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.

.... ... .

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.

.... ... .

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.

.... ... .

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.

.... ... .

Ibarretxe and His Referendum

This note appeared today at EITb:

Politics

Interview on TV3

"The referendum is the way we will walk" - Basque PM

01/15/2008

The Basque PM said he was "totally convinced" that "he will go to the polls next October, 25th. About the likely banning of ANV, he said "the exclusion is not the solution."

Basque Prime Minister Juan José Ibarretxe said he was "totally convinced" that there will be a referendum in the Basque Country and that he will go to the polls next October 25th and he will cast his ballot "at 9:30."

"The proposal is legitimate, democratic and will be the way we will walk in the future".

Ibarretxe said in an interview on the Catalan TV3's "La nit al dia" program.

Concerning the refusal to the referendum of the Spanish PM José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Ibarretxe said he defends "he is ready to negotiate with the Spanish President" and "to respect the Basques' will" opposite to Zapatero's "we won't negotiate" or "I won't respect the Basques' will".

The Basque PM added he was against the possible banning of the Basque left-wing party ANV. "The exclusion is not the solution", Ibarretxe said.

Ibarretxe also said he "will never question Zapatero's negotiation with ETA" but remarked he does "not accept or understand that the Spanish President refuses to negotiate with the Basque PM and the Basque democratic institutions the issues he has been negotiating with ETA five months ago".

Referendum

The president of the Basque country announced a referendum on the region's future some months ago. The Spanish government quickly rejected the idea on grounds that under the constitution only Madrid, not a regional administration, can convene a referendum.The Basque president said the referendum on Oct. 25, 2008, would be based on two principles: rejection of violence by the armed Basque group ETA and what he called the right of the Basque people to choose their future.

Ibarretxe said that, if approved, the referendum would issue a mandate for the government to undertake new peace talks with ETA. He said he would seek support from Madrid for holding the vote, but go ahead with it no matter what the Spanish government decides.

Good luck to him, with Zapatero out of touch with reality and Rajoy salivating over the chance of becoming Spain's next prime minister there is good chances that Ibarretxe will be joining Otegi pretty soon.

.... ... .

Zapatero Betrays Ibarretxe

Away from home while in Mexico on an official visit, the Basque Autonomous Community's Prime Minister Juan José Ibarretxe just got news that the Basque-phobe Fernando Savater has succeeded in getting him and a few other Basque politicians into trouble.

Acting as as mercenary for José Luis Rodríguez (just like he did for José María Aznar), Savater delivered one more blow to the Peace Process in the Basque Country. As a consequence of a demand by his Ermua's Forum, a judge decided that Ibarretxe from the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV), Patxi López and Rodolfo Ares from the PSOE and eight members of Batasuna should be incarcerated for their meetings held as part of the negotiations during the same Peace Process that Zapatero torpedoed.

Here you have the note appeared at EITb:

Politics

For meeting Batasuna leaders

Basque President Ibarretxe to stand trial

10/30/2007

Senior members of the Basque socialist party López and Ares will also stand trial, as well as Batasuna members Otegi, Barrena, Petrikorena, Dañobeitia, and Etxeberria. The eight face possible charges of disobedience.

Basque President Juan José Ibarretxe and senior members of the Basque socialist party Patxi López and Rodolfo Ares will stand trial for meeting members of the outlawed Basque party Batasuna, a judge ruled Tuesday.

Senior members of Batasuna Arnaldo Otegi, Rufi Etxeberria, Juan José Petrikorena, Pernando Barrena and Olatz Dañobeitia will also stand trial for the same meetings.

Roberto Saiz, an investigating magistrate at the Superior Court of Justice of the Basque country, said that Basque president Juan Jose Ibarretxe and the two Socialists, Patxi Lopez and Rodolfo Ares, may have committed a crime by meeting with Batasuna leaders because the Spanish Supreme Court declared Batasuna illegal in 2003.

Lopez and Ares met with Batasuna leaders publicly last July. Ibarretxe did so in April 2006 and January 2007.

Batasuna was outlawed in 2003 for refusing to denounce violence. The law of Political Parties, a specially drawn up law in Spain, insists all parties must denounce violence.

