Ertzaintza finally shot with rubber bullets into the crowd (rubber-balls in fact, bigger than a squash-ball). In the first pre-election inquiries AuB would get 160.000 votes in Hegoalde, the South of the Basque Country. For the elections an independent committee, who will be monitoring the counting of the votes and to make sure that the votes for the outlawed lists are also counted, choosed 3.500 observators.
The Spanish congress decided last week, with the votes of the PP, PSOE, the Coalition Canaria and the Catalan Nationalists, to erect a Central Court for Penitential Observation. In this way the government of Aznar wants to have permanent control on political prisoners from the beginning of entering a prison by extradition or arrest, until the moment they ‘rot away’ (as Aznar expressed it earlier this year). The Court also has to prevent that political prisoner will get released after ¾ of fulfilling their punishment.
At the 16th of May the Court of Pau in France, refuses to extradite the Basque political prisoners Xabier Irastorza and Markox Sagarzazu to the Spanish state. According to the Court there is an immediate danger for the two of being tortured, like what happened to Iratxe Sorzabal (one of the arrested people at Hernani on the 30th of March 2001, taken to hospital with two shifted cervical muscles in the neck, a subcutaneous blood haemorrhage of 10 cm on her back and several wounds on her head. During the time at the police station she almost suffocated when they put a plastic bag over her head). The accusations against Irastorza and Sagarzazu are based on a statement Sorzabal gave under torture. Despite the Spanish justice declared that the Audiencia Nacional in Madrid did not take the accusations of Sorzabal of being tortured into account, the two were released. This is the first time since years that a French Court recognizes the system of torture in the Spanish state.
Also at the 16th of May in France, near Auch, the Basque woman Gaxuxa Arranbide is arrested. She drove in a stolen car and was armed. According to the French Gendarme she would belong to the logistic apparatus of ETA. At the 20th of May her solicitor Unai Errea is arrested in the Palace of Justice in Paris by anti-terror commandos and placed in custody. Errea is accused of handing out information among various Basque political prisoners.
In the Basque village Arrasate the Basque political prisoner Enrique Letona Biteri is released after 16 years in prison. Biteri was arrested in 1987 and had to be taken to the prison hospital of the Madrid prison Carabanchel to recover from the wounds he got from being tortured.
As ETA announced last week, this week she came with a bit more extended statement. ETA says to have ended a three months evaluation, wants to come with new political initiatives and wants to reconsider some of the old methods. She points out that there is no cease-fire or deal with the governing Basque party PNV, as prime minister Aznar told reporters one day before ETA’s statement. The organisation said also “that armed struggle will only be used if it serves the case of self- determination”. The call to vote for candidates of the outlawed lists, they defended that with the motive that a vote for the PNV would mean “an confirmation and extension of the state of emergency”. ETA also declared that “the left independent movement had to find her position again in the political field”.
At Sunday the 18th of May, 100.000 Basques walk the 25th Ibilaldia (March) for their language, the Euskera. The Ibilaldia is a celebration of the Basque language-schools, the Ikastolas, at Bizkaia, one of the Basque Provinces. In Bizkaia there are 24 Ikastolas, where 14.000 people get education. Through the March a lot of money is earned (people who walk buy food and beverages, and T-shirts) what will be used for the education. The Ibilaldia was formed after the end of the fascist dictatorship of Franco and had to heal the wounds of 40 years of outlawing the Basque language. These days pupils at the Ikastolas are teached Basque, Spanish and English. Last year the Ikastola Ekintza in Donostia won the price of the best school in the entire Spanish state. Also in the French part of the Basque Country (Ipparalde) 80.000 of the 250.000 inhabitants walked for the Basque schools; in the French part there are 24 schools, where 2000 pupils are educated. The demonstrations are getting a more and more political character, may people see the latest developments as an attack on their language and the Ikastolas are seen by the Spanish state as “recruiting schools for ETA” and the Basque Language education for Adults (AEK) have been the subject of investigations several times of being “a part of the ETA-network”.
The accusations of the Spanish justice department against the closed Basque newspaper Egunkaria, will remain a secret for at least one more month. The Spanish judge Juan Del Olmo however, has to reveal at the 10th of June the accusations to the lawyers of Egunkaria. The Spanish state did file a complaint at the National Court against the editors of Egunkaria for “giving false statements about torture and belonging to a armed gang (ETA)”. Amnesty International complained: “To prosecute alleged victims of torture, or to deny accusations of people who may have been tortured even before there has been an investigation of these accusations, creates a climate of impunity in which people are made afraid of filing complaints of torture”. Amnesty also worries about a new proposal of the Spanish government to extend the duration of the ‘incommunicado’ (isolation) detention.
