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Basque Info 9/12/09 from Belfast
Submitted by admin on Og, 2009/12/10 - 09:58
- New information about Jon Anza on the 8th month of his disappearance.
- Youth unites against repression.
- Calls for pro-independence unity during the Spanish Constitution Day.
- Harassment against Basque political prisoners’ relatives increases.
www.irishbasquecommittees.blogspot.com
Read here the bulletin:
-New information about Jon Anza on the 8th month of his disappearance.
Eight months ago former Basque political prisoner Jon Anza went missing after boarding a train in Baiona (northern Basque Country) going to the French city of Toulouse. He never made it to his destination. Soon after his family made public the nature of his disappearance. ETA released a statement claiming Jon Anza was a member of the armed organization and that the police were well aware of it. In fact he disappeared on his way to a meeting with other members of the organization. ETA claimed that the Spanish police were responsible for his disappearance. Jon Anza had cancer and was almost blind at the time.
The Basque newspaper Gara reported a month ago that following reliable sources Jon Anza was kidnapped by the Spanish police, interrogated and killed and then buried somewhere in France.
Last week the prestigious French newspaper Le Monde published an article about the Jon Anza case. The article breaks the official silence imposed by the Spanish and French governments surrounding the disappearance and brings new information about the investigation.
Among other new aspects the article carries extracts of an interview with the French prosecutor. She says she’s astonished at the lack of evidence found on the case, but despite this she believes the French police are doing their job. The Spanish authorities never informed the French Jon was an ETA member and it caused great surprise to the French police when the armed organization claimed his membership.
According to the article the French had kept some sort of surveillance on Jon but due to his serious illness thought he wasn’t involved in ETA.
During the eight months of his disappearance a huge campaign of demonstrations and protests has been organised and posters with Jon’s face and the question “Where is Jon?” written on it cover the walls across the Basque Country.
At least another four pro-independence activists have been kidnapped, threatened and tortured by police forces during the past 12 months.
-Youth unites against repression.
Two weeks ago 36 Basque pro-independence youth activists were arrested in the largest police operation in decades. The Spanish authorities’s objective was to destroy the Basque youth movement. Among those arrested are activists involved in the student movement, youth squatted houses, community radios, Basque culture and language, community festivals, alternative music, feminist groups...
All of them were acussed of being members of the banned pro-independence youth organization Segi and a huge media criminalization campaign surrounded the arrests.
Most of them stated they were tortured, girls were even subjected to sexual abuse and finally 32 were imprisoned. Some of the youth who escaped the police operation were arrested just metres away from the Spanish National Court where they were going to surrend themselves, then taken incommunicado and reported tortures thereafter.
The response was immediate and hundreds of protests took place across the Basque Country. More than 20,000 people took part in a national demonstration in Bilbao organised by the detainees’ relatives.
Last weekend 2,000 people took part in another demonstration organised by the youth movement in Durango during the Basque Book and Album Fair. Dozens of youth groups had previously signed a petition to claim their right to organise against the capitalist system and for Basque freedom. 50 international youth groups showed their support too and some of them took part in the rally. Among them were Ógra Shin Féin representatives. The Irish youth organization also organised solidarity protests over the weekend in Derry, Cork, Fermanagh and Galway. Previously more protests took place in Omagh, Lurgan, Strabane, Limerick, Dungannon, Belfast and Dublin.
-Calls for pro-independence unity during the Spanish Constitution Day.
While the Spanish authorities celebrated in Madrid the 31st anniversary of the approval of the Spanish constitution Basque nationalist forces spoke of it as an imposition. In the 1978 referendum the constitution didn’t get the support of the majority of the Basque people and it’s been considered not legitimate in the Basque Country since then.
The Spanish constitution doesn’t recognised the Basque people’s rights like self-determination, declares the unbreakable unity of the state and the ultimate defence of it by the army. The Franco regime’s structures such as the army, judiciary and police remained untouched.
At a press conference organised during the Spanish Constitution Day the Basque Pro-Independence Left said that the asimilation process started in 1978 has failed and that nowadays the majority of Basque political and social force are in favour of a new democratic framework for the Basque Country. Speakers at the press conference said that now it’s time to take new and concrete commitments and to define the way to make that new political situation possible.
-Harassment against Basque political prisoners’ relatives increases.
More than 160 visits have been denied to Basque political prisoners’ relatives and friends during the past month. Relatives and friends are being subjected to humilliating searches on their way to visits due to new measures introduced by the Spanish authorities. The relatives are opposing the searches and subesquently they can’t attend visits after travelling for hundreds of miles. There are 598 Basque political prisoners scattered in almost 60 jails in Spain and another 161 prisoners in 25 French jails.
The Basque prisoners have begun different protests to confront the harassment against their relatives such as a communication strike and lock ups in their cells.
