Madrid Exports Political Persecution

This article was published at VHeadline:

Spain continues vendetta against ETA in Cuba, Venezuela and N. Ireland

Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Spain refuses to let go of laptop accusations against the Basque ETA armed group and Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and alleged Venezuelan connivance and collaboration.

What is clearly emerging is that Spain wants Venezuela and Cuba to hand over ETA members residing in their countries.

Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos has announced that the writ against ETA and FARC members allegedly plotting to kill Colombian presidents in Spain has been sent to Cuba and Venezuela via the Spanish ambassadors, who have been given the task of ensuring the collaboration of both countries in hunting down ETA.

In Cuba the main target is Jose Angel Urtiaga Martinez whom 15-minutes-of-fame Spanish Judge Velasco claims is ETA's representative to the FARC. Another is alleged second in command, Jose Miguel Arrugaeta San Emeterio. Both men are charged with relaying explosives training.

Moratinos has declared that the Spanish executive is acting in full cooperation with the autonomous legislative power and Congress. All three institutions have clubbed together on this one.

Yesterday, Moratinos took off his government's mask, saying Chavez has "collaborated in extraditions and has demonstrated his disposition to accompany the Spanish government's efforts to eradicate, combat and defeat ETA."

Meanwhile, Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere affairs, Chilean-born Arturo Valenzuela has tuned into the Spanish-Colombian campaign against Venezuela and rebel organizations, declaring that Venezuela has given "some assistance" to the FARC who are receiving specific types of help from different groups.

Spain, Colombia and the USA will be attending the inauguration of right-wing crusader, Chilean President Sebastian Pinera, who has made a great fuss inviting Venezuelan opposition leader, Antonio Ledezma to the event.

President Chavez said he will not be attending the inauguration but his name will be top of the agenda in corridor meetings.

Update: a "Don't Extradite the Basques" campaign has been set up in Northern Ireland against the British government's decision to allow the extradition of former ETA prisoner and hunger-striker, Inaki de Juana, who has been living in the North for the last two years.

The Sinn Fein party is organizing the campaign and the party's euro-deputy, Bairbre de Brun said Inaki was being pursued for his political ideas and extradition to Spain should be dropped.

De Brun argued that both the British and Spanish governments are ignoring important political initiatives in the Basque Country to resolve the conflict.

De Juana spent 21 years in a Spanish jail, of which 17 years were in solitary confinement.

Last year an ad hoc committee in Venezuela succeeded in stopping the extradition of another ETA member.

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Benat Won't Be Extradited

Good news from Ireland, Benat will not be extradited according to this entry at Ógra Shinn Féin's blog:

Ógra Shinn Fein welcomes Belfast court decision

Ógra Shinn Féin have welcomed a Belfast court decision which has thrown out a case against Belfast based Basque Arturo Villanueva Arteaga (Benat) seeking his extradition.

The Spanish was seeking Benat due to his alleged membership of pro independence Basque youth group, Jarrai. The judge said that there was lack of specific details about attendance at meetings, interviews or other evidence that Mr Arteaga was in Jarrai.

Jarrai were deemed ‘illegal’ by the Spanish Supreme court in 2005 and deemed ‘terrorist‘ in 2007, as was the current pro independence youth movement, Segi.

Although the warrant claimed the wanted man carried out violent and coercive actions from 1994 to 2000, Judge Burgess held there was no reference to dates, locations or targets of any alleged attacks which would allow anyone to link them to him.

The warrant claimed that Benat had been a member of Jarrai in 2000, yet it wasn’t until 2005 that it was deemed ‘illegal’.

Explaining his case, Benat said that he had always worked "politically, peacefully and publicly" in defence of Basque rights, and he criticised the way the Spanish dealt with these kind of political cases, which is not the right way and breach any kind of principles.

"Not just myself, but many different lawyers and international bodies, year after year, have been calling attention to the Spanish authorities to improve on matters of human rights and judicial rights for any legal cases relating to the Basque conflict."

Continues...

