Wednesday, March 31, 2004

Gora Maite!

There is a soccer team with a lot of tradition in the Basque Country, it is called the "Athletic de Bilbao" and is the team that represents the city of Bilbo on Spain's Premier League.

A couple of weeks ago they defeated Soccer's Dream Team "Real Madrid", a team that fields some of the biggest soccer stars in the world, names like Luis Figo, David Beckham, Zinedine Zidane and Ronaldo.

And what makes the Athletic so special? Only Basques can play in it. A few years ago they were about to sign the biggest Basque star from the French league, Bixente Lizarazu, but something did not work and Bixente ended up at the "Bayern Munich". Bixente has played numerous times with the Euskadi team which is the Basque Country's national team, but if the deal had taken place it was going to be the first time the Athletic would boast a Basque from Iparralde.

Well, the Athletic has a women's team also, and they are the defending champions in their league.

A couple of days ago a Basque from Boise arrived in Bilbo, her name is Maite Zabala and she was a goalkeeper for the WUSA(Women's United Soccer Association), she was the best goalkeeper in the league and the reason why she is in Bilbo is because she is going to try out for the team. If she signs with them then the club would be ackowledging us Basques outside of Euskal Herria as part of our beloved land. We are the eight Herrialde!

I wish the best of lucks to Maite, I got to learn about all of this thanks to her aunt Miren who is so proud and happy for her.

Gora Maite!

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IBO : Unfair Jail Time

The International Basque Organization for Human Rights has issued a new press release:

Basques Imprisoned For 2 Years For Crimes They Did Not Commit

How many more stories such as this will have to be repeated before the international community understands that there are serious problems in Spain regarding false accusations of terrorism directed towards Basques? Over and over it happens - anyone with any of the same goals as ETA can and are considered accessories to ETA, or apologists for terrorism. When we talk about the same goals as ETA, we are not referring to violence; we are talking about the non-violent political and cultural goals that many Basques have in order to ensure the survival of their culture. Supporting political parties that advocate self-determination. Supporting Basque history and language in schools.

Supporting Basque language newspapers and radio stations and Basque language cinema and rock and roll. All these actions come under suspicion. The Basques in this news story reported being tortured before the judge, several years back. The judge not surprisingly, discounted their stories. Now that they have been found innocent, will anybody listen? Does it even matter whether or not they were innocent or guilty of crimes? Is it right to torture people to secure confessions? In Spain, it seems to be, even if the confessions given turn out to be false, as in the case documented here. How many other false confessions have been tortured out of suspected Basque "terrorists", one has to wonder?

The Basques are crying out to the international community for help. Who will respond?

*/This campaign is based solely on word of mouth. It is CRUCIAL that you tell others. Please pass this e-mail on to anyone you think may be interested/.*

For more information, please contact:

International Basque Organization For Human Rights
PO Box 225
Corte Madera, CA 94976
www.euskojustice.org


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Tuesday, March 30, 2004

Enough is Enough!

One of the strongest motivations behind this Blog is the sense of duty I feel towards shedding light on what is happening to the Basque people.

For decades there the Spanish government ran a successful campaign of misinformation of everything Basque, knowing well that it is just impossible for people around the world to keep up with everything that is going on in the planet they were able to create a series of fake concepts about the Basque society and the history of the Basque Country.

They took advantage for the longest time, and people like me had no way of communicating our concerns on a broad basis, then along came the internet and a lot changed.

What happened yesterday reminded me of why it is so urgent that the international community start looking into the so called Basque conflict as soon as possible.

The name Ainara Gorostiaga may not mean a whole lot to you, Ainara like many other Basques believes in the right to the self determination of her people, and like many others like her, Ainara ended up in jail accused of belonging to ETA. She was not convicted in the act of committing a crime, nor was she arrested after a thorough investigation that yielded enough evidence to indict her. No, she was abducted by a judicial system that accused her of terrorism just because she was an active exponent of the Basque struggle.

Two years later she was released after being held incommunicado and tortured, she was in jail awaiting a trial based solely on the confessions they extracted from her during the "questionings" she was subjected to, she and other three people were accused of killing a politician. Then, in France they captured a real ETA member that led the French police to the real authors of that assassination, and so the sorry ass excuse of a judge by the name of Baltasar Garzon ordered her free.

So, in Spain, a regime that is identified by many as a democracy you are guilty until proven innocent. That is why it is so urgent that the international community moves to stop events like this from taking place. Madrid is on a vendetta against Basque self determination.

The depths of this ill conceived campaign against the Basques were exposed by the fatal bombings in Madrid a couple of weeks ago. The Spanish official went to the extreme of providing the German intelligence with false information on their obsession in blaming ETA for the bombings just for political gains. Lets not forget that the Saudi Arabs that destroyed the World Trade Center and damaged the Pentagon in September of 2001 had support from a terrorist cell in Germany, and that Germany has troops deployed in Afghanistan which makes them targets of Bin Laden's wrath. The Spanish official could care less about that, they wanted to pin the bombings on ETA and they were as far as misleading their European allies which could have resulted on more attacks around European capitals since the intelligence agencies were thinking it was a domestic problem. How idiotic can that be!

The "International Basque Organization for Human Rights" has ongoing campaigns in defense of Basques incarcerated both in Spain and around the world, they are people that share their love for their country and that today are behind bars on flimsy accusations by a regime very willing to lie, just to mention a few examples there is six Basques down in Mexico City that stand accused as a cell that was laundering money for ETA in Mexico, then there is Josu Lariz who was abducted from Uruguay after that South American country had denied his extradition to Spain, Josu is now on a cell in Argentina and could be extradited at any time. Xarlo Etxezaharreta sits in a cell in Spain, he is a French citizen for the virtue of having been born in Iparralde, the Northen Basque Country which is under French administration, yet, he was abducted in Spain without a warrant against him just for being the director of a leftist and pro-Basque magazine.

Like them, there is many more, their lives destroyed by a regime that refuses to acknowledge the right of the Basques to their self determination.

Enough is enough!

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This Is The Real Garzon

Did you read about a "judge" who got a Nobel nomination because he "dared" to open a motion to bring Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet before a court of law?

Well, the article you are about to read was published at Berria and it describes the case of Ainara Gorostiaga who spent two years in jail for a crime she never committed. Worst of all the fact that three other men accused of the same crime had been acquitted previously for lack of evidence to support their consignation. The reason why Ainara was kept behind bars is because she confessed to the crime after having been tortured by members of the Guardia Civil.

So here comes Garzon who releases her after two years saying that her confession did not match the details of how the alleged crime was committed.

Is he going to start an investigation on all the human rights violations suffered by these four Basques? Nope, after all, he is an important piece in the repressive machinery built by Spain.

After two years in prison Ainara Gorostiaga is released by Garzon

The judge says there is no evidence supporting the charge that she took part in the assassination of Mujika

Irene Arrizurieta - IRUÑEA (Pamplona)

Baltasar Garzon, the Spanish National Criminal Court judge, decided yesterday to release Ainara Gorostiaga, the Iruñea-born prisoner. Gorostiaga was due to leave Soto del Real prison (near Madrid) the same evening. Garzon had charged Gorostiaga with involvement in the assassination of Jose Javier Mujika, the UPN town councillor of Leitza (Navarre), but now Andoni Otegi and Oscar Zelarain, who are currently in prison in France, have been charged with the assassination.

According to a French police report, papers seized from Ibon Fernandez-Iradi indicate that Otegi and Zelarain had carried out the assassination. Garzon released Gorostiaga and withdrew the charge from Jorge Txokarro, Mikel Soto and Aurken Sola on the basis of these papers. French police say the papers tell how the assassination of Mujika was carried out and their conclusion was that Otegi had written it, after a handwriting analysis had been carried out. News agencies said yesterday that Garzon had received the document on 15th through a rogatory letter. After examining it, he decided to prosecute Otegi and Zelarain and asked for their extradition.

So the charges were withdrawn and Ainara Gorostiaga was set free; she had been arrested on February 24, 2002 on the orders of Judge Guillermo Ruiz Polanco. She had been kept in incommunicado detention from the moment she was arrested until March 5, 2002, and when this was lifted she denounced tortures.

Apart from Gorostiaga another three people believed to have been linked to the assassination of the UPN councillor were also arrested: Jorge Txokarro, Mikel Soto and Aurken Sola. The four of them had been prosecuted for membership of the alleged ETA cell /Urbasa /. Txokarro, Soto and Sola spent two years behind bars and were released last month by Judge Guillermo Ruiz-Polanco, after they had posted bail.