The eight politicians face possible charges of disobedience.

Under Spanish law, private parties can ask courts to bring criminal charges and that is what happened in this case. Two activist groups in the Basque Country that opposed Zapatero's peace talks with ETA, the Ermua Forum and Dignity and Justice, asked the Basque Country's highest court to go after Ibarretxe, Lopez and Ares for meeting with Batasuna leader Arnaldo Otegi and others.

Prosecutors had said they saw no evidence of a crime, and that the court could not act just at the request of private parties. But Saiz rejected this argument, saying he could order a trial even though prosecutors representing the state were opposed.

This is just another example of how twisted and morally corrupt is the Spanish political class. It is also a reminder to Ibarretxe that Rome does not pay traitors for Zapatero and Savater are now using against him the same Law of Political Parties for which Ibarretxe had his Minister of the Interior Xabier Balza unleashing its violent regional police against peaceful demonstrators time and again.

And Spain brags itself of being a democratic state, what a sham.

~ ~ ~

Garzón Exposed

This article was published by An Phoblacht:

11 October, 2007

Other News

Spanish judge targets Batasuna

BY SALLY GALLAGHER

SPANISH Judge Baltasar Garzón is back to his normal self. This you may remember is the man possessed of the peculiar notion that all defenders of the Basque right to self-determination should be considered ‘terrorists’.

On Thursday, 4 October, Judge Baltasar once again demonstrated the judicial application of this principle when he imprisoned 21 people who had been attending a meeting of pro-independence party Herri Batasuna in the village of Segura, Gipuzkoa, in the Basque Country. Four of those imprisoned were later released on bail of between €10,000 and €24,000. And among those imprisoned were, coincidentally, several members of the national executive of Herri Batasuna. Some of those jailed have been charged with “membership of a terrorist organisation”.

Pernando Barrena, who has represented Batasuna at the Sinn Féin Ard Fheis in recent years, denounced Garzón’s decision to order the arrest and imprisonment of Batasuna’s leadership as an act of “revenge”. Garzon, he said, wants to punish the Basque nationalist Left for the position they adopted in the recently failed negotiations with the government.

Barrena did not attend the meeting in Segura as he was hosting Sinn Féin’s Bairbre de Brún MEP and Pat Rice, who had travelled to the Basque Country to visit Arnaldo Otegi, Batasuna’s chief spokesperson, imprisoned last June, in Martutene Prison.

Otegi has been a key player in promoting the peace process and a negotiated settlement in the Basque Country. Sinn Féin has called for his immediate release.

Commenting on the arrest of the national executive of Batasuna by Spanish police in Segura, a Sinn Féin spokesperson said:

“We have argued for some time that the banning of Batasuna and the jailing of its political representatives is not conducive to the successful advancement of a peace process in the region. All legal restrictions against Batasuna should be lifted.”

Pernando Barrena said that, with elections due in Spain in a few short months, the ruling Spanish Socialist Party, PSOE, “needs to make a show to the Spanish of its capacity to be even more ruthless than the PP [the right-wing opposition party] when it wants to, when striking against the Basque pro-independence camp”.

Despite this latest attack against the political representatives of the independence movement, Pernando Barrena was insistent that the Basque nationalist Left is strongly committed to seeking “a solution and a peace deal” as a way out of the present political conflict. He had the following message for the Madrid government:

“The PSOE Government is not in dispute with the 23 people it has just arrested, or even with the whole of the nationalist Left movement. Their disagreement is with a people that wish to be their own masters. Their dispute is with the Basque Country.”

NEW ATTACK

Following the raid on Segura, police reportedly brought the Batasuna spokesperson, Joseba Permach, to witness a further raid on the offices of Communist Party of the Basque Country headquarters. Permach is not a member of that organisation.

Of late, the Spanish media has spoken of the possibility of a new attack against Batasuna. The common thread is that Garzón’s action was initiated in the office of the Spanish Prime Minister, José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.

On 9 September, the Spanish daily, El Pais, pointed out that Zapatero’s strategy against the Basque independence movement would include attacks against the political leadership of Batasuna and sister organisations.

