Thursday, May 29, 2003

Brokering a Ceasefire

If there is something that defines the Basque spirit is their commitment to democracy and their will to negotiate. After the Basque independentist victory at the polls last Sunday, here is a note of the good things that come up from defeating fascism with votes, read on:


IRA truce priest helps broker Eta ceasefire
By Isambard Wilkinson in Madrid
(Filed: 29/05/2003)


An Irish Roman Catholic priest has been summoned to Spain by Basque nationalists to negotiate a ceasefire between the Spanish government and the separatist terrorist group Eta.

Fr Alec Reid, who helped to broker the IRA ceasefire, flew to Spain after local elections there last weekend.

The Spanish conservative newspaper ABC said he was trying to forge a consensus among Eta, its banned political wing, Batasuna, and the mainstream Basque Nationalist Party, which governs the region. If successful, he is expected to mediate between the Basques and the Madrid government in an attempt to bring about an Eta ceasefire.

Fr Reid is reported to believe that Eta could call a halt to terror attacks if the authorities agree to go further towards independence than the current plan to hold a referendum on establishing a Basque "free state associated with Spain".

The presence of a "meddling priest" has irritated many Spanish politicians, who see no similarities between the Basque region and Northern Ireland. Fr Reid was at the heart of negotiations on the IRA's ceasefire that led to the Good Friday Agreement.

His sympathies for the Basque nationalist movement are well known. He has written a treatise on the Basque struggle that was greeted enthusiastically by nationalist politicians.

Recent reports in the Spanish press have speculated that Eta is on the point of declaring a ceasefire. After numerous arrests of terrorists over the past two years and the possible defection of two senior members, the group is said to be on the ropes.

Last Sunday's elections were the first in which Batasuna was not permitted to stand. ABC suggested that Fr Reid's presence in Spain was prompted by a crisis among radical Basque nationalists who now have no official representation or funding.

Responding to the reports of a possible ceasefire the Spanish prime minister, Jose Maria Aznar, said his government was interested only in one piece of news about Eta - "its extinction".

His hardline stance partly stems from the bitter memory of Eta's 14-month ceasefire in 1999-2000. Eta later admitted it was a ruse to win time.



Now, about that last line, well, the reporter wants to make brownie points with the fascist spanish regime, ETA's truce came to an end due to Madrid's intransigence to seat down and negotiate, Aznar's hardline's stand comes from his hate to everything Basque. He is so stupid that he does not understand that if ETA decides to call it quits and disolves, then that is the end of it. Aznar wants extinction and we have to wonder if he knows what that word means, just in case, lets send him to the Galizan coast where a whole ecosystem is on the brink of extinction thanks to Aznar's moronic decisions when dealing with the oil tanker Prestige.

.... ... .

Wednesday, May 28, 2003

Votes in Favor of Self-Determination

I went to the dentist this morning and there was quite an improvement, they have to pull out my three remaining wisdom teeth and they have to work on a molar that appears to be cracked, other than that everything is peachy.

Now, it is time I talk about politics, and guess what, I am a happy camper!

Last week there was elections in Spain, and the Spanish junta did all they could do to defeat the independentist movement in the Basque Country, well, they failed, again.

They outlawed a political party for alleged ties to the pro-independence group known as ETA (nevermind that England deals with Sinn Fein who openly claims to be the IRA's politicial arm). The candidates of the banned party presented themselves as independents in each of their towns but just a couple of weeks ago the Spanish courts banned them also.

The fascist Prime Minister thought everything was ready for his party to take over thinking that the Basques would not be able to pull together.

Wrong!

The Basques retaliated by voting for the moderate independentist parties. Basque parties once again dominate the Basque Autonomous Community. To make matters worst to the fascists up to 150,000 voters casted nule votes, that amount is the people that was going to vote for the outlawed candidates, on the last elections it was only 10,000 of them.

The message is clear, the Basques long for self determination, and the international community does a disservice to justice by turning their back on the issue, ironically enough, Spanish Foreign Minister Ana Palacio (who is a Basque that changed her name from Jauregi to the Spanish translation of Palacio) is in Palestine brokering a peace deal between the Palestines and the Israelis. She met with Yasser Arafat who is accused by the West of harboring terrorists (somehow they keep quiet about the truly terrorist actions conducted by the Israeli military againt Palestinian civilians), but at home she belongs to the only remnant of Hitler's political and military meddling in Europe and as part of the Francoist party Partido Popular she refuses to acknowledge the Basque struggle for self determination and takes the same blind position that Madrid has towards the independentist dreams of Basques, Catalonyans and Galizans.

That on my dictionary is called hypocrisy.

.... ... .

Monday, May 26, 2003

Another Day, Another Coward

Do you remember that article about Tolosa I published a couple of days ago? The one with all the slant against the Basque society?

Well, believe it or not, a member of the Spanish establishment found it to be equidistant and therefore repulsive. I am talking about the openly Francoist Spanish Ambassador to the USA, Javier Ruperez.

This is his letter published by The New York Times:

Terrorists in Spain

Published: May 25, 2003

To the Editor:

I take exception to the views expressed in ''Politics in a Perilous Place: The Basque Country'' (Tolosa Journal, May 22) concerning the Basque region, its people and its politics. You show surprising equidistance between the terrorists and their followers and those who, because of their anti-nationalistic ideology, fear for their lives every day.

I have to confess once again to feelings of moral repugnance, which are shared by the vast majority of my fellow citizens, when reading about E.T.A. and Batasuna as if their followers were heroes of democracy.

JAVIER RUPÉREZ
Ambassador of Spain
Washington, May 22, 2003

How does he dare to call any Basque a terrorist in the midst of this all out attack against Basque society?

The situation is a terrible as it was under Felipe Gonzalez and his GAL mercenaries, as dangerous as Franco's four decades reign of terror.

To you Javier Ruperez, the only terrorists in Spain are Juan Carlos Borbon and his family, the members of both the PP and the PSOE, the rabid dogs at the Audiencia Nacional and the murderous apes at the Guardia Civil, plus some others whom I forgot to mention. All of you are simply revolting.

All and each one of you should be tried the way they did with the Nazis (your allies) in Nuremberg.

.... ... .

Sunday, May 25, 2003

Mounting Attack on Udalbiltza

With his boss Jose Maria Aznar in excellent stance with the big dogs the inquisidor Baltasar Garzon is free to do as he pleases when it comes to strengthening the political Apartheid stance against Basque society.

Five more members of Udalbiltza have been abducted by Spain's repressive forces deployed in Euskal Herria. Here you have an article regarding this new attack against democracy in the Basque Country:

Spanish Judge Orders Jail for 5 Basque Politicians

Fri May 23, 7:48 PM ET

MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish High Court Judge Baltasar Garzon has sent to prison five leaders of a Basque local government association who he accuses of links to armed separatist group ETA, judicial sources said.

Garzon ordered the five, several of whom are town councillors, held without bail pending trial after questioning them Friday, the sources said.

The five are leaders of Udalbiltza, an association of Basque Country town halls created by nationalist parties, including radical groups such as Batasuna which was banned in March for not condemning ETA violence.

The five are accused of cooperating with an armed group.

Garzon described Udalbiltza in court documents as "a platform under the direct and exclusive control of ETA through ... Batasuna."

Garzon's move is the latest step in a wide-ranging crackdown by Spain's government and courts on ETA and people accused of being its political allies.

It came on the last day of campaigning for Sunday's local elections throughout Spain.

The five sent to jail include the mayor of the Basque town of Ondarroa, Loren Arkotxa, and town councillors Miren Josu Aramburu and Imanol Esnaola. The two other Udalbiltza leaders ordered held were Xabier Alegria and Joseba Mikel Garmendia.

Garzon released another politician on bail of 50,000 euro ($58,910) -- the mayor of the Basque town of Oyarzun, Xabier Iragorri.

All six denied any link to ETA, according to news reports.

Wednesday, a Spanish court ordered a radical seven-member group in the Basque regional parliament to be broken up, a step aimed at denying them powers that could aid ETA.

Batasuna attempted to run more than 1,000 candidates in Sunday's local elections under the party name AuB but had almost all of them struck down by the courts. Batasuna, which won 10 percent of the vote in the Basque Country in the last elections in 2001, denies it is part of ETA.

Since Spain is an openly fascist state the amount of money they demand for the political prisoners to be freed can not be called a bail, it is actually a ransom.

.... ... .

Friday, May 23, 2003

Report From Tolosa

In the article you are about to read you will soon notice two things:

a) Emma Daly from The New York Times is a poor excuse of a journalist, going to great extent to reflect the venomous Spanish propaganda against the Basque people every time she is able to do so.

b) The Spaniards, invaders in a foreign land, always manage to present themselves as victims, knowing that reporters like Emma Daly are being paid to ensure that the violence dished out by Madrid to the Basques never makes it to the public.

I went ahead and highlighted the most blatant examples of Spanish propaganda, here you have it:

Tolosa Journal; Politics in a Perilous Place: The Basque Country

By EMMA DALY
Published: May 22, 2003

In virtual secrecy and certain of defeat, the mayor of this small, prosperous town in Guipúzcoa Province in Spain's Basque country, is campaigning for a second term.

