The Boomerang Effect

More information about what is going on in Euskal Herria thanks to our Irish friends, this time at the blog published by the Irish Basque Solidarity Committees.

BOOMERANG EFFECT AGAINST SPANISH ATTACKS

-Forceful response to attack against the Basque pro-independence movement.

On Tuesday 13 October, 10 prominent activists, including Batasuna leader Arnaldo Otegi and former general secretary of the LAB trade union Rafa Diez, were arrested and accused of trying to "reorganise the leadership" of the Basque pro-independence left movement. Five of the 10 were arrested in a raid on the national headquarters of the LAB union in Donostia.

On Friday Judge Baltasar Garzon sent Otegi, Diez and three others to jail, accused of "membership of a terrorist organisation" and of trying to reconstitute the pro-independence Batasuna party on the "orders of ETA". Batasuna was outlawed in 2003.

Hundreds of people took to the streets and students organised strikes in the aftermath of the arrests.

A massive protest was held on Saturday 17 October in Donostia/San Sebastian to protest against the Spanish government's new wave of arrests against the Basque pro-independence movement.

More than 37,000 Basques protested against the arrests under the slogan "For liberty, all rights for all” in a very significant demonstration of unity among Basque society. The demonstration had been called by the majority of trade unions and supported by all Basque nationalist and progressive political parties.

The demonstration was the largest in the Basque Country in many years and even the pro-Spanish media had to recognise the huge success.

Statements of support also came from across the world like the World Federation of Trade Unions and the European Free Alliance. In Ireland, Sinn Féin MEP Bairbre de Brún and the Irish Basque Solidarity Committees cqalled for an end to such repression and the immediate release of those arrested and told the Spanish government they need to engage in dialogue with those they seek to demonise and criminalise. “This is the only way to reach a lasting settlement in the Basque Country” they concluded.

The Dublin Basque Solidarity Committee organised a protest outside the GPO on Sunday.

Batasuna responded to the arrests by saying: "The aim of these arrests is to stop political initiatives that the Basque pro-independence movement was due to activate - political initiatives to resolve the ongoing conflict and to create a democratic scenario for the Basque Country."

On Monday 19 the Basque pro-independence newspaper Gara published extracts from a 36-page debate document presented for discussion among the grass roots by Batasuna’s leadership. This discussion and its practical conclusions is what the Spanish government seems to fear and what they wanted to prevent with last week’s arrests.

In the document a new effective strategy is suggested. Batasuna’s leadership wants to promote a democratic process without any violence and external interference.

The latest arrests are part of the Spanish government's ongoing campaign of repression against political, social, labour and cultural organisations that are in favour of self-determination for the Basque Country. The central thesis of this criminalisation campaign, as formulated by Judge Garzon, is that “everything that surrounds ETA is ETA” , that is, any group or individual that shares ETA's goal of Basque independence, regardless of what methods they use, is part of ETA.

This process has often been led by politicians and the media but is given a 'democratic' cover and institutionalised by the Spanish courts through a series of judicial rulings initiated by Garzon in 1998.

The repression against all expressions of Basque nationalism has escalated dramatically during the summer, with the Madrid government working in concert with the Spanish chauvinist coalition government that took power in the south-west of the Basque Country in March.

-Another sucessful display of support to the Basque language.

Up to 100,000 people attended the annual day long festival to support the Basque language schools in the province of Navarre. This year’s edition was organised by the local school of Lakuntza with the slogan “Txikiak, handi” (The small ones are big).

Young and old came from across the Basque Country to enjoy lots of different activities like gigs, sport, food, street animation, workshops, cultural displays... 3,000 volunteers worked hard to make sure everything went well.

The money raised will help to build a new building for the Lakuntza Basque medium school.

These massive festivals are organised in each province of the Basque Country every year and become both a great way to fundraise for the vitally necessary Basque medium schools and to promote the Basque language.

Each year a different school organises the festival. It takes around 300 volunteers working for two years to organise it.


-Largest ever demonstration against High Speed Train.

12,000 people demonstrated in Baiona in the north of the Basque Country last Saturday against the construction of a new High Speed Train railway.

Over the last few years different plans to build High Speed Train railways across the Basque Country have been opposed by large sections of Basque society with the pro-independence left movement at the core of the protest campaigns.

ETA has also intervened with small bombs and the killing of a main contractor.

The High Speed Train would put the Basque Country’s future at risk due to the environmental destruction and huge consumption of energy and public funds.

-More political trials and more arrests.

Last Friday seven members of the Pro-Amnesty movement were arrested and taken to prison to fulfil the remaining sentences imposed against them by the Spanish Supreme Court for their political work against repression and in favour of the Basque political prisoners. They had been waiting for the outcome of their appeal.

Another 13 members of the movement were already in jail after all of them were sentenced to between 8 and 10 years in prison. Basque political prisoners do their time to the full.

The hard sentence has been understood within a context of political repression aimed to weaken the pro-independence movement and prevent new political developments that could take the Basque Country to a new scenario of peace and democracy.

Last week the first of a long list of trials began against alleged members of Segi, the pro-independence youth organisation. Over the last two years 16 police operations were launched in different parts of the Basque Country and 123 local youth activists were arrested, of whom 69 reported being tortured and 91 were imprisoned. All of them were well known youth movement activists in their towns involved in cultural, political and social public work.

Demonstrations, fasts, strikes, massive press conferences...have been organised recently to denounce these show trials and support the youth.

Two alleged ETA members were arrested by the French police on Monday 19 in Britanny. The Spanish media portrayed them as members of the ETA’s political office and tried to make conections with last week arrests of 10 prominent pro-independence activists.

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Blockade and Political Apartheid

We just received this communique from the Irish Basque Committees:

The Spanish government tries to blockade a new political initiative arresting 10 prominent Basque pro-independence activists

Less than two months after the Spanish Interior Minister’s threats against the Basque pro-independence left’s new political proposals last evening 10 people were arrested in Donostia/San Sebastian. All of them are prominent Basque pro-independence activists like Batasuna’s spokesperson Arnaldo Otegi and former LAB trade union leader Rafa Diez. Another one, Rufi Etxebarria, had been released from jail just one week ago after spending two years in prison for being a member of the outlawed Batasuna party.

Five of them were arrested in the LAB trade union’s offices and the others in different places around the country. All of them are being accused by the Spanish authorities and pro-Spanish media of reorganising the Basque pro-independence left’s leadership.

While some sort of repressive action was expected after weeks of strong Spanish criminalization and pressure the arrestes have shocked and outraged the majority of Basque society. Several political parties and the main trade unions have already spoken out against the police operation. According to them the arrests are political and are directed at preventing any new political initiative by the pro-independence left to bring the Basque Country to a scenario of peace and democracy.