On 30 September, another paper, Público, announced that the judiciary would force “the renovation of Batasuna” as part of a strategy designed by the government to fight ETA ahead of the elections.

There is little or nothing I could add but a heart felt thank you to our Irish friends.

~ ~ ~

Act of Revenge

Madrid has been exposed as a totalitarian and colonialist minded regime. During the past months the Basque society engaged in a peace process that Zapatero and his fellow members at the PSOE torpedoed at any chance he had. Not reported by the mean stream media, Zapatero even arrested the ETA envoys who offered to lay down the weapons, thus betraying the truce and openly telling the world that they lied when Madrid claimed that they would talk to ETA only after an unilateral disarm.

Well, incensed by the Basque compromise to a peace process that aimed at a political resolution of the Basque conflict, now Zapatero is rabidly going after everyone, just like Aznar did before him. And Zapatero is in a hurry because he knows that the backwards Spanish electorate could reinstate the Franco styled Partido Popular back in power next year, how can he forget the millions who voted for Rajoy during the past electoral process even after Aznar and the members of the PP where caught with their pants down trying to place the blame of the attacks in Madrid on the Basques knowing that all the evidence pointed at retaliation for Aznar's support of Bush's genocidal war in Iraq.

Here you have an article published by Gara that talks about how Zapatero is now striking back at all of those who demonstrated that the Basques stand for peace while the Spaniards stand for colonialist domination:

GARA > Ultima hora >

POLICE CRACKDOWN AGAINST THE PRO-INDEPENDENCE LEFT

Batasuna leader says PSOE is out for revenge against the nationalist Left

“The PSOE [Spanish Socialist Party] is looking for revenge and wants to punish the Basque nationalist Left for the position they adopted in the [recently failed] negotiations,” charged Pernando Barrena in response to Thursday night’s police operation against members of the leadership of the Basque political party Batasuna, in which 23 people have been arrested.

05/10/2007 20:50:00

DONOSTIA-. “It is perfectly clear to us that yesterday’s police operation was a political crackdown with the complicity of the Public Prosecutor’s office targeting the Basque pro-independence movement, in order to punish the movement and take revenge because the nationalist Left stuck to its guns in the negotiations and wouldn’t give in to the conditions the PSOE had tried to force on it,” explained Pernando Barrena, a prominent member of Batasuna’s collective leadership, outside Martutene prison where several of his arrested colleagues are now being held.


Mr Barrena was in the company of Bairbre de Brun and Pat Rice, politicians belonging to the Irish Sinn Féin party who had come to Martutene to visit Arnaldo Otegi, Batasuna’s chief spokesperson, who is also now in prison.


Sharing his thoughts about Thursday’s operation, Mr Barrena expressed indignation at the way in which the arrests had been carried out, violating the right of assembly, and at night-time. He pointed out that when the leaders now arrested were previously summoned by the Spanish court to declare they had presented themselves of their own free will and in an orderly fashion.


In Thursday night’s flash raid, hooded Spanish police officers positioned themselves in the street in the small Gipuzkoan town where the Batasuna leadership were holding a meeting, and forced them into police vehicles as they were leaving the premises. In Mr Barrena’s mind there can be only one explanation: “The judge himself aims to provoke and foster public alarm, which only actually exists in his own mind.”


But he added that only a few months away from upcoming elections, the ruling Spanish party, PSOE, “needs to make a show to the Spanish of its capacity to be even more ruthless than the PP [the right-wing opposition party] when it wants to, when striking against the Basque pro-independence camp.”


Pernando Barrena was insistent that the Basque nationalist Left is strongly committed to seeking “a solution and a peace deal” as a way out of the present political conflict, and had the following message for the Madrid government: “The PSOE government has no quarrel with the 23 people it has just arrested, or even with the whole movement of the nationalist Left. Their quarrel is with a people that wish to be their own masters. Their quarrel is with Euskal Herria.”


Finally, Mr Barrena called on Basques to reject these arrests and take part in protests to denounce them, and to let the PSOE know “that they have gone too far and that there is no room for such behaviour in the present political scenario; and tell them that what the Basque Country needs is a political settlement that will lead to peace and respect for all people’s rights”.