The three of them testified before Garzon on March 3 in connection with the Mujika assassination and were released after it was decided that there was insufficient evidence against them. Gorostiaga, however, was ordered to remain in prison. In fact, according to the judge, she had admitted in front of the Spanish Civil Guard that she had taken part in the killing and that the other three had been involved, too. Gorostiaga said the statement had been extracted under torture. In connection with her complaint Garzon said in yesterday's writ that the statement had been taken in accordance with Criminal Prosecution Legislation. He nevertheless admitted that the information in that statement did not concur with "the objective information relating to Otegi and Zelarain" that had emerged.


Please, take not that the three men had to post bail even after the judge had determined that there was no sufficient evidence to sustain a guilty verdict. This is why I insist that those amounts of money should be called ransom instead of bail.

Garzon is guilty of depriving these individuals of two years of their lives, guilty of imprisoning innocent people over confessions extracted through torture, guilty of being behind shady police investigations that net innocent people. But no one is going to do anything about it, he is after all, a Nobel nominate.

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Wheels in Motion

Today at Berria English:

The wheels have been set in motion

The Spanish Supreme Sports Council is to lodge an appeal against the existence of the official roller skating team of Catalonia. Another five federations are seeking to compete officially

J. O. – DONOSTIA (San Sebastian)
Without anyone realising it, the Catalan Roller Skating Federation has joined the International Federation. Approval was obtained in a meeting of the International Federation on Saturday and the presentation was made yesterday. However, the moment the Spanish Supreme Sports Council (CSD) found out that Catalonia could have an official skating team, it got down to work. Juan Antonio Gomez-Angulo, the Spanish Junior Minister for Sports, said yesterday that the CSD would be filing an appeal against the approval, and announced that it would be sending letters to all the federations that belong to the International Federation.

With these letters the CSD aims to get Saturday’s approval suspended. The decision is provisional at present and the International Roller Skating Federation (IRSF) will have to give make it permanent on November 26 in Fresno (USA). In a repetition of what happened with the Basque pelota team of the Basque Country, Spain now wants to influence the vote of the other international federations. The CSD said yesterday, “We are going to explain to them that according to Spanish regulations it is impossible for Catalonia to have an official team and they are going to be asked not to admit Catalonia."




What is hard to understand is why territories and regions like Puerto Rico, Northern Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Hong Kong, Taiwan and even Palestine are allowed to compete in different international events under their own flags but not Catalonia or Euskal Herria, hmmm...

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Saturday, March 27, 2004

Aznar is Gone, Good Riddance!

Only a couple of weeks ago José María Aznar was cracking up huge face-splitting smiles, he was riding high and nothing, absolutely nothing could stop him.

He had managed to make the whole world believe that he was a great statesman, the international community and the media were lazy on realizing that they had been fooled by an arrogant bore.

Throughout his eight years as Prime Minister of Spain he has been the mastermind behind the Popular Party's success in bringing back some of the worst elements of the Francoist dictatorship into the political and cultural life of Spain. It helped that the media and the international organizations employed the last 30 years on sanitizing the image of one of Europe's worst dictators.

From his hand the establishment in Madrid suffocated the cultural and political life in Euskal Herria and Catalonya; newspapers were closed down, political parties were banned, elementary schools were accused of being "hotbeds of terrorism", artists were persecuted and activists were incarcerated with often unsustainable accusations of abetting terrorism.

He went to the extreme of threatening the Basque Prime Minister with incarceration if he was to push forward with his plan to a referendum in the Basque Autonomous Community aimed at finding out were the Basque society stands regarding self determination and independence.

He said no to dialogue, it was his way or the highway, his arrogance was so blind that he created the devastating conditions for Europe's worst environmental disaster, the sinking of the Prestige off the coast of Galiza.

During the build up to the war on Iraq the majority of Spaniards opposed the rush to start a war over accusations of Saddam's links to Al Qaida and the non existent weapons of mass destruction. Aznar could care less, it was his golden opportunity to be one of the big dogs mostly after France, Russia and Germany decided to remain on the sideline.

Oh how much he loved that picture of him with his buddies Bush and Blair in Lanzarote. In his mind that picture rivaled that one of the Four in Malta during WWII. He was the second or third most important fella in the world, depending on how the world saw that pansy ass Blair.

Something in his little peanut mind told him that running for a third term would be a little too bold, so he decided to be the puppet master and have one of his minions taking the front stage, he then tapped his dauphine, Mariano Rajoy, to run for the position of Prime Minister of the One and Christian Kingdom of Spain.

And then on a cold winter morning the peyote induced dream came crashing down. But it was not the bombs that killed and wounded so many innocent people what destroyed the foundation of that ivory tower he was living in, oh no, it was the acid of his own lies what in the end melted away his credibility and the credibility of his officials.

Last week he was caught with his pants down trying to hatch a coup d'etat, attempting to walk the elected Prime Minister and his party into a political quagmire, Spain was ready this time and once again his true colors disgusted the public.

A couple of days ago during the summit of European leaders in Brussels he was not smiling that dumb and arrogant smile of his, he sat, lonely, while the European leaders greeted each other before the meeting. He was the fallen angel with all the ugly colors of Fascism smeared all over him.

Good riddance to one of the world's most sinister and idiotic leaders of modern days.

Agur txakurra!

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Friday, March 26, 2004

Andolin Eguzkitza


Eguzkitza Posted by Hello
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Encouraging Basque

Today at Berria English:

ELA and LAB unions launch campaign to encourage Basque in companies

A clause calling for “practical steps” will be added in this year’s collective bargaining

Jakes Goikoetxea – DONOSTIA (San Sebastian)
“It’s high time Basque was introduced into the work sphere and companies”. “The situation of Basque in these areas is on red alert”. These were the messages transmitted yesterday by the ELA and LAB unions. Basque has made progress in many other areas and now it is the turn of work and companies. A campaign has been launched for this purpose: It’s High Time. In Basque, in Companies, a Good Investment . Jabi Garnika, member of the LAB executive committee, stressed: “It is not, however, a campaign for appearing in the photos.” It is based on stark reality. “There is a chasm between the linguistic reality of society and the presence Basque has in the field of work and companies.” Garnika provided figures: less than a hundred out of the 2,600 companies employing over 50 people have implemented a normalisation plan for Basque.

They want Basque to take a qualitative leap forward in the sphere of work and companies and this is why ELA and LAB have announced their commitment to this. Jose Elorrieta, the ELA General Secretary, said: “We are Basque nationalist unions and the normalisation of Basque is one of our concerns. We have supported many initiatives by citizens, but the time has come as a social agent to make active commitments and to encourage the normalisation of Basque,” added Rafa Diez, General Secretary of LAB.

ELA and LAB plan to draw attention to the importance of Basque in their collective bargaining and in their sector agreements: they have made a commitment in this year’s collective bargaining for demands relating to Basque to be included in sector agreements and company agreements. A special clause on Basque will be added calling for “practical steps” in favour of the normalisation of Basque.

“The commitment that may be included in the sector agreements is fairly general,” admitted Leire Txakartegi, member of the ELA executive committee. But she added that the unions wanted to go further: “We want to encourage plans and steps for the normalisation of Basque in companies, so as to gradually change the reality of Basque in these areas.”

ELA and LAB have called on management and workers to adopt an active, effective attitude in favour of the normalisation of Basque, “to turn the woeful situation of Basque in the sphere of work and companies around.” Elorrieta said, “Basque will not achieve normalisation in companies without the commitment or approval of the workers.”


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Attitude Towards Dialogue

Today at Berria English:

After meeting EAJ highlights PSOE’s open attitude towards dialogue

The EAJ says that they hope the change will have an effect on the PSE-EE

Agencies – MADRID
Josu Erkoreka, the EAJ spokesman, yesterday praised the PSOE’s open attitude in the Madrid Congress (lower house of parliament). He made these declarations in Madrid after meeting with the PSOE leaders Jesus Caldera and Alfredo Perez-Rubalcaba. “We have come across an open attitude and a disposition for dialogue which are a far cry from the aggressive, arrogant attitude of the past few years,” said Erkoreka, as he emerged from the meeting. He went on to say he was keen for the open attitude he had come across in the first meeting with the PSOE to pave the way for good mutual understanding with the PSE-EE.

Moreover, he praised the PSOE’s wish for the plural nature of the State to be reflected in the Congress and Senate (upper chamber). The EAJ has in fact asked to be represented on the Presiding Committee of either the Congress or of the Senate.


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Thursday, March 25, 2004

To Andolin Eguzkitza

Some sad news at Berria English today:

“When it rains in our very depths” (*)

The unexpected news of Andolin Eguzkitza’s death has caused great sadness in the world of Basque culture

Juan Luis Zabala – DONOSTIA (San Sebastian)
The world of Basque letters was rocked by a sad piece of news yesterday: the writer Andolin Eguzkitza died of a heart attack yesterday morning in the hospital of Basurto (Bilbo). He had undergone a heart operation after an aneurysm was detected; although the operation appeared to have been successful, he died suddenly afterwards. This poet, novelist, full member of the Euskaltzaindia, lecturer and professor at the University of the Basque Country - EHU, former chairman of the EIE (Basque Writers’ Association) and Member of the Basque Language Advisory Committee of the Basque Government had worked untiringly in support of the Basque language and culture.