It’s been publicly known that the Basque pro-independence left has been involved in a deep strategic debate for the last few months. At the same time discussions have been held with other progressive and pro-independence parties, trade unions and social organizations in order to form a strong pro-self-determination front.

Over the last 13 years every time the pro-independence left has taken a new political step the Spanish authorities have responded with police operations. Batasuna’s spokesperson Arnaldo Otegi is a good example of it as he has been arrested and imprisoned on numerous ocasions for his political work. Just last week he was told he will be tried for the so called “Anoeta event” in 2004 when himself and other Basque pro-independence movement representatives launched a peace proposal in front of 15,000 people. The proposal was widely accepted and set the way for dialogue and resolution which led to the 2005 negotiations between ETA and the Spanish government and ETA’s 2006 ceasefire.

Despite the attacks the Spanish authorities haven’t been able to stop the Basque pro-independence left’s political initiative and strength. Arnaldo Otegi quoting father Alec Reid has repeated on many ocasions that “the more reasonable our proposals are the more they’ll persecute us”.

Since 2002 the Basque left has had to organise in the most difficult conditions, mainly underground due to the Spanish authorities continuous criminalisation policies. However the pro-independence movement has always kept a public profile refusing to be silenced.

At a conference in Bilbao last week United Nations Human Rights and Counter-Terrorism Special Rapporteur Martin Scheinin warned that cutting off the political ways is extremely dangerous.

As has happened in previous repressive attacks the Basque pro-independence left has also declared today: “Against more repression we’ll respond with more political initiative".

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8 Basque Activists Arrested

Spanish police operating in the Basque Country arrested Arnaldo Otegi, Batasuna's moral leader, the banned political party, and eight other activists, accusing them for the second time of seeking to rebuild the party, judicial and police sources said.

Batasuna's spokesman Arnaldo Otegi was held in the city of Donostia along with top union leader Rafa Déz and three other Basque activists suspected.

The interior ministry said later that four other "leaders of the independentist left" had been picked up, two in the Basque town of Hernani and two in Iruñea. Batasuna was banned in 2003 because of its supposed links with ETA, an accusation that the Spanish state is yet to prove.

Police made the first arrests after a meeting at the Basque independence union LAB headquarters. The operation was ordered by Madrid's top inquisidor judge Baltasar Garzon. Those arrested included the secretary general of the LAB union, Rafael Diez Usabiaga, a well-known figure in the Basque independence movement, the judicial source said.

The group of Basque pro-independence activists has been meeting at the union headquarters since the beginning of the year in an effort to put forward a political proposal that includes a new initiative to restart the peace process that was derailed by Zapatero's government back in 2006.

Otegi in the past few months has made several trips to southern Iparralde, where he met with other leaders of his political party that happens to be legal in the French state. Otegi was last jailed in June 2007 after the Supreme Court upheld a 15-month sentence for "glorifying terrorism" after praising veteran ETA leader Jose Miguel Beñaran "Argala" at a memorial service in 2003. "Argala" was murdered by the GAL at the height of the "dirty war" against the Basque pro-independence movement.

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Strasbourg Upholds Spain's Apartheid

This article was published at Easy Bourse:

Court Ruling On Spain's Batasuna Ban "Bad News" - Leader

SAN SEBASTIAN, Spain (AFP)--A ruling by the European Court of Human Rights upholding Spain's decision to ban the Basque separatist organization Batasuna is "very bad news," the group's leader said Wednesday.

Conceding that Spain had won a political battle, Arnaldo Otegi told a press conference in the northern Spanish city of San Sebastian that it was also a "serious mistake."

"It gives political cover to the state of apartheid in the Basque Country," he said.

In three rulings, the Strasbourg court rejected all the petitions of the Herri Batasuna and Batasuna organizations, which had tried to register as political parties in 2001 but were declared unconstitutional by the Spanish government and disbanded in March 2003.

The groups had appealed to the court on the grounds that their rights to freedom of association and expression had been violated.

But the court said disbanding the parties was a response "to a pressing social need," given their ties to Basque militant group ETA, listed as a terrorist organization by the European Union and the U.S.

"Given the situation in Spain for several years regarding terrorist attacks, these ties can be considered objectively as a threat to democracy," said the court, backing the position of the Spanish authorities.

The judges said the Basque parties "contradicted the concept of a 'democratic society' and presented a major danger to Spain's democracy."

Otegi said the ruling smacked of the "war on terror" declared by former U.S. president George W. Bush," adding that Batasuna's demand for negotiations with Spain leading to the right of self-determination for the Basques was unaltered.

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Batasuna Backs Internationalist Initiative Party

Arnaldo Otegi came out in support of a party which Spain's constitutional court has allowed to take part in the European Parliament elections after a strong solidarity campaign against the decision by the supreme court to apply the francoist "Law of political parties" against Internationalist Inititiative (Iniciativa Internacionalista), a move that placed Spain on the spotlight as a state that supresses civil and political rights through an Apartheid mechanism. International Initiative is not a Basque party, it is a Spanish party that is attending the electoral process to compete in the European congress elections. The head of the list is Alfonso Sastre, a Spaniard.

The supreme court had initially disqualified the party, the Internationalist Initiative (II), from the June 7 polls, saying it was controlled by Batasuna, a claim that was unable to sustain with any kind of evidence, something that has not deter that court from outlawing four Basque political parties and hundred of electoral lists in the past. Let us remember that Batasuna was outlawed after Spain insisted that the political party was part of ETA, that was six years ago and to date the Spanish prosecutors have failed to show one single piece of evidence, let alone taking Batasuna to court over the accusation.

But the constitutional court lifted the ban on Thursday, ruling there was insufficient evidence of the party's links to Batasuna to "justify the sacrifice of fundamental rights of political participation". The former leader of Batasuna, Arnaldo Otegi, on Saturday issued "a general call for support" of the Internationalist Initiative in the European elections "to require Europe's involvement in a democratic and peaceful solution to the Basque conflict."

We need to point out that the so called "Basque conflict" is one of international nature for it includes one nation (Nabarra) and two states (France and Spain), it is not and it has never been an "internal Spanish problem" like many claim.

The II "is not our party but holds our opinions," he told a press conference in the Basque city of San Sebastian. Otegi was released from jail in August, 2008 after serving 14 months for strongly supporting the peace process that Zapatero's government derailed.

One more accusation against Batasuna was that it was banned for failing to condemn ETA's tactics. Strangely enough, the members of the Partido Popular have repeatedly glorified Francisco Franco's murderous regime and the members of the PSOE have provided legal immunity to its own members involved in state sponsored terrorism (like Felipe Gonzalez and his GAL scandal) and those parties have not faced a ban by the supreme court.