''We call this the macramé class,'' Mayor Antton Izagirre said with a grin. Away from prying eyes, a dozen volunteers were stuffing thousands of illegal ballot papers into envelopes for distribution to potential voters. In municipal elections on Sunday, voters will drop their favored party's papers in the ballot box.

The scene appeared to echo stories of Franco's Spain, when political opposition to the dictatorship was banned along with the Basque and Catalan languages. But these volunteers were sitting in Tolosa's tastefully renovated Town Hall, working for a party outlawed by a democratically elected government.

Mr. Izagirre, an affable man of moderate tone, is a member of Batasuna, the radical separatist party recently named a terrorist group by the United States government because of its close ties to the violent separatist group E.T.A.

He ran for mayor four years ago during a 15-month truce called by E.T.A., and ''to the surprise of everyone, including myself,'' was elected, he recalled in an interview today.

But any prospect for a peaceful solution to the conflict between Basque separatists and those who see themselves as both Basque and Spanish were dashed when E.T.A. returned to its campaign of violence, much of it aimed at local council members loyal to the governing Popular Party of the prime minister, José María Aznar, and the opposition Socialists.

The ensuing police crackdown on E.T.A. activists was accompanied by a judicial assault on political and civilian groups said by the government to be acting on behalf of E.T.A., leading to the formal ban of Batasuna and its offshoots.

In Tolosa, as in dozens of Basque towns, Batasuna supporters formed new, local parties -- in this case, Tolosa Bizirik, which means Tolosa Alive. But two weeks ago, virtually all were ruled illegal by Spain's highest court. The Town Hall was ordered to destroy ballot papers listing Bizirik candidates. The mayor promised to do so, then hid them.

Now, with the help of the envelope-stuffing volunteers, the mayor is ready to distribute the ballots to voters among Tolosa's population of 18,000. The hope is that supporters will cast the ballots anyway and that, although void, they will be counted unofficially and reveal the strength of popular support for Batasuna.

The man who appears assured of victory in Tolosa is Jokin Bildarratz of the nonviolent Basque Nationalist Party, which came in second in 1999. He and his party oppose the banning of Batasuna as antidemocratic. Even so, he said, ''In previous elections neither the Popular Party nor the Socialists have been able to join in freely.''

The Socialist candidate, Óscar Renedo, who has spent 10 years as Tolosa's only Socialist councilor, sees a sharp difference between the difficulties he and Mr. Izagirre face. ''I would prefer the civic death they say they face than the physical death we confront,'' he said.

At a town council meeting tonight, Mr. Renedo left early to paste up posters in the center of town. He was attended by six party activists and his three bodyguards, who stand at a distance, scanning passers-by. In July 2000, Juan María Jáuregui, a former Socialist politician from Tolosa, was shot dead while vacationing in the town.

No one stopped to greet Mr. Renedo as he walked the streets. Many here feel it is dangerous to be seen talking to him or to Ángel Yáñez, another council member and the local candidate of the Popular Party.

''Fear runs so deep here it is a sickness,'' said Mr. Yáñez, gazing around the crowded Cafetería Frontón, where Mr. Jáuregui had a drink before an E.T.A. gunman walked up and shot him in the head.

Mr. Yáñez, 67, who calls his bodyguards umbrellas because ''they shield me from danger instead of rain,'' went to great lengths to fill his party's list of candidates, holding a 40-hour hunger strike and persuading 10 fellow citizens to put their names on the ballot with little hope of being elected.

Mr. Yáñez, unlike his Basque Nationalist Party rival, rejects the notion that banning Batasuna is anti-democratic. ''I'm all for defending ideas,'' he said, ''but we should put a stop to those that endanger society.''

At tonight's council meeting, Mr. Yáñez, sitting alone, faced insults and veiled threats from Batasuna supporters, though not from the mayor, who says he tries to keep such proceedings civil.

Mr. Izagirre said that he opposed the use of violence and that he believed E.T.A.'s armed struggle had not worked. But he said he would rather return to his job as a schoolteacher than quit his party.

''The government is not criminalizing a political grouping but a series of ideas,'' he argued. ''The excuse is that while E.T.A. exists, anyone who defends similar goals, such as the creation of a state, self-determination or the use of a language -- anyone who shares those ideas -- is part of E.T.A.''

The volunteers stuffing envelopes said they wanted to show their support for the party, even if it had no legal weight.

''They tell Bush we are terrorists simply because we are struggling for the independence of the Basque country,'' one man said. ''We are not terrorists, we are Basque fighters.''

Moments later, he added in Basque, ''Long live military E.T.A.!''

No one said hello to Mr. Renedo because unlike other places, Basque towns are so small that the locals can tell when someone is an outsider, specially an outsider trying to perpetuate the genocidal occupation of their country.

Yes Mrs. Daly, if this was 1776 and instead of Tolosa you happened to be in say, Washington, the Colonials would have been called "terrorists" by the English. Got it?

.... ... .

Thursday, May 22, 2003

Turmoil on Election Eve

The recipe for disaster that Aznar has been cooking for the last couple of months is being covered by this article published at ABC News:
Turmoil Hits Basque Areas on Election Eve

Wed May 21, 2:41 PM ET

By ED McCULLOUGH, Associated Press Writer

SAN SEBASTIAN, Spain - A policeman is murdered. A newspaper is shut down. A political party is banned and then - just days ahead of municipal elections this weekend - hundreds of candidates are barred by court order from seeking public office.

Unusual events, even in politically turbulent Basque country, where half the population wants independence and the armed separartists pursue their goal with bombings and assassinations.

"It's a scandal," says Xabier Arzalluz, longtime head of the Basque National Party, which runs the three-province Basque region extending from the Pyrenees mountain border with France west along the Bay of Biscay and south to the famous Rioja wine district.

"Everything that's happening, shouldn't," Arzalluz said last week at party headquarters in nearby Bilbao. "Here there is no (real) separation of powers."

Sunday's vote is mostly for mayors and other municipal posts, not national or regional. But the unrelenting drive for Basque autonomy - and Spain's resolute opposition to that - is a leading campaign issue, along the violence of the armed Basque separatist group ETA.

The pro-Basque independence party Batasuna was outlawed for its alleged ties to ETA, and at Spain's request, Batasuna this month was added to the U.S. State Department's list of terrorist groups.

"They're going to rob 1,000 representatives from us," fumed Batasuna representative Joseba Alvarez Forcada.

The ruling Popular Party and the Socialists, Spain's two main political groups, are pressing hard to win the mayor's office in each Basque provincial capital: San Sebastian, Bilbao and Vitoria.

Reportedly that's never happened.

Nationwide, Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar hopes that positioning his Popular Party as a bulwark against Basque independence and ETA terrorism will offset Spaniards' overwhelming opposition to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, which he supported.

During the past year, a number of alleged ETA militants have been arrested, and planned ETA attacks discovered and averted. The separatist group may be on the defensive, as the government claims, but it has been extraordinarily quiet, staging few bombings or fatal assaults.

Last week, though, ETA urged Basque voters to cast blank ballots Sunday to protest the government's crackdown.

"These will be the first elections in Spain in which ETA will have neither votes nor representation," Justice Minister Jose Maria Michavila said in a recent interview with El Mundo newspaper.

Political and legal developments have tumbled one after the other with surprising - some say suspicious - speed.

On Feb. 8, a policeman noted for his anti-Basque independence views was shot and killed at point-blank range.

On Feb. 21, the only Basque-language newspaper, Egunkaria, was shut down for its alleged ETA connections. Editor Martxelo Otamendi denied any such link and claims police tortured him during his five days in detention. The Interior Ministry denied that. Otamendi and six others were freed on bail but, as of last week, three journalists remained in jail.

The Supreme Court outlawed Batasuna on March 17, making it the first party banned since 1975, when longtime dictator Gen. Francisco Franco died and democracy flourished anew.

Earlier this month, the Constitutional Court, Spain's highest, barred about 1,200 nationalist candidates from running, calling them disguised members of Batasuna. In 1999, Batasuna won about 10 percent of the municipal vote and about 50 mayor slots, mostly in rural towns.

"It's a steamroller. They don't waste time even trying to hide it," said Marivi Ugarteburu, mayor of Amoroto, a picturesque village in a green valley cutting through steep hillsides, dotted with traditional Basque stone houses with red tile roofs. She called herself a political independent who supports Basque freedom.

Despite all the drama, little of the Basque conundrum will be resolved Sunday. Neither side is strong enough to impose its view, nor weak enough to be overcome. The approximately 2 million residents of Basque Country split almost 50-50 on the issue of independence - and the impasse seems likely to continue for years.

The question is, why would an alleged democratic leader such as Aznar have any interest on creating such an unstable atmosphere previous to an electoral process?


.... ... .

Wednesday, May 21, 2003

HWR On Spain

Here you have the most recent report by Human Rights Watch on Spain:

Spain

In the aftermath of September 11, Spain applied its existing strict counter-terrorism regime to the investigation, apprehension, and detention of suspected al-Qaeda operatives. The climate created by the international campaign against terrorism provided the Spanish authorities with a further pretext to crackdown on Basque separatists and supporters of the pro-independence movement.