We are gland to learn that this time Madrid has seen its plans to silence another Basque voice foiled by the Irish justice.

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Solidarity and Remebrance in Uruguay

Leftist NGOs and human rights organizations from Uruguay commemorated the XV anniversary of the government's repressive operations at the Filtro Hospital where a young man was killed by police officers when they charged against demonstrators that gathered at the health facility to support the Basque political refugees on hunger strike to protest the extradition process demanded by the Spanish State.

On an effort to gain economic favors from the fascist regime in Madrid, the Uruguayan government decided to mercilessly repress its own people.

Since then, every year, on August 24th the NGO "Plenaria Memoria y Justicia" calls for Uruguayans to publicly demonstrate "against impunity" and "against sponging the past", also, to show their support for the "independence of the Basque Country and the right to self-determination of the peoples", said Irma Leytes, the spokesperson for the NGO.

Pseudo-reporters embedded in different mass media corporations on Madrid's paycheck tried to pin the whole thing on support for ETA as they usually do when they find people that sees through the web of lies and deception created by Paris and Madrid to deny the Basque people the right to decide their own future. But Irma Leytes did not allow them to mar the demonstration and reminded them that they do not have to pronounce themselves regarding ETA since the NGO Plenaria Memoria y Justicia does not "question the methodology chosen" by other groups. Leytes pointed out that on today's demonstration they counted with the presence of members of Askapena, the internationalist Basque association.

The events at the Hospital Filtro in Montevideo, that this electoral year in Urugay have become a controversial element of dispute among the political parties, took place on August 24th of 1994. The public demonstrations against the extradition of three Basque political refugees lasted for a number of days and were backed by the leftist coalition Frente Amplio, the current ruling party in Urugay. On the eve of the extradition of the three Basques, scheduled for August 25th, the police decided to unleash a violent repression against hundred of demonstrators, murdering Fernando Morroni a wounding dozens.

According to Leytes, one of the goals of the demonstration is to "put forward the need that former President Luis Alberto Lacalle does not continue to enjoy impunity over this case". Lacalle, the candidate for the opposition's Partido Nacional for the electoral process on October 25th was the President at the time of the Hospital Filtro massacre.

There will be remembrance acts in different locations in Euskal Herria as an effort by Basque society to honor those who have given their lives to protect the human and civil rights of the Basque political refugees.

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Julen Arzuaga in Belfast

This article was published at Barcelona Reporter:

On Saturday August the 8th, Basque Conference Held in Belfast

Julen Arzuaga, a lawyer from Behatokia, the Basque Observatory of Human Rights, travelled to Belfast from the Basque Country to speak at the conference, present at the conference were Iñaki de Juana and Arturo Beñat Villanueva, two Basque activists who are fighting extradition charges by the Spanish government. The firm of attorneys who are representing both men, gave a progress report on its efforts to defeat the extradition charges.

There were more than 100 people present at the conference on political persecution in the Basque Country on Saturday August 8 in An Chultúrlann in west Belfast, organised by the Don't Extradite the Basques Campaign as part of the annual Féile an Phobail.

Veteran republican activist Danny Morrison introduced the conference and in a speech compared the Spanish government's persecution of the Basque pro-independence movement with the experience of Irish republicans over several decades, and went on to say "The best way this community can show our solidarity with the Basque people's struggle for their human and national rights in this period of severe repression by the Spanish government is by making sure that these vindictive extradition attempts are defeated."

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Cross-Border Civil Rights' Violations

Judge Baltasar Garzón incarcerated Basque political refugee Juan Manuel Intziarte who has detained by police at Madrid's Barajas airport after being expelled from Mexico. Itziarte's forced departure from the North American country, according to leaked information, was preceded by unusual circumstances, being that his detention began due to an "anonymous tip" that claimed that the presence of the Basque political refugee was "irregular". After the case of the six Basque political refugees extradited by former president Vicente Fox in which the Mexican citizenry took the streets in support of the prisoners the Mexican has resorted to expelling the Basque citizens requested by Madrid to avoid another sticky situation that may again highlight the human and civil rights' violations that have to be in place to achieve an extradition since the Mexican Constitution forbid extraditions to countries that practice torture and summary executions, like Spain.