The 27 EU nations will elect 736 deputies for a five-year term at the parliament, which is the only directly-elected EU institution and has an important role passing pan-European legislation.

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How the Spaniards Took Over the BAC's Government

This article was published at Green Left:

Basque Country: Spanish chauvinists oust nationalists

Emma Clancy


In the regional elections held on March 1 in the south-west Basque region (Bascongadas), the Spanish state banned left-wing Basque nationalist parties from taking part.

Combined with an alliance between rival Spanish chauvinist parties, the result was that for the first time since limited autonomy was granted to the region in 1979, the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) has lost control of the Parliament of the Basque Autonomous Community.

The Basque Country (Euskal Herria) straddles the Spanish and French borders. The majority of the 3 million Basques live within the Spanish state.

The Basque people have waged a long struggle for self-determination from Spanish rule.

The Bascongadas regional elections (comprising the Bizkaia, Gipuzkoa and Araba regions) disenfranchised about 15-20 % of citizens by banning political parties Spanish authorities claimed were linked to either the armed nationalist group ETA, or Batasuna — the pro-independence political party outlawed in 2003.

The PNV won the highest number of votes, but failed to win an outright majority in the 75-seat parliament. The two main Spanish parties, the local section of the ruling Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (the PSE) and the right-wing Popular Party (PP), who between them took 38 seats, struck a deal on April 1 to form a coalition government on the basis of opposition to Basque self determination.

In the lead-up to the poll, the Spanish judiciary increased its repression of the pro-independence movement. The Supreme Court banned two more parties — Democracy 3 Million and Askatasuna (Freedom) — from standing candidates.

The left-nationalists, who generally poll 15-20%, were entirely excluded. They have no representatives in the new parliament.

The left-nationalists responded by printing and distributing illegal ballots, with which more than 100,000 people voted. Including these ballots, a majority of voters (around 640,000) backed pro-self determination parties. The PSE and PP won 482,000 votes combined.

The pro-Spanish parties, bitter rivals in Madrid, agreed to make PSE leader Patxi Lopez regional government president in return for the PP taking the presidency of the Basque parliament.

Repression

The coalition has already indicated it intends to increase repression against the pro-independence movement. Plans include bolstering the security forces, and attacks on the Basque language and cultural rights.

In a particularly vindictive move, Lopez has announced plans to cut government travel aid to the families of hundreds of Basque political prisoners that helps them visit relatives in jails throughout Spain and France.

On March 23, top Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon, who is on a personal crusade against Basque nationalism, filed “terrorism”' charges against 44 pro-independence activists.

The activists are alleged to be members of banned parties, including Batasuna, the Communist Party of the Basque Lands (PCTV) and Basque Nationalist Action (ANV).

Among those charged is Mondragon Mayor Maria Inocencia Galparsoro.

In a December 16 report, the UN human rights special rapporteur Martin Scheinin said he was “troubled” by Spain’s Law of Political Parties, which provides the legislative basis to ban political organisations. He said it defined “terrorism” so vaguely that it “might be interpreted to include any political party which through peaceful political means seeks similar political objectives” as those pursued by armed organisations.

This reveals that it is not the tactics, but the political goals of the pro-independence parties that Spain seeks to repress.

Scheinin said the law against “glorifying terrorism” should “include the requirements of an intent to incite the commission of a terrorist offence, as well as the existence of an actual risk that such an offence will be committed as a consequence”.

The Spanish authorities are using this law to try to extradite former ETA prisoner Inaki de Juana Chaos, who served 21 years in Spanish jails, from Belfast, where he moved after his release last August.

A Spanish court is basing its extradition efforts on the flimsiest grounds. Its evidence is one media report that, at an August rally in Donostia, which de Juana Chaos did not even attend, someone said, “Kick the ball forward”. This is alleged to be a call to commit terrorist acts, although there is no evidence the statement was made by de Juana Chaos or that it was an incitement to terrorism.

In March, a Belfast judge ruled against de Juana Chaos, accepting the advice of the Spanish authorities that the phrase constituted “praising terrorism”. De Juana Chaos is appealing the ruling.

On April 21, 32-year-old Basque activist Arturo Villanueva Arteaga, who has lived in west Belfast running a tourism business for the past four years, was arrested under a European warrant issued by the Spanish authorities.

Spain is seeking his extradition on unspecified terror charges reportedly relating to proscribed left-wing nationalist youth organisation Segi. The extradition hearing is set for May 13.

The UN report also criticised the interpretation of kale borroka, or street fighting between young people and the security forces, as “urban terrorism”. This definition subjects those who take part in street fighting to anti-terror laws, including incommunicado detention.

The report slammed the fact that all the political cases are judged by National Bench, descended from fascist dictator General Franco’s Public Order Tribunal. The Supreme Court has only a limited ability to review the bench’s judgements.

Prisoners

The UN report criticised human rights abuses. These include the denial of the rights of “terror suspects”, who may be dheld incommunicado for up to 13 days without charge.

The UN report noted the frequent allegations of torture by those detained incommunicado, as well as the failure of the Spanish authorities to investigate these claims properly.

The Basque human rights NGO, Group Against Torture (TAT), has listed testimonies of torture from 62 people in 2008, most of whom had been held incommunicado. The allegations include beatings, sexual assault, plastic bag asphyxiation, food and sleep deprivation, use of stress positions, and threats to rape or kill detainees or their family members.

Another alleged common abuse was being forced to sing the Spanish national anthem or fascist anthems.

There are now 765 Basque political prisoners, the highest number since the Franco dictatorship fell in 1975. They are spread out in more than 80 prisons in Spain and France — on average about 600km from the Basque Country.

The return of prisoners to the Basque Country has long been a central demand of the Basque people.

Spanish chauvinists now also control the central institution that Basque nationalists have historically used to exercise a degree of autonomy — the Basque Autonomous Community parliament.

The opportunist alliance of the social democratic PSE with the right-wing, neo-Francoist PP brings into sharp relief the fact that self-determination remains the defining issue facing the Basque Country.

The conservative nationalist PNV must also realise that the Spanish state’s strategy of fostering division and trying to isolate the radical nationalists also hurts the PNV. It has lost the limited power it had, demonstrating its dependence on the left-nationalists.

In power, the PNV failed seriously to oppose the persecution of the left. Such collaboration with Madrid's anti-democratic policies, out of narrow self-interest, has backfired.

A new nationalist united front, with a strategy of extra-parliamentary mass mobilisation, will be vital to defend the political, cultural and economic rights of Basque people against attacks from the chauvinist coalition.

Left-nationalists have begun holding meetings to discuss the way forward. Basque nationalist trade unions have called a general strike for May 21.