~ ~ ~

Batasuna Wants Peace

Unlike the Spanish State that chose to perpetuate the political conflict with Euskal Herria by sinking the peace talks by having the envoys for the pro-independence Basque side arrested, Batasuna continues to call for the peace process to continue. This interview was published by Alert Net:

INTERVIEW-Batasuna still hopes for Spanish peace talks

12 Jun 2007 12:00:38 GMT
Source: Reuters

By Jason Webb

MADRID, June 12 (Reuters) - A Basque separatist party banned for links to ETA rebels still hopes for a revival of peace talks with the Spanish government despite the end of an ETA ceasefire last week, a leading party member said on Tuesday.

But Joseba Alvarez, a prominent member of banned party Batasuna, said he feared Spain's Socialist government would take a tough stance against ETA in the lead-up to general elections due by next March.

"Our objective is to get back to dialogue and negotiations as soon as possible," Alvarez told Reuters by telephone from Pretoria, where he said he was studying South Africa's transition from apartheid.

He recognised it would be difficult to revive peace talks the government started last year with ETA to end four decades of violent conflict in the Basque Country.

Last week the government responded to ETA's announcement that it was abandoning a ceasefire by transferring the best-known rebel prisoner from hospital to jail. Batasuna's leader Arnaldo Otegi was jailed on Friday for praising terrorism.

The government, now braced for possible ETA bombings or assassinations, regards Batasuna as ETA's political wing.

Alvarez said isolating Basque separatists only made an ETA attack more likely.

"If they step up (police) repression, if everyone starts thinking and talking about what to do when there's an attack, then what we're doing is making it more probable, not less probable," Alvarez said.

The last time ETA struck was in December, when a bomb at Madrid airport killed two people. But the rebels said at the time that their ceasefire still held and the attack was just meant as a warning.

Alvarez said Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero had made the most serious attempt yet to negotiate an end to the Basque conflict. But patience was needed, he added.

"Processes to resolve conflicts tend to be very long and they tend to have their good moments and their bad moments," he said.

Something tells me that Madrid will not pay attention to this call for peace, the Spanish politicians are very comfortable with the colonialist and genocidal past of the country they run.

.... ... .

In Support of Otegi

As you may know by now, Zapatero ordered top Basque politician Arnaldo Otegi because he feels like he needs to punish anyone who dares to advance the right of the Basque nation to its self determination. Well, Otegi is not on his own and people will take to the streets in solidarity with the jailed leader of Batasuna. Here you have this article published by EITb:

Basque leftist movement to protest against imprisonment of Otegi

According to Batasuna sources, spokesman for Batasuna Joseba Permach will address the attendants after the rally.

Basque leftist militants will hold a rally Saturday evening in the Basque town of Elgoibar to protest against the imprisonment of the leader of the outlawed party Batasuna Arnaldo Otegi.

After the protest, spokesman for Batasuna Joseba Permach will address the attendants, Batasuna sources reported.

Spanish judges sent the Basque leftist movement's most prominent politician to prison Friday on a terrorism conviction - more evidence of retaliation for the announcement this week by armed group ETA that it was calling off its cease-fire, analysts said.

Arnaldo Otegi, the 48-year-old leader of the outlawed Batasuna party, was arrested as he walked to a news conference in San Sebastian and was quickly jailed in the Basque city. The Supreme Court had rejected his appeal against a conviction and 15-month sentence handed down last year.

Batasuna called Otegi's arrest an act of "maximum gravity." It said the government of Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero had silenced the leftist movement's chief representative.

Otegi was found guilty by a lower court of defending terrorism - a crime in Spain - through remarks he made in 2003 at a rally in memory of an ETA leader on the 25th anniversary of his death. In a nearly identical case in March, however, prosecutors dropped the charges at the last minute and Otegi walked free.

.... ... .

Otegi Incarcerated

Now that the Spanish government has been exposed one more time in all its mendacity it was just a matter of time for Zapatero and his repressive apparatus to escalate their vindictive actions against the Basque nationalism.