With a complete different outcome, another Basque political refugee, in this case in Venezuela, this very same week faced the possibility of being extradited to the Spanish State. Eventually, Iñaki Etxeberria was released at dawn on Friday after the Supreme Court in the South American country found no elements to support his extradition. The "unusual" circumstances" were also present in this case as denounced by Etxeberria himself. He was illegally questioned by the Interpol, there was unjustified delays for his release and he even witnessed the visit of the very Spanish Foreign Affairs Minister, Miguel Angel Moratinos. This chain of events made him fear for a negative outcome to his situation, that fortunately, did not come through.

Both cases are evidence of the unflinching efforts by the Spanish regime to bully sovereign states into violating international law regarding the figure of political asylum. That legal frame was seriously damaged by the offensive initiated by the US administration after the 9-11 attacks in the so called "war on terrorism", an offensive that counted with the enthusiastic support of many other states, among them, for obvious reasons, the Spanish state. But time has proved the complete and utter failures of this strategy that violates human rights as a cover up for more devious goals and, more so, its slow but unstoppable lack of support within the international community. A reality that the Spanish state rebuffs obsessed in extending it policy of suppressing the civil liberties beyond its own borders.

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Caracas to Free Iñaki Etxebarria

Great news, Hugo Chavez was unable to exchange Basque political refugee Iñaki Etxeberria over an oil profit deal with Madrid according to this note published at Venezuelanalysis:

Venezuela Denies Extradition of Basque Nationalist to Spain

James Suggett

Mérida, August 5th 2009 (Venezuelanalysis.com) -- On Tuesday evening Venezuela's Supreme Court (TSJ) denied Spain's request for the extradition of a presumed former member of the Basque independence organization ETA, Iñaki Etxeberria.

Spain charged Etxeberria with attempted homicide during an incident in Spain in 1993. On Tuesday, the TSJ ruled the extradition impermissible because the prescripted period in which to try Etxeberria for the crime had expired, according to Venezuelan law.

Etxeberria is a legal permanent resident of Venezuela who has lived in Venezuela for 13 years, having fled what he and his supporters say was political persecution of Basque leaders by the Spanish government. He currently works in a steel factory in Cojedes state.

Venezuela's national investigative police, the CICPC, arrested Etxeberria in late April, fulfilling an order by the international criminal police organization, INTERPOL.

Official police reports say Etxeberria was arrested in Carabobo state on April 25th, the day he first appeared in court. However, his defense lawyers say he was arrested on April 21st in Cojedes state and effectively "disappeared" for four days.

On June 30th, an investigator from the Attorney General's Office argued before the TSJ that Etxeberria's arrest was illegal, and that the charge against him contained factual contradictions and legal irregularities.

Following the investigator's argument, a TSJ decision was expected within 10 days, but the decision was delayed for more than a month. Marco Rodríguez, a defense lawyer for Etxeberria, accused some TSJ judges of "seeking ways to turn him over to Madrid," beyond the official charges. Meanwhile, Etxeberria was held in police custody for more than 100 days until his release on Tuesday.

Etxeberria's defense lawyers called for an investigation of the police who arrested Etxeberria to probe for possible violations of the activist's rights.

Last month, Canada extradited another Basque nationalist, Jose Joaquin Oleaga, who was charged with the same crime as Etxeberria. Soon after, a Spanish court absolved Oleaga and dropped the charges.

Venezuela has previously extradited two presumed ETA militants in 2002. Juan Víctor Galarza Mendiola and Sebastián Etxaniz Alkorta were deported and later jailed in Spain.

According to the Caracas-based Committee for the Liberation of Iñaki Etxeberria, a coalition of more than fifty Venezuelan revolutionary organizations, the TSJ's decision is a victory for the revolutionary forces over the "right wing that disguises itself as pro-Chavez" within the socialist Bolivarian revolution led by President Hugo