Spanish authorities were also quick to issue public statements equating stricter controls on immigration with the war against terrorism, contributing to a climate of fear and suspicion toward migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees.

Spain's anti-terror laws permit the use of incommunicado detention, secret legal proceedings, and pre-trial detention for up to four years. The proceedings governing the detentions of suspected al-Qaeda operatives apprehended in Spain in November 2001, July 2002, and January 2003, among others, have been declared secret (causa secreta). The investigating magistrate of the Audiencia Nacional, a special court that oversees terrorist cases, can request causa secreta for thirty days, consecutively renewable for the duration of the four-year pre-trial detention period. Secret proceedings bar the defense access to the prosecutor's evidence, except for information contained in the initial detention order. Without access to this evidence, detainees are severely hampered in mounting an adequate defense.

In November 2002, the United Nations Committee against Torture (CAT) expressed serious concern about incommunicado detention under Spain's criminal laws. A suspect can be held incommunicado for up to five days, without access to an attorney, family notification, services such as access to health care, or contact with the outside world. The CAT concluded that incommunicado detention under these circumstances can facilitate acts of torture and ill-treatment. In Spain, most suspected terrorist detainees are held incommunicado for at least the first forty-eight hours in custody.

The global anti-terror climate hardened the Spanish government's resolve in the ongoing conflict with armed Basque separatists, Euskadi ta Askatasuna (ETA) and the non-violent pro-independence movement. ETA uses violent means to seek the creation of an independent Basque state in parts of northern Spain and southern France. The group has been responsible for over 800 deaths since the 1960s. In recent years, it has targeted civilians, including academics and journalists.

Since September 11, over fifty suspected ETA members have been detained and held under Spain's anti-terror laws. Casualties of the government's hard-line approach, however, have included Gestoras pro Amnistía, an organization that provided support to families of ETA detainees, which was banned in December 2001. In August 2002, the Batasuna Party, widely regarded as the political arm of ETA, was banned for three years. In February 2003, Euskaldunon Egunkaria-the sole remaining newspaper written entirely in the Basque language-was closed down, and ten people associated with the paper were arrested and held incommunicado. These actions give rise to serious concerns that Spain's counter-terrorism measures breach the rights to freedom of association and expression. Human rights organizations have also documented instances of alleged torture and ill-treatment of ETA members and pro-independence supporters detained by Spanish authorities.

.... ... .

Tuesday, May 20, 2003

Road Map to Nowhere

I am thinking on going back to school to get at least some basics on journalism, I wish I could put in paper my ideas the way this lady does, what a wonderful note:

Posted on Fri, May. 16, 2003

A road map that won't be followed

By Trudy Rubin


President Bush has taken up the cause of Mideast peace and democracy with missionary zeal.

He has called for democratic change throughout the Mideast, led by postwar Iraq, and laid out a vision of a peaceful Palestine living alongside Israel. He has endorsed a Mideast "road map" that is supposed to lead to a Palestinian state by 2005, and full peace between the Arabs and Israel.

But the President's bright vision - like a balloon with a snapped cord - seems to be floating further and further from realities on Earth.

Nowhere is that more striking than in the case of the Palestinians and Israel. The postwar chaos in Iraq could still be contained by a radical shift in White House policy that puts the necessary military and financial resources into reconstruction. But the Israeli-Palestinian impasse threatens Israel's very future as well as the President's entire Mideast vision.

Yet Bush so far has seemed unwilling to use muscle to further the road map even though it is approaching a dead end.

The three-stage plan, put together by the United States, the European Union, Russia, and the United Nations, calls for each side to take parallel steps along the way. In Phase One, the Palestinians must halt terrorism against Israel, while Israel - at the same time - dismantles new settlement outposts on the West Bank and freezes expansion of established settlements.

The Palestinians have accepted the road map, but we may never know if they will crack down on terror. That's because Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has yet to accept the road map and rules out restraints on settlement building. He says this is not "on the horizon." He also says he expects no pressure from President Bush when he visits the White House next week.

If this is indeed the Bush position, it does no favors for Israel. The administration has worked hard to pressure the Palestinians to appoint a reformer, Mahmoud Abbas, as their first prime minister, thus partly sidelining Yasir Arafat. But Abbas cannot wage a civil war against Palestinian terror groups while Sharon encourages new settlements and settler roads that divide the West Bank into unconnected chunks.

The Palestinian people - even the most moderate among them - would not support such an internecine war while settlement building was continuing because they see the settlements as a creeping annexation of the West Bank. The main point of building settlements - as Sharon used to explain to journalists when he designed the West Bank grid back in 1978 - is to make it impossible for the Palestinians to have a state.

The roughly 200,000 settlers in 146 established settlements have become an ever more powerful political lobby under Sharon - and a key to his governing majority - even though poll after poll shows that a majority of Israelis would give up settlements for peace. But, as settlers add to the 90 or so new outposts built since March 2001, the prospects for a two-state solution dim.

All this is not to say the road map is perfect. It has flaws and may need revision. Any peace process, moreover, will ultimately hinge on whether Palestinians halt terrorism and fully accept the Jewish state.

But the concept of parallel steps to renew trust, especially in Phase One, is essential. And a settlement rollback wouldn't harm Israel's security; on the contrary, it is essential to Israel's ultimate survival.

A president who truly cared about Israel would lay out to the Israeli leader these harsh truths:

If settlements grow and rule out a viable peace, Israel will be left ruling over a huge, angry Palestinian population. Israel's largest daily paper, Yedioth Ahronoth, noted recently that Jews make up barely half of the 10.2 million people who live in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza. Given high Palestinian birthrates, Jews will soon become a minority in a greater Israeli state.

Terrorism inside Israel will increase. There are worrisome signs that, for the first time, the Palestinian cause is becoming part of the international al-Qaeda holy war. Two British citizens of Pakistani origin recently carried out a suicide bombing attack in Tel Aviv. If Palestinian prime minister Abbas fails to deliver relief to his people, the whole concept of a two-state solution may soon go down with him.

At that point, endless West Bank violence - aired incessantly on Al-Jazeera and viewed by millions of young Arabs - will undercut efforts by Arab political reformers in Iraq and elsewhere. The widely held Arab belief that America made war in Iraq for oil and Israel will solidify.

These are the considerations that the President should lay before Prime Minister Sharon as they talk in the White House. How Bush handles the settlement issue will show whether he is really committed to Mideast peace and democracy.


.... ... .

The Web and The Basque Conflict

This is an old article, but the way things are right now I think it is a good idea to republish it:

Basque conflict spreads to Web

By CNN Madrid Bureau Chief Al Goodman

MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- The Basque separatist group ETA has fought nearly 33 years for an independent Basque homeland. But recently a few dozen Web sites on the subject of the Basque conflict have begun appearing on the Internet.

Some of these sites favour Basque independence and even seem to laud the efforts of ETA, which officials blame for about 800 killings since 1968 and which the Spanish government calls a "terrorist" organization. Various other sites are devoted to peace groups opposed to the violence and to ETA in particular.

Experts in Spain say none of these sites is audited by the major independent companies that track Web usage, so the impact of these sites is hard to measure.

But analysts say the sites seem to have dedicated, if small, followings. And in a sign of the deep feelings that the Basque conflict provokes, there have been several instances of anti-ETA users trying to block the sites deemed to be pro-ETA.

One recent instance occurred on March 23 when hackers blocked the main page of the Basque newspaper Gara at www.gara.net, where ETA typically publishes its policy statements and its notices claiming responsibility for various attacks.

The hackers posted the following notice in Spanish: "Esta web ha sido hackeada en recordatorio a las victimas de ETA y sus familiares. Basta Ya. No somos hackers, somos espanoles indignados." (Or: "This Web site has been hacked as a reminder of ETA's victims and their families. Enough is enough. We are not hackers, we are outraged Spaniards.")

The Basque conflict sites can be found through major search engines, such as Google or Buscopio. Various listings appear by typing in such search words or phrases as ETA, MLNV -- which stands for Movimiento de Liberacion Nacional Vasco, or Basque National Liberation Movement -- or Basta Ya, an oft-used phrase by peace groups opposed to ETA and the name of one such group.

Among the sites is www.euskal-herritarrok.org, the site of the radical left Euskal Herritarrok political coalition, which favours Basque independence and which the government and many other Spaniards say is the political wing of ETA. Another site is www.manos-blancas.uam.es, which shows some of the activities of a peace group opposed to ETA.


Source : Time Magazine

Noticed how the Spaniard are the ones on the offensive but yet they claim to be the victims?

By the way, Time Magazine can count this blog as one of the pages "inspired" by the so called Basque conflict. Also, they can label it as a pro-independence and pro-human rights Basque page.


.... ... .

Saturday, May 17, 2003

Neanderthals Not Our Cousins

I know by now you are thinking, man this crazy individual finally forgot about the Basques, it has been weeks since he mentioned anything about it, well, recess is over, and get this one, from Yahoo News:

We may not be cousins to Neanderthals, after all: study

David Noel

What happened to the Neanderthals?
From a combination of old and new evidence, it appears that at last we have a satisfactory answer to the age-old question of 'What Happened to the Neanderthals?'. If the current reasoning is correct, their descendants are still with us, and we call them the Basques.

This theory therefore simultaneously answers a second age-old question, 'What is the Origin of the Basques'?