He was born on December 6, 1953 in Santurtzi (Bizkaia). He graduated in Romance Languages at the University of Deusto in 1975 and the following year continued his studies at the University of Salamanca where Koldo Mitxelena was one of his teachers. After spending two years at the Linguistics Institute of the University of Cologne he went to America, firstly to Iowa University and then to UCLA in Los Angeles. There he was awarded a PhD in Romance Linguistics for his thesis entitled Topics on the Syntax of Basque and Romance .

By then, however, he had conducted other pieces of research of a less official nature but by no means inferior: at the beginning of the 70’s he learnt Basque with the help of Gabriel Aresti, Xabier Kintana, Joseba Agirreazkuenaga and others. Eguzkitza was said to have amazed Aresti with his tremendous ability to learn the language and to acquire the distinctive features of local Basque language varieties. When Aresti realised Eguzkitza had this gift he regarded him as a “monster”. He was also acquainted with Jon Mirande. Eguzkitza prepared Mirande’s anthology of poetry Orhoituz for publication after the poet’s death. On his return to the Basque Country in the mid-80s he began to work as a lecturer, firstly at the University of Deusto and later at the University of the Basque Country, where he continued lecturing in subjects relating to linguistics. Last September he was awarded the Chair in General Linguistics and Typology.

In 1991 the Euskaltzaindia appointed him as an associate member and in March 2001 he became a full member to replace the late Luis Villasante. His presentation speech was in praise of candour. He headed the Dialectology Committee and sat on the Grammar Committee and on the “Exonomastics” or Foreign Names Sub-Committee, among others.

Apart from poetry collections and novels Andolin Eguzkitza wrote many articles for newspapers, journals and magazines throughout the Basque Country: Anaitasuna, Pott Bandaren Praka, Argia, Jakin, Euskaldunon Egunkaria, BERRIA, Hegats, Maiatz and Elhuyar, among others.

(*) This is a reference to Erraietan barrena euria egiten digunean , Eguzkitza’s translation into Basque of a work entitled Quan plou en les entranyes by the Catalan poet Manel Alonso.


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Aralar's Proposal

Today at Berria English:

Aralar proposes Basque nationalist parties unite to stand in Europe

They have suggested to the EAJ, EA, Batasuna, Batzarre and Zutik parties that they form a coalition to stand in the European elections taking the "Nafarroa Bai" coalition and the Bergara Initiative as a basis

Aitziber Laskibar – BILBO
Aralar has made a proposal to the EAJ, EA, Batasuna, Batzarre and Zutik parties that they form a coalition to stand in the June European elections. As they explained in a press conference yesterday, the proposal they sent to the parties is based on the Bergara Initiative with “further points relating to pluralism and political conduct”. Such a coalition would bear the name Euskal Herria Bai (Yes to the Basque Country) and one of its main aims would be to “encourage efforts to resolve the conflict”. They say this way “efforts would be made to promote the legalisation of all the parties and an improvement in the situation of the Basque prisoners”.

They indicated yesterday that the proposal had already been sent to the five parties in writing and that initial contacts had already begun. They plan to hold face-to-face meetings in due course and hope to receive the answer of each party “shortly”.


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Wednesday, March 24, 2004

New Model of State

Also at Berria English:

EAJ, BNG and CiU ready to agree on new model of State

The three parties are upbeat about the change of government and believe a period of dialogue has started

Editorial Staff
“We nationalist parties, committed to the functioning of the State institutions and immersed in their functioning have come together to analyse the March 14 general elections.” These are the opening words of the declaration presented yesterday by the BNG, the CiU and the EAJ (the signatories of the Barcelona Declaration 16-07-98). They believe that the era of “imposition” is over and that of dialogue has begun. “We want to establish the foundations for a new way of understanding politics in a new model of State. That is our proposal and our commitment,” says the declaration. In order to achieve this they called on society, the institutions and the political parties to take part in the proposal.

The signatories of the Barcelona Declaration made this statement after their meeting in Madrid yesterday. In fact, they held the meeting to give their view on the Spanish parliamentary elections. Artur Mas, the CiU party chairman, and Josep Antoni Duran Lleida, the party’s general secretary, signed the declaration on behalf of the CiU; Josu Jon Imaz, National Executive Committee chairman, did so on behalf of the EAJ and Anxo Quintana, the BNG spokesman, represented his party.

In the declaration the BNG, the CiU and the EAJ say they are ready for inter-party dialogue “based on mutual respect and the absence of imposition”. They hold the view that dialogue is a necessary tool to normalise political life and to revive democratic and social coexistence. The signatories also cherish the hope that dialogue will be the main feature of this legislative period.

“We are pleased that the citizens have ended the era based on arrogance and the abuse of power by the PP, Government” says the declaration. They believe that the change in government will enable dialogue and debate to be reinstated as a way of working. Furthermore, they are of the opinion that this method will make it possible for agreements between parties to be reached.

After making an appeal for dialogue the BNG, CiU and EAJ outlined their aims for the Spanish Congress and Senate (lower and upper chambers of parliament, respectively) during the coming legislative period. There are three main points: the revival of Democracy, the achievement of which will entail the need to change policies adopted in a number of spheres during the previous legislative period; the legal and political acceptance of the nations, and the recognition of the political asymmetry or difference between the nations and regions.


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Applying to Ikastolak

Today at Berria English what I would call excellent news:

Record number of applications for Ikastola school places in last 10 years

The Partaide School network has asked the Education Department of the Basque Autonomous Community Government to renegotiate the map of direct-grant schools, because their offer has been “stretched to the limit” in many areas

Iñigo Bilbao – BILBO
The Partaide network of Ikastolas has asked the Education Department of the Basque Government to renegotiate the map of direct-grant schools, because the offer of their schools has been “stretched to the limit” in many cases. Another six or seven direct grant streams will be needed to respond to the demand they have received during the registration period that has just ended. This is especially so in Gipuzkoa, because a number of children have been left out due to a shortfall in the number of places.

In Navarre the Ikastolas are full to bursting and in the Iruñea area, even though 78 children more than those authorised by the Administration have applied, all of them will have to be left out. If this upward trend continues in the coming years, the people in charge of the Association of Ikastolas will be looking into the possibility of opening a new Ikastola in Iruñea (Pamplona).

In Bilbo yesterday Koldo Tellitu, chairman of the Partaide Ikastolas, and Pello Mariñelarena, chairman of the Ikastola Association of Navarre, provided details of the reservations for school places: for the next academic year the highest number of children in the last ten years have had their names put down for places in the schools belonging to the Ikastola Association of Navarre and the Partaide Ikastolas Association. There are 2,934 applications for places in all. This year, however, they have been catering for 2,747 pupils. This means a 6.8% rise in the number of children applying for places.

The figure is significant for the Ikastolas of Araba, Gipuzkoa and Bizkaia; in 1993 the Public Basque School Law came into force in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country and this has enabled them to see the evolution that has taken place since then: the number who want to study at these schools has been increasing from one year to the next.


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Tuesday, March 23, 2004

Against the Plan

Today at Berria English:

Basque Socialists propose dropping Plan and reforming Statute of Autonomy

The motions for rejection tabled by the PP, PSE-EE and the “Sozialista Abertzaleak” group did not proceed yesterday during the debate in the Basque Autonomous Community Parliament

Edurne Begiristain – GASTEIZ (Vitoria)
The debate on the Basque Government’s Political Statute began in the Basque Parliament yesterday. Ibarretxe’s Plan or Political Statute Proposal has now passed its first test, after the motions for rejection tabled by the PP, PSE-EE and the Sozialista Abertzaleak were thrown out, because the proposal can now proceed.

The debate on the motions for rejection was long (nearly six hours) and each group stuck to the position it has held until now. In the end, not one of the motions went ahead, because the EAJ, EA and the EB-IU, which make up the Basque Government, voted against all of them. The EB-IU, moreover, withdrew its own motion for rejection and announced that it would be defending its proposal for free association federalism through partial amendments. So the motions of the PP, PSE and Sozialista Abertzaleak were debated in the Parliamentary Committee for Institutions and Interior Matters. Most of the debate centred on the proposals put forward by the Sozialista Abertzaleak group and the PSE-EE to the parties that make up the Basque Government. Arnaldo Otegi proposed to the three parties in the Government that a discussion table, in which consensus could be reached on “the rules of the game” to respect the decisions of Basque citizens, be set up. Jesus Egiguren, in contrast, made a very different offer to Ibarretxe’s government: that the plan should be thrown out and agreement forged with the Socialists on a reform of the Statute of Autonomy. The debate did, however, touch on a number of other issues including the Spanish Constitution, the issue of powers, the Catalan model and the consultation of the people.


