NIEUWSOVERZICHT

OVERVIEW EVENTS BASQUE COUNTRY NR 32, period the 28th of October until the 14th of November

In the United States the National Lawyers Guild adopts at a conference in Minneapolis a resolution to call for the United States government to ask the Spanish authorities to “respect the rights of the Basques”. The Lawyers Guild is a forum of 4000 liberal lawyers and a delegation of them payed a visit to the Basque Country at the end of September and spoke to top range people from the juridical and political system and Basque politicians, journalists and human right activists. In the resolution the closing of the newspapers Egin and Egunkaria is concemned, as well as the outlawing of the political party Batasuna. They state also that “90% of the Basque political prisoners are imprisoned on false statements given under torture”. They point at the presumption of innocence in the UN-human rights treaty and that “every human being has the right not to be subjected to torture or an inhumane treatment or an arbitrary arrest”. The Basque lawyer Urko Aiartza Azurtza, who was invited by the organizers, was arrested at the airport of Chicago, questioned, chained to a chair and eventually sent back after 9 hours by plane to Spain. The US authorities copied confidential papers, a set up for a court case at the European Court, and books, the TAT-report about torture and the book about political prosecution in the Basque Country (still for sale at our website, see Shop)
Judge Juan del Olmo finally lifts the secrecy in the case Egunkaria; their lawyers can finally see what their clients are accused off. The file consists of more than 30.000 papers and Europe Press got an insight in the chapter about the Martin Ugalde Culture Park, where the Guardia Civil arrested 8 people at the 16th of October in connection to the ‘Egunkaria-case’ (see Overview NR 31). According to the Guardia Civil, so says the file, “Egunkaria and publishers in the Park would be responsible for the annihilation of the language Castilliano (Spanish) in Euskadi, Naffaroa and the French Basque Country and to establish their United Basque Socialist State in the end”.
At the end of October Alain Berastegi reports at the Audiencia Nacional in Madrid, after investigative judge Baltasar Garzón filed an arrest warrant against him in connection with the arrest of 34 Basques at the 8th of October. Garzón suspects him of “alleged membership of the armed organisation ETA”. Berastegi is locked in at the prison of Soto del Real. In the last Overview you could read how 20 Basques finally were put in prison; in France the 5 arrested were released after some days in incommunicado-detention. Malvina Rekalde en Maika Arizaga weren’t even brought before a judge, Eneko Gorri and Ihintza Otxandabaratz were also released without bail. Emilie Martin, a student of 18 years old, had to pay 3000 Euro bail and is not allowed to leave the province and has to report twice at a police station in Baiona. Eneko Gorri has to report twice a week at a police station in Bordeaux and is not allowed to leave the province without permission from the court, even not to travel to family. Both are not allowed to attend meetings or demonstrations, or to have contact with a big list or persons, among them family members and the other arrested. Bizarre is that Emilie is not allowed to have contact with her sister, who lives in the same house.
In Columbia 7 tourists from different European countries are taken hostage since the 12th of September by the ‘Ejército de Liberación de Columbia’ (ELN). At the 20th of October the ELN announced to release the Basque Asier Huegen Etxeberria “as a gesture of solidarity to the Basque people that, just as ours, was violently charged by the Spanish state and fights for self- determination and independence”. As condition the ELN wanted the Basque parliamentarians Joseba Egibar of the PNV, Sabin Intxaurraga of the EA and Joseba Alvarez of the Sozialista Abertzaleak, accompanied by the Basque newspaper GARA, the Basque radio and the Basque TV EiTB, to come and pick him up. President Alvaro Uribe of Columbia only recognised the Columbian Church as negotiator and didn’t want to “escalate a terrorist act in a media show to internationalise terrorism”, on which the ELN withdrew her proposal and said to want to trade the hostages at the end of October for their imprisoned spokesman Fransisco Galan.
