Cultural Park Under Attack

Gara reports the most recent attack against Basque cultural institutions by the Spanish government. The Audiencia Nacional judges are working extra time now that their puppet master Aznar enjoys of total impunity before the international community thanks to the so called "war on terror".

Here you have the note:

Eight citizens arrested in a security operation against different businesses related to Basque culture

The Martin Ugalde Cultural Park

A total of eight Basque citizens have been arrested in a security operation ordered by Judge Juan del Olmo, of the Spanish Audiencia Nacional, and carried out by agents of the Civil Guard.

The operation took place in the early hours of the October 16th 2003 and the arrests were made in the Basque provinces of Gipuzkoa and Nafarroa.

7 of those arrested took place in the former province. To be more exact, these took place in Donostia, Hernani, Errenteria-Orereta and Tolosa, and another in the Navarren area of Lizarra.

In the framework of this operation the offices of the management group of the Martin Ugalde Cultural Park, in Andoain were searched. Over twenty businesses related to Euskara (the Basque language) and Basque culture normally work from this centre.

This operation has been presented by Spanish legal sources as a continuation of the operation begun eight months ago, which resulted in the closure of "Egunkaria"- the only daily newspaper in the Basque language. After that operation Basque society responded with a number of huge demonstrations, but there were also serious claims of torture made by many of the ten detainees. One of those was that made by Martxelo Otamendi, the director of the newspaper.

One of the offices raided by the Guardia Civil is that of the newspaper "Berria", which was founded to offer a newspaper in the Basque language after the forced closure of "Egunkaria".

In fact, one of those arrested, Joan Mari Larrarte, acted as spokesperson for the workers of "Egunkaria" after its closure.

The main searches related to the operation have been carried out in the offices of the management group of the Martin Ugalde Cultural Park, run under the name of Buruntzape S.L, and the graphics companies Lizarra and Zabaltzen, the latter company being a leader in the distribution of books and c.ds in the Basque language.

Various people involved in these businesses have been arrested: Jose Mari Sors, Mikel Arrizabalaga, Xabier Legarra, Mikel Sorozabal, Joan Mari Larrarte, Mikel Azkune, Armando Hernandez and Angel Ramon Diez.

All of them are being held incommunicado, without the right to contact their families, or be assisted by a lawyer of confidence (one of their choosing), which has led to the lawyer Eneko Etxeberria to voice his concern about their situation and to demand that the detainees be brought before the courts immediately.

After the appearance of Etxeberria and after a meeting of those businesses that work from the Martin Ugalde cultural park, the workers from the industrial estate- which takes its name from a Basque writer who was forced to live in exile during the Franco dictatorship- held a demonstration against another attack against Basque culture.

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