Robert J Sawyer has recently published his book "Hominids" [2], a fictional account of an interaction between Sapiens humans and Neanderthals, but drawing on the latest scientific research about Neanderthals.

This research included studies of DNA extracted from bones of Neanderthal remains. The account mentions five months of painstaking work to extract a 379-nucleotide fragment from the control region of the Neanderthal's mitochondrial DNA, followed by use of a polymerase chain reaction to reproduce millions of copies of the recovered DNA.

This was carefully sequenced and then a check made of the corresponding mitochondrial DNA from 1,600 modern humans: Native Canadians, Polynesians. Australians, Africans, Asians, and Europeans. Every one of those 1,600 people had at least 371 nucleotides out of those 379 the same; the maximum deviation was just 8 nucleotides.

But the Neanderthal DNA had an average of only 352 nucleotides in common with the modern specimens; it deviated by 27 nucleotides. It was concluded that Homo sapiens and Neanderthals must have diverged from each other between 550,000 and 690,000 years ago for their DNA to be so different.

In contrast, all modern humans probably shared a common ancestor 150,000 or 200,000 years in the past. It was concluded that Neanderthals were probably a fully separate species from modern humans, not just a subspecies: Homo neanderthalensis, not Homo sapiens neanderthalensis.

Looking now at the evidence for the theory that the Basques are descended principally from Neanderthals, everything suddenly falls into place, and the supposition becomes almost self-evident.

Location: The 'home country' of the Neanderthals is well known to have been western Europe. One source says that they "dominated this area for at least a quarter of a million years". Many of the best Neanderthal specimens have originated from the Iberian Peninsular. The Basque Country, lying on the western side of the Pyrenees and on the border between Spain and France, fits in neatly with this location.

The Basques are well-known to have distinctive body characteristics. Kurlansky says "Ample evidence exists that the Basques are a physically distinct group. There is a Basque type with a long straight nose, thick eyebrows, strong chin, and long earlobes" [1].

Basque skulls tend to be built on a different pattern. In the early 1880s, a researcher reported "Someone gave me a Basque body and I dissected it, and I assert that the head was not built like that of other men" [1].

These qualitative differences are indicative, but quantitative evidence, with presence or absence of features, or items being present in different numbers, has greater weight in deciding whether specimens belong to the same or different species. Powerful quantitative evidence comes from a consideration of blood factors.

Human blood is classified according to various parameters, the most important of which are ABO and Rhesus characteristics. In ABO, blood may contain the 'A' factor (giving A-group blood), the 'B' factor (B-group), both 'A' and 'B' (AB blood), or neither (O blood). The A and B factors act like antibodies, and if blood containing one or both of them is transferred to a person whose blood does not already contain them, adverse reactions occur. Group O blood contains neither antibody and can typically be transferred without reaction to any recipient.

Some 55% of Basques have Group O blood, one of the highest percentages in the world [3].

Even stronger evidence comes from the Rhesus factor, discovered only in 1940. The blood of most humans (and, apparently, all other primates [6]) contains this factor, and is called Rhesus-positive or Rh+ blood. Blood lacking this factor is called Rhesus-negative.

The Basques are well-known to have the highest percentage (around 33%) of Rhesus-negative blood of any human population [2], and so are regarded as the original source of this factor. In the United States, some 15% of the 'European' population are Rh-negative, while the percentage in the 'Asian' and 'Black' population is much less than this.

Possession of Rh-negative blood can be a major disadvantage for a human population. A Rh-negative woman who conceives a Rh-positive child with a Rh-positive man will typically bear her first child without special problems. However, because of intermingling of fluids between mother and foetus, the first pregnancy builds up antibodies to Rh+ blood in the woman which typically attack the blood of her subsequent Rh+ children, causing them to miscarry, be stillborn, or die shortly after birth (infant haemolytic disease [6]). This phenomenon is unknown elsewhere in nature, although it can occur with artificial crosses between species, as in mule production [6].

The scenario so far then is this. Around 600,000 years ago, in southern Europe, a species of man separated off from the ancestral line, and we call this species Homo neanderthalensis, the 'N-people'. The blood of this species contained none of the factors A, B, or Rh.

Much later, possibly around 200,000 years ago in Africa, the main human line had picked up the A, B, and Rh factors (possibly from other primates, the Rhesus factor is named after the Rhesus monkey or macaque), and by then could be classed as Homo sapiens, the 'S-people'.

In competition between related species or races, antibodies in their blood are a powerful genetic advantage for those who possess them when competing against those who don't. History has many examples of European settlers who quite unintentionally won out against native populations because the latter had no antibodies against diseases such as measles which the Europeans brought with them.

In the present scenario, a woman of the N-people (Basque, Rh-) who partnered with a man of the S-people (non-Basque, Rh+) would be likely to bear no more than a single child of the partnership. 'Mixed marriages' in humans are not usually genetically disadvantageous, but in this case they would be. The effect would be a continuing reduction in the N-people population as 'mixed' couples produced only a single child, half the nominal population-maintenance rate.

There are other physical characteristics of humans which are typically associated with Rh-negative blood, but which in the present scenario would be regarded as belonging to the N-people. These include early maturity, large head and eyes, high IQ [6], or an extra vertebra (a 'tail bone' -- called a 'cauda'), lower than normal body temperature, lower than normal blood pressure, and higher mental analytical abilities [5].

Another highly distinguishing feature of the Basques is their language, which is related to no other on earth. According to [3], its ancestor was spoken in western Europe before (possibly long before) the ancestors of all other modern western European languages. This source states that the most strenuous efforts at finding other relatives for Basque have been complete failures.

People have unsuccessfully tried to connect Basque with Berber, Egyptian and other African languages, with Iberian, Pictish, Etruscan, Minoan, Sumerian, the Finno-Ugric languages, the Caucasian languages, the Semitic languages, with almost all the languages of Africa and Asia, living and dead, and even with languages of the Pacific and of North America. Basque absolutely cannot be shown to be related to any other language at all [3].

The structure of the Basque language is also very distinctive, it is said to contain only nouns, verbs, and suffixes. The language strongly defines the Basque people [8]. In the Basque Language, called Euskera, there is no word for Basque. The only word defining a member of the group is Euskaldun, or Euskera speaker. The land is called Euskal Herria -- the land of Euskera speakers.

In the present scenario, Basque is the descendant of a spoken language originated by the N-people, independently of (and possibly at a much earlier time than) the languages of the S-people.

In an interesting study, Philip Lieberman [7] has looked at the mouth cavities and other presumed speech production features of Neanderthal fossils. According to his evaluation, Neanderthal people would have had difficulty in pronouncing the vowel 'ee'. This vowel is missing from normal Basque pronunciation [9].

If the present scenario is valid, then the Basques, mostly stemming from the N-people, would of course be somewhat distinct genetically. In [3] the question is asked, "Are the Basques genetically different from other Europeans"? , with the answer, "Apparently, yes. Recently the geneticist Luiga Luca Cavalli-Sforza has completed a gene map of the peoples of Europe, and he finds the Basques to be strikingly different from their neighbours. The genetic boundary between Basques and non-Basques is very sharp on the Spanish side. On the French side, the boundary is more diffuse: it shades off gradually toward the Garonne in the north. These findings are entirely in agreement with what we know of the history of the Basque language".

The social relationships of the Basques with the rest of the world have been quite unusual for a distinctive human group. While always protecting their unique and separate identity, they have also always striven to interact, cooperate with, and sometimes lead the rest of the world.

Kurlansky points out the remarkable contributions the Basques have made to world history [1]. They were the explorers who connected Europe to the other continents in the Age of Exploration, in trade they were among the first capitalists, experimenting with tariff-free international trade and monopoly breaking, and in the industrial revolution they became leading shipbuilders, steelmakers, and manufacturers.

At the same time, the Basques have always been regarded as 'different', and so inevitably subjected to discriminatory treatment and (sometimes savage) persecution, as in the Franco years [3]. In my book 'Matrix Thinking' [4] I have examined the underlying forces driving interactions between human groups, using the term SIOS, and the way groups recognize and act on differences between those inside and outside their own group.

Genetic differences are one of the most powerful recognition signals in this process, and so it cannot be unexpected that the Basques have suffered in this way. Nowadays such events are regarded in a very negative light, as pointlessly discriminatory. In the Basque case there is some rare justification for this -- a non-Basque man pairing with a Basque women might have expected to have only one child of the marriage, before recent medical procedures got round the Rhesus negative problem.

Language differences are also very powerful SIOS recognition signals, and it is interesting to look at the Basque case. The Basque language, while retaining its own distinct structure, has heavily borrowed words from other languages. Other languages have borrowed very few words from Basque, regarded as an 'inferior' language, and those that have come over often have had an uncomplimentary sense. As an example, Spanish has borrowed 'izquierdo' (meaning left, as in left-handed) from Basque, and words meaning 'left' often have a negative connotation (in English, 'gauche' and 'sinister' are from the French and Latin for 'left').

It has been suggested [5] that the Basques were the original inhabitants of Europe, and the architects of Stonehenge and similar megalithic structures. These constructions apparently used a unique system of measurement based on the number 7 (instead of 10, 12, or 60), representing a separate origin of a mathematical system.