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Monday, March 22, 2004

ETA and Zapatero

Today at Berria English:

ETA calls on Zapatero to make “strong, daring gestures”

They have asked him to act “sensibly” to restore “peace based on rights through dialogue”

Editorial Staff
A statement sent by “Euskadi Ta Askatasuna” ( ETA) to BERRIA reflects on the results of the Spanish Parliamentary elections. It is addressed to Jose Luis Rodriguez-Zapatero, the PSOE General Secretary, and Spanish President-elect, and calls on him to make “gestures” towards the Basque Country. The statement reveals a number of reflections by ETA to solve the conflict of the Basque Country. It also makes a reference to two decisions it has taken in recent months. It expresses its view on the deaths of Angel Berrueta and Kontxi Sanchiz. Here follow some word-for-word extracts from the statement, dated March 16, 2004:

“First of all we should like to express our sorrow at the deaths of Anjel Berrueta, killed by a Spanish police officer in Iruñea on March 13th, and Kontxi Sanchiz, whose death on March 14th in Hernani was linked to the attack of the Autonomous Police Force of Spain (…)”.

“These two deaths, which occurred after the acts that took place in Madrid on March 11 and as a direct consequence of them, reveal to us the hypocritical attitude shown by political leaders and heads of political parties towards the deaths (…)”.

“We concluded in the statement we issued on the very day of the elections by saying ‘We trust that those who are going to govern Spain next will have more sense, so that through dialogue we can restore peace for the Basque Country based on rights’. And all we are doing right now is to reiterate this (…)”.

“The settling of the conflict that the Basque Country is enduring will be no easy task. There are many knots to be undone. Each agent has a deeply-rooted idea as to how the conflict could be resolved. Moreover, each one could think that its way is the most appropriate. ETA, too, has its own idea. (…)”.

“There is an international dimension in the conflict that is going on in the Basque Country. Even though its solution will come out of basic consensus among the agents of the Basque Country and France and Spain, it will be indispensable for such consensus to have the backing and guarantee of Europe and the international community. A people’s right to self-determination lies at the heart of the resolution of the conflict. (…)”.


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Sunday, March 21, 2004

Zorionak!

Happy Birthday to the greatest fella on earth, my Aita!

Oops! For those of you that don't know it Aita means father in euskara.

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Blaming Basques

Yesterday at the Chicago Tribune:

Blaming Basques

International Basque Organization for Human Rights

March 20, 2004
Corte Madera, Calif. -- We learned with dismay about the terrible events in Madrid where hundreds of innocent people were killed and wounded by bombings perpetrated by terrorists ("Ruthless attacks suggest new foe," News,March 12). However, what prompted us to write to you is the wording of your headline, which stated that the blame was directed at the Basques first, and then to a front group for Al Qaeda ("Rush-hour blasts kill 192 on Madrid trains/Basques 1st blamed, but Al Qaeda role claimed," Page 1, March 12).

While the former term refers to an ethnic group (a European nationality), the latter refers to a terrorist group. This sadly reflects Spain's official stance when it comes to dealing with Basque nationalism: It leads people to think that all Basques either are involved in or support terrorist acts like the ones perpetrated in Madrid in which so many innocent people's lives were affected. Nothing is further from the truth. As a matter of fact, the majority of the Basque people in Spain and France and around the world reject any kind of violence and have long since shunned ETA for its use of violent attacks. In the future, we insist that your newspaper use the correct term, ETA, or Euskadi Ta Askatasuna. NOT Basques.

What the Spanish government is trying to do is to strip the Basques of their right to self-determination, a right enshrined in the UN's charter. The Spanish government has recently issued threats against the Basque Prime Minister Juan Jose Ibarretxe for calling for a referendum to decide about the plan the Basque government wants to put forward to redefine the relationship between the Basque country and Spain. Actions like this one and many other initiatives by political and cultural groups in the Basque country that are performed peacefully and within the frame of the law are being discredited by the Spanish government, which groups them with the actions of ETA.

Spain's Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar and his officials rushed to place the blame on the Basques, even after news came that a group linked to Al Qaeda had claimed the attacks. Spain's Foreign Minister Ana Palacio instructed the Spanish ambassadors to stick to the official version. All this has created a wave of intolerance toward the Basques and the Basque culture.

During this time of terrible sorrow and intense emotions, Spain's government should be calling for calm, not fanning the flames of hatred toward opposition politicians and innocent Basques.


Copyright © 2004, Chicago Tribune


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Saturday, March 20, 2004

Spain Lied to Germany

Today at Deutshe Welle:

Spain Allegedly Misled Germany Over Bombings

Did Aznar deceive European allies after the bombings?
Spanish authorities intentionally withheld information and misled German officials into believing the Basque separatists ETA were responsible for the Madrid bombings, according to Germany's federal criminal bureau.

In the days following the March 11 terror attacks that killed 201 people in Madrid, Spain's intelligence authorities kept a tight seal on evidence related to the investigation and misled allied intelligence services by providing false information pointing to involvement by the ETA, German public television reported Tuesday.

Citing a source in Germany's federal criminal bureau (BKA), the national ARD station said Spanish investigators initially told a liaison official for the German intelligence service that the explosive used in the train bombs was Titadyn, a material frequently employed by the ETA in the past. Later they said it was Goma 2 Eco dynamite, an explosive the Spanish authorities claimed was also used by ETA.

It wasn't until Monday, a day after Spain's conservative government suffered a surprising loss in the general election, that officials in Madrid admitted Goma 2 explosives were not a type previously used by the Basque separatists.

German officials were also not informed until after the election that the detonator found with the explosives was not a type used by ETA. Moreover, after the arrest of three Moroccans and two Indians on Saturday, Spanish authorities continued to tell the German source in Madrid that a connection to Islamic circles could not be confirmed.

Intentionally misleading?

An unnamed high-ranking security official told ARD that such blatantly false information from an allied intelligence service was "beyond his imagination." For the German authorities, whose task it was to evaluate their own country's risk in the days following the attacks, the evidence about the explosives was the main reason why the BKA assumed ETA was behind the bombings.

Outgoing Spanish premier Jose Maria Aznar has been criticized from all sides for his attempts to pressure the media into blaming the Basque separatists rather than raising suspicion of Islamic extremists. Only after a videotape in Arabic was found claiming the blasts were the work of al Qaeda did media attention and public opinion steer away from the official line. At the same time, though, Aznar repeatedly pointed his finger at ETA and his interior ministry continued to cite evidence linking the attacks to the regional terror group.

"It was ETA. Do not doubt it for a moment," Aznar was quoted as telling Spanish journalists in personal phone calls urging them to print his statements.

Spain's interior minister Angel Acebes defended his government's information policy. "We always told the Spanish people the truth," he insisted.

The defeat of Aznar's party in the polls has been blamed to a large extent on the perception that the government manipulated information about the attacks to boost its chances in the election. Involvement by ETA in the bombings would have lent more support to the ruling party, which built its platform on high profile arrests of the Basque separatists.

German minister unhappy with Spain

German Interior Minister Otto Schily had already hinted on Sunday that Berlin was unhappy with Spain's lack of cooperation and withholding of information following the attacks.

German intelligence services only received the information from their Spanish colleagues after "some delay," the minister said, adding that "we obviously would have preferred to have been informed about certain details at an earlier stage than was the case."

The BKA also complained that Madrid restricted the sharing of information. In an internal document dated Sunday, the German criminal bureau wrote that Spanish authorities "are being very circumspect about concrete information in view of the imminent election. It would be desirable to have an open and trusting information policy."


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Egan Goes Web Wide

Today at Berria English:

Egan’ on the Internet too

The ‘Literatur Aldizkarien Gordailua’ is offering the chance to consult and print the works of Koldo Mitxelena, Gabriel Aresti, Jon Mirande, Piarres Lartzabal and of many other well-known authors

Juan Luis Zabala – DONOSTIA (San Sebastian)
The web site of the Literatur Aldizkarien Gordailua (archive of literary journals which forms part of the Ibiñagabeitia project) created by the Susa publishing house has put facsimiles of 74 issues of the Egan journal covering the period between 1948 and 1987 on the Internet (www.armiarma.com/andima/egan). Thanks to this, it is possible to read numerous texts of Juan San Martin, Koldo Mitxelena, Gabriel Aresti, Antonio Maria Labaien, Toribio Etxebarria, Aingeru Irigarai, Antonio Arrue and Jon Etxaide, among others. There are also single works like those of Jokin Zaitegi, Jon Mirande, Txillardegi, Salbatore Mitxelena, Frederico Krutwig, Nemesio Etxaniz and Piarres Lartzabal. It is possible not only to consult and read the facsimiled pages, but also to print them.