This note appeared at Yahoo News describes the most recent move by the Spanish government against Basque politician Arnaldo Otegi, the front man for the leftist nationalist movement:

Basque separatist leader sent to jail

By DANIEL WOOLLS, Associated Press Writer
Fri Jun 8, 7:28 AM ET

Spanish police arrested the Basque separatist movement's most prominent politician on a court order for him to start serving a 15-month sentence for defending terrorism, a court official said.

Arnaldo Otegi, the 48-year-old leader of the outlawed Batasuna party, was arrested in the Basque city of San Sebastian, the National Court official said on customary condition of anonymity.

Otegi was convicted last year over remarks he made at a rally in memory of a leader of the armed separatist group ETA on the 25th anniversary of his death. He was arrested after the Supreme Court rejected his appeal.

The ruling is certain to infuriate the Basque independence movement. ETA called off a 15-month-old cease-fire on Tuesday.

Prosecutors say Otegi in effect praised terrorism, which is a crime in Spain. Otegi's lawyer said the politician was simply exercising his right to free speech and discussing ways to end the 40-year Basque conflict.

A five-judge panel at the Supreme Court ruled unanimously against the appeal.

The case then went back to the National Court, the lower tribunal that originally issued the guilty verdict. It had the option of suspending the sentence because it was less than two years, but chose not to and Otegi was arrested.

The court official said that only minutes elapsed from the time the higher court ruled to when Otegi was picked up on his way to a news conference.

The ruling is certain to infuriate the Basque independence movement.

On Wednesday, the government ordered a notorious ETA killer sent back to prison after recovering in hospital from a 114-day hunger strike, rather than let him serve out the rest of his term under house arrest, an option that had been raised initially.

By the way, this is one example of the sloppy coverage that the Basque conflict gets from "reporters" that do little else than to act as resonance boxes for the Spanish propaganda machinery.

Notice how Daniel Woolls repeats the same paragraph twice:

The ruling is certain to infuriate the Basque independence movement.

And then, he omits Iñaki de Juana's name from his next to last paragraph. Or maybe Daniel Wolls was afraid to be accused by the Spanish National Court of praising terrorism for printing Iñaki's name?

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A New Euskal Herria

A child holds a Basque flag with a sticker reading 'A new Basque Country', during a Batasuna rally in Pamplona, in the Spanish Basque province of Navarra, March 3, 2007. Spokesman for the banned Basque party, Arnaldo Otegi, proposed an initial four-province Basque region comprised of Navarra and the three provinces of the Basque Autonomous Community, with the right to statehood, saying that, without Navarra, they wanted 'Nothing, nothing, nothing.' REUTERS/Vincent West (SPAIN)

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Batasuna's Analysis

EITb has published a note about how Batasuna is assuming its responsability in the future of the Basque Peace Process. The political party also calls on the other parties to do the same. Finally, it decries the attempt by the PP to outlaw EHAK.

Here it is:

Batasuna's explanation

Leftwing nationalism's reflection, collective - Batasuna's Permach

01/18/2007

The Basque leftwing nationalist movement assumed part of its responsibility in an attempt to push the process following the Madrid airport attack, but rejected that all responsibility is on the movement, as Joseba Permach noted Thursday.

Permach assured that the reflection of leftwing nationalism is "collective" and criticised the attempts to "pass the buck" to the nationalist movement while all parties have to reflect on the matter. Likewise, he warned that trying to outlaw the Leftwing Nationalist group in the Basque Parliament is "an error."

In an appearance in Donostia-San Sebastian, Permach referred to the statements voiced by Batasuna spokesman Arnaldo Otegi and LAB union's secretary general Rafa Diez, to affirm that when leftwing nationalism voices a reflection, it's "collective" and not just "personal views."

The Batasuna leader noted that, following these statements, agents are trying to "dodge the issue" and "pass the buck" to leftwing nationalism event if what is necessary is a "collective" reflection by every political party.

Likewise, he denounced "the attempt to outlaw" the Leftwing Nationalist group in the Basque Parliament and denounced the "return" to conservative PP and socialist PSOE's policies to try to wipe out leftwing nationalism, saying it is a "big error" and does not work.