To round out the present scenario, it is suggested that the present world population is a complex hybrid mixture of at least two human species, one classed as Homo neanderthalensis, the other (or others --if the A and B blood factors originated from separate species) as Homo sapiens. The genes from these species are now so intermixed (as in cultivated roses) as to make the species name indeterminate.

Further genetic analysis, concentrating on the Basques, may reveal more on this. Research should cover both nuclear DNA, controlling sexually-inherited traits such as blood groups, and mitochondrial DNA, passed on unchanged from mother to child. For reasons given above, the N-people mitochondrial DNA may have now been bred out completely from modern world populations.

Perhaps the Human Genome project needs extension to cover the possible mix of origins. It would also be of interest to check whether any known Neanderthal skeletons had an extra vertebra.

There is an extensive website covering recorded Neanderthal fossils [10], and the information there generally supports the suggestion that the species have merged, with later N-people more similar to the S-people than older specimens.

REFERENCES

[1] Mark Kurlansky. The Basque History of the World. Penguin Books,
New York, 2001.

[2] Robert J. Sawyer. Hominids. Tor Books, 2002.

[3] FAQs About Basque and the Basques.
http://www.cogs.susx.ac.uk/users/larryt/basque.faqs.html.

[4] David Noel. Matrix Thinking. BFC Press, 1997. Chapter 104, Syston
Boundaries and SIOS. Also at:
http://www.aoi.com.au/matrix/Mat04.html.

[5] The Rh-negative Factor and 'Reptilian Traits'.
http://www.reptilianagenda.com/research/r110199a.html.

[6] Blood of the
Gods.http://www.geocities.com/ask_lady_lee/rhneg.html.

[7] Philip Lieberman. Eve Spoke: Human Language and Human Evolution.
W W Norton, 1998.

[8] What is Basque? httpp://www.clan-
blackstar.com/research/basque.html.

[9] Basque Pronunciation.
http://www.eirelink.com/alanking/collq1.htm#Pronunciation.

[10] Homo neanderthalensis.
http://www.modernhumanorigins.com/neanderthalensis.html


.... ... .

Wednesday, May 14, 2003

Dirty Politics

Here you have an interesting article from the Find Law web site regarding how Aznar got his reward thanks to dirty politics:

Trivializing Terrorism

By JOANNE MARINER
Tuesday, May. 13, 2003

Call it a politically convenient coincidence of timing. Or else be blunt, connect the dots, and call it a political favor. In the wake of Spain's support for the war in Iraq, and with Spanish elections upcoming, the State Department last week announced the addition of three Basque nationalist groups to an official U.S. list of terrorist groups subject to financial sanctions.

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar welcomed the designation and implied that it was linked to Spain's backing of the U.S. war plan. Addressing the question of whether Spain has benefited from its relationship with the United States, Aznar stated that the naming of the three groups had given a needed boost to Spain's fight against terrorism.

"What are the fruits of our relationship with the United States?" Aznar asked rhetorically. "This is one of those fruits."

Prime Minister Aznar no doubt believes that the reward was well-earned, given his willingness to run significant political risks in backing the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Despite strong opposition to the Iraq war from the Spanish public, Aznar was among the most steadfast supporters of the U.S. plan.

Taking advantage of Spain's membership in the U.N. Security Council, the Aznar government assisted the United States in pressing for a U.N. resolution in support of the Iraq war, before the effort to obtain a resolution was abandoned. More recently, Spain cosponsored a resolution, together with the U.S. and the U.K., which would lend U.N. sanction to the U.S. and British occupation of Iraq. Spain is also planning to send a contingent of 1,500 troops to Iraq to assist in the occupation, putting it among only nine countries that have agreed to contribute military forces to the effort.

It could be that none of these developments influenced the U.S. government's decision to name the three Basque groups to the terrorism list. But one would have to be blind, as well as willfully obtuse, not to notice the political factors surrounding last week's decision. And when the Spanish case is considered in light of past terrorism designations, whose timing has, in several instances, been equally fortuitous, then the political manipulation of the designation process seems all the more probable.

Naming Terrorist Groups

What does it mean for a group to be placed on a U.S. terrorism list? To begin with, it depends on which list. The U.S. now has several official lists of terrorists and terrorist groups, each of which has somewhat different implications. In general, inclusion on a list may entail immigration sanctions, may result in financial sanctions such as the freezing of assets, or may mean that persons who fund such groups are subject to criminal prosecution.

The two most important lists cover the categories of "Designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations," or FTOs, and "Specially Designated Global Terrorists," or SDGTs.

The FTO list, which currently includes Al Qaeda, Hezbollah, and thirty-four other groups, is the shorter of the two. FTOs are foreign organizations that the Secretary of State finds engage in terrorist activity and whose terrorist activity threatens the security of U.S. nationals or the national security of the United States. The definition of terrorist activity, as defined in the relevant laws, is extremely broad.

The penalties for inclusion on the FTO list are serious. U.S. banks must freeze the funds of groups on the list; U.S. residents are barred from providing them with funds, and members of such groups are barred from traveling to the United States.

The SDGT list is similar, but much more extensive, and was created by executive order in the immediate wake of September 11. Again, using an extremely broad definition of terrorism, it blocks the assets of designated terrorists and terrorist organizations, and bars people from conducting financial transactions with, or giving charitable donations to such individuals or groups. All FTOs are also included on the SDGT list.

Neither of the two lists has more than negligible due process safeguards, which leaves them extremely vulnerable to political misuse.

Making Friends by Naming Enemies

Now consider a few of the most recent terrorist group designations, made as additions to the SDGT list.

In late August 2002, during a visit to Beijing, Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage announced the terrorist designation of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, a little-known group of Muslim separatists active in western China. "The listing was a sop to the Chinese," asserted an expert on Chinese Muslims interviewed by The New York Times.

The Times, which noted that the United States was anxiously seeking to neutralize Chinese opposition to a possible attack on Iraq, said that the State Department had supplied little hard evidence to support the designation. It also cited several unnamed diplomats from allied nations who agreed that the U.S. decision was apparently based on unproven Chinese assertions. As expected, the Chinese government lauded the designation decision.

The timing of another recent terrorist group designation is equally suspect. Russia has long been pressing the United States to name several Chechen rebel groups as terrorist. The U.S., favoring a political solution to the conflict in Chechnya, has long resisted these requests.

In late February 2003, however, as a heated debate over war in Iraq was raging at the U.N. Security Council, the Secretary of State designated three rebel groups in Chechnya as terrorist groups linked to Al Qaeda. The designations were widely viewed as a concession to Moscow at a time when Russian acquiescence to the Iraq war was one of Washington's top priorities.

Zaindi Choltayev, a Chechen political scientist, decried the likely impact of the designation decision on the conflict in Chechnya. He noted that the decision "bolsters the Kremlin's refusal to negotiate." As he explained, "The announcement lends international credibility to Moscow's claim that the war in Chechnya is part of the global war on terrorism, and one doesn't negotiate with terrorists."

And now, most recently, the designation of three Basque nationalist groups: Batasuna, Euskal Herritarrok and Herri Batasuna. The Spanish government outlawed the groups last year, alleging that they were linked to the Basque terrorist organization ETA.

But Prime Minister Aznar, who advocates a tough, no-negotiations approach to terrorist groups, needs political help. Spanish public opinion polls show that Aznar has paid a high price for his public backing of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, with 78 percent of those surveyed in April by the newspaper El Mundo continuing to believe that the war was unjustified. With the recent designation, Aznar received a concrete reward for Spain's show of support.

Even White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, discussing the May 7 meeting between Aznar and President Bush, suggested a possible connection between the war and the designation decision. The way he put it was this: "I think the State Department may have something to say today in regard to designation of terrorist organizations in Spain. The United States and Spain have a very strong relationship and the president is very grateful to Spain for the leadership they took in helping to free the world from the threat of the Iraqi regime."

Politicized Choices

It may be that all of the groups discussed above are linked to terrible crimes. But there is no dearth of violent groups in the world that the United States has not decided to name as its terrorist enemies.

Allowing political influences to taint terrorist designations trivializes the terrorist threat. The decision to name a group to any of the U.S. terrorism lists should be based on strict and objective criteria, not awarded as a diplomatic favor.

Joanne Mariner is a human rights attorney practicing in New York. Her previous columns on terrorism, Iraq, and related topics, can be found in the archive of her pieces on this site.

So, George W. Bush is not only a genocidal individual willing to murder thousands of innocent civilians in a war for oil profits, he's also a political Apartheid apologist.

.... ... .

Strasbourg and The Kurds

Now that Batasuna has been on the lime light due to the unsubstantiated accusations by the neo-Francoist government of José María Aznar (one of the Three Butchers of Iraq along with Bush and Blair), then ban against the pro-independence party and its inclusion in the US "terror organizations" list I would like to present to you this article from 1999.

Euro Court Condemns Turkey for Banning Kurd Group

Updated 11:37 AM ET December 8, 1999

STRASBOURG (Reuters) - The European Court of Human Rights on Wednesday found Turkey guilty of violating the right to free association for banning a pro-Kurdish political party.

