Basque Info: Huge demonstration in Bilbao to demand legalization & International Contact Group begins work

Basque Info podcast http://www.archive.org/details/Bi4ww23.02.11

Huge demonstration in Bilbao to demand legalization

International Contact Group begins work


Last Saturday thousands of people took part in a large silent demonstration in the streets of Bilbao with the slogan “Towards peace -- legalization”. That silence became a clamor to demand the legalization of all political options in the Basque Country.

The promoters of the demonstration were all well-known faces in Basque society, people from politics, business, sport, labor movement, university …  People from varied ideologies came together to demand the legalisation of all political options and the right of citizens to elect freely.

The demonstration was preceded by a group holding the banner with the slogan. Immediately behind them were the representatives of the new party Sortu. After them there was a human flood, a true reflection of Basque society. There were thousands upon thousands of citizens (40,000 according to some media reports) from different social and political backgrounds who went to Bilbao from across the Basque Country to demand the legalization of all political options.

There was great media interest, even in Spain and world wide. Dozens of TV cameras and photographers were present at the start of the demonstration.

The promoters’ final message was clear. “This deafening echo must resound where it should. By now, it should resound in the Spanish Government, in its General Prosecution, in the Supreme Court.” They remind them that “they will not accept a ‘No’ as a response” and that “there is no need for quarantines or considerations outside the law influenced by political interests.”

 

The speakers highlighted the hope that “begins to enter in Basque society anew.” Hope for  “ETA’s cease-fire to be definitive, hope for the end of any violent activity and any anti-democratic imposition and hope for the respect for human, civil, political, individual and collective rights.” They went on to say that they have “hope for the implementation of a complete democracy that we have never known before in the Basque Country.” They warned they will not “tolerate that anybody smash that hope again.”

International Contact Group begins work

Last week the International Contact Group was launched publicly at a press conference. It will work to promote and facilitate a peace process to end the Basque conflict. The Group includes experts in human rights, negotiated conflict resolutions and the repair of inflicted damage. Three of the members met in Bilbao during the week after being called by the initiative’s promoter, South African solicitor Brian Currin.

The Group’s members have great experience in the resolution of conflicts and its consequences in different areas and some of them are signatorees of the Brussels Declaration. Two of those are Nuala O’Loan, former police Ombudsman in the north of Ireland and Raymond Kendall, who was the general secretary of Interpol between 1985 and 2000.

The International Contact Group outlined what will be their agenda for the next few months. They will “promote measures that will generate trust like the end of the special laws which constrain political activity and a change in penitentiary legislation to adapt to the new transformed political situation.”

During the press conference they highlighted that their work is “to assist in the achievement of peace and the political normalization in the Basque Country. We are not here to tell the people what they have to do, we only want to enrich the dialogue within Basque society.”

Among their objectives are “to promote, facilitate and make possible, in the way the political parties require from them, dialogue and multi-party negotiation, without conditions and without a predefined result, subjected to the Mitchell Principles. The objective of the dialogue and the multi-party negotiation would be to reach an inclusive agreement to overcome the political conflict.”

Responding to one journalist’s question and confronting interpretations made by many media about their role, they made it clear that they are not mediators but facilitators and that their their role is “to offer help to facilitate the continuation of the peace process.”

They also announced the launch of a new website (www.icgbasque.org) where they will inform about their work and where they will publish documents about it. They also outlinedt the meetings the Group will have during the month of March.

Representatives of the majority of Basque society and many of its principal political, social and trade union organizations welcomed the Group and consider that they can make a good contribution towards the resolution of the conflict. Nevertheless the Group’s launch didn’t please the main Spanish parties who refuse to meet with it. The Basque branch of the Spanish Socialist Party (Labour) said the Group doesn’t contribute any added value while the right-wing Popular Party invited the Group to go chasing butterflies or to collect insects instead.

-- 
www.friendsofthebasquecountry.org

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