The initially bilingual Egan including texts in both Basque and Spanish was created in 1948 as a bulletin of the Euskalerriaren Adiskideen Elkartea and published four issues a year. During the dark days of the post-Spanish Civil War era the Basque Country’s most well-known writers who had not gone into exile used to write in Egan : Emeterio Arrese, Salbatore Mitxelena, Jose Artetxe, Gabriel Celaya, Jose Miguel Azaola, Mariano Zirikain, among others.


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Germany Denounces Foul Play

Today at Berria English:

Germany denounces information concerning attacks circulated by Madrid

Interior Minister Otto Schily cites “delays, vagueness and certain doubtful things, too”; moreover, PSOE spokesman Rubalcaba says the Aznar government knew from the Thursday onwards that it could have been an Islamist attack

Editorial Staff
Otto Schily, the German Interior Minister, declared yesterday that “there were problems” with the information circulated by the Spanish Government in the wake of the March 11 attacks in Madrid. In a programme broadcast on Wednesday afternoon by the ZDF public TV network Schily pointed out that there had been “delays, vagueness and doubtful things, too” from Madrid. So, Schily trusted the data given by Jose Maria Aznar’s government and circulated the theory that ETA had been behind the attacks.

As Angel Acebes, the Spanish Interior Minister, was attending a meeting of European Union Interior and Justice Ministers in Brussels, he was asked yesterday about Otto Schily’s declarations. Acebes, however, assured everyone that Schily had not said anything of the kind to him, had not accused him nor asked for any explanations whatsoever. Acebes declared: “We did not tell anyone any lies; we have deceived no one,” and as proof of this he referred to the declassifying and publishing of two reports by the Spanish information services. “The Spanish Government has not lied to anyone, let alone to Spanish citizens,” he pointed out. “The documents we made public yesterday constitute clear proof that we have been telling the truth from the start.”


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Friday, March 19, 2004

PP's Dark Designs

Today at Berria English:

Otegi says PP was about to suspend Araba, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa autonomy

He added that a “Basque Stormont” could emerge from the way opened up by the National Debate Forum (Nazio Eztabaidagunea)

Editorial Staff
Arnaldo Otegi, the Batasuna spokesman, said in an interview given on Euskadi Irratia (public Basque Autonomous Community radio) yesterday that in the wake of last week’s attacks in Madrid, by attributing responsibility to ETA the Spanish Government wanted to carry out “a kind of coup”, if they had won the elections. Otegi said that on the basis of the information he had received the PP wanted to take three measures in order to implement such a state of exception and they were: “to suspend the Basque autonomy, to put the Ertzaintza police force under the control of the Spanish Interior Ministry, and to arrest people, including myself.” He added that the information had come to him “from reliable sources”.

As to his view on the results of the Spanish general elections Otegi said Basque people had experienced “a sensation of relief” at the prospect of Aznar and the PP going. Nevertheless, he felt it was “too early” to say that things would change with the PSOE, and pointed out that the socialist party's way of governing was “well-known”. With respect to the relations that the EAJ is expected to have with the PSOE, he called on the EAJ to be frank. He believed that there were two possibilities in that political context: “One for the EAJ to reach agreement with the PSOE on the EAJ’s political project, and the other for consensus to be reached among forces in favour of self-determination on certain minimum issues” He added that it was significant that he had not yet heard the word self-determination spoken by Josu Jon Imaz, Chairman of the EAJ National Executive Committee, and stressed that he would very much like to know what plan the EAJ had.


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Gurasoak Warns of Life Sentences

Today at Berria English:

Gurasoak association believes “life sentences are being handed down”

The association has organised a demo in the streets of Bilbo for March 27 in protest at the judgements that are going to be pronounced in the coming months

Gotzon Hermosilla – BILBO
The Gurasoak association has denounced the genuine “life sentences” expected to be handed down during the trials over the coming two months of many young people involved in street troubles, from what they can deduce from the public prosecutor’s demands. To register their protest, the association has organised a demonstration scheduled to start out from the Jesusen Bihotza (Sacred Heart of Jesus) square in Bilbo on Saturday, March 27.

Txusa Etxeandia, the Gurasoak association spokesperson, has announced that the Public Prosecutor is seeking more than 50 years in some of these trials set to be held over the next few days. In fact, three young people are going to be tried on March 23 and the public prosecutor is seeking 54-year prison sentences for each of them. “If we bear in mind that the judge often accepts the demand of the public prosecutor as it stands, we can say that life sentences are imposed in the Spanish State, whatever the law may say to the contrary,” said Etxeandia.


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Galindo on Release

Today at Berria English:

National Criminal Court puts Galindo on course for day release

Although he was sent down for 75 years, the rules applying to those sent to prison for less than five years are being applied in his case

Eider Goenaga – DONOSTIA (San Sebastian)
Even though it is less than four years since Enrique Rodriguez-Galindo, the former Spanish Civil Guard General, was handed down a prison sentence, the Spanish National Criminal Court has given him the chance to apply for day release. Javier Gomez-Bermudez, the Central Parole Board judge, has applied the general regulations to the serving of his sentence. Despite Galindo’s 75-year sentence and the fact that the regulations apply to prisoners serving less than five years, the judge has made an exception in Galindo’s case virtually without putting forward any arguments.

The regulations state that a prisoner will be entitled to obtain day release and go free before he or she has served half of the sentence. Galindo has been inside for four years and now he is being given the opportunity to request day release and go free, if the prison governor agrees.

The judge in question monitors the cases of Basque prisoners and applies increasingly harsher measures against them, but has given Galindo an opportunity to go free. As a reason for treating Galindo as an exception he cites the fact “that Galindo was not convicted of a crime of terrorism”, and also that he is in a position to undergo social rehabilitation; by contrast, Gomez-Bermudez’s writ makes no mention whatsoever of the seriousness of the charge and crimes committed. He was convicted of two murders and two kidnappings. The writ states that the Criminal code gives the judge the option “to apply the general regulations governing the serving of sentences in a reasoned way, after the prisoner’s case has been individually assessed and his or her personal development and situation have been taken into consideration; so long as he or she did not commit any crime of terrorism and so long as the crimes are not the acts of an armed group”. It is indeed true that Galindo was not convicted of being a member of an armed group, even though the popular indictment, the private indictment and the National Criminal Court prosecutor attributed this to him. The trial did not prove that Galindo and the civil guards of the Information Services at the headquarters of Intxaurrondo (near Donostia) had formed part of a green [the colour of the civil guard uniforms] GAL, nor that any orders had been issued for this; it affirmed that the defendants themselves had thought up the kidnapping and death of Lasa and Zabala, prepared it and carried it out.

On April 26, 2000, Galindo was convicted along with another four people of kidnapping and killing Joxean Lasa and Joxi Zabala in 1983; he received a 71-year sentence and a year later the Spanish Supreme Court increased the sentence to 75 years in response to the appeal filed by both parties in the trial, the prosecution and defence.


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Thursday, March 18, 2004

Basque Importance in Iruñea

Today at Berria English:

Basque considered “indispensable” for two Iruñea City Council posts

A resolution published recently by the Navarrese High Court has suspended an advert for two City Council jobs placed in 2002

Editorial Staff – IRUÑEA (Pamplona)
In a resolution published recently the High Court of Navarre regards a knowledge of the Basque language as “indispensable” for two Iruñea City Council jobs. This decision of the court is in response to an appeal lodged by Iñaki Azkona.

Azkona lodged an appeal against the Iruñea City Council because of a decision it took in 2002 not to make a knowledge of Basque a requirement for the posts of assistant to the Basque Language Coordinator of the Department of Culture; in other words, a knowledge of Basque was not taken into consideration.

The Judge, on the other hand, made it clear that Basque was “an indispensable condition” to fill these posts. Consequently, the High Court of Navarre has suspended the advert for the two jobs.

The Euskara Kultur Elkargoa is “very grateful” for the Navarrese High Court’s decision, and has stressed that the judges have once again condemned the Iruñea City Council’s attitude towards the Basque language.


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Wednesday, March 17, 2004

Sayonara Francoist Vermin!

Lets get something straight here, I've been reading some notes on the newspapers and listening to some interviews regarding the terrorist acts in Madrid last week and the dismissal of the PP during Sunday election and people are saying that the Spaniards allowed the terrorist to win by disposing of Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar and his daufine Mariano Rajoy.

Rubbish, the Francoist junta lost because in the last four years they have been conducting themselves like a bunch of arrogant brutes, and their actions after the bombings exposed them in their true colors.