International support for a serious, inclusive peace process — in which the Spanish and French states acknowledge the Basque people’s democratic and national rights — is now more important than ever.

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Spain Punishes Basque Politicians

Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon charged 44 Basque politicians with membership of the militant separatist movement ETA, which the the fascist Spanish government calls a terrorist organization.

All were members of three banned separatist parties -- the Communist Party of the Basque Country (PCTV), Basque Nationalist Action (ANV) and Batasuna. Among those charged are the mayoress of the northern town of Mondragon, Maria Inocencia Galparsoro, as well as Pernando Barrena and Joseba Permach, leading figures on the radical left.

The charges are a new example of how Spain violates the civil and political rights of the Basque people, specially those who work towards the self determination and the eventual independence of Nabarra (the historic Basque Country) currently occupied by Spain and France.

Spain's Supreme Court banned two further nationalist parties from regional elections earlier this month using a so called Law of Political Parties, a Franco era style law that allows Madrid to ban any political party that demands and end to the long colonialist rule of the nations abducted by Spain's statehood, meaning that there is no truly democratic elections in Spain, a country ruled by a king elected by Francisco Franco since the death of dictator.

After more than one hundred thousand votes where declared null by Madrid, the ruling Basque Nationalist Party is expected to lose power in the Basque Country to a coalition of the two parties that represent Madrid's colonialist rule, the PP and the PSOE -- ending an unbroken run of Basque nationalist governments going back to 1980.

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Police Brutality in Bilbao

Ertzaintza's officers acting on direct orders from Madrid attacked demonstrators and arrested five people Saturday at a protest over the banning of pro-independence parties from regional elections next month.

The demonstrators set fire to rubbish bins and blocked roads in the protest in the Basque city of Bilbao, held in defiance of a ban on the gathering by authoritarian Judge Baltasar Garzon.

Leftist Basque activists called the demonstration to protest a Supreme Court decision last week to ban two pro-independence parties, Askatasuna and the Democracy Three Million (D3M), from March 1 regional elections.

Among the protesters Saturday were some ex-leaders of Batasuna and the spokesman of the D3M.

Spain has been blamed for the deaths of dozens of thousands of Basques in a five-century genocidal colonialist occupation.

Basque parties that favor both independence and complete sovereignty draw support from approximately 10 percent of Spain's Basque voters. Those voters have been denied access to the democratic principle known as universal suffrage due to an Apartheid style Spanish law designed exclusively to restrict the civil and political rights of the Basques living in Hegoalde, the southern portion of Euskal Herria.

We have to remember that those civil and political rights are protected by an UN treaty and that just a few days ago the UN's Highs Commissioner for Human Rights issued a report in which it stated that Spain applies the term "terrorist" too liberally and that in doing so violates the rights of the Basque people.

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Spain Jails Basque Activists

This article concerning the fascist clampdown on Basque political parties and against Basque activists was published at World War 4:

Spain expands crackdown on Basque political parties

About a dozen members of the new leadership of the Basque political opposition were arrested in several towns across Spain's País Vasco Jan. 23. The arrests follow a court order by the Spanish High Court magistrate Baltasar Garzón, who claims that 3DM and Askatasuna, two new parties fielding candidates in the forthcoming local elections, are fronts for the outlawed Batasuna party.

Spain's Supreme Court banned Batasuna in 2003 on the grounds that it was a front for the armed organization ETA, closing down its offices and barring it from all political activity. Prior to its prohibition, Batasuna used to garner some 12% of the vote in Basque Country elections. According to Spanish news agencies, the police are gathering evidence of links between the outlawed Batasuna and the new parties 3DM and Askatasuna. Police also reportedly carried out searches on the homes of several prominent Basque militants, including Tasio Erkizia, Mariné Pueyo, Santi Kiroga and Joxerra Etxebarria. None were arrested. (EiTB, Bilbao, Jan. 23)

This operation and the incarceration of eight Basque activists ordered by inquisitor Baltasar Garzón brings the number of Basque political prisoners close to 800, a figure that surpasses the all time high during Francisco Franco's murderous regime. Which pretty much means that Spain IS NOT a democratic state.

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Case Dismissed

Spain just couldn't keep up with the charade called trial against the Basque politicians who pursued peace talks a couple of years ago. Incensed by the Basque politicians actions, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and Juan Carlos Borbon had a couple of high profile extreme right groups doing the dirty job for them, to no avail according to this news item posted at Nasdaq:

Spanish Court Dismisses Case Against Basque Politicians

(RTTNews) - A Spanish court on Monday dismissed the controversial case against three senior Basque politicians, including the prime minister of the semi-autonomous region and two senior opposition leaders, who were accused of holding talks with a banned party linked to the separatist group ETA.

The court threw out the case against the three Basque politicians, including Basque Prime Minister Juan Jose Ibarretxe and two opposition Socialist Party leaders - Patxi Lopez and Rodolfo Ares, after the prosecution admitted that their contacts with the banned party were not illegal.

The three politicians were accused of holding illegal peace negotiations with the ETA-linked Batasuna party during the 2006-2007 ceasefire, and the prosecutors had demanded prison sentences of two years and nine months for Ibarretxe, and nine months each for the two socialist leaders.

All the three accused politicians had admitted contacts with the banned Batasuna party, saying that it was a part of their efforts to negotiate a peaceful settlement. If convicted, the three would have faced jail terms and a life ban from politics.

Only in Spain people seeking peace can face the chance of a trial and eventual imprisonment, yet, there is many in the international community who insist that Spain is a democracy. Spain has always relied on violence when it comes to dealing with the Basques and this botched "trial" proves it.

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Spain's Rome Does Not Pay Traitors

The Basque Autonomous Community government's president will be tried for meeting members of Batasuna, a Spanish court said Monday. Basque regional president Juan Jose Ibarretxe and two members of Spain's governing Socialist party — Patxi Lopez and Rodolfo Ares — are charged with committing a crime by meeting with Batasuna leaders.

Batasuna was declared illegal in 2003 after a law was created ad-hoc by the extreme right government of Juan Carlos Borbon and his assistant Jose Maria Aznar in order to deprive a portion of the Basque electorate of its right to vote, a throwback to Francisco Franco's reign of terror.

The meetings took place after ETA declared a cease-fire in March 2006. The group ended the cease-fire in December that year, after the government of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero had reneged on delivering political concessions promised during peace talks, going to the extreme of incarcerating peace talks delegates in a clear violation of international treaties.

Ibarretxe — who belongs to the conservative Basque Nationalist Party (PNV)— met with Batasuna leader Arnaldo Otegi and others in April 2006 and January 2007 when optimism about ETA's cease-fire was still high. Lopez and Ares, both members of the Basque branch of Zapatero's party, met Batasuna leaders publicly in July 2006.

The Superior Court of Justice of the Basque country said the three would be tried on January 8th. The case was brought by two Spanish extreme-right groups acting as political saboteurs in Euskal Herria. Under Spanish law, private parties can ask courts to bring criminal charges, this way the central government can escape criticism by the international community, relying on these groups to carry out the dirty war against Basque society.

This is a reminder to Ibarretxe that as Rome, Madrid does not pay traitors. He, Ibarretxe, was an active colaborator with Zapatero in his efforts to derail the peace talks. Going to trial is what he gets as a reward for betraying the Basque people.

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March Against Banning of Political Parties

Demonstrators on Saturday marched through the streets of Bilbao, the financial capital of the Basque Autonomous Community, to protest a Supreme Court decision last month to ban two Basque independence parties. The protesters walked behind a large banner which read "Freedom for Euskal Herria," using the Basque language name for the Basque Country.

The march was organised by left-wing Basque nationalists to protest the court's decision to ban the Basque Nationalist Action (ANV) and Communist Party of Basque Lands (PCTV) because of their alleged links to Batasuna.

Among those who took part in the march was the president of ANV, Kepa Bereziartua, and the former spokesman for Batasuna, Arnaldo Otegi, who was released from jail in August after spending just over a year behind bars.

Batasuna has been banned as a party since 2003 when the Francoist government of Juan Carlos Borbon created a law that is in fact a throw back to his benefactor's regime of death and terror.

The Basque Country already enjoys considerable autonomy but most Basques want to secede from Spain and France and regain the sovereignty they enjoyed for hundreds of years.

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Protest in Baiona

Basque activists and Xabi Larralde, spokesman for pro-Basque independence party Batasuna, walk behind a banner which reads, "Recognize and Respect the Basque country" as they demonstrate in the centre of Baiona, Euskal Herria, September 27, 2008.

The demonstration was organized to protest the operation against members of Batasuna where 12 people were arrested.

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Update On Raid In Iparralde

Just a couple of days ago the mean stream media (news corporations key to the propaganda effort by Spain against the Basque people) was calling those arrested in the pre-dawn raids by French police by labels like "militants", "separatists", "leftists" and such.

Now that they are free without charges, they are just "people".

All 14 arrested in French Basque sweep freed without charge

Sat Sep 27, 2:49 AM ET

French authorities said Saturday 14 people arrested this week in a major operation within the Basque separatist movement in southwest France have been released after no charges were brought against them.

The 14 people -- not 12 as originally reported -- were released from custody "in stages starting Friday night into the early hours of Saturday," said the Paris prosecutor's office, which is in charge of anti-terrorism throughout France.

Seven of the arrests were in connection with the 2006 attack on the hotel in the southern French town of Bidarry and five others were part of a probe into the financing of Basque groups, a legal source in Paris had said on Wednesday.
The detainees had been held since Wednesday in several cities in the southwestern Basque region such as Bayonne and Pau and included two senior figures of the separatist political party Batasuna.

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Fascists Against Euskal Herria

It is not the first time Euskal Herria experiences the combined threat of fascist minded European "leaders". Back in 1936, Hitler and Mussolini in support of Franco attacked the Basque Country. Today a "democratically elected" minister by the name of Zapatero (in reality no more than the messenger boy for Juan Carlos Borbon, true successor to the afore mentioned Franco) is relying on France's Nicolas Sarkozy (the French version of George W. Bush) to clamp down on Euskal Herria's political rights.

This note you are about to read was published at France 24:

Spain looks to France for help against Basque separatists

Friday 26 September 2008

Spain is increasingly seeking France's help against the Basque nationalist groups ETA and Batasuna, which Spain considers the political arm of the terrorist ETA and which has been barred in Spain from taking part in elections since 2003.

By Adeline Percept, France 24 correspondent in Spain

Considered by the Spanish government to be the political branch of the terrorist organisation ETA, the Batasuna, Unity in the Basque language, party is in the cross-hairs of Spain's justice system and the government of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's government.

The crackdown against the organisation intensified after June 2006, when the ceasefire agreement between the government and ETA was broken.

After the arrests on Wednesday, September 24, of 11 alleged members of Batasuna in the French Basque Country, Zapatero, said yesterday, while in New York for the UN General assembly, that he does "not exclude the possibility of asking France to ban Batasuna".

In a press release a couple of hours later, Javier Zaragoza, Spain's attorney general, is urging "unconditional collaboration in order to establish a penal process enabling the banning of Batasuna in France".

These statements come in the midst of violent retaliatory actions in Spain's Basque Country, where a police officer was killed in Santona (Cantabria) on September 22 in one of several attacks to take place over recent days.

The French-Spanish collaboration has proved to be the cornerstone in the fight against radical separatism.

"In the 80s, France viewed ETA as a Spanish problem." Antonio Elorza, a political expert at Madrid's Complutense University, told France 24. "In those days, members of ETA travelled to and fro between the two countries completely at their ease. Since his arrival in power, Nicolas Sarkozy has made a huge contribution to Spain's struggle against ETA."

Even if the French branch of Batasuna does play an important role in the organisation, it is less active than its Spanish counterpart.

"There's a big difference between Batasuna in France and in Spain," said Elorza. "Batasuna in Spain is clearly the political arm of ETA, like Sinn Fein and the IRA in Ireland. ETA is active in Spain and until now, 15% of the Basque population has supported the terrorist organisation. That's why ETA has a special rapport with Batasuna, a rapport which couldn't exist in France – popular support there is much more limited. So Batasuna's strategies are different on the two sides of the Pyrennees, but they are complementary."

Two relevant issues come out of this situation.

1) Spain and France are accepting that the so called "Basque conflict" is of an international nature since it involves two countries (with statehood) and one nation (without statehood). Therefore, according to the international treaties, the international community has the obligation to stop making up excuses for Spain's violent campaign of repression against the Basque people and activelly take part in the resolution of the conflict.

2) The Spaniards recognize that they are not willing to truly involve themselves in a peace process for Euskal Herria like England did in regards of Northern Ireland when they included Sinn Fein. Instead, Spain has banned Batasuna and many other political parties and electoral lists, choosing to incarcerate as many Basque activists as they can. They refuse to follow the path shown by England and instead they put all their chips on the support by a fascist minded individual like Nicolas Sarkozy. Just like in 1936, Spain resorts to Europe's worst characters to "solve" its political disagreement with Euskal Herria.

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Sarkozy's Anti-Basque Crusade

It was just a matter of time before France's Nicolas Sarkozy would start showing his full support for Juan Carlos Borbon's repressive campaign against Basque society.

Yesterday 17 Basque citizens from different political parties and associations were detained in pre-dawn raids, once again the name of Basque-phobe judge Baltasar Garzon was mentioned as the mastermind behind the operation.

Here you have the article regarding this issue published at the International Herald Tribune, a news outlet close to the Spanish Ministry of Propaganda:

French police arrest 17 suspected Basque militants

The Associated Press
Published: September 24, 2008

PARIS: Police arrested 11 suspected Basque militants Wednesday in southwest France in two separate investigations, including the financing of terror attacks in France and Spain, officials said.

The 11 — all French nationals — were being held in police custody after being questioned Wednesday.

Seven were questioned in connection with explosions in 2006 that slightly damaged a hotel in the French Basque country owned by acclaimed chef Alain Ducasse, according to a judicial official in Paris. The official was not authorized to speak publicly about an ongoing investigation and asked not to be identified by name.

The four other suspects were questioned as part of a preliminary investigation into an alleged illegal money transfer from the Basque Communist Party in Spain to people residing in southwest France and close to the Spanish Basque movement, the official said.

French police searched the French headquarters of the pro-independence Batasuna party, authorized in France but banned in Spain. Batasuna members were reportedly among those arrested.

The investigation into Communist Party funds allegedly transferred to France to finance attacks was opened based on information supplied by Spanish anti-terror judge Baltasar Garzon.

The arrests were made in sweeps along France's border with Spain. Officials had originally reported 17 arrests.

Like I said, yes, they were 17 arrests that violate the political rights of the Basque people living in Iparralde under French occupation. Yet, the Spaniards and their supporters in the international arena claim that the Basques are Spaniards and that the Basque conflict is not of an international nature.

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Spain Bans EHAK

Another day, another Basque political party banned thanks to a law that reminds us that Francisco Franco's ideology is alive and kicking in Spain.

The main stream media, as usual, has been repeating the same header: "Spain bans another party for ties with ETA".

Therein lies the problem, when they say another they point to the fact that there has been other bans, which takes us to the first Basque political party banned in "democratic" Spain: Batasuna.

Yes, Batasuna was banned back in 2003 accused of being ETA's political wing. Five years later and the Spanish government has been unable to produced one single piece of evidence to support the accusation, despite having seized documents and computers the night that their para-military forces raided Batasuna's headquarters and offices all over Euskal Herria.

The case ended up in Strasbourg and a verdict regarding if Batasuna is or is not ETA's political wing has not been reached, yet, Spain bans EHAK stating that they took over Batasuna.

Here you have The International Herald Tribune's article regarding the most recent case of Apartheid like repression by Spain against the Basque people:

Spain: another Basque party banned

MADRID, Spain: The Spanish Supreme Court has banned a Basque nationalist party on grounds that it is linked to the armed group ETA, the third ruling this week against pro-independence groups in the troubled region.

The court outlawed the Communist Party of the Basque Lands on grounds it is a tool of Batasuna, the banned political wing of ETA.

The move announced Thursday night means the government will shut down the party's offices and seize its assets. The nine party members who hold seats in the Basque regional parliament will retain them but will be stripped of party affiliation.

Earlier this week the court outlawed another pro-independence party, Basque Nationalist Action, and Gestoras Pro Amnistia, an advocacy group for jailed ETA members. In both cases the court cited links to ETA.

The Communist Party of the Basque Lands won its seats in the 75-member Basque Parliament in 2005. Prior to that election, Spain's opposition conservative Popular Party had pressed the Socialist government to file suit and have the party banned under a law devised specifically to go after Batasuna, which was outlawed in 2003.

The Spanish attorney general refused, however, saying there was insufficient evidence. Conservatives complained that this allowed ETA to retain a voice in the parliament.

In 2006, the government negotiated with ETA after the group declared a cease-fire. The peace talks failed and ETA resumed violence in a matter of months.

In January of this year the government did move against the Communist Party of the Basque Lands and Basque Nationalist Action, asking the Supreme Court to declare them illegal.

The Popular Party welcomed the latest Supreme Court ruling, but said it came too late.

The party's spokesman on judicial affairs, Federico Trillo, said the conservatives will ask Attorney General Candido Conde-Pumpido to appear in Parliament and explain why the government now felt the two parties had to be banned, but did not think so in 2005.

"Those who have had an unexplainable and unexplained change of criteria must assume their political responsibilities," Trillo said Thursday night.

Notice how Spain's politicians haggle about the issue of timing when in reality they work together when it comes to removing the political options for the Basque society to excercize its right to have political representation.

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Spain Bans ANV

This is not a news article from Spain under the murderous dictatorship of Francisco Franco.

Neither a note from six years ago when Spain was ruled by an extreme-right party lead by a fascist and genocidal maniac by the name of Jose Maria Aznar, responsible along with George W. Bush and Tony Blair for the murder of dozens of thousands of Iraqi civilians.

No, this is breaking news, it is happening just now, when Spain is ruled by an allegedly socialist party led by a "well intentioned" politician by the name of Jose Luis Rodríguez, responsible along George W. Bush and Tony Blair for the murder of dozens of thousands of Afghan civilians.

Yes, in today's Spain, an authoritarian state that a lot of people fancy calling it a "young democracy", a Basque political party has been banned accused of being the continuation of another political party, Batasuna, a party that six years ago, you read that correctly, six years ago was accused of being ETA political wing without the Spanish government having produced a single piece of evidence to support the accusation.

Here you have it, the article appeared at Yahoo News:

Spain's Supreme Court bans Basque party

Tue Sep 16, 8:13 AM ET

Spain's Supreme Court has banned a party in the country's Basque region because of its links to armed separatists ETA, the court's head said on Tuesday.

The court had already banned the ANV (the Nationalist Basque Action) from taking part in Spain's general elections in March, but had stopped short of preventing party members from carrying out other activities.

The court's ruling on Tuesday meant the ANV would be dissolved and its assets seized, court head Francisco Jose Hernando said in a brief statement outside the court.

ANV's 400 or so local councilors in the Basque Region and Navarra, in northern Spain, would be expected to stand down under the ruling.

The Spanish authorities say the ANV has taken over representing ETA from Batasuna, the political wing of ETA, which is already banned.

From Wednesday, the Supreme Court will start to study whether to also ban Basque party PCTV.

Last week, Spain's Constitutional Court also banned a plan by the Basque Country's government to hold a referendum-style vote on the region's future.

Basque Country Premier Juan Jose Ibarretxe, a member of the moderate Basque Nationalist Party, said the region's government would appeal to Europe over the ban, branding it "an abuse of democracy."

Spain's Socialist government has said from the start that the vote would be illegal and could not go ahead.

Ibarretxe has not clarified whether he wants the Basque Country to secede or just obtain more powers from Madrid.

The Basque Country already has autonomy over many areas including health and education, which it has used to promote the unique Basque language.

(Reporting by Inmaculada Sanz, writing by Sarah Morris, editing by Myra MacDonald)

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Spain is Not England

Arnaldo Otegi has been released from jail. He spent over a year behind bars because he is the spokesman for a large sector of Basque society often referred to as the pro-independence left. He was one of the chief negotiators during the peace talks torpedoed by Zapatero and Ibarretxe. To many, both in Euskal Herria and abroad, he was jailed to punish him for trying everything he could to make sure that the peace talks could continue. This is the reason why I present to you this article appeared at The Independent:

Martin McGuinness: There can be no going back

Northern Ireland's Deputy First Minister was once said – in a government euphemism – to have had 'first-hand operational experience' in the IRA. But, he says, since teaming up with his former foe Ian Paisley, attitudes towards him changed overnight

Sunday, 31 August 2008

Brightly coloured sight-seeing buses cruise along the Falls Road, with rain-soaked heads turning as the guides point out the headquarters of Sinn Fein: this is post-Troubles Belfast.

But inside the building, things are not at all relaxed: it is a hive of activity, with men and women bounding purposefully up and down the stairs and in and out of the building. "That door never stops," said the cheerful republican on security duty.

There used to be a great deal of overlap between Sinn Fein and the IRA, but now the "armed struggle" is no more. Once a centre of subversion, the office is now strictly confined to the business of politics.

This is one of the offices used by Martin McGuinness, once regarded by Downing Street as a republican with "first-hand operational experience". Now he is a senior political figure.

As Deputy First Minister, he also has another office in the baronial splendour of Stormont Castle, once occupied by the British ministers who used to run Northern Ireland.

Today Westminster shares power with Belfast's devolved government, which last year came into being amid widespread amazement and a general welcome for what was seen as an epic breakthrough.

McGuinness, a one-time icon of militancy but now a symbol of his movement's politicisation, readily acknowledged the difficulties within the administration that was headed jointly by Sinn Fein and the Democratic Unionist Party.

Not too many years ago, talk of difficulties often brought warnings of a possible surge in violence. Today, this element is gone. There will certainly be crises ahead, but they will be political, and not matters of life and death.

Time was when many viewed McGuinness as one of those who kept the Troubles going, blaming him for prolonging the conflict. Many felt exactly the same about his loyalist counterpart, the Reverend Ian Paisley.

Yet the general perception of both men changed dramatically last year, when Sinn Fein and the DUP formed their governing coalition. Most people were, in the words of McGuinness, "gobsmacked and amazed" that they could make peace after all those decades of implacable enmity.

A double act developed, characterised by so much bonhomie and good cheer that McGuinness and Paisley became known as the "Chuckle Brothers". Paisley (like the IRA) has now left the scene, to be replaced as First Minister by his deputy, Peter Robinson.

The republican leader now sounds almost nostalgic about the Paisley-McGuinness double act, saying of the octogenarian loyalist leader: "I respected his mandate, I respected his age and the courageous decision that he took to come into government."

He recalled how attitudes towards them changed overnight. "Ian Paisley and I would tell each other stories about the people who approached us after making the deal," he said.

"He told me about coming off a plane at Heathrow, and this woman came over and said, 'Mr Paisley, can I shake your hand?' And he said yes, and they shook hands. Then she said that a couple of months earlier she wouldn't have shaken his hand; she would probably have slapped him on the face – and it turned out she was the Mother Superior of a nunnery. But she praised him to high heaven and said he had done a good thing and she wanted to say thanks."

McGuinness has had similar encounters. "I told him about being in the City Hotel in Derry, and this woman came running up to me and said, 'Can I give you a big hug?' And I said yes, and she hugged me. Then she said, 'I wouldn't have given you a big hug before this – I'm an Ian Paisley supporter, but I think what you've done is absolutely tremendous.' That happens to me all the time.

"I think that tells you how things have changed, and that something very, very powerful has happened. And it's not just on this island.

"In all the times I've travelled to London since 1994, everybody that comes up to me tells me to keep up the good work. I haven't heard one angry voice, which is absolutely amazing."

But does he get such reactions from people who have specifically suffered at the hands of the IRA? "I meet people all the time who have been hurt by the IRA," he replied. "Some of the most humbling moments are meeting those people, and they put out their hands and say, 'Well done, this is good, keep it going.'"

He recalled receiving a letter asking for a meeting from a number of disabled police officers. The request produced, he said, "all sorts of opinions within Sinn Fein" on whether or not to hold such a meeting.

"But I met them," he recalled. "When they came into the room. it was clear they were disabled as a result of the conflict and as a result of being injured by the IRA. But they shook hands and said, 'We're here to say we support what you're doing, that we support this process.'"

The IRA killed many police officers, but now Sinn Fein supports policing and justice: McGuinness has paid hospital visits to a number of officers who have been injured in attacks by dissident republicans.

Of the violent dissidents, he commented: "Those people think that more car-bombing, more military activity, is going to bring about the freedom of Ireland, but they're living in cloud cuckoo land.

"They need to recognise and understand that we're in a new situation, and that there cannot be – under any circumstances whatever – any contemplation of going back to the bad old days. People should assist in the apprehension of those who are involved in these deeds."

To those splinter groups who still wage small-scale campaigns of sporadic violence, he said: "My message is that it is a totally futile exercise that runs totally contrary to what the people of Ireland as a whole want.

"Any attempt to plunge us back into the violent days is not going to be supported. Do they really want to see 20,000 or 30,000 soldiers back on the streets?"

The Deputy First Minister gets up at 5.30am each day to drive from his home city of Londonderry to Belfast – a journey he says, with a passing grumble about the state of the motorway, that can take hours.

Then it's attending the Northern Ireland Assembly in Belfast, chairing and taking part in meetings, signing letters, studying documents, seeing delegations until eight or nine o'clock in the evening. "It's just wall-to-wall meetings from morning to night," he said.

McGuinness has never met David Cameron, though he has met members of the Shadow Cabinet. Gordon Brown, he said, has been through "excruciatingly difficult" times.

In common with other political figures, he reported that there is "huge interest, absolutely amazing interest" in the Irish peace process from further afield, citing visitors from Sri Lanka, the Middle East, the Basque country and elsewhere.

He has travelled twice to Helsinki and once to Baghdad for talks on Iraq. "All we can do is offer our experiences. I tell them that without decisive leadership, it is almost impossible to resolve conflict. We have no delusions of grandeur about our abilities to resolve those conflicts – but if it saves lives, why not negotiate now?"