At the 30th of October the German High Court refuses to deal with the appeal against the verdict of the Nürnberg court in the case against the Basque political refugee Paulo Elkoro. Elkoro is jailed since January in München, suspected of ETA-activities; the evidence of the Spanish state is however based on a statement given under torture from other Basque prisoners. The German justice didn’t see it necessary to translate the complaint about the torture.
In Madrid the Spanish authorities are condemned to pay 8.8 million Euro indemnification to the PNV for the seizing of 6 party-buildings during the fascist coup in 1936. The PNV says to precede more to get a full-scale cover of the damage.
The left nationalist Basque independence movement presents at the beginning of November a political statement in Iruñea, spoken by Batasuna spokesman Arnaldo Otegi, to come to a political solution to the political conflict in the Basque Country. The text is about the 7 provinces of the Basque Country, right on self- determination, international treaties on civil rights and political freedoms and a referendum in the absence of violence. About this statement there should be talked “without conditions and exclusions”, so Otegi said, who challenged the ‘plan-Ibarretxe’, because that only was made “by talking with people who agreed”.
The new report of the International Prisons Watch shows that Spain is heading towards overpopulation in her prisons; with 55.953 people the prisons are more full than ever in the last 25 years, since the transition to democracy after the death of Franco; 12.858 are still awaiting their trial.
At the 3rd of November Xabier Oleaga is released by judge Juan del Olmo in Madrid after 8,5 months, with a bail of 30.000 Euro. Oleaga was imprisoned in connection with the ‘Egunkaria-case’, the newspaper that was closed at the 20th of February this year by the same judge. The two other arrested, Xabier Alegria and Iñaki Uria, remain in prison, respectively at Soto del Real and Aranjuez in Madrid. Alegria however, was allowed to be released at a bail of 50.000 Euro, but was hold in connection with the ‘Udalbiltza-case’, closed by judge Baltasar Garzón at the 29th of April this year. His family has never seen a penny back of previous payed bails, 10 and 15 million pesetas, in the cases of Egin and Ekin. About Iñaki Uria the court didn’t say anything.
The international Basque organisation for Human Rights in the United States starts a campaign for the support of the Basque Diaspora in Mexico and the 6 Basque political refugees that are in extradition detention there. Arronategi, Artola, Gorrotxategi, Garcia, Urkijo and Alberdi were arrested at the 18th and 19th of July on the grounds of unproven accusations, among others the fabrication of chemical weapons.
According to figures by the Basque prisonhelporganisation Askatasuna in October this year 47 Basques were arrested by Spanish and French police. Twenty-eight later declared that they were tortured during their detention. In the prisons of Brieva and Badajoz the list of prisoners was reduced to 10 persons and nobody can be replaced at the last list anymore. Telephone calls are forbidden and in the prison of Villena only Spanish is allowed to talk with the visitors. In Ocana 1 a family member left one minute too late the visitors room and was suspended for visits for 6 months. Etcetera.
Around the 4th of November the Spanish army starts unannounced military manoeuvres, which will last for several days, in the Basque Provinces Araba, Bizkaia, Gipuzkoa and Naffaroa. Numerous villages and cities are occupied by the Spanish army with helicopters, trucks and paratroopers and heavily armed soldiers conduct identity checks by especially Basque youngsters. The city centre of Vitoria, at the building of the Basque parliament, is occupied also. These manoeuvres take place in a time where the Spanish authorities reject the ‘plan-Ibarretxe’ with the strongest statements and the Spanish Prime Minister Aznar announced to take ‘preventive measures against terrorism’ with the help from the army. At the 6th of November the Ministers of Internal Affairs from Spain and France, José Maria Michavila and Dominique Perben, decide at a Spanish-French summit in Carcasonne to erect together some groups to combat ETA; more people are employed and from now on this has the highest priority.
At the 5th of November the appeal of the Basque political prisoner Juan Mari Olmo, spokesman of the since October 2001 banned prisonhelporganisation Gestoras pro Amnistia, against his extradition to Spain is not taken into account at the High Court in Paris. That means that his procedure is over and he can be extradited to Spain any moment.