And those colors are ugly to say the least, trying to blame Basque nationalism for the bombings they went to the extreme of pressuring the spineless fellas at the UN High Council to blame ETA for the attacks, something that the UN has never done before, Ana Palacio, the regime's Foreign Minister ordered the Spanish ambassadors to stick to the official version, Angel Acebes went to the extreme of fooling the German intelligence agency by claiming that the explosives used were the ones that ETA uses when in reality they were different.

Aznar himself telephoned newspaper's directors to make sure that they would also stick to the official version, free press my ass.

Aznar and the other PP officials tried to profit from the sorrow of the Spanish public, they did it so blatantly that enough was enough, and they expelled them the way every single pseudo-democratic government most be expelled, vote by vote, without violence.

Sayonara futhermockers!



Spain Campaigned to Pin Blame on ETA
Wed Mar 17, 8:04 AM ET Add Top Stories - washingtonpost.com to My Yahoo!

By Keith B. Richburg, Washington Post Foreign Service

MADRID, March 16 -- In the first frantic hours after coordinated bomb blasts ripped through several packed commuter trains Thursday morning, the government of outgoing Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar undertook an intense campaign to convince the Spanish public and world opinion-makers that the Basque separatist group ETA had carried out the attacks, which killed 201 people and wounded more than 1,500.

Beginning immediately after the blasts, Aznar and other officials telephoned journalists, stressing ETA's responsibility and dismissing speculation that Islamic extremists might be involved. Spanish diplomats pushed a hastily drafted resolution blaming ETA through the U.N. Security Council. At an afternoon news conference, when a reporter suggested the possibility of an al Qaeda connection, the interior minister, Angel Acebes, angrily denounced it as "a miserable attempt to disrupt information and confuse people."

"There is no doubt that ETA is responsible," Acebes said.

Within days, that assertion was in tatters, and with it the reputation and fortunes of the ruling party. Suspicion that the government manipulated information -- blaming ETA in order to divert any possible link between the bombings and Aznar's unpopular support for the war in Iraq (news - web sites) -- helped fuel the upset victory of the Socialist Workers' Party in Sunday's elections. By then, Islamic extremists linked to al Qaeda had become the focus of the investigation.

Government officials insist that they never misled the public, and that they released in a timely manner all the information and evidence they had gathered. "We told the truth at all times to the Spanish people," Acebes said on Monday.

In retrospect, however, there were signs that the government was at least selective in releasing information about possible culprits. By 11 a.m. Thursday, police had already discovered an abandoned white van in Alcala de Henares -- a town where the bombed trains passed through -- containing seven detonators and a cassette tape with verses of the Koran recited in Arabic, officials said later. Sources familiar with Spanish intelligence services said the CNI, the National Intelligence Center, had suspected al Qaeda from the beginning.

The existence of a potential link to Islamic radicals was not revealed to the public until just before King Juan Carlos spoke on national television at 8:30 p.m.

Significantly, Spanish observers said, the king, in his solemn address, expressed confidence that "the criminals will be put in prison," but never mentioned ETA or any other possible culprit. Asked whether the king was satisfied with the way the government had handled information, the palace declined to respond, citing its customary refusal to comment on government matters.

The first bomb went off at 7:39 a.m., on a jam-packed commuter train at the Atocha station in central Madrid. By 7:42, 10 bombs had exploded -- seven at Atocha, two at nearby El Pozo station and one at Santa Eugenia. Although the initial figures put the death toll at about 20, authorities knew the number would rise dramatically and that this would be the worst terrorist attack in Spanish history.

That was when officials began their campaign to pin the blame on ETA, which the Aznar government has pursued vigorously and successfully.

The government had good reason to suspect ETA, whose initials in Basque stand for Basque Homeland and Freedom. The group has killed hundreds of civilians in terrorist attacks stretching back decades. Police reported on Christmas Eve having thwarted an ETA plot to set off two bombs at a Madrid train station. On Feb. 29, police arrested two ETA members near Madrid as they drove a van packed with a half-ton of explosives.

Immediately after Thursday's bombings, Foreign Minister Ana Palacio telephoned her British counterpart, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, to say that it was ETA, according to a British official, who added, "We had no independent evidence of our own that the Spanish were wrong." Less than two hours later, Straw was on television saying, "It looks to be an ETA terrorist outrage, and that is the information we've received from Madrid."

At the same time, the Spanish Foreign Ministry was sending instructions to its embassies, saying diplomats "should use any opportunity to confirm ETA's responsibility for these brutal attacks," according to a copy of the letter published in the Spanish daily El Pais. Spanish officials have confirmed that the instructions went out, but said they were only for "guidance."

Meanwhile, Arnaldo Otegi, head of the banned Batasuna party, which Aznar's government alleges to be ETA's political wing, condemned the attack, which experts on the Basque situation said was unusual. Otegi's condemnation was given wide coverage on radio stations outside Madrid. Between noon and 2 p.m. Thursday, Catalan radio was airing discussion programs exploring the possibility of al Qaeda involvement. On one Catalan station, 91.0 FM, Otegi said in an interview that the attacks were carried out by "the Arab resistance, possibly in retaliation for the Spanish presence in Iraq."

But in Madrid, radio stations were referring to "the ETA attacks" and carried none of the discussion about whether others might have been involved.

Managing the coverage of the disaster became a priority for the government, which contacted both the Spanish and international news media, stressing the official line that the bombings were the work of ETA.

El Pais, which was preparing a special edition on the attacks, received several calls directly from Aznar, its reporters confirmed. The editor of the Catalan-based paper El Periodico said Aznar called twice. Aznar "courteously cautioned me not to be mistaken. ETA was responsible," the editor, Antonio Franco, wrote in an editorial Tuesday. At a news conference on Friday, Aznar said he had called several newspapers, saying he wanted to explain the government's view.

The government spokesman's office at Moncloa, the prime minister's office, also placed calls to at least 10 foreign correspondents during the day, according to Steven Adolf, a Dutch reporter for NRC Handelsblatt and president of the foreign correspondents club here. Most of the calls were identical, journalists said.

Henk Boom, another Dutch journalist, said he received a call from a spokeswoman at about 5 p.m. "She said she was told to tell foreign correspondents that there was one official version -- that ETA was responsible for the attacks, and only ETA," he said.

Reading from a text, the spokeswoman gave three reasons why ETA was the culprit, Boom said: No one had asserted responsibility, which followed ETA's style of not making claims for at least a week; the type of explosive was similar to that normally used by ETA; and there was no call beforehand warning of the attacks, another characteristic of ETA -- a point some journalists have disputed.

By Thursday night, with the announcement of the discovery of the van with the Arabic tape and the claim of responsibility on behalf of al Qaeda in a London Arabic-language newspaper, public doubt began to set in. The morning newspapers Friday ran side-by-side articles comparing the possibilities of al Qaeda and ETA involvement.

By Friday night, police found new leads -- the discovery of a sports bag containing undetonated explosives and a mobile telephone. At a news conference, however, Acebes continued to insist ETA was the main suspect. "How is it that after 30 years of attacks, they are not going to be the prime suspects?" Acebes said. Still, he said, "We haven't closed off any line of investigation."

At the makeshift shrines set up to honor the victims, young people gathering to light candles and lay flowers were starting to voice skepticism about the ETA claim.

On Saturday night -- hours before the polls opened -- the government announced the arrests of three Moroccans and two Indians, and the discovery of a videotape from a purported al Qaeda official asserting responsibility for the attacks. Thousands of Spaniards responded by taking to the streets, banging pots and pans in protests and denouncing the government.

That voter anger swept the Socialists back to power for the first time in eight years.

Special correspondents Pamela Rolfe and Robert Scarcia contributed to this report.

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St. Patrick's!

Gora Irlanda Batua !

Erin Go Bragh !


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Tuesday, March 16, 2004

Annan: Spain Fumbled

Everyone agrees, Spain really got messy on this whole issue of the attacks.

Check this out:

"...but as evidence mounted that Islamic extremists with links to al-Qaida were behind the bomb blasts, the Security Council was left in the embarrassing position of blaming the Basque separatists..."

Annan: Spain Blaming ETA Affected Election
Tue Mar 16, 6:34 PM ET

By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer
UNITED NATIONS - Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) said Tuesday that Spain's initial insistence that Basque terrorists were behind last week's Madrid train bombings was a factor in Sunday's upset election victory by the Socialists.

But he said there were other factors including strong public opposition to the U.S.-led war in Iraq and an al-Qaida claim the bombings were punishment for Spain's support for the United States.

Annan was asked if terrorism affected the election which saw Socialist leader Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, an opponent of the war, defeat conservative Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, one of President Bush's staunchest allies.

"I think the events in Spain need to be looked at very critically," Annan told reporters.

He cited "many factors" in the election: "One was the question of who did it, and whether the public felt they got a full, clear picture from the government of what was going on. There was a question of the large number of the population having been opposed to the war, being reminded of the war by the claims made by the terrorists who committed the attack."

