Basque Info 25/11/09

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• Spanish police arrest 34 Basque pro-Independence youth activists.

• United Nations call upon Spanish Government to end torture.

• Commemorations of Basque pro-Independence Left’s leaders murdered by the Spanish state.

• Judge rules against extradition

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-Spanish police arrest 34 Basque pro-Independence youth activists.

In the early hours of yesterday, Tuesday, 34 Basque pro-Independence political activists were arrested and 92 properties were searched in an operation involving 650 Spanish policemen. The police tried to arrest another seven youths but they weren’t in their homes.

Last week the anti-repression organization Askatasuna warned that they believed a police operation was imminent in the Basque Country. Then, in the early hours of Tuesday 24, 34 well known social, political and cultural young activists were arrested in what was the largest police operation in decades. They are being held incommunicado despite the recent recomendations of the United Nations Committee Against Torture.

All of them have been accused of being members of the national and county-level leadership of the pro-independence left-wing youth organization Segi which was banned in 2005.

Just ten days ago the Basque pro-Independence Left held a press conference where 110 prominent members launched new proposals to resolve the conflict. In a historical move they commited to a "peaceful and democratic political process" (full declaration in English: http://www.ezkerabertzalea.info/irakurri.php?id=2600). The declaration was welcomed by Basque nationalist and progressive forces and criminalized by the pro-Spanish parties and media.

On October 13 six prominent pro-Independence Left leaders, among them spokesperson Arnaldo Otegi, were arrested and imprisoned.

Most political parties and trade unions in the Basque Country have seen these arrests as a response to the new political initiative. The pro-Independence Left has said these attacks only confirm the Spanish state's weakness and its fear of politics. According to the pro-Independence Left it's in the political arena where the state is weakest and that's where the confrontation has to be moved to. At the same time the Spanish state, with these arrests and others which might follow, intends on the one hand to prevent any change of estrategy by the pro-Independence Left and, on the other, to weaken the engine of change.

Dozens of protests took place in towns, schools and universities across the country and more protests are expected to be organised in days to come..

After months of debates and events at local level a national day had been called for this coming Saturday in Zestoa to reorganise and strengthen the broad Basque youth movement. The arrests come to prevent this from happening. Other youth organizations have called for a response to the attack by taking part in that very important day.

-United Nations call upon Spanish Government to end torture.

Last week the United Nations Committee against Torture released a report after examining the Spanish state’s practice. After persistent ignoring of the international institution’s recomendations the conclusions couldn’t be any other way than to ask the Spanish authorities to end the incommunicado regime and to criticise the light penalties imposed on those found guilty of torture.

The Committee says in the report that “once again we have to express our concern – a concern shared by all the relevant regional and international human rights protection bodies - about the incommunicado regime used by the Spanish state in the terrorism offences, which could go up to 13 days. This regime breaches all the protections typical of a State of Law against ill-treatement and torture.”

Last week the Director of the Spanish branch of Amnesty International met with Navarre Parliament MPs to tell them it’s time to recognise the existence of torture and to implement measures to make it disappear. The protests of Spanish unionist representatives engendered a powerful response from the AI Director who said: “When we release human rights abuses reports about China everybody respects AI’s stand. Why is the opposite here?”.

-Commemorations of Basque pro-Independence Left’s leaders murdered by the Spanish state.

25 and 20 years ago respectively on November 20th Basque pro-Independence Left’s leaders Santi Brouard and Josu Muguruza were assassinated by Spanish death squads. Santi was murdered in the pediatric nursery where he worked and Josu in a hotel in Madrid where he was to attend the first session of the Spanish Congress to which he had been elected. Josu and other Herri Batasuna elected MPs were going to use their turn to speak to launch a peace proposal.

Both leaders were very much respected and loved and proof of that was in the very succesful events organised during the weekend in the Basque Country to commemorate their lifes and political legacy. On Friday morning the police harassed the commemoration event and hundreds packed a handball court that evening in Bilbao for a very moving rally. Sinn Féin MLA Paul Maskey also took part and expressed the Republican movement’s solidarity and support for the democratic process.

A speaker said the Basque pro-Independence Left was born to win and that it’s time to collect the fruits of many years of struggle and to gather forces to achieve the democratic framework.

-Judge rules against extradition

‘Charges are politically-motivated and must be dropped’

Judge Tom Burgess ruled last Wednesday that the Spanish authorities’ extradition warrant against Belfast-based Basque activist Artruro Benat Villanueva was “invalid”. The judge rejected the warrant, which claimed that Mr Villanueva was a “member of an illegal terrorist organisation” (Jarrai) from 1994-2000, on the grounds that it did not include any particularities or details of specific offences alleged to have been committed.

The judge further ruled that there was no specific evidence cited in the warrant that proved Mr Villanueva’s membership of the organisation.

On Friday the Prosecution decided to appeal the ruling.

Welcoming the judgment today, Don’t Extradite the Basques Campaign spokesperson Kevin Morrison said: “The judge’s ruling demonstrates the validity in the message that the Don’t Extradite the Basques Campaign has been putting forward – that the extradition warrant against Benat was politically motivated.

“We urge the British government to acknowledge, after today’s ruling, that the cases against both Basque men being sought by the Spanish government are flawed and politically-motivated. The extradition request against Iñaki de Juana must also now be rejected.”

Arturo “Beñat” Villanueva
Mr. Morrison went on to say: “There were several fundamental flaws in the arrest warrant against Beñat, and the lack of particularity – the fact that there are no exact dates, locations or details of participation in any offence by Beñat – made the warrant invalid in the judge’s view.”

“While Jarrai is a solely political organisation, it was declared illegal by the Spanish authorities in 2005 and categorised as a “terrorist” organisation by Spain’s Supreme Court in 2007.

“During the period of Beñat’s alleged membership of Jarrai, the organisation was legal. The non-retrospectivity legal principle was clearly being breached by the terms of the warrant for his extradition.

 

“Beñat is being targeted by the Spanish authorities for carrying out political, public and peaceful youth work in the Basque Country. His only ‘crime’ was his political ideas in favour of Basque independence and socialism.”

‘Reject warrant against Iñaki de Juana’

Mr. Morrison continued: “The Don’t Extradite the Basques Campaign will continue to oppose the ongoing extradition process against Iñaki de Juana, who is also being targeted on spurious grounds by the Spanish government.

“We believe both men are clearly being persecuted solely for their political opinions, not for any criminal activity. We believe they will not receive a fair hearing with the Spanish judicial system and that they face the risk of torture.

“We urge the Spanish government to rethink its criminalisation strategy against the pro-Independence movement, particularly at this moment in time when significant initiatives towards reviving the peace process have been taken this week by the Basque Abertzale Left movement.

“We urge the British government to acknowledge, after today’s ruling, that the cases against both men are flawed and politically-motivated, and to reject the extradition request against Iñaki de Juana.”