Paulo Elkoro is extradited at the 5th of November by Germany to the Spanish authorities. His girlfriend, visiting him on Monday, only heard about his extradition when the prison authorities asked her to stop the newspaper subscription. In the morning the news was already on the Spanish radio. Elkoro’s lawyer Wolfgang Bendler just heard it at the end of the day; he announced to form a delegation to the trial of Paulo Elkoro to monitor. Elkoro was brought to the prison of Soto del Real in Madrid and is in hunger strike and isolation detention. A radio broadcast in German, featuring his sister and lawyer, you can listen to here.
At Straatsburg Pernando Barena, member of the outlawed Basque political party Batasuna, and the lawyer Didier Rouget, file, as representatives of 221 Basques who stood for election the 25th of May but were banned, an appeal at the European Court of Human Rights. Main complaint is that the Spanish authorities severely damaged the freedom of speech, the right to appeal to that and that free elections were impossible.
In Buenos Aires 200 people, among them representatives of various Argentine human right organisations and political parties, demonstrate at the 7th of November for the immediate release of the Basque political prisoner Josu Lariz Iriondo. Interpol and Argentine police arrested Iriondo at the 22nd of November 2002 at the airport of Buenos Aires. Before he was expelled by Uruguay after the Uruguayan justice decided against extradition to Spain. Iriondo is now in extradition detention in Buenos Aires.
In the Spanish newspaper El Mundo of the 8th of November it is said that ETA builded infrastructures in other European countries and a number of Basque Country solidarity committees are mentioned in Germany, Italy and England. In Belgian the Flemish Volks Unie is mentioned and in the Netherlands “a youth organisation, which is seen as the successor of the outlawed SEGI, mobilised protest actions in Amsterdam against the extradition of the alleged employee of the Barcelona commando of ETA Juan Ramon Rodriguez Fernandez, alias Marc”.
Thousands of people demonstrate at the 8th of November in Gasteiz with the slogan ‘No messing with Araba, self-determination for the Basque Country’. This was their response to words of Ramón Rabanera, Governor of the Basque province Araba, that ‘Araba will stop being part of the Basque Autonome Community’.

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OVERVIEW EVENTS BASQUE COUNTRY NR 32, period the 28th of October until the 14th of November
In the United States the National Lawyers Guild adopts at a conference in Minneapolis a resolution to call for the United States government to ask the Spanish authorities to “respect the rights of the Basques”. The Lawyers Guild is a forum of 4000 liberal lawyers and a delegation of them payed a visit to the Basque Country at the end of September and spoke to top range people from the juridical and political system and Basque politicians, journalists and human right activists. In the resolution the closing of the newspapers Egin and Egunkaria is concemned, as well as the outlawing of the political party Batasuna. They state also that “90% of the Basque political prisoners are imprisoned on false statements given under torture”. They point at the presumption of innocence in the UN-human rights treaty and that “every human being has the right not to be subjected to torture or an inhumane treatment or an arbitrary arrest”. The Basque lawyer Urko Aiartza Azurtza, who was invited by the organizers, was arrested at the airport of Chicago, questioned, chained to a chair and eventually sent back after 9 hours by plane to Spain. The US authorities copied confidential papers, a set up for a court case at the European Court, and books, the TAT-report about torture and the book about political prosecution in the Basque Country (still for sale at our website, see Shop) Judge Juan del Olmo finally lifts the secrecy in the case Egunkaria; their lawyers can finally see what their clients are accused off. The file consists of more than 30.000 papers and Europe Press got an insight in the chapter about the Martin Ugalde Culture Park, where the Guardia Civil arrested 8 people at the 16th of October in connection to the ‘Egunkaria-case’ (see Overview NR 31). According to the Guardia Civil, so says the file, “Egunkaria and publishers in the Park would be responsible for the annihilation of the language Castilliano (Spanish) in Euskadi, Naffaroa and the French Basque Country and to establish their United Basque Socialist State in the end”. At the end of October Alain Berastegi reports at the Audiencia Nacional in