Yesterday I was reading the news looking for information regarding the Tour d'Euskadi since it was the first time in 12 years that a Basque would win it. I found the information, not only a Basque won it, Basques actually took 1st, 2nd and 3rd places, so, I was happy. But then, right there, on first page there was the story about a college student that after a meeting to push for more classes in Basque at college level in Nafarroa (Navarre), proceeded to yell "Gora Euskal Herria Askatuta!", that means "Long live a free Basque Country!", well, the police detained her, and accused her of being a terrorist, for yelling that, and if it hasn't been for her having a good lawyer, she would be in Madrid right now held on terrorism charges.
Just to give you and idea, after September 11, the Basque community in the USA posted a picture of a group of Basque American children with an American and a Basque flags, and the name of the picture is "Gora Amerika!", "Long Live America". Now you tell me if someone should be incarcerated for yelling those words.
On the same paper, they were talking about a young man that was detained by the Guardia Civil last September accused of belonging to ETA, he was transfered from his hometown, Gazteiz to Madrid, where he has tortured in order to extract a confession, they hurt him so bad that he ended up in the Hospital, and once he was in stable conditions, the Guardia Civil got him again and tortured him a second time, and he ended up in the hospital again.
The judge in charge of that case dismissed it because the Guardia Civil couldn't prove that he was a terrorist, so they had to let him go; yesterday, his parents filed a law suit against the Guardia Civil, and they showed the pictures taken to him in the hospital on his second visit to the public, I will spare you from seeing them, but if you have ever seen the pictures of Rodney King, you can get an idea, this is three times worst.
Then, in a related story, the Gestora por la Paz (A Gesture for Peace) demanded from a judge in Madrid to rewrite the statement done in regards to the tortures committed against yet another Basque youngster, since the statement leaves out the worst part oh this human rights violations, it only talks about an illegal privation of liberty, but skips the torture.
Well, that is nothing new in the Basque Country, news like those you can read almost every day, and I know that a lot of people think that the Basques are stupid and crazy for longing for a free country, people think that the Basques should accept their fate and remain a Spanish and French colony. And that is ok with me, people easily forget other people's struggle when they themselves are living an easy life were their language, culture and freedom of speech is not threatened by a fascist centralist power.
What enraged me yesterday is that the mastermind behind these human rights violations, Spain's Attorney General, Mr. Baltasar Garzón, member of the political party that was founded by Franco's ex-ministers, the same Franco that was installed in Spain by Hitler, was nominated yesterday for the Peace Nobel Prize. Well, if he wins, the world will be giving one of the surviving heirs of European fascism a prize that is supposed to be given to people that works towards improving the whole of humankind.
And someone said once "Never Again".
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