"But I think what is important, and what this underscores, is that we need international cooperation — working across borders — to defeat and contain terrorism," Annan said.

Zapatero has promised to fulfill a campaign pledge to withdraw Spain's 1,300 troops serving in the U.S.-led coalition by June 30 unless the United Nations takes over. The U.S.-led coalition is expected to hand over power to an Iraqi body on that date.

Annan said the Spanish government's initial insistence that ETA was responsible for the bombings, which the Security Council endorsed, demonstrate the difficulties of acting too quickly.

Immediately after Thursday's bombings, which killed 200 people and injured 1,400 others, Spanish Foreign Minister Ana Palacio and Spanish diplomats here and in other capitals started lobbying for a resolution blaming ETA.

Spain is currently serving a two-year term on the Security Council, and just hours after the blasts its 15 members unanimously adopted a resolution condemning the bombings "perpetrated by the terrorist group ETA."

But as evidence mounted that Islamic extremists with links to al-Qaida were behind the bomb blasts, the Security Council was left in the embarrassing position of blaming the Basque separatists.


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Monday, March 15, 2004

The Kind Ertzaintza Officer

Today at Berria English:

“I couldn’t give a damn”

That was the answer given by the Basque Autonomous Community police officer to the daughter of the dead Kontxi Sanchiz in Hernani when asked for help

Amagoia Mujika – HERNANI (Gipuzkoa)
The Ertzaintza or Basque Autonomous Community police force said in a statement issued yesterday that they were investigating the death of the Hernani-born Kontxi Sanchiz. “An inquiry was begun as soon as the news emerged,” says the statement, but it does not say that when Sanchiz’s daughter Nagore Gonzalez and her friend, Arkaitz Fraile, approached an Ertzaina or police officer for help, they were told, “I couldn’t give a damn”.

Visibly upset, Arkaitz Fraile said yesterday, “When we saw that the ambulance wasn’t coming, we asked an Ertzaina for help and that is how he responded.” The Ertzaintza had told BERRIA that they would “only be issuing a statement and would not be giving any explanations”.

At midday yesterday about 400 people had gathered in Hernani to denounce the killing of Angel Berrueta and the citizens of Hernani were faced with another death. Kontxi Sanchiz died of a heart attack during the protest which led to trouble and in which the Ertzaintza were involved.


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PP's Defeat

The rule of the Francoist PP in Spain is over.

The castle of glass that the Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar built on lies and manipulations came crumbling down after the rotten core of his party was exposed to the Spanish people and the international community. I don't know if there is anything worst than to try to profit politically from the tragedy of your own people.

What happened in Spain was simple, there was just to many lies coming from a bunch of arrogant and Fascist minded idiots. Immediatly after the terrible bombings in Madrid the Spanish regime issued a condemnation on Basque nationalism as the responsible for the tragedy. It was a political move, they knew they could get more votes that way.

The Spanish regime moved so quickly than within hours the UN High Council and the European Union had issued similar condemnations against ETA. The media in Spain and around the world championed this version. There was a few specialists in terrorism and members of intelligence agencies that put this version in doubt, it was simply not ETA's modus operandi.

The Spanish Interior Minister Angel Acebes told the press that everysingle piece of evidence pointed at ETA.

But then the truth started unraveling, first a van with detonators and tapes with Quran verses in Arabic, then an email to a London based news paper by a front group of Al Qaeda claiming responsability, then the arrest of three Moroccans and two Spaniards of Indian background linked to a cellphone that was in a knapsack bomb that did not went off, and the straw that broke the camel's back, a video-tape by Al Qaeda claiming responsability for the attacks.

The Spanish Foreign Minister Ana Palacio instructed the Spanish ambassadors to stick to the by then "official version" of ETA's responsability even after the van with the detonators and the email from Al Qaeda was received.

Then the worst, in Irunea (Pamplona), fueled by the governments lies a police officer from Salamanca that works on a sort of political groups' intelligence unit gunned down a Basque baker, the police officer's son finished it up by stabbing the 61 year old man. Then the police attacked the family members and neighbors and brought down the Ikurrinas and black ribbons the mourners had place on the bakery. The baker, Angel Berroeta was a member of "Gurasoak", a human rights group for parents and family members of Basque youths accused of belonging to the "Kale Borroka", a youth organization that time to time stages violent demonstrations in the Basque Country.

By Saturday night the Spaniards were demanding the truth, and they took the streets once again banging pots and pans in front of each local PP headquarters. They were common folk hurting from the loss of innocent people on such a horrible way, but the PP presidential candidate Mariano Rajoy accused them of violating the electoral law (??!!).

On Sunday the Spaniards went to the voting poles, they started the slow process of kicking the Francoist scumbags out of office in the best way possible, vote by vote.

Then it happened again, in the Basque town of Hernani a group of people dediced to demonstrate for the death of Angel Berroeta, the Ertzaintza stopped them first but then allowed the demonstration to continue, suddenly they started firing rubber bullets and gas cannisters at the crowd, the people scattered and when the smoke cleared out they found 58 year old Conchi Santxis who was suffering a heart attack, the crowd begged for help from the Ertzaintza officers, who refused it, soon after Conchi Santxis died, one more victim of the intolerance.

Vote by vote Basques, Catalonyans, Galizans and Spaniards said no to Aznar's Francoist postures, vote by vote they said no to Mariano Rajoy's perpetuating the PP's Francoist agenda.

At the end of the day a grim faced Aznar had to conced defeat, Mariano Rajoy did the same not before making a fool of himself by calling the PSOE a bunch of ignorant reds.

Victorious was Jose Luis Rodrigues Zapatero for the PSOE, the Socialists that have nothing to do with Lenin, the same PSOE that eight years ago was voted out of office due to their corruption and the way they handled the Basque conflitct, by deploying their own terrorist group known as the GAL.

So, the political landscape is not really an improvement for the Basques or Catalans that did managed to reinforce their respective autonomic parties. Lets see how Zapatero will manage the present political crisis in Spain.

Someone please tell Powell to read the news so he stops babbling nonsense, he can try to help Kofi Annan to find a way to revoke that condemnation the UN approved on Thursday when they were fooled by a bloodthirsty and pseudo-democratic Spanish regime.

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Sunday, March 14, 2004

Tssk, Powell, Read the News...

Someone please tell Powell that the PP lost the elections in Spain and that he does not need to keep insisting that it was ETA who was behind the attacks.

You would expect that a member of a minority would be more in tune with the suffering of a society that has been accused of a heinous crimes and that today stands clean and proud and mourning the death of a 61 year old baker who's only crime was to be Basque according to Francoist scumbags Jose Maria Aznar, Mariano Rajoy, Ana Palacio and Angel Acebes.

Shame on you Powell.

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Breaking News!

This information has been published by Yahoo News:

AP: Madrid Bombing, 9/11 Suspect Linked

48 minutes ago Add Top Stories - AP to My Yahoo!

By ANDREW SELSKY, Associated Press Writer
MADRID, Spain - One of the three Moroccans arrested in the Madrid train bombings is linked to a man jailed in Spain for allegedly helping plan the Sept. 11 attack in the United States, according to court documents reviewed by The Associated Press. It was the latest suggestion that Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist group may have been involved in the bombings.

A Sept. 17, 2003 indictment named Jamal Zougam, 30, as a "follower" of Imad Yarkas, who was jailed for allegedly helping plan the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington. Zougam has been arrested in the Madrid bombings. Yarkas, who has used the alias Abu Dahdah, remains in Spanish custody.

The indictment, led by Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzon, showed police had searched Zougam's home twice. One search turned up a video of mujaheddin fighters in Dagestan, Russia.

Zougam is one of three Moroccans and two Indians arrested in the Thursday attacks, which killed 200 people and wounded 1,500. Officials said phones were apparently used as detonators on the 10 bombs that tore through four rush-hour trains.

Zougam was one of thousands of Moroccans put under surveillance by authorities after May terrorist bombings in the coastal city of Casablanca that killed 33 people and 12 bombers, a Moroccan official said on condition of anonymity.

European intelligence agencies were also working Sunday to identify a purported al-Qaida operative who claimed in a videotape that the terror group bombed trains in Madrid to punish Spain's backing of the U.S.-led war against Iraq.

The tape was discovered in a trash bin near Madrid's largest mosque on the eve of Spain's general elections Sunday. An Arabic-speaking man called a Madrid TV station to say the tape was there, Spain's Interior Ministry said.

"You love life and we love death," said the man on the tape, who wore Arab dress and spoke Arabic with a Moroccan accent.

The man said the taped claim of responsibility for the bombing of four commuter trains came from "the military spokesman for al-Qaida in Europe, Abu Dujan al Afghani."