Madrid, after investigative judge Baltasar Garzón filed an arrest warrant against him in connection with the arrest of 34 Basques at the 8th of October. Garzón suspects him of “alleged membership of the armed organisation ETA”. Berastegi is locked in at the prison of Soto del Real. In the last Overview you could read how 20 Basques finally were put in prison; in France the 5 arrested were released after some days in incommunicado-detention. Malvina Rekalde en Maika Arizaga weren’t even brought before a judge, Eneko Gorri and Ihintza Otxandabaratz were also released without bail. Emilie Martin, a student of 18 years old, had to pay 3000 Euro bail and is not allowed to leave the province and has to report twice at a police station in Baiona. Eneko Gorri has to report twice a week at a police station in Bordeaux and is not allowed to leave the province without permission from the court, even not to travel to family. Both are not allowed to attend meetings or demonstrations, or to have contact with a big list or persons, among them family members and the other arrested. Bizarre is that Emilie is not allowed to have contact with her sister, who lives in the same house. In Columbia 7 tourists from different European countries are taken hostage since the 12th of September by the ‘Ejército de Liberación de Columbia’ (ELN). At the 20th of October the ELN announced to release the Basque Asier Huegen Etxeberria “as a gesture of solidarity to the Basque people that, just as ours, was violently charged by the Spanish state and fights for self- determination and independence”. As condition the ELN wanted the Basque parliamentarians Joseba Egibar of the PNV, Sabin Intxaurraga of the EA and Joseba Alvarez of the Sozialista Abertzaleak, accompanied by the Basque newspaper GARA, the Basque radio and the Basque TV EiTB, to come and pick him up. President Alvaro Uribe of Columbia only recognised the Columbian Church as negotiator and didn’t want to “escalate a terrorist act in a media show to internationalise terrorism”, on which the ELN withdrew her proposal and said to want to trade the hostages at the end of October for their imprisoned spokesman Fransisco Galan. At the 30th of October the German High Court refuses to deal with the appeal against the verdict of the Nürnberg court in the case against the Basque political refugee Paulo Elkoro. Elkoro is jailed since January in München, suspected of ETA-activities; the evidence of the Spanish state is however based on a statement given under torture from other Basque prisoners. The German justice didn’t see it necessary to translate the complaint about the torture. In Madrid the Spanish authorities are condemned to pay 8.8 million Euro indemnification to the PNV for the seizing of 6 party-buildings during the fascist coup in 1936. The PNV says to precede more to get a full-scale cover of the damage. The left nationalist Basque independence movement presents at the beginning of November a political statement in Iruñea, spoken by Batasuna spokesman Arnaldo Otegi, to come to a political solution to the political conflict in the Basque Country. The text is about the 7 provinces of the Basque Country, right on self- determination, international treaties on civil rights and political freedoms and a referendum in the absence of violence. About this statement there should be talked “without conditions and exclusions”, so Otegi said, who challenged the ‘plan-Ibarretxe’, because that only was made “by talking with people who agreed”. The new report of the International Prisons Watch shows that Spain is heading towards overpopulation in her prisons; with 55.953 people the prisons are more full than ever in the last 25 years, since the transition to democracy after the death of Franco; 12.858 are still awaiting their trial. At the 3rd of November Xabier Oleaga is released by judge Juan del Olmo in Madrid after 8,5 months, with a bail of 30.000 Euro. Oleaga was imprisoned in connection with the ‘Egunkaria-case’, the newspaper that was closed at the 20th of February this year by the same judge. The two other arrested, Xabier Alegria and Iñaki Uria, remain in prison, respectively at Soto del Real and Aranjuez in Madrid. Alegria however, was allowed to be released at a bail of 50.000 Euro, but was hold in connection with the ‘Udalbiltza-case’, closed by judge Baltasar Garzón at the 29th of April this year. His family has never seen a penny back of previous payed bails, 10 and 15 million pesetas, in the cases of Egin and Ekin. About Iñaki Uria the court didn’t say anything. The international Basque organisation for Human Rights in the United States starts a campaign for the support of the