Basque Info 7/07/10

You can listen to the last program here In this issue:

• Basque prisoner enters 30th day on hunger strike
• Anza case: Human Rights League demands explanations
• San Fermin festival: people’s culture and politics

Basque prisoner enters 30th day on hunger strikeBasque political prisoner Arkaitz Agirregabiria has already been on hunger strike for 30 days and has lost 15 kilos. Arkaitz begun his hunger strike to protest his solitary confinement in a French jail 900 kilometres from home.He was arrested on the 20th of May in the northern Basque Country along with Mikel Karrera and Maite Aranalde. All were acussed of being members of ETA and were sent to different recently-built French jails. Last week Mikel and Maite also begun hunger strikes against solitary confinement.Forty people from Arkaitz’s neighbourhood in Bilbao went to the Lyon jail to show their solidarity with him. Three hundred letters have also been written to the prison governor.Another Basque prisoner, Asier Aranguren, ended a 20-day hunger strike after he was released from a French jail on Monday. Despite having finished his sentence of eight years he faced the risk of torture at the hands of the Spanish police. The French police usually take released Basque prisoners from the jail gates to the border and hand them over to the Spanish police in a clearly illegal procedure. Fortunately the Spanish police didn’t arrest him and he was welcomed in his home town of Irunea/Pamplona later that day.More than 1,500 people marched in the town of Zornotza, near Bilbao, to demand the release of their neighbour Joxe Mari Sagardui, aka “Gatza”, who is the longest-serving prisoner in Europe after entering his 30th year in jail. Altough there is no life sentence in Spanish law and despite the fact that he should have been released last year, the authorities keep him in jail. The demonstration’s banner, carried by Gatza’s old parents and his young daughter, also demanded the freeing of all seriously-ill prisoners and those who, like Gatza, have already completed their sentences but are kept in prison illegally.Two relatives of Basque political prisoner’s solicitor and now prisoner himself Txema Matanzas had a road accident on their way to a visit and had to be taken to hospital. Sixteen relatives and friends have been killed in road accidents on their long trips to visit prisons. The 730 Basque political prisoners are scattered throughout 85 jails as a consequence of the so-called dispersal policy imposed by the Spanish and French authorities.An extradition hearing for Basque political refugee Fermin Vila will be held on the 1st of October. Fermin was arrested two weeks ago in Belfast and remanded in custody to Maghaberry jail.The Basque Autonomous Region’s Minister of the Interior announced the creation of a special police unit to attack all kind of solidarity displays with Basque political prisoners.Etxerat, the association of Basque prisoners’ relatives and friends, said in a press conference last week that they will start a round of meetings with political parties, trade unions and other social organizations to encourage them to join a broad campaign to demand respect for the prisoners’ rights.During the weekend many events demonstrated solidarity with the Basque prisoners. Along with the weekly vigils held in dozens of towns across the Basque Country, the prisoners were also remembered at the annual commemoration on Albertia mountain, near Bilbao. Three hundred Basque volunteers of the Basque pro-independence left party ANV/Basque Nationalist Action were killed in action by Spanish fascist forces there in 1937.Anza case: Human Rights League demands explanationsETA volunteer and former Basque political prisoner Jon Anza went missing in April 2010 and was found nearly a year later in a morgue in the French city of Toulouse. Since his disappearance the Pro-Independence Left and his family have accused Spanish police forces of being behind it.Last week relatives and their solicitors organised a press conference jointly with the French Human Rights League. The prestigious association created 112 years ago said they shared the concerns of Jon Anza’s family and spoke out against the lack of investigation and the failure to carry out procedures standard to all these kinds of cases. They demanded that the French Interior Minister, the Basque Country-born Alliot-Marie, explain all the misterious aspects of the case. The League said there is sufficient reason to doubt the official version of Jon Anza’s disappearance and death.San Fermin festival: people’s culture and politicsYesterday (6th of July), the worlwide festival of San Fermín was launched in the Basque Country’s capital Irunea/Pamplona. This very special festival perfectly represents the Basque idiosyncracy. It is a festival organised by the people, for the people and is full of rebellious spirit.During the nine-day non-stop festival, partying mixes Basque culture and politics in a very natural way. For the rest of the festival season the scene is repeated across the Basque Country in the local festivals of towns and villages.Hundreds of people took part in a demonstration in support of Basque identity the day before the festival kicked off. One of the Basque identity’s symbols, the Basque flag, was banned right from the start of the festival. While trying to bring a gigantic Basque flag into the city hall square, where thousands of people waited for the official opening of the festival at 12 noon, youth were attacked by the local Spanish unionist police. Many were injured and one was arrested. What the police couldn’t prevent was the display of a massive banner demanding the repatriation of all Basque political prisoners, seen on TV by hundreds of millions of people across the world.The local festival associations usually display banners carrying social and political demands couched in a festive and humourous manner in carnival-type parades every evening during the city’s festival. This year, for the first time in more than 75 years, they decided to carry a black banner with only two slogans: “Freedom of expression” and “Festivals for the people”. This was in protest against the local Spanish unionist authorities, who are attacking the popular character of the festivals by trying to privatise them and by taking to court those who design the banners.Woven into the craziness of the festival, many political events will take place to demand independence, repatriation of prisoners and truly community festivals.