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Basque Info
Submitted by admin on Og, 2009/09/17 - 17:48
Headlines:
-Thousands support the Basque political prisoners.
-Amnesty International against Spanish detention procedures.
-UN denounces French government's breach of linguistic rights.
www.irishbasquecommittees.blogspot.com
Read here the bulletin:
-Thousands support the Basque political prisoners.
12,000 people took to the streets of Donostia/San Sebastian last Saturday to demand the repatriation of the more than 750 Basque political prisoners. They are imprisoned and scattered in more than 80 jails across France and Spain.
The rally was allowed by the regional government and it became the largest in the city since probably 2002.
People of all ages walked the streets of Donostia/San Sebastian in silence. Emotions were high after a summer full of bannings and attacks on prisoners' solidarity events.
The political prisoners’ relatives couldn’t carry the traditional pictures of their loved ones due to the Spanish authorities prohibition of displaying them publicly but many of them showed small ones they kept in their pockets.
At the end of the rally some speakers addressed the crowd. One of them was the father of Oihane Errazkin, the Basque political prisoner who apparently took her own life in a French jail in 2004. He said that the prisoners’ relatives intend to meet with trade unions and political parties to ask them for commitments. He said that was the best way to respond to the authorities' efforts to spread fear. He denounced the fact that for the
Spanish authorities is not enough to put relatives in the dispersal policy’s “death corridor” - they now want to make solidarity disappear.
He also spoke of those who having fulfilled their sentences are still in jail as well of the ill prisoners who, against what the law says, are not being released.
Many other local solidarity events were organised over the weekend. In Elorrio dozens of locals gathered with a blank banner and their mouths tied after the Spanish authorities banned a rally. The town of Altsasu which is celebrating the local festivals was covered with large prisoners pictures and 200 people took part in a solidarity lunch.
Last Sunday during the boat races final Donostia/San Sebastian was full of pictures, banners and flags demanding the Basque prisoners' repatriation. The police were completely overwhelmed.
The Basque Nationalist Party said this week that the Basque regional government’s strategy to make the solidarity towards Basque prisoners disappear has completely failed and that now those solidarity displays are even more numerous than ever.
Basque political prisoner Asier Arzalluz was badly treated by the French police when transfered to the hospital from jail. Basque prisoners in Avignon denounced the hate policy they suffer in that jail.
In Fleury jail prisoners are locking up themselves in their cells in turns to denounce the disappearence of former Basque political prisoner Jon Anza five months ago. At a press conference last week 50 members of the Basque Political Escapees Association denounced this disappearence also and called a national demonstration for next Saturday.
-Amnesty International against Spanish detention procedures.
Once again Amnesty International has spoken out against the Spanish authorities' detention procedures. Acording to AI the Spanish State is the only one within the European Union with such a severe detention regime and extreme restrictions on human rights. Last week AI asked the Spanish authorities for the end of such practices where a person can be disappeared for days.
In fact the incommunicado period that is put in place after someone is arrested and accused of “terrorism” means the police can keep this person in custody for up to 13 days without having access to a solicitor or doctor he trusts.
This dark period of time allows the police to torture the deteinees with total impunity.
The Spanish authorities have ignored the UN and European Council recommendations for years (particularly in 1995, 1997, 2002, 2003 and 2008) and indeed have even legislated in the opposite way.
AI pointed at the Spanish authorities' general attitude towards torture complaints and said it is against the International Convention Against Torture.
-UN denounces French government's breach of linguistic rights.
For the third time in just three years the United Nations has called the attention of the French government's policies towards the Basque language. This time the commission which overviews the Children’s Rights Pact called on the French government to implement article 30 of the convention. The French authorities claim there are not linguistic minorities within the French territory.
Basque Language Watchdog’s spokesperson Paul Bilbao said this recommendation came after they complained in Geneva. He said the French state should be ashamed.
Irish Basque Solidarity Committees
irishbsc@gmail.com
www.irishbasquecommittees.blogspot.com