Basque Diaspora in Mexico and the 6 Basque political refugees that are in extradition detention there. Arronategi, Artola, Gorrotxategi, Garcia, Urkijo and Alberdi were arrested at the 18th and 19th of July on the grounds of unproven accusations, among others the fabrication of chemical weapons. According to figures by the Basque prisonhelporganisation Askatasuna in October this year 47 Basques were arrested by Spanish and French police. Twenty-eight later declared that they were tortured during their detention. In the prisons of Brieva and Badajoz the list of prisoners was reduced to 10 persons and nobody can be replaced at the last list anymore. Telephone calls are forbidden and in the prison of Villena only Spanish is allowed to talk with the visitors. In Ocana 1 a family member left one minute too late the visitors room and was suspended for visits for 6 months. Etcetera. Around the 4th of November the Spanish army starts unannounced military manoeuvres, which will last for several days, in the Basque Provinces Araba, Bizkaia, Gipuzkoa and Naffaroa. Numerous villages and cities are occupied by the Spanish army with helicopters, trucks and paratroopers and heavily armed soldiers conduct identity checks by especially Basque youngsters. The city centre of Vitoria, at the building of the Basque parliament, is occupied also. These manoeuvres take place in a time where the Spanish authorities reject the ‘plan-Ibarretxe’ with the strongest statements and the Spanish Prime Minister Aznar announced to take ‘preventive measures against terrorism’ with the help from the army. At the 6th of November the Ministers of Internal Affairs from Spain and France, José Maria Michavila and Dominique Perben, decide at a Spanish-French summit in Carcasonne to erect together some groups to combat ETA; more people are employed and from now on this has the highest priority. At the 5th of November the appeal of the Basque political prisoner Juan Mari Olmo, spokesman of the since October 2001 banned prisonhelporganisation Gestoras pro Amnistia, against his extradition to Spain is not taken into account at the High Court in Paris. That means that his procedure is over and he can be extradited to Spain any moment. Paulo Elkoro is extradited at the 5th of November by Germany to the Spanish authorities. His girlfriend, visiting him on Monday, only heard about his extradition when the prison authorities asked her to stop the newspaper subscription. In the morning the news was already on the Spanish radio. Elkoro’s lawyer Wolfgang Bendler just heard it at the end of the day; he announced to form a delegation to the trial of Paulo Elkoro to monitor. Elkoro was brought to the prison of Soto del Real in Madrid and is in hunger strike and isolation detention. A radio broadcast in German, featuring his sister and lawyer, you can listen to here. At Straatsburg Pernando Barena, member of the outlawed Basque political party Batasuna, and the lawyer Didier Rouget, file, as representatives of 221 Basques who stood for election the 25th of May but were banned, an appeal at the European Court of Human Rights. Main complaint is that the Spanish authorities severely damaged the freedom of speech, the right to appeal to that and that free elections were impossible. In Buenos Aires 200 people, among them representatives of various Argentine human right organisations and political parties, demonstrate at the 7th of November for the immediate release of the Basque political prisoner Josu Lariz Iriondo. Interpol and Argentine police arrested Iriondo at the 22nd of November 2002 at the airport of Buenos Aires. Before he was expelled by Uruguay after the Uruguayan justice decided against extradition to Spain. Iriondo is now in extradition detention in Buenos Aires. In the Spanish newspaper El Mundo of the 8th of November it is said that ETA builded infrastructures in other European countries and a number of Basque Country solidarity committees are mentioned in Germany, Italy and England. In Belgian the Flemish Volks Unie is mentioned and in the Netherlands “a youth organisation, which is seen as the successor of the outlawed SEGI, mobilised protest actions in Amsterdam against the extradition of the alleged employee of the Barcelona commando of ETA Juan Ramon Rodriguez Fernandez, alias Marc”. Thousands of people demonstrate at the 8th of November in Gasteiz with the slogan ‘No messing with Araba, self-determination for the Basque Country’. This was their response to words of Ramón Rabanera, Governor of the Basque province Araba, that ‘Araba will stop being part of the Basque Autonome Community’.
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