Summer 2009
This is a summary of some of the incidents that took place in Basque Country in the last two weeks of July.
Basque political prisoners in three different Spanish jails were attacked by guards and taken to solitary confinement. This situation happens often and sometimes prisoners have to go on hunger strike to denounce them and get their basic rights respected. This is the case of Sebas Lasa who entered his 9th day on hunger strike today. He’s already lost 6 kilos.
Former Basque prisoner and pro-independence activist Alain Berastegi denounced last week that he was kidnapped and tortured in a forest by ten masked men on the 17th of July.
Basque prisoner Jose Mari Sagardui "Gatza", the oldest political prisoner in Europe has already spent 29 years in Spanish jails. According to Spanish law he should have been released in 2005. He’s spent most of his life in jail. His home town has seen many demonstrations for his support and even the Basque Autonomous Region’s Parliament has asked for his release.
The Spanish flag hanging from the balcony of the local government buildings in Gernika was burnt over the weekend. It’s within the building’s gardens where the Basque liberties’ symbol, the Gernika Tree is situated. Gernika was bombed in 1937 by the Spanish fascists in the first civilian bombing of history and killed 2,000 people.
Two pro-independence youths have been arrested in the early hours of today by the Spanish Guardia Civil police. One of them is surfer champion Iker Acero. The arrested pair have been taken to the Basque youth website Gaztesarea offices in what seems to be an operation against this popular communication project.
Last week 38-year-old Basque political refugee Ekai Alkorta was arrested in the north of the Basque Country under French administration and sent to prison following an arrest warrant issued by the Spanish Special Court.
Young pro-independence activist Xan Beyrie was also imprisoned after his solicitor's appeal was refused by the French judges. He was previously arrested along with 12 pro-independence youths in the north of the Basque Country at the end of June and was released on bail.
The Basque-Spanish police continues with its campaign to make all expressions of solidarity with Basque political prisoners disappear. Prisoners' pictures and solidarity banners are being taken off walls, festivals, balconies, bars...The largest Basque trade union ELA denounced this practice and reminded people that Basque political prisoners are scattered in jails around France and Spain while many of them should be released under Spanish law after finishing their sentences or due to serious illnesses.
Last week the Spanish Supreme Court ordered the disbanding of all local pro-independence ANV/Basque Nationalist Action councillors groups. Elorrio town’s pro-independence mayor said they’ve been denied public funds and that this is yet another step in the process of banning the ANV party.
A Basque volunteers’ garden of remembrance was riddled with bullets two weeks ago and was defaced with pro-Spanish graffiti over the last weekend in Oiartzun, near Donostia/San Sebastian.
The Spanish Coordination to Prevent Torture group said last week the Spanish authorities promote torture and impunity after the Spanish government failed to comply with the implementation of the National Mechanism to Prevent Torture.
150 Basque, European and American lawyers signed a petition to ask for the immediate release of Basque political prisoners' solicitor Inaki Goioaga. Inaki was arrested one month ago and accused of helping in an attempt prison escape in 2007. The arrest has been seen as an effort to threaten the Basque political prisoners’ solicitors work.
Last Saturday hundreds of mainly young people rallied in the northern town of Donibane Lohitzune/Saint Jéan de Luz. The demonstration had been called by the pro-independence youth organization Segi to protest against the recent months French police operations. During the last protest at the end of June, 12 young people were arrested.
30 years ago Joxe Antonio Otxoantesana had to escape from Spanish repression to Mexico. For three decades he helped Basque escapees in the north American country. He died last month from a brain haemorrhage. One of his sons last Sunday brought his ashes back to the Basque Country. Hundreds of people were waiting for him at the airport. Finally, hundreds more paid a well deserved homage to Otxoantesana in his home town of Ondarru where his ashes were scattered into the sea.
1 August 2009
August 09
- -ETA destroys police barracks in Burgos and Kills two Guardia Civil in Majorca.
- -Former Basque prisoner kidnapped and tortured.
- Attacks against Basque prisoners.
- -Three months without Jon.
- Basque prisoner enters 30th year in jail.
NEWS :
-ETA destroys police barracks in Burgos and Kills two Guardia Civil in Majorca.
A strong van bomb destroyed the Spanish Guardia Civil police barracks in Burgos near the Basque Country . 47 people were injured. There were fears of an escalation of violence in Spain by Eta, after a bomb placed under a car on the island of Mallorca killed two members of the Guardia Civil only 34 hours after the first incident.
Some analysts set the 31st of July 1959 as the ETA’s creation day.
The pro-independence movement said on a statement that it’s impossible to defeat ETA through police means and that the only way to resolve the political conflict it’s through inclusive dialogue, negotiation and respect the Basque people’s rights.