Turkey's constitutional court outlawed the Freedom and Democracy Party (Ozdep) in July 1993, saying its advocacy of self-determination for Kurds defied the Turkish constitution.

The European Court delivered a unanimous verdict saying it could see nothing in the party's program that called for violence or rebellion and that could have legitimized the Turkish court's decision.

Turkey had defended its decision, saying Ozdep attacked the indivisibility of the nation and advocated ethnic discrimination.

The party's founder and president Mevlut Ilik was awarded 30,000 francs ($4,685) in damages and 40,000 francs costs.

The European court condemned Turkey in 1998 for disbanding a communist and a socialist party on the grounds that they referred to Kurdish self-determination.

A case against Turkey for banning the Islam-based Welfare party in 1998 is still before the European Court.


The resemblance between what the Turkish said against the Kurdish political party and what Batasuna is undegoing is quite remarkable. Kurds and Basques united by the same fate.


.... ... .

Tuesday, May 13, 2003

Legal in France, Illegal in Spain

This article sheds light on how Batasuna (and Udalbiltza for that case) is legal in France while in Spain it has been banned over non substantiated accusations that it is ETA's political wing.

Here you have it:

Basque Batasuna party legal in France

By Elizabeth Bryant

United Press International
From the International Desk
Published 5/12/2003 3:40 PM

PARIS, May 12 (UPI) -- The Basque Batasuna Party is banned in Spain, and now figures on Washington's list of groups with suspected terrorism connections.

But Batasuna is alive and well in Bayonne, France, where it has established a French headquarters, and counts two party sympathizers on the local town council.

"For the moment, Batasuna's illegality is only recognized by the Spanish nation, and we haven't entered into that debate," said Yves Ugalde, cabinet director for the Bayonne city hall, in an interview United Press International Monday. "And Spain hasn't asked us to get into the debate."

Last week, Spanish courts barred hundreds of independence candidates from running in upcoming municipal elections because of their alleged Batasuna links.

The party says it champions an independent Basque homeland in southern France and northern Spain through the ballot box. But the government of Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar argues Batasuna is nothing less than the political arm of ETA.

During Aznar's trip to Washington last week, the Bush administration also added Batasuna to its list of groups risking financial sanctions, for allegedly supporting terrorism.

Neither Spain nor the United States has asked Paris to place Batasuna on a similar list, a French Interior Ministry spokesman said Monday -- though such a request was apparently made to the European Union.

Nor has Spain asked France to ban Batasuna, the spokesman told UPI.

Leaders of Batasuna's Bayonne office could not be reached for comment. But Joseba Alvarez, a top official from the former Batasuna party in Spain, denied any links to terrorism.

"We consider ETA as a violent answer to an unresolved problem," he said in a telephone interview from San Sebastian, Spain. "We've been in existence for 23 years -- and become illegal only two months ago. Jose Marie Aznar is exploiting the climate created by Sept. 11."

As for Batasuna's arm in Bayonne, he said, "its a legal formation, just like any other" which campaigns to promote the Basque language, and more jobs, among other social issues, he said.

Despite the party's peaceful claims, Bayonne officials are eyeing the French Batasuna arm warily since its barring from Spain.

"Sure, there are lots of demonstrations in Bayonne, and Batasuna participates in each time," Ugalde said. "But they are totally correct, and legal."

"But the decision (to ban Batasuna) may have direct repercussions here," he added. "Although things are calm, for the moment.

Ties between Basque nationalist movements in France and Spain have grown in recent years. But French movements are far smaller than their Spanish counterparts, and receive a tiny fraction of popular support.

Meanwhile, cross-border cooperation has also grown between French and Spanish law enforcement officials.

French police, for example, arrested six alleged ETA members in southern France on Friday and Saturday. Their efforts received a warm thanks from the Spanish government.


And it is not exactly that the French authorities love the Basques, it is only that they are not as rabidly vicious as Aznar and Garzon. Until today that is, it could change.

.... ... .

Altzazu


Altzazu Posted by Hello
.... ... .

Sunday, May 11, 2003

About The Ban

The article you're about to read was published at The Independent, I want you to pay attention to the last paragraph.

Here it is:

Court bans hundreds of Basque candidates

By Elizabeth Nash in Madrid

10 May 2003

Nearly 1,500 Basque nationalists were banned yesterday from standing in local elections on 25 May by Spain's highest court, which said they were covert members of the outlawed Batasuna party.

A hundred Batasuna sympathisers occupied Bilbao town hall, chaining themselves to banisters. Shouting "you will not silence us. Long live a free Basque country," they were dislodged by police in riot gear. Arnaldo Otegi, a former leader of Batasuna, said "left-wing nationalists" would campaign anyway, using their own ballot papers.

When the Supreme Court banned Batasuna in March on the basis that it was a front for the armed separatists of Eta, members of the party elected to town councils throughout the Basque country decided to stand for re-election under a different name. But yesterday's ruling by the Constitutional Court, which upholds another ruling last week by the Supreme Court, means those linked to Batasuna are banned, whatever they call themselves.

For the first time since the return to democracy after Franco's death in 1975, Basques favouring independence will have no one to vote for.


.... ... .

Saturday, May 10, 2003

Shame On Günther Grass and Company

As promised, I am back with my musings regarding the article published by The New York Times titled "Writers Sign Statement Denouncing Basque Nationalist Violence".

Here we go:

The NYT openly admits that adding Batasuna to the list of terrorist organizations is a reward to Aznar for his support to the war on Iraq, well, how peachy. So they are telling us that Aznar is very willing to take Spain to war just so he can ban a Basque political party which is my understanding stands accused of being ETA's political arm. Shouldn't the US State Department wait till the end of the trial to find out if Madrid is able to stablish the link between Batasuna and ETA?

If so, they may proceed, but to do it even before Madrid comes up with evidence is plain twisted. Being accused of being or doing something does not cut it, you are innocent until proven guilty, at least that is the way it is in democratic countries.

But lets analyze a little further, they are talking about Aznar's support to the war on Iraq, a war that was unleashed by George W. Bush and Tony Blair over some empty accusations when the truth was there for everyone to see, it is a war to improve the oil and gas profits of those close to Bush and Cheney. That my friends is true terrorism.

Now, lets talk anbout Fernando Savater (I wonder if he is still licking the wounds that the Sup Marcos inflicted on him).

He says that the important part is that it shows that the anti-nationalists groups are finally being heard, what a joke!

The so called anti-nationalist (I thought they were supposed to be pro-peace anti-ETA groups) have all the support of the media they can get and their stance is protected by Madrid's policies. When have you seen the Ertzaintza breaking up a "Basta Ya" demonstration?

What is he talking about when he says that they are finally being heard?

Second, just as him and a few other clowns and mislead honest and nice people from all over the world signed a letter against ETA (not against Basque nationalism as him and the article want to say) there was artists and intellectuals from all over the world signing letters in defense of Egunkaria. Savater's memory is short I guess.

On top of it, he is such a moron that he thinks that "internationalizing" the Basque issue is something positive to the Madrid/Aznar goals, poor idiot, one of the reasons why Spain has
been so successful at violating human rights violations in Euskal Herria is because the international community things of it as Spain's internal problem, if it really goes international then Spain including Savater will be exposed as the fascist pigs they are.

And Günther Grass? A German pronouncing himself against the right of the Basque people to their self determination?

Has he forgotten the 1,600 innocent Basque civilians, mostly women and children, murdered on cold blood by the German Luftwaffe in the town if Gernika?

And Nadine Gordimer, is she unable to figure out that what Spain is doing to the Basques is just as criminal as what the Apartheid did to the black population of South Africa?

They talk about the Holocaust, my guess is that they do not know that Aznar is the son of a Franco regime minister and that the Partido Popular is conformed by former Francoist ministers. Do they remember that under Franco, Spain was an ally of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy?

Shame on them.


.... ... .

Friday, May 09, 2003

The Letter As Is

Here you have the letter, and most important, the names of those who signed it in support of Fernando Savater's fascist group called Foro Ermua:

European and American Intellectuals Manifesto on Basque Country Local Elections

6 May 2003. Although Europeans exercise their constitutional right to vote in what is a healthy show of democratic routine, few of them imagine that in one particular corner of Europe, fear and shame oppress its citizens.

Although the memory of the Holocaust is honoured in Europe, in an attempt to provide some restitution to the victims of such a barbaric act and prevent such atrocities from ever happening again, few Europeans are aware that, even now, ordinary citizens are being slandered and murdered in the Basque Country.

Although it seems unbelievable, the representatives of the ordinary people of the Basque Country are being sentenced to death by ETA’s henchmen and denigrated by their Nationalist associates.

Although citizens of the Basque Country are being murdered for their ideas, and thousands of them have been physically and psychologically harmed, the terrorist attacks are carried out and openly sanctioned in a pitiful show of moral impunity drummed up by the Nationalist organizations and the Basque Catholic hierarchy.

Although the Nationalist parties enjoy the constitutional guarantees of Spanish democracy, ordinary Basque Country citizens are obliged to keep a low profile, cloak up their daily routines in secrecy, leave out their home address, request police protection, and live in constant fear of their lives and those of their kin.