At the 18th of May in Gasteiz is a press conference in protest of the silent, automatic extension of the imprisonment of the arrested people of the youth-organisation Haika. Fifteen of them were arrested at the 6th of March 2001, the 16th followed after he read a statement in protest at a press conference the following day. There still hasn’t been a trial.
At the 20th of May the High Court in the Hague decides that Juan Ramon Rodriguez Fernandez, better know as Juanra, is allowed to be extradited to Spain. Now the Dutch minister of justice Donner has to decide whether Spain treats her prisoners well. More info here.
At the 23rd of May judge Baltasar Garzón decides that the people arrested at the 8th of May in the case of Udalbiltza, the organisation of Basque councillors, get extension of arrest because of ‘fear of fleeing’. At the 29th of April already 8 other people of Udalbiltza were arrested and various offices were closed. Since the beginning of Udalbiltza the Spanish state battles her as “illegal counter-force”.
The world champion Triathlon Eneko Llanos supports the founding of a new Basque newspaper as a successor of the closed daily Egunkaria. Llanos called at the press conference after his victory in memory that journalists of Egunkaria interviewed and photographed him after his victory three years ago. “I was given the chance to win the title again, but Egunkaria didn’t get the chance of being there again”, so he said.

Ga terug naar de nieuws index

WEEKLY UPDATE BASQUE INFORMATION CENTRE, WEEK 18, 17 until 24 May
Towards the elections of the 25th of May, the Spanish authorities try in every way to silence the voice of the left independent movement. During the spreading of posters with critics on the coming elections, 15 persons got arrested in Duesto by the Ertzaintza, while in other districts people, who once in the eighties stood as candidate for the now outlawed Herri Batasuna and now wanted to work at the polling booth, where forbidden to work there because they were ‘registered’ by the Spanish police. Most of them worked in previous elections at the polling booths. At the 17th of May in Donostia the police seized 40.000 voting-papers of the left platform ‘Boga Boga’ and of the outlawed platform for self-determination AuB. To try to reach as many people as possible, AuB gives out the voting-papers now through Internet. AuB also sent the papers to the Spanish king, to Aznar and people from the governing PP and PSOE. Meetings of AuB, because of who’s outlawing 270.000 Basques can’t vote for the party they want to vote for, were also forbidden; at the 20th of May 5000 people in Donstia were denied entrance at the football-stadium of Real Sociedad (currently top of the league in Spain) by heavily armed Ertzaintza’s, the Basque riot-police. They also blocked the entrance of a sport-hall, where also 5000 people wanted to participate in an election meeting. The Ertzaintza finally shot with rubber bullets into the crowd (rubber-balls in fact, bigger than a squash-ball). In the first pre-election inquiries AuB would get 160.000 votes in Hegoalde, the South of the Basque Country. For the elections an independent committee, who will be monitoring the counting of the votes and to make sure that the votes for the outlawed lists are also counted, choosed 3.500 observators. The Spanish congress decided last week, with the votes of the PP, PSOE, the Coalition Canaria and the Catalan Nationalists, to erect a Central Court for Penitential Observation. In this way the government of Aznar wants to have permanent control on political prisoners from the beginning of entering a prison by extradition or arrest, until the moment they ‘rot away’ (as Aznar expressed it earlier this year). The Court also has to prevent that political prisoner will get released after ¾ of fulfilling their punishment. At the 16th of May the Court of Pau in France, refuses to extradite the Basque political prisoners Xabier Irastorza and Markox Sagarzazu to the Spanish state. According to the Court there is an immediate danger for the two of being tortured, like what happened to Iratxe Sorzabal (one of the arrested people at Hernani on the 30th of March 2001, taken to hospital with two shifted cervical muscles in the neck, a subcutaneous blood haemorrhage of 10 cm on her back and several wounds on her head. During the time at the police station she almost suffocated when they put a plastic bag over her head). The accusations against Irastorza and Sagarzazu are based on a statement Sorzabal gave under torture. Despite the Spanish justice declared that the Audiencia Nacional in Madrid did not take the accusations of Sorzabal of being tortured into account, the two were released. This is the first time since years that a French Court recognizes the system of torture in the Spanish state. Also at the 16th of May in France, near Auch, the Basque woman Gaxuxa Arranbide is arrested. She drove in a stolen car and was armed. According to the French Gendarme she would