~ ~ ~

Batasuna's Call for Compromise

For those of you who do not know it, Batasuna is a political party that was banned by José María Aznar, yes, you read that correctly, in Spain a so called "young democracy" they ban political parties. You are going to love it even more when you learn that this Aznar is the son of a prominent junta member during the dictatorship of Francisco Franco. As you can see, some things never change in Spain, no wonder why the Basques want nothing to do with a country that shows such disregard for democracy, civil liberties and human rights.

Well, Batasuna was banned for refusing to state something some else wants them to state, as if you could be sent to jail for refusing to say "I hate rap music" when someone else demands it from you.

As it happens, the politicans from Batasuna are the only ones with the political courage to demand from ETA to stick to its compromise in behalf of the Basque Peace Process.

Here you have the note from Yahoo News:

Basque militant urges continued peace

By MAR ROMAN, Associated Press Writer

Mon Jan 8, 5:06 PM ET

A leading pro-independence militant urged the armed Basque separatist group ETA on Monday to maintain a cease-fire which the government declared void following a Dec. 30 car bombing in Madrid that killed two people.

Arnaldo Otegi, leader of the outlawed Batasuna Party, called on ETA "to keep intact the commitments and objectives stated in its March 22" cease-fire announcement. He also encouraged the government and ETA to resume contacts.

"Political dialogue has to be developed ... in the absence of any kind of violence," he added.

Batasuna, considered ETA's political wing, has never called on ETA to halt its attacks. Last week, party members said they said they were surprised by the Madrid bombing and offered condolences to the victims in another unexpected gesture.

The bomb destroyed a parking garage at Madrid's international airport, killing Ecuadorean immigrants Carlos Alonso Palate and Diego Armando Estacio, and wounding 26 people.

Hundreds of people in the Spanish capital, meanwhile, staged a silent protest in memory of the two victims.

Five-minute silences were observed at noon in Madrid from city hall to the airport. Workers, passengers, firefighters and police at the blast site stopped all activities for the five minutes of silence.

The bombing was ETA's first fatal attack in more than three years and it shattered a nine-month cease-fire that the group had described as permanent.

The government, which had announced plans to negotiate with ETA, responded by declaring the peace process was over.

On Monday, Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero met with opposition leader Mariano Rajoy for talks aimed at forging a united stance following the attack, but no agreement was reached.

ETA has not claimed responsibility for the blast, but a man who made a warning call to authorities before the explosion said he represented the group.

Zapatero has said he is more determined than ever to end ETA's nearly four-decade campaign of violence, aimed at achieving an independent Basque homeland.

Rodriguez (some like calling him Zapatero for some reason) must understand that to end violence one simple thing needs to be accomplished, for justice to be served, and that will happen when the Basques are allowed to go their own way, as enshrined at the UN's Charter.

~ ~ ~

From Batasuna to ETA

Arnaldo Otegi (R), spokesman of banned Basque party Batasuna addresses a news conference with Batasuna negotiating team member Rufi Etxeberria in San Sebastian, January 8, 2007. Otegi asked armed separatists ETA to continue with their ceasefire agreements. REUTERS/Vincent West (SPAIN)

Now, this is politics, all the other tugs from the PP, the PSOE and the PNV are too busy trying to win their piss contest.

~ ~ ~

Otegi: It's Not Over

Yes, all the right wingers and neocons will repeat ad nauseum that the appeasement is finally over, that you can not negotiate with violent people and such.

Yet, there are voices that urge everyone to stay calm.

Arnaldo Otegi is one of such voices, here you have the note that appeared at EITB:

Reaction to Madrid Attack

Batasuna leader Otegi says Basque peace process not over yet

The head of the outlawed Basque nationalist party said on Saturday that Spain's peace process continued despite a bomb attack at Madrid airport that ended ETA's 9-month-old ceasefire.

"The peace process...is not only not over, but now it is more necessary than ever," Batasuna leader Arnaldo Otegi told a news conference in the Basque city of Donostia-San Sebastian.

"What happened in Madrid, if it's confirmed ETA is behind it, doesn't take us back to the scenario that existed before March 24 (in reference to the day ETA declared its "permanent" cease-fire)" he said.