Although it is often tempting to ignore what is happening, we request the citizens of Europe to declare a state of general indignation this coming May 25th (Local Election Day in Spain): in memory of the victims who die for freedom in the Basque Country, in honour of those who today defend the same freedom with a courage that Europe will be moved by in the not too distant future.

Signed by: Fernando Arrabal, Alfredo Bryce Echenique, Michael Burleigh, Paolo Flores d’Arcais, Carlos Fuentes, Nadine Gordimer, Juan Goytisolo, Günter Grass, Carlos Monsivais, Bernard-Henri Lévy, Paul Preston, Mario Vargas Llosa and Gianni Vattimo.



This is the second time that Carlos Monsivais speaks out against the Basques, last time his hatred towards the Basques came through whe he defended Garzón from the Sup Marcos. Carlos Fuentes is just an idiot, he doesn't even deserve a comment.

By the way, I got the letter from the Francisco Franco inspired Foro Ermua's web page.

.... ... .

Fascist Writers Against Euskal Herria

Do you remember the letter I posted a few days ago sent by 530 priests to the Pope?

Well, there has been a reaction to it, but not from The Vatican but from people that parade themselves as philosophers, to name a few: Günther Grass, Nadine Gordimer and Fernando Savater.

We are aware of the open hatred that Savater feels against Euskal Herria and the Basques people, but to get a German like Günther Grass to say the things you read in the document is testament to what the bias in the press can achieve.

Each one of those "prominent writers" decided to stomp all over the right of the nations without state to their self determination. They celebrate that Batasuna has been banned without questioning why Madrid has not presented a single piece of evidence to support its preposterous accusation that it is ETA's political wing. Even more, they celebrate that Batasuna has been listed as a terrorist organization by the USA as a reward to Aznar's full support of the war in Iraq, a war in which dozens of thousands of innocent civilians have been killed for the sole purpose of improving the oil profits for George W. Bush's close collaborators.

This lame article, writen with a lot of venom against the Basque people by someone called Emma Daly, appeared at the New York Times:

Writers Sign Statement Denouncing Basque Nationalist Violence

By EMMA DALY
Published: May 8, 2003

More than a dozen prominent writers, including the Nobel laureates Nadine Gordimer and Günter Grass, have signed a strongly worded attack on Basque nationalist violence, which they say condemns citizens of the Basque region to live in fear.

''Although the memory of the Holocaust is honored in Europe,'' the statement said, ''few Europeans realize that today in the Basque country, free citizens are abused and murdered.''

The six-paragraph statement was published today in advance of regional elections on May 25, which are likely to show that voters remain split almost evenly between pro-independence and centrist parties.

The radical nationalist Batasuna party, allied to the violent separatist group E.T.A., has been banned from taking part in the election.

The United States added the party today to its list of international terrorist groups. The Spanish prime minister, José María Aznar, hailed Washington's decision, and implied it was a reward for Spain's support for the American-led war in Iraq.

Candidates representing Mr. Aznar's Popular Party, or the main opposition Socialist Party, face death threats and worse from supporters of E.T.A. More than a dozen local politicians have been killed by E.T.A. gunmen since the mid-1990's, and many more have been attacked by bombs or Molotov cocktails.

''Although it seems unbelievable, today the candidates among the free citizens of the Basque Country are condemned to death by the mercenaries of E.T.A. and condemned to humiliation by their nationalist accomplices,'' read the statement, addressed to Basta Ya! (Enough is Enough!), an antinationalist group created to oppose terrorism and support victims of terrorist violence.

Spain's Constitutional Court is set to rule this week on more than 400 appeals filed over its decision to ban another party with links to Batasuna, Autodeterminaziorako Bilgunea (AuB), from running in the elections. Legal nationalist parties oppose the party bans, and say they will help AuB to count its vote on May 25, even if ballots are legally void.

Fernando Savater, a Spanish writer and a leader of Basta Ya!, hailed the statement today as a sign that anti-nationalists are making their voice heard abroad.

''What is important to us this time is that the majority of those signing the declaration are foreigners, so there is a sense of internationalizing the situation,'' he said. ''Perhaps there is more sensitivity to the issue of terrorism after Sept. 11, but we are managing to make ourselves heard more.''

Mr. Aznar, who escaped an E.T.A. assassination attempt in 1995, has pursued a tough campaign against Basque nationalists, cracking down not only on E.T.A. but also on groups like Batasuna that the government says provide logistical, financial and moral support to terrorists.

Antinationalists, and the writers of the declaration today, also blame the nonviolent Basque Nationalist Party, which runs the local government, its allies and other institutions for allowing intimidation and violence against nonnationalists.

''Although citizens of the Basque Country are murdered for their ideas, and thousands have been mutilated or disturbed, the attacks take place and are celebrated in a sorry atmosphere of moral impunity created by nationalist institutions and the Basque Catholic hierarchy,'' the statement read.


I declare that Günther Grass and Nadine Gordimer are Fascist apologists and that they condone Francisco Franco for all the crimes committed by his regime from 1936 through 1975, including all the Jewish families that Melitón Manzanas turned in to the Gestapo.

Give me a day or two so I can truly digest this article.

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Wednesday, May 07, 2003

Egunkaria's Case at BBC

Egunkaria is finally getting the respect it deserves from the media, check this out:

"Many millions" in the world will hear about Egunkaria next Friday

Egunkaria's chief editor Martxelo Otamendi has been interviewed by BBC World satellite channel. Millions of spectators are expected to know about the closing of the Basque newspaper through Reporters, on May the 9th

After more than two months of almost total silence over the closure of Basque journal Egunkaria, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) will break its reserve on May the 9th. Egunkaria is scheduled to be one of the main issues of BBC World satellite channel's "Reporters" emission. The emission's might well have "many millions of viewers", says BBC reporter Jackie Rowland.

Rowland interviewed Egunkaria's editor Martxelo Otamendi on May the 4th, before the closed entrance of the journal. Along with the questions about the closure of Egunkaria, the BBC reporter asked Otamendi about the political situation in the Basque Country, specially about the outlawing of pro independence party Batasuna, the ban against AuB (Assembly for Self-determination) from running for next local elections, Spanish Government's strategy and ETA's activity.

Rowland says to have Learned a lot about Basque politics in the couple of days spent in the Basque Country. The most striking feature she says to have confronted, is the existence of so many prisoners: "I did not know that there were up to 700 Basque prisoners. That is amazing", she said to Egunero.

About the closure of Egunkaria she declared that "nobody working for free press would support the shutting of a newspaper".

The report will be broad casted next Friday at 20:00 (London time), and short versions will be shown many times on that day. As Rowland declared, BBC World has a potential audience of 100 million, and Reporters emission might well be seen by "many millions" around the world.


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Monday, May 05, 2003

Aznar Profits From Iraq War's Support

Aznar is set to cash in from his support to the war on Iraq. He is asking from the US government to add Batasuna to its "terrorist group list".

We already know the answer, a resounding yes, Bush needs to repay his friend for all (at least all the help a country like Spain can muster) his help to validate the present war against Iraq.

And so it is that, merrily stomping all over something known as "presumption of innocence" the US will label Batasuna as a terrorist organization without having Spain showing at least one single piece of evidence to prove that Batasuna is actually linked to ETA.

In doing so Bush and his underlings are acting like what they really are, mobsters. You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours, and who cares about little things like justice, truth and human rights.

Here you have the main stream media coverage of the issue:

Spain calls Basque party terrorist

From the International Desk
Published 5/5/2003 7:51 PM

WASHINGTON, May 5 (UPI) -- Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar is to ask the U.S. State Department to designate an outlawed Basque political party a terrorist organization and to place it on its list of international terrorist groups, Spanish media reported Monday.

The radical Basque party Batasuna was outlawed last year because of alleged links with the Basque terrorist organization ETA. The Spanish government charged that some members of Batasuna were also members of ETA.

Batasuna was also the only party in Spain that had consistently refused to condemn ETA.

The Spanish government recently asked the State Department to add Batasuna to its terrorist list, and the Madrid newspaper ABC said Aznar will follow up on the request at the highest level when he visits Washington Wednesday.

Aznar will hold talks with President George W. Bush and senior administration officials on Iraq reconstruction. A leading member of the U.S.-led coalition, Spain has committed 1,500 troops to the peacekeeping force being built up for Iraq.

Putting Batasuna on the terrorist list would enable the Spanish government to seize any international assets that it might have.

On Monday, the Spanish Supreme Court blocked what Spanish analysts said was an attempt by Batasuna to sneak back into Spanish politics when it barred 242 political groups from contesting this month's key local elections in the Basque region.

The court agreed with the government that the groups were an attempt by Batasuna to make a comeback. They are being excluded from the election under a new law forbidding political parties to encourage violence.

But in earlier elections Batasuna received 10 percent of the vote. The court's decision removed some 1,500 candidates from the list, and deposed Batasuna mayors in 60 towns and villages.


They are condemning Batasuna not for something they did but for something they refused to do, a classic case of damn if you do, damn if you don't.

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Sunday, May 04, 2003

Ban On Independent Candidates

The Apartheid measures against Basque society keep piling up. Finding a courage they don't really have in the full support they are getting these days from Bush and Blair, the members of the Spanish political elite led by Aznar are taking this opportunity to launch an all-out attack against Euskal Herria. First it was Batasuna, later it was Egunkaria, then Udalbiltza and now, independent candidates.

