Irish Solidarity With Basque Political Prisoners

This comes to us from the Belfast Basque Committee:

Petition in Solidarity with Basque Prisoners

SUPPORT OUR BASQUE SISTERS AND BROTHERS AND SUPPORT THE DEMAND TO:

“BRING THE BASQUE PRISONERS TO THE BASQUE COUNTRY, ACKNOWLEDGE THEIR RIGHTS!” – Ibaeta University Declaration.

There are currently almost 700 Basque citizens in prison, suffering exceptional measures that come from the so-called “antiterrorist policy”. Their situation continues to get worse. The fact that, to date, 20 people have died in jail, the latest only weeks ago, is but an example of their extremely tough living conditions.

On Saturday 26 November, 2005, representatives of 29 Basque political, trade union, and social organizations met at the Ibaeta University Campus in Donostia in order to address the issue of Basque Political Prisoners.

They agreed to make a call to denounce the consequences of the policy of prisoner dispersal and demanding the Spanish and French governments recognize the representatives of the political prisoners and engage with them so that the Basque Political Prisoners Collective (EPPK) may take part in the ongoing political process. They agree that supporting the prisoners’ rights is an essential step towards conflict resolution.

Support the demands of the Basque Pro-Amnesty movement and the organizations at the Ibaeta Forum:

· The right to respectful and dignified treatment

· End torture and ill treatment

· End isolation and beatings

· Respect for the national and cultural identity of imprisoned people.

· The right to health

· Proper healthcare--Allow doctors chosen by the prisoners to visit them

· Immediate release of those who suffer serious illnesses.

· End surveillance and restrictions in communication

· Freedom to communicate in the Basque language

· Allow Basque prisoners to freely carry out their daily lives in Basque and fully develop their language skills.

· End the obstacles to study -- Allow the possibility to carry out studies in Basque

· Women in prison have the right to be mothers in conditions that do not diminish their dignity.

· Eliminate restrictions on communication with the child’s father.

· Guarantee living conditions for children in jail. Apply parole to prisoners who have served 3/4 or 2/3 of their sentence (depending on the Penal Code under which they were tried)
· Apply the corresponding legal sentence reductions without discrimination.

· Immediate release for prisoners who suffer serious incurable diseases.

· Acknowledge the representatives elected by the Collective. Allow the Collective to freely maintain relations with other political and social actors.

· Allow the Collective to freely participate in whichever instruments for debate and discussion Basque society creates. Repatriate the Basque Prisoners!

Source: EPPK (Basque Political Prisoners Collective)

To Sign Petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/Basque/

Until All Are Free - We Are All Imprisoned!

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