-Former Basque prisoner kidnapped and tortured.
Former Basque prisoner and pro-independence activist Alain Berastegi denounced last week that he was kidnapped and tortured in a forest by ten masked men on the 17th of July.
Everything started when he was call to do a building job in Irunberri, near Irunea/Pamplona. Two men asked him to follow them to a forest where they said they had an old farm they wanted to refurbish. It was there where another ten men wearing masks and guns were waiting for him. They questioned and tortured him for 7 hours.
They beat him and asphyxiated him with a plastic bag.
The masked men, most probably Spanish policemen, asked him to collaborate with them. They offered him money and threatened him with arrest if he didn’t help him or if he denounced what happened.
Alain was released after being told to meet them again in another day in the following days. Instead the former Basque prisoner denounced what happened to him in court and in a press conference.
The organisation against repression Askatasuna said that this is the new 21st century dirty war but reminded people that it was the Spanish Socialist government which set up the GAL death squads in the 80’s. The Spanish Socialist Party is again in power in Spain.
In the last 6 months 4 former political prisoners and pro-independence activists have been kidnapped and one of them is still missing.
Askatasuna denounced the main political parties and mass media silence around these kidnappings.
-Attacks against Basque prisoners.
Basque political prisoners in three different Spanish jails were attacked by guards and taken to solitary confinement. This situation happens often and sometimes prisoners have to go on hunger strike to denounce them and get their basic rights respected. This is the case of Sebas Lasa who entered his 9th day on hunger strike today. He’s already lost 6 kilos.
A former Basque prisoner saw his parents' house attacked last week just two days after being released. The Goikoetxea family’s house was painted with threats and the entrance was burnt in broad daylight. Another son is currently in jail.
-Three months without Jon.
Basque political prisoner Jon Anza was released after 20 years in jail and then moved to the north of the Basque Country to be free from Spanish police harassment. Three months ago he went missing. His family and the Basque pro-independence movement have said the Spanish secret services and the French government are responsible for his disappearance. ETA said in a statement that Jon was a member of the organization at the time he went missing.
Other Basque political refugees were kidnapped, tortured and killed by pro-Spanish death squads in collusion with Spanish and French police in the 80’s and some of them are still missing.
In an interview carried out by the newspaper Gara over the last weekend Jon Anza’s girlfriend speaks of the hard three months herself and Jon's other relatives and friends are having not knowing what happened to him. She denounces the political parties and mass media silence surrounding the case and expresses her sorrow. Jon Anza’s girlfriend goes on to say it’s been a political kidnapping. She thanks the people for their support and campaign across the Basque Country.
Posters with Jon Anza’s face asking where is he can be seen on walls and banners around the country and protests are constantly being held.
The Basque pro-independence movement accused the Spanish government of reactivating the dirty war and pointed at the French government as an accomplice in it. At a press conference last week pro-independence spokespersons reaffirmed their commitment to continue working to achieve an democratic scenario and warned that the dirty war won’t distract them from that work.
-Basque prisoner enters 30th year in jail.
Basque prisoner Jose Mari Sagardui "Gatza", the oldest political prisoner in Europe has already spent 29 years in Spanish jails. According to Spanish law he should have been released in 2005. He’s spent most of his life in jail. His home town has seen many demonstrations for his support and even the Basque Autonomous Region’s Parliament has asked for his release.
Since his arrest on the 8th of July 1980 when he was brutally tortured, he has been in 13 different Spanish jails and in total he’s been transfered 34 times. In those 30 years he’s been in prisons in the Basque Country just twice, and only for a very short period.
He is currently being detained in Jaen’s jail, 730 kilometres from his home.
He has been a victim of the different Spanish prison policies including those of the cruel treatment in Carabanchel, the dispersal policy and currently the extreme confinement in Jaen. There is no natural light in his cell, and all his communications and movements are under strict control. He’s kept in isolation for 20 hours per day and under the hardest prison regime.
The Basque pro-amnesty movement has reiterated that despite the Spanish and French states not recognizing the political status of Basque prisoners, the measures they impose upon them are political.
Gatza has numerous obstacles to continue with his university studies and has many obstacles to get medical assistance.
Due to the relentless changes introduced by the Spanish authorities to act against the Basque political prisoners, Gatza has seen his remissions denied. He also saw his sentence modified and increased to 30 years.
- -Former Basque prisoner kidnapped and tortured.
- Attacks against Basque prisoners.
- -Three months without Jon.
- Basque prisoner enters 30th year in jail.
NEWS :
-ETA destroys police barracks in Burgos and Kills two Guardia Civil in Majorca.