All they need to do is to cry wolf (in this case, cry terrorist) and voila, they have full permission to do whatever they please to do against the Basque people.

Here you have the latest, from the heavily biased Yahoo News:

Spanish Court Bars Basque Separatist Candidates

Sat May 3, 6:02 PM ET

By Inmaculada Sanz

MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's Supreme Court barred hundreds of Basque independence candidates on Saturday from running in municipal elections this month on grounds they were successors to an outlawed Basque nationalist party.

The state attorney this week challenged 249 lists of candidates standing in regional elections in the Basque country, alleging each contained one or more members of the Batasuna party, outlawed in March for failing to condemn violence by the separatist ETA guerrilla group.

Justice Minister Jose Maria Michavila argued the lists contained candidates who were "clones" of Batasuna standing under new party names to circumvent the ban. He alleged that the 249 lists included 1,500 former Batasuna members.

The Supreme Court said in a statement it had upheld the challenges over 241 of the lists, meaning those candidates could not participate in the May 25 municipal elections.

Eight of the party lists were given clearance.

Candidates barred from running in the elections have until Monday to appeal to the constitutional court against the ruling.

Spain's center-right government, backed by the opposition Socialists, led the push to ban Batasuna, accusing it of supporting ETA.

Earlier, the regional head of Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar's Popular Party said the May 25 elections would be the "first in which ETA will not be present in the institutions of the Basque country."

"This is a success for Spanish democracy, this is a success for the maturity of Spanish society, this is an expression of justice," said Jaime Major Oreja.

But for Basque regional premier Juan Jose Ibarretxe, the official crackdown on Batasuna and its alleged successors had radicalized political and social life in the region.

"How far will they go to get a handful of votes for the Socialist Party and the Popular Party? By putting under suspicion the whole of Basque society, bishops, universities, newspapers, the media?" Ibarretxe said before the ruling.

"Is everyone who doesn't think like them in the service of ETA in this country?"


By the way, Ibarretxe, you need to do more than that.

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Thursday, May 01, 2003

Basque Priests' Letter to the Pope

You're about to read a rather unique and remarkable document, this is a letter that 530 Basque priests sent to Karol Wojtyla, the Polish who today heads the Catholic Church. When you read it take into consideration that Wojtyla is a true fascist, a backwards minded individual that has been harping to the most sinister characters in modern history.

Here you have it:

LETTER ADDRESSED BY 530 PRIESTS FROM THE BASQUE COUNTRY (Basque dioceses of Bayonne, Bilbao, Pamplona/Tudela and Vitoria) TO THE POPE JOHN PAUL II
___________________

The Basque Country
April, 2003
To His Holiness, Pope John Paul II
VATICAN CITY

Holy Father,

Your forthcoming visit to the Spanish State has prompted us priests of the Church in the Basque Country to write to you. The Church of the Basque Country consists of the dioceses of Bayonne, Bilbao, Pamplona/Tudela, San Sebastian and Vitoria, and it is where our pastoral ministry takes place to make God's kingdom of justice, love and peace present amid the conflicts that we as a People endure.

Fulfilling your wish to listen to and maintain contact with the Peoples where the Church you preside over in Christian love is present, we should like to bring to your attention the concerns that we have felt as priests in the Basque Country. We are particularly concerned about the fact that reports and interpretations, on occasions biased, from different political as well as ecclesiastical authorities will reach you in connection with the reality of our situation and will contribute towards creating moral confusion. As the principal representative of a Church which desires to be close to the poor and to those who suffer, we trust in your pastoral understanding.

Our People feel and know that the deepest roots of its political problems and the serious, painful, violent expressions of them lie in a conflict caused by the lack of recognition of our collective rights. As you yourself affirmed on the occasion of the World Peace Conference in 1999, "One of the most dramatic forms of discrimination is to deny ethnic groups and national minorities their basic right to exist as such. This happens when an attempt is made to suppress or exile them and when attempts are made to water down their ethnic identities to the point of rendering them unrecognisable. Is it possible to remain silent before such serious crimes against humanity? No effort should be spared when it comes to putting an end to these aberrations, which are unworthy of human beings."

Nevertheless, we believe that this situation can be resolved in a humane and evangelical way -as our Bishops have called for on numerous occasions- along the paths of dialogue and negotiation, respect, and the unfettered expression of all options in the absence of any kind of threat, and above all, through the exercise of the free decision of this People with neither impositions nor antidemocratic curbs. As your predecessor Pope Paul VI warned when he spoke to the Cardinals during the Christmas of 1974, "there can be no true and lasting peace until the rights of all Peoples, including the right to self-determination and independence, are properly recognised and honoured." From our own pastoral experience we believe that a necessary and decisive step towards reconciliation and peace lies in our People's right to existence in democratically expressed political ways.

We were deeply distressed -and a large group of us priests expressed this in two documents- that the latest Pastoral Statement of the Spanish Bishops' Conference, with a significant number of votes against, should refer to the demands of a Basque majority who, regarding themselves as a people, are crying out for individual and collective human rights, as totalitarian nationalism that aims to impose itself by means of terrorism, and absolutist ideology. Holy Father, we condemn any kind of terrorism and in particular that which is exerted from a position of power and directed by States. In order to be true to history we feel bound to point out that the origin of the current terrorist violence among us lies in the military uprising, the fratricidal war- blessed as a Crusade by the Church- and the Franco dictatorship.

We regret that the Statement neither mentioned nor ethically discredited the heightened Spanish nationalism and the repression of the Basque language and culture, which are so relevant today. The secular tradition, the current awareness and the ethical conduct of our People desire and seek peace in the coexistence of a pluralist society and in the inalienable respect of the right to freedom of all persons and Peoples. Holy Father, you yourself, who as a citizen and pastor endured the serious, distressing difficulties that for years prevented Poland, your homeland, from being free and in control of her destiny, will be able to understand our feelings, desires and aspirations.

Our pastoral responsibility and love for the Basque Country and all the other Peoples of the world have prompted us to support so many people of different ideologies who suffer and are victims of political conflict, which has been maintained on purpose but which can be resolved through the democratic channels of respect for all human rights, as you have repeatedly emphasised and called for.

We are aware of the difficulties involved in such recognition and in the exercise of democracy in view of the complexity of the situation in which we live, and which has been aggravated over the years by violations of basic human rights with deaths, torture, attacks, repression, threats, curbs on democratic liberties including the appalling situation of the prisoners who are far away from their homeland. As Cardinal Roger Etchegaray said in a statement during a visit to his native Basque Country, ". the Basque People have suffered enough already, dialogue must replace violence and the politicians must demonstrate lucidity and courage." Holy Father, it is our hope that during your visit to the Spanish State you may promote the political will so that all these situations of suffering may be overcome.

Our service of pastoral care in the Church of the Basque Country is today intimately involved in and committed to the building of peace, as our Bishops continually stress, and it is the general Christian endeavour. We are aware that it is not easy to find the right means to achieve this peace based on justice, bearing in mind the serious conflicts that divide us. For this reason, we hope, Holy Father, that your presence in the Spanish State and your visit to the Christian communities may be a sign of and a driving force for reconciliation.

We share your deep sensitivity for all the persons and Peoples who have suffered and who continue to suffer the consequences of different kinds of violence and terrorism, an expression in the last analysis of the absence of dialogue. We join your continual calls -that unfortunately go all too often unheeded- to avoid all wars and violence. We support your untiring work in the interests of peace and the achievement of fraternal, reconciling relations among all Peoples, in particular the poorest and most deprived. We admire your evangelical testimony in asking for forgiveness for the grave injustices for which the Church has been guilty, and if you were to invite the Spanish Church to seek forgiveness for its historical complicity in the civil confrontation and in the subsequent regime that oppressed human rights, such a gesture would be greatly valued.

It is our evangelising responsibility that has prompted us to express these concerns, feelings and wishes. We do so in communion within our church in the Basque Country and in solidarity with all the other Peoples on earth. We should also like to take this opportunity to point out once again that we are and feel divided ecclesiastically. We believe that the pastoral union of our local churches into a single Basque Ecclesiastical Province with Iruñea/Pamplona as the archbishopric has been backed by the views and wishes expressed over many years by Christian people and the majority of the Basque bishops and would be an important ecclesiastical sign of reconciliation and of pastoral service to this People.

We trust and hope that your visit will be an evangelical sign of good news for the poor, of freedom for prisoners, of fraternity and of the drawing closer to those who suffer most, and of a just peace for all Peoples in the recognition of all the rights that belong to human dignity and of their condition as God's children.

From the ecclesiastical communion in Christ we send you our most respectful and fraternal regards.

THE LETTER IS SIGNED BY 530 PRIESTS FROM ALL THE DIOCESES OF THE BASQUE COUNTRY

I love the basic principle behind their statement that they write from all the dioceses of Euskal Herria... it would make of them a true Basque institution like Udalbiltza. And that is two of them now.

Its my belief that each one of these 530 priests put their lives in danger when they signed this letter, all what Wojtyla needs to do is to contact Joseph Ratzinger to have them punished. After all, he is visiting Spain at the very time when this country is taking part in the invasion of Iraq.

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