The Interior Ministry released details about its contents, and intelligence agents were trying to identify the man, verify his claims and establish who Abu Dujan al Afghani is.

"Our reservations about the credibility remain," Spanish Interior Minister Angel Acebes said Sunday.

In France, which has combated Islamic terrorism for years, an intelligence official said the name al Afghani is likely a pseudonym. The name al Afghani could mean the person is of Afghan origin or has some association with the country.

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said it was too early to say if al-Qaida was responsible.

Two Spaniards of Indian origin have also been detained for questioning.

One of the Moroccans had already been under surveillance since last May, when suicide bombings in Casablanca against Jewish and Spanish targets

Zougam faces no formal charges in Morocco. The Casablanca bombings were blamed on Salafia Jihadia, a secretive, radical Islamic group suspected of links to al-Qaida.

The other two Moroccan suspects, Mohamed Bekkali, 31, a mechanic, and Mohamed Chaoui, a worker, 34, have no police record at home, the official said.

The Spanish interior minister, however, said three of the suspects had previous records, and one was under investigation for suspected participation in murder. He earlier had said that one suspect might also have connections with Moroccan extremist groups. He gave no further details.

The interior ministry identified the two Indian suspects as Vinay Kohly and Suresh Kumar.

The five were arrested after a cell phone and prepaid card were found in an explosives-filled gym bag on one of the bombed trains.

Friends of the Moroccans said the Madrid store where they worked sold cell phones but they insisted that the men would not have been involved in planning or carrying out the attacks.

"People shouldn't be put in jail for selling cell phones. They are hard workers," said Karim, who works in a phone shop near the now-shuttered store where the arrested Moroccans worked. Karim did not want to give his last name.

Police searched five properties overnight, Acebes said.

Authorities have been tracking Islamic extremist activity in Spain since the mid-1990s and say it was an important staging ground, along with Germany, for the Sept. 11 attacks.

___

Associated Press writer John Leicester in Madrid and Nicolas Marmie in Rabat, Morocco, contributed to this report.


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Hate Crime

Today at Berria English:

Spanish police officer kills member of “Gurasoak” association in Iruñea

Iruñea-born Angel Berroeta was killed in his bakery; the police officer was arrested, as was his son

Asier Azpilikueta – IRUÑEA (Pamplona)
61-year-old Angel Berroeta-Legaz from Iruñea was killed at midday yesterday by a member of the Spanish Police in the bakery belonging to the former located in the Donibane (San Juan) quarter of Iruñea. The police officer was off duty and stabbed and shot Berroeta several times after a heated argument. It was alleged to have been a political argument (Berroeta was a member of the Gurasoak association). The police officer who fired the shots was arrested and so was his son, who was thought to have taken part in the argument.

Angel Berroeta’s bakery is at 18, Martin Azpilkueta street in the Donibane quarter and the police officer lives next door in flat “C” on the first floor. According to neighbours, at about 13.30 hours the policeman's wife had had a heated argument with Berroeta about a poster saying ETA, ez (No to ETA); the neighbours were eager to stress that the woman did not go to that bakery to get bread, “as she always goes to buy bread at the bakery opposite”.

The woman appears to have requested or demanded that Berroeta put a poster in his shop window, but the latter refused. And that was how the fatal argument began. After that the versions given by the neighbours differ somewhat. Some say the police officer was outside and others that he was in the flat. Whichever the case, the woman called the police officer and he went into the bakery and shot and stabbed Berroeta several times.

The police officer and the woman left the bakery and went to their flat. According to a witness in the same block of flats the woman said, “It was my fault, it was my fault.”


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Oops! You Mean, No Basques?

Today at Berria English:

Three Moroccans and two Indians arrested in connection with attack

Acebes said they were detained following the lead of a telephone discovered in a bag which failed to go off

Editorial Staff – DONOSTIA (San Sebastian)
Last night Angel Acebes, the Spanish Interior Minister, announced the arrest of five people who could be linked to the Madrid attacks: three are Moroccans and the other two Indians. He said they had been detained yesterday afternoon, because they were thought to have had something to do with the “sale and tampering” of a phone and SIM card found in the bag of explosives that did not go off.

Minister went on to explain that statements were also being taken from two Spaniards of Indian origin. He stressed that the operation “had only just begun” and asked for caution. He said that the police were searching the homes of the detainees. He explained that the operation was being directed by “the corresponding judge” of the Spanish National Criminal Court.

Despite admitting that a lot of progress was being made in the line of investigation relating to the involvement of an Islamist organisation, Acebes said that neither the hypothesis concerning ETA, nor the possibility of “cooperation between terrorist organisations” should be ruled out. Acebes was pleased with the way the investigation was proceeding. “Even though we’ve only just begun, we have obtained important results already. For instance, it is only 60 hours after the attack we already have five arrests. This investigation opens up an important path along which to advance,” he said. Nevertheless, he reiterated that it was necessary to proceed “with caution”. He was proud of the work of the Spanish Security forces. “They have confirmed what I said on the first day, that we would arrest the perpetrators of the attack and that they would pay for what they had done,” he said.

However, he still clung on to the possibility of ETA being responsible: “Other theories must not be ruled out. From the beginning we instructed the Police to follow up the two main lines and they continue to work along all the lines.”

Acebes did not confirm that the detainees were being accused of being behind the attack, but that they could have been responsible for the tampering and sale of the phone which had been discovered. “It is now up to the police to take their statements and look into the extent to which they could be responsible.” The mobile phone was discovered the day before yesterday in a bag along with explosives and a detonator taken from one of the trains. Sources close to the investigations indicated that the examination of the configuration of the phone card would be crucial. A radio station said yesterday, before Acebes announced the arrests, that the configuration of the phone was in Arabic.


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Saturday, March 13, 2004

Sticking to the Official Version

As you can read on the last paragraph of the most recent "Breaking News" even after a van with detonators and tapes of the Quran in Arabic, an email from a front group for Al-Quaeda claiming responsability, the arrest of three Moroccans that may have ties to an extremist group that carried attacks against Jewish centers in Morocco not too long ago, and a tape from Al-Quaeda itself claiming responsability, the Spanish regime insists on blaming ETA, what a band of scumbags they are, the Spanish officials that is, well, and so is ETA.

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Along Comes a Tape

Aznar and his PP are in trouble, their lies are out there for all of us to see. This note was published by Yahoo News:

Tape Claims al-Qaida Tied to Spain Blasts
1 minute ago Add Top Stories - AP to My Yahoo!
MADRID, Spain - Spain's interior minister said Sunday a videotape has been discovered claiming al-Qaida carried out the Madrid terrorist attacks and threatening more, but that he could not verify the veracity of the claim. Earlier, Spain arrested three Moroccans and two Indians in connection with the attacks Thursday that killed 200 people and wounded 1,500.

Interior Minister Angel Acebes said a man identifying himself as the military spokesman of Al-Qaida in Europe claimed the group was responsible for the bombings.

"We declare our responsibility for what happened in Madrid exactly 2 1/2 years after the attacks on New York and Washington," said the man, according to a government translation of the tape, which was recorded in Arabic. "It is a response to your collaboration with the criminals Bush and his allies."

Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar has been a staunch supporter of the U.S.-led war in Iraq (news - web sites).

A London-based Arabic newspaper had earlier received a claim of responsibility in al-Qaida's name; but the government has been reluctant to blame the Islamic group, saying the Basque separatist group ETA was also a suspect. ETA denied responsibility.

Speaking at a hastily called post-midnight news conference at the interior ministry, Acebes said authorities could not confirm the claim was genuine. He said the videotape was discovered after an Arabic-speaking man called a Madrid TV station and said where it could be found.

A statement from the ministry said the speaker was identified as Abu Dujan al Afghani. Acebes said the man was not known to law enforcement authorities in Spain, and that they were checking the tape's authenticity.

The man threatened further attacks in the video.

"This is a response to the crimes that you caused in the world, and specifically in Iraq and Afghanistan (news - web sites), and there will be more if God wills it," the man said, according to the Spanish government's translation.

Thursday's attacks in Madrid came just days before Sunday's general elections in Spain. At demonstrations Saturday, some protesters said they believed the ruling party was playing down the possible link between the bombings and Spain's role in Iraq, fearing it would hurt the party's chances in the election.

Acebes, speaking at a news conference on Saturday, said the five suspects were all arrested around Madrid. A spokesman for the Moroccan government identified the three Moroccans as as Jamal Zougam, 30; Mohamed Bekkali, 31, a mechanic; and Mohamed Chaoui, 34. All three are from northern Morocco, but the government gave no further details about them.

"One might have connections with Moroccan extremist groups. But it is still very early to establish to what degree," Acebes said. He did not name any group.

Asked whether the Basque separatist group ETA is still considered a suspect, Acebes said: "We must not rule anything out."


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