He blamed Zapatero's government for a breakdown in peace talks between separatists and Madrid. "There hasn't been a gesture, not a single one, from the Spanish government," said Otegi.

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A Voice of Reason

Once again Sinnika Tarvainen delivers a note that is worth reading.

It was published at The Raw Story:

2007 will make or break Spain's Basque peace process By Sinikka Tarvainen

dpa German Press Agency

By Sinikka Tarvainen, Madrid- For Spain, the year 2007 could mark a turning point - many expect events in the coming 12 months to either make or break what was expected to become a historic peace process with the armed Basque separatist group ETA. Should Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's plans succeed, he would go down in history for ending a conflict which has cast its shadow over Spain for nearly four decades, claiming more than 800 lives.

Yet there are increasing signs that the peace process could flounder before it has even begun proper, and become another failed attempt to achieve peace with the group seeking a Basque country carved out of northern Spain and southern France.

When Zapatero announced peace talks with ETA in late June, many analysts believed Spain to have an unprecedented chance to finally end a long spiral of shootings, bombings, kidnappings, extortion and street violence.

Three months earlier, ETA had declared its first "permanent" ceasefire after refraining from fatal attacks for nearly three years.

There was evidence that western Europe's last armed nationalist group was weaker than ever before, with hundreds of its activists captured in recent years and the vast majority of Basques opposing its violent tactics.

ETA's political wing Batasuna showed willingness to distance itself from violence in an attempt to lift a 2003 legal ban on its activities and to participate in local elections scheduled for May 2007.

Government experts made plans for a two-track peace process. The government and ETA would discuss only practical questions, such as disarmament and the fate of some 600 jailed ETA activists, while Basque political parties including Batasuna would talk about the region's future.

The separatists, on their side, took advice from experts on the Northern Ireland peace process, such as Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams and the priest Alec Reid, and studied the South African reconciliation process.

And then - nothing happened.

Angered by the government's refusal to stop arresting and trying its or ETA's members on charges ranging from participating in past attacks to staging illegal demonstrations, Batasuna declined to condemn ETA's violence - the condition for the party's relegalization.

The Socialist government meanwhile appeared to have a limited margin of manoeuvre under constant pressure from the opposition conservatives, who kept accusing Zapatero of surrendering to terrorists.

The conservative People's Party (PP) backed a string of protest rallies organized by some associations representing ETA's victims, the most recent of which brought 120,000 people to the streets of Madrid in November.

As both sides became increasingly entrenched in their positions, the separatists stepped up pressure, relaunching acts of street vandalism in the Basque region and robbing some 350 handguns in France in October.

Batasuna has also hardened its initially conciliatory tone, stressing that the eventual party talks would have to deal with topics unacceptable to Spain, such as the option of a Basque referendum on the region's independence.

Half a year after Zapatero "launched" the peace process, not a single official meeting has taken place, and the government does not intend to stage any as long as ETA does not unequivocally give up all forms of violence.

Moderate Basque nationalists and the Basque branch of Zapatero's Socialist Party have reportedly suspended preliminary meetings with Batasuna which had been laying the ground for party talks.

Neither the government nor the separatists have spoken openly of failure, but pessimism is growing on both sides.

"The process is in an increasingly serious situation every day," Batasuna leader Arnaldo Otegi warned recently, while Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba admitted that it was not "taking off."

Initially, many analysts were convinced that ETA could not defy public opinion by beginning to kill again after Spain had become used to peace - but now, they are no longer so sure.

Police chiefs have advised their men to start preparing for the possibility that ETA will break the ceasefire, the daily El Mundo reported.

Many are wondering whether Zapatero will follow in the footsteps of Socialist premier Felipe Gonzalez and his conservative successor Jose Maria Aznar, who failed in attempts to negotiate with ETA in 1989 and 1998-99 respectively.

Observers expect the answer to become clear by March, when Batasuna has to decide whether to contest the upcoming local elections.