A strong van bomb destroyed the Spanish Guardia Civil police barracks in Burgos near the Basque Country . 47 people were injured. There were fears of an escalation of violence in Spain by Eta, after a bomb placed under a car on the island of Mallorca killed two members of the Guardia Civil only 34 hours after the first incident.
Some analysts set the 31st of July 1959 as the ETA’s creation day.
The pro-independence movement said on a statement that it’s impossible to defeat ETA through police means and that the only way to resolve the political conflict it’s through inclusive dialogue, negotiation and respect the Basque people’s rights.
-Former Basque prisoner kidnapped and tortured.
Former Basque prisoner and pro-independence activist Alain Berastegi denounced last week that he was kidnapped and tortured in a forest by ten masked men on the 17th of July.
Everything started when he was call to do a building job in Irunberri, near Irunea/Pamplona. Two men asked him to follow them to a forest where they said they had an old farm they wanted to refurbish. It was there where another ten men wearing masks and guns were waiting for him. They questioned and tortured him for 7 hours.
They beat him and asphyxiated him with a plastic bag.
The masked men, most probably Spanish policemen, asked him to collaborate with them. They offered him money and threatened him with arrest if he didn’t help him or if he denounced what happened.
Alain was released after being told to meet them again in another day in the following days. Instead the former Basque prisoner denounced what happened to him in court and in a press conference.
The organisation against repression Askatasuna said that this is the new 21st century dirty war but reminded people that it was the Spanish Socialist government which set up the GAL death squads in the 80’s. The Spanish Socialist Party is again in power in Spain.
In the last 6 months 4 former political prisoners and pro-independence activists have been kidnapped and one of them is still missing.
Askatasuna denounced the main political parties and mass media silence around these kidnappings.
-Attacks against Basque prisoners.
Basque political prisoners in three different Spanish jails were attacked by guards and taken to solitary confinement. This situation happens often and sometimes prisoners have to go on hunger strike to denounce them and get their basic rights respected. This is the case of Sebas Lasa who entered his 9th day on hunger strike today. He’s already lost 6 kilos.
A former Basque prisoner saw his parents' house attacked last week just two days after being released. The Goikoetxea family’s house was painted with threats and the entrance was burnt in broad daylight. Another son is currently in jail.
-Three months without Jon.
Basque political prisoner Jon Anza was released after 20 years in jail and then moved to the north of the Basque Country to be free from Spanish police harassment. Three months ago he went missing. His family and the Basque pro-independence movement have said the Spanish secret services and the French government are responsible for his disappearance. ETA said in a statement that Jon was a member of the organization at the time he went missing.
Other Basque political refugees were kidnapped, tortured and killed by pro-Spanish death squads in collusion with Spanish and French police in the 80’s and some of them are still missing.
In an interview carried out by the newspaper Gara over the last weekend Jon Anza’s girlfriend speaks of the hard three months herself and Jon's other relatives and friends are having not knowing what happened to him. She denounces the political parties and mass media silence surrounding the case and expresses her sorrow. Jon Anza’s girlfriend goes on to say it’s been a political kidnapping. She thanks the people for their support and campaign across the Basque Country.
Posters with Jon Anza’s face asking where is he can be seen on walls and banners around the country and protests are constantly being held.
The Basque pro-independence movement accused the Spanish government of reactivating the dirty war and pointed at the French government as an accomplice in it. At a press conference last week pro-independence spokespersons reaffirmed their commitment to continue working to achieve an democratic scenario and warned that the dirty war won’t distract them from that work.
-Basque prisoner enters 30th year in jail.
Basque prisoner Jose Mari Sagardui "Gatza", the oldest political prisoner in Europe has already spent 29 years in Spanish jails. According to Spanish law he should have been released in 2005. He’s spent most of his life in jail. His home town has seen many demonstrations for his support and even the Basque Autonomous Region’s Parliament has asked for his release.
Since his arrest on the 8th of July 1980 when he was brutally tortured, he has been in 13 different Spanish jails and in total he’s been transfered 34 times. In those 30 years he’s been in prisons in the Basque Country just twice, and only for a very short period.
He is currently being detained in Jaen’s jail, 730 kilometres from his home.
He has been a victim of the different Spanish prison policies including those of the cruel treatment in Carabanchel, the dispersal policy and currently the extreme confinement in Jaen. There is no natural light in his cell, and all his communications and movements are under strict control. He’s kept in isolation for 20 hours per day and under the hardest prison regime.
The Basque pro-amnesty movement has reiterated that despite the Spanish and French states not recognizing the political status of Basque prisoners, the measures they impose upon them are political.
Gatza has numerous obstacles to continue with his university studies and has many obstacles to get medical assistance.
Due to the relentless changes introduced by the Spanish authorities to act against the Basque political prisoners, Gatza has seen his remissions denied. He also saw his sentence modified and increased to 30 years.
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