Etxerat and the Refugees

With our ongoing and wrongly named "War on Terrorism" some states have created new laws aimed at removing many of the human rights and civil liberties of those individuals who stand faithful to their principles, their ideals and political proposals become what is known as dissidents.

On the other hand, there is governments that time to time seem to understand that to achieve peace, you most negotiate, you must yield to some of the demands put forward by those on the other side of the table.

Here you have an article that appeared at Berria today, by Ekain Rojo titled "Etxerat urges ending of oppression to fugitives":

During a press briefing given in Donostia (San Sebastian) yesterday Etxerat called on Spain and France to end the oppression of Basque fugitives. It urged them “to stop,” once and for all, “the cruel measures that only serve to prolong the conflict and spread the suffering,” and made a call for the steps needed in the Basque Country to resolve the conflict to be taken by everyone together.

Etxerat’s request in fact comes the day after the British Government published legislation that would open up the way for the fugitives of the IRA and other paramilitary groups to return home. They stressed that if the Basque conflict is to be resolved, then Basque fugitives are also needed back in the Basque Country.

Estanis Etxaburu, Etxerat’s spokesman, pointed out that over 2,000 political fugitives had fled the Basque Country, “because of the violence being perpetrated by the [French and Spanish] States”. They have taken refuge mainly in Argentina, Uruguay, Venezuela, Panama, Cuba, Mexico, Cape Verde and Belgium. Etxaburu said they did not know what the circumstances of many of them were: “It is very tough not knowing where your sons and daughters, parents, cousins, aunts, uncles or friends are or how they are doing.”

As you read these lines, six Basques await an extradition process that is today in the hands of the Supreme Court in Mexico. Their process has been plagued with irregularities and the Inquisitorial Judge Garzón has presented nothing but a copy of a document that says absolutely nothing.

A number of Spanish politicians both from the present and the past governments have demanded from President Vicente Fox to bypass the Mexican Constitution that prevents the Mexican authorities from extraditing political refugees to countries that practice oppression and torture. Sadly enough Vicente Fox, like his predecessor Ernesto Zedillo, agreed to it.

Now, those six depend on a display of courage by the Supreme Court judges, because that is going to take in order to ensure that the executive and legislative powers in Mexico remain independent from each other.

Bottom line, Spain is looking to exporting that repression that Etxerat speaks about to other sovereign states and demanding from them to violate their own laws and regulations.

Sad indeed, taking into consideration that this is the XXI century.

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