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.

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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.