belong to the logistic apparatus of ETA. At the 20th of May her solicitor Unai Errea is arrested in the Palace of Justice in Paris by anti-terror commandos and placed in custody. Errea is accused of handing out information among various Basque political prisoners. In the Basque village Arrasate the Basque political prisoner Enrique Letona Biteri is released after 16 years in prison. Biteri was arrested in 1987 and had to be taken to the prison hospital of the Madrid prison Carabanchel to recover from the wounds he got from being tortured. As ETA announced last week, this week she came with a bit more extended statement. ETA says to have ended a three months evaluation, wants to come with new political initiatives and wants to reconsider some of the old methods. She points out that there is no cease-fire or deal with the governing Basque party PNV, as prime minister Aznar told reporters one day before ETA’s statement. The organisation said also “that armed struggle will only be used if it serves the case of self- determination”. The call to vote for candidates of the outlawed lists, they defended that with the motive that a vote for the PNV would mean “an confirmation and extension of the state of emergency”. ETA also declared that “the left independent movement had to find her position again in the political field”. At Sunday the 18th of May, 100.000 Basques walk the 25th Ibilaldia (March) for their language, the Euskera. The Ibilaldia is a celebration of the Basque language-schools, the Ikastolas, at Bizkaia, one of the Basque Provinces. In Bizkaia there are 24 Ikastolas, where 14.000 people get education. Through the March a lot of money is earned (people who walk buy food and beverages, and T-shirts) what will be used for the education. The Ibilaldia was formed after the end of the fascist dictatorship of Franco and had to heal the wounds of 40 years of outlawing the Basque language. These days pupils at the Ikastolas are teached Basque, Spanish and English. Last year the Ikastola Ekintza in Donostia won the price of the best school in the entire Spanish state. Also in the French part of the Basque Country (Ipparalde) 80.000 of the 250.000 inhabitants walked for the Basque schools; in the French part there are 24 schools, where 2000 pupils are educated. The demonstrations are getting a more and more political character, may people see the latest developments as an attack on their language and the Ikastolas are seen by the Spanish state as “recruiting schools for ETA” and the Basque Language education for Adults (AEK) have been the subject of investigations several times of being “a part of the ETA-network”. The accusations of the Spanish justice department against the closed Basque newspaper Egunkaria, will remain a secret for at least one more month. The Spanish judge Juan Del Olmo however, has to reveal at the 10th of June the accusations to the lawyers of Egunkaria. The Spanish state did file a complaint at the National Court against the editors of Egunkaria for “giving false statements about torture and belonging to a armed gang (ETA)”. Amnesty International complained: “To prosecute alleged victims of torture, or to deny accusations of people who may have been tortured even before there has been an investigation of these accusations, creates a climate of impunity in which people are made afraid of filing complaints of torture”. Amnesty also worries about a new proposal of the Spanish government to extend the duration of the ‘incommunicado’ (isolation) detention. At the 18th of May in Gasteiz is a press conference in protest of the silent, automatic extension of the imprisonment of the arrested people of the youth-organisation Haika. Fifteen of them were arrested at the 6th of March 2001, the 16th followed after he read a statement in protest at a press conference the following day. There still hasn’t been a trial. At the 20th of May the High Court in the Hague decides that Juan Ramon Rodriguez Fernandez, better know as Juanra, is allowed to be extradited to Spain. Now the Dutch minister of justice Donner has to decide whether Spain treats her prisoners well. More info here. At the 23rd of May judge Baltasar Garzón decides that the people arrested at the 8th of May in the case of Udalbiltza, the organisation of Basque councillors, get extension of arrest because of ‘fear of fleeing’. At the 29th of April already 8 other people of Udalbiltza were arrested and various offices were closed. Since the beginning of Udalbiltza the Spanish state battles her as “illegal counter-force”. The world champion Triathlon Eneko Llanos supports the founding of a new Basque newspaper as a successor of the closed daily Egunkaria. Llanos called at the press conference after his victory in memory that journalists of Egunkaria interviewed and photographed him after his victory three years ago. “I was given the chance to win the title again, but Egunkaria didn’t get the chance of being there again”, so he said.
Ga terug naar de nieuws index