Basque Info 18/11/09

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

• Prisoners’ relatives ask for a “solidarity flood”.

• Campaign for northern Basque Country’s recognition getting stronger.Basque extradition would be ‘grossly inhumane’

listen to Basque Info

http://www.feilefm.com/

www.irishbasquecommittees.blogspot.com

Read here the bulletin:

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

110 prominent pro-independence left activists were prent 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-pagedeclaration entitled“A first step inthe democratic process: principles and intentionsof the nationalist Left” was read to the gatheredmedia. Init, 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 summarisesnumerous ideas, statements, press releases, interviewsthat have beencarried out during the past year including the 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 theirrights.

The declaration states that “bothwith correct decisions and errors the pro-Independence Left has brought the liberation process to the phase of political change. Now, the taskis 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 frontwhere they are weakerthat isthe political front. The basic instrument for the new political phase is the Democratic Process.”

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

The Basque parties welcomed the statement as positive and asked ETA to makea 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 statementlast Friday in whichhe 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 giantpress 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 jailsare deteriorating. Prisoners’ rights are breached ona daily basis: dispersalpolicy, life sentences, ill prisoners kept in jail, solitary confinment and isolation, threats, insults, beatings, communication obstacles, continuousand arbitrary prison transfers without notice...

Even relatives and friends are harassed and criminalisedand are forcedto put their lives at risk in long road trips for a visit which then lasts only40 minutes.

For that reasonthe relatives appealed toBasque society and especially topolitical parties, trade unions and social organizations to makea “solidarity flood” together in order to put an end to all the attacks and bring the prisoners home. As a first step they called fora national demonstration onthe 2^nd of January.

The Basque Political Prisoners’ Collective also released a statement over the weekend to protest against the new personalsearch measures imposedupon their relatives and friends before visits. The Collective said that the Spanish Governmenthas an incredible lack of respect fordignity and that all these abuses are not going unnoticed by Basque society or the international community.

In fact just last week the Spanish Government tookthe first steps to reform the current Penal Code so thatex-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 Favourof 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 ledthe 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 majorityof people and political representatives across the board.

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

It’s in this context thatdifferent Basque nationalist forces are coming together to ask for recognition of the Basque Country’sown institutions and the right to decide their own future.

At last Saturday’s rally speakers told the audience that thanks to theirhard 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.

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.”