She does not mention the fatalities among the Basques though, seems like nobody cares about those who have died victim to Spain's state sponsored terrorism. Just to mention an example, dozens have been killed or wounded when trying to visit their jailed relatives in prisons far away from the Basque Country, a result of a deadly policy known as "disperssion".

Now, neither González nor Aznar ever attempted to negotiate with ETA, all what they attempted was to create a diversion in order to continue to deny Euskal Herria its right to self determination.

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As The Peace Process Stalls

Ok, go ahead and read the footnote for this picture:

A couple walk past a wall painted with a mural supporting the Basque separatist group ETA, reading in Basque: 'Continue the struggle!' in the Spanish town of Alsasua, Spain, Friday, Dec. 15, 2006. Arnaldo Otegi, leader of the outlawed Batasuna party, considered ETA's political wing, spoke in Bilbao at a protest outside the Socialist Party offices saying that the fledgling peace process in the Basque region is now 'unviable', the starkest warning yet that hopes for ending the decades-conflict in northern Spain might be in jeopardy. ETA has been blamed for more than 800 deaths since the late 1960s and is Europe's last armed political militancy. (AP Photo/Alvaro Barrientos).

First of all, 'Bietan Jarrai' does not mean "Continue the struggle!", it would actually translate into "The Two Ways", the snake stands for knowledge as the ones you find in the symbol used by doctors, while the axe stands for struggle.

And well, seems like Augusto Barrientos forgot to mention the amount of Basques murdered by Spain and France throughout the last 500 years.

~ ~ ~

A Warning From Otegi

The International Herald Tribune published a note in which Arnaldo Otegi from Batasuna warns of the perils faced by the Peace Process.

Here you have the note:

Basque militant leader says peace process is "unviable"

The Associated Press
Friday, December 15, 2006

MADRID, Spain

A leading pro-independence militant said Friday that the fledgling peace process in the Basque region is now "unviable," the starkest warning yet that the effort to end the decades-long conflict in northern Spain might be in jeopardy.

The armed Basque separatist group ETA declared what it called a permanent cease-fire in March, saying it wanted a negotiated solution. But promised peace talks with the government have yet to materialize, pro-ETA street violence has returned to Basque cities and ETA accuses the government of harassing pro-independence politicians through police raids and court rulings.

"At this moment, the peace process is not possible. It is unviable," said Arnaldo Otegi, leader of the outlawed Batasuna party, considered ETA's political wing.

He accused the ruling Socialist Party of "having broken the conditions on which the peace process sustained." Otegi spoke in Bilbao at a protest outside the Socialist Party offices.

ETA has been blamed for more than 800 deaths since the late 1960s.

In early November, ETA warned the Spanish government in a statement in an internal bulletin that the peace process initiated in March was in crisis.

In Brussels, where he was attending a summit of European Union leaders, Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said he still believed that peace could be achieved and he appealed for calm.

"I have confidence in the expectations surrounding the peace process," Zapatero said. "We have to work with calm and diligence."

Who is Rodríguez trying to fool?

He has done nothing to this date to improve the conditions for neither dialogue nor peace process.

For me, seems like he is trying to emulate his mentor Felipe González.

Shall we expect a new GAL to start acting any time now?

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Harassment

This was published today at EITb:

Otegi says Spanish government firmly committed to "harassment"

According to the Nationalist leader, "only recognising the rights of all the parties and respecting all the commitments" will be possible "to coordinate a process with democratic foundations in the Basque Country".

Spokesman of Batasuna Arnaldo Otegi assured on Tuesday that Spanish President Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and his government should "change their attitude and conditions in order to build a process with democratic solutions, making use of the political negotiation".

Otegi, who attended a press conference in Donostia-San Sebastian with fellow party member Joseba Permach, read aloud a statement. The leader of the banned party declared that "the constant aggressions by Spanish police and courts" is a result of the firm commitment to "harassment" of Zapatero's government, which makes it impossible to carry out "a process of multilateral dialogue in the Basque Country".

"Only recognising the rights of all the parties, respecting all the commitments and having a true will to solve the conflict will be possible to coordinate a serious process with democratic foundations in the Basque Country", Otegia added.

"This is the will and the commitment of Batasuna, the Spanish government should decide his", he concluded.

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