Could that not apply to Ireland as well? "We have to recognise that, in the final analysis, we got it done," he responded.

The performances of McGuinness and his party's president, Gerry Adams, were both commended in the recent book on the peace process by Tony Blair's chief of staff, Jonathan Powell, who spent many hours engrossed in often tense negotiations with them.

Powell wrote: "It was a remarkable act of leadership by Adams and McGuinness to talk the IRA into peace and to persuade them to settle for something far less than they had demanded in 1993." (Of the two, Powell found McGuinness "more human, though we suspected he had more first-hand operational experience".)

The peace process is now at yet another tricky point, since Paisley's replacement in June by the markedly less jovial Peter Robinson. Sinn Fein figures complain that few major governmental decisions have been going their way.

McGuinness is reserved, but not hostile, when talking about his new governmental partner. "I have entered into the relationship with Peter Robinson with a commitment and dedication to make it work," he said.

"I think it's fair to say there have been difficulties, but my assessment is: why would he not want it to work? It's still early days in the leadership of Peter Robinson, but I'm working on the basis that he wants this to succeed. I'm optimistic."

There are grumbles, in the republican grassroots, that the DUP is blocking what Sinn Fein would like to see happening in important areas such as policing and justice, education reform, the status of the Irish language and the future of the old Maze prison.

McGuinness acknowledged that there was a certain amount of restlessness and frustration in the republican community, and added: "I suppose that has been a feature of the process from the very beginning – people are impatient for change, and I think rightly so.

"Nobody could say with their hand on their heart that, at this stage, the institutions have delivered everything that people want. But I think what they want to know is: are they beginning to deliver and is the potential there for delivery?

"All of this is worth nothing if it doesn't make a difference, a real difference."

The power-sharing executive clearly has its stresses and strains: republicans, as ever, want rapid movement on various fronts, while loyalists, as usual, are suspicious of wholesale change. Robinson is certainly in favour of the settlement, but some in his party want to see rather less chuckling and rather more opposition to the republican agenda.

McGuinness is hopeful. "A Rubicon has been crossed by everybody, and the project for me now is to ensure that there can be no going back. This is the only sane and sensible way forward for all of us," he insisted. "This is the best way to break down the old hatreds and divisions."

As a young man, he pursued military victory over his opponents; now, in his late fifties, his talk is of relationships, of negotiation, of mandates, of his belief that violence is futile.

What has he learnt in the course of his controversial, incident-packed career? "Compromises have had to be made: compromise is a dirty word in the course of Irish politics, but people recognise that they had to be made," he said.

"I'll tell you what I've learnt. I've learnt that nothing is impossible – that no matter how things are, if there's a will to find a way through, then a way will be found."

Like I said in the post's title, Spain is not England.

The euphemism is quite easy to understand, England knew that McGuinness was an IRA member, the big bad "T" word was involved, and yet, now he is considered a peace maker.

This is proof that every conflict can be resolved if all parts involved are really and honestly willing to negotiate. That is what is lacking in the ongoing conflict between Spain and Euskal Herria, true and honest will to build a new future without one nation being imprisoned by the other.

One more thing, the members of the Irish diaspora were never reluctant to show their full support for an independent and then unified Ireland, unlike the Basque diaspora, too happy to play along with what Lakua dictates and Madrid approves.

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The Media and Otegi

As you may know by now, Arnaldo Otegi has been released from jail. The media all over the world is dedicating some articles about this issue but as usual, they doing little more than to repeat the press release from Madrid.

I'll give you three examples:

Deutsche Welle says: Spain Releases Basque Separatist Otegi From Prison

The New York Times claims: Basque Separatist, Free From Spanish Prison, Backs Talks

And The Herald Tribune: Basque politician freed from prison

Few different words here and there but pretty much this is what all of them say:

A former leader of the banned Basque separatist party Batasuna was released from prison on Saturday, having served a 15-month sentence for glorifying terrorism.

Arnaldo Otegi, 50, was met by dozens of supporters as he left the jail in the northern coastal town of San Sebastian.

"There is an unresolved problem in this country," Otegi told reporters. "I personally consider this problem will only be solved through dialogue and negotiation."

Otegi also said that during the process "all Basque political prisoners must be freed."

While serving his sentence Ortegi reportedly kept a low profile, spending his time learning English and only having rare visits from political figures. Asked what he had planned for the future, he said only, "We'll see."

He was imprisoned following a failed appeal against charges of glorifying terrorism in a speech praising a member of ETA, the Basque separatist group.

Otegi's detention in June 2007 came days after ETA called off a ceasefire with the Spanish government. He is believed to have been a key figure in the resumption of violent attacks against the Spanish state.

Batsuna has been banned since 2003 for refusing to formally sever links with ETA, which has waged a 40-year terror campaign for Basque independence in which 823 people have died.

Absolutely no editorial style that could tell you that you are reading a news paper from Germany, or from England or from the United States, they all parrot whatever Spain says.

And what is the problem?

Well, none of them dares to even question the press release. They are quite happy with switching a few words on the header and that's it.

The truth is, Arnaldo Otegi ended up in jail because he represented the part of the Basque society that honestly backed the most recent attempt at peace negotiations between the political forces in Euskal Herria, Spain and France. His only sin was to trust Zapatero a little bit too much. From the beginning Zapatero showed no desire to see the peace negotiations through, all what he did was to escalate the violent repression against Basque society going to the extent of ordering the ETA delegates to the peace talks arrested, something that violates international agreements.

But Zapatero was not alone in this ill conceived strategy against the peace talks, he had supporters, and I am not talking about Juan Carlos Borbon nor the PP led by Mariano Rajoy, oh no, I am talking about how Ibarretxe and other prominent members of the PNV stalled the peace talks as much as they could for one simple reason: Otegi represents those who want full independence for Euskal Herria (and that includes the seven provinces) while Ibarretexe represents those who want a new political frame of co-dependence between Madrid and the Basque Autonomous Community (meaning only three out of the seven provinces).

They needed an scape goat, and they put Otegi in jail. Strangely enough, unlike they do for Mandela, they do not call Otegi a political prisoner.

By the way, shall I remind the media outlets about the principle called "presumption of innocence"?

Batasuna stands accused of being the political wing of ETA, yet, the banning took place more than five years ago and to date Madrid is yet to present one single piece of evidence to support its accusation, which leads us to a second principle called "expedite trial".

Both principles are being violated and the media keeps quiet about it, in doing so, news paper editors from around the world become apologists of an authoritarian and fascist regime.

And I can not end this post without stating this, with the Afghan and Iraqi civilians death toll approaching the two million people, two wars over oil and gas profits, how dare the USA apply the "terrorist" label to anyone?

Oh, and by the way, Spain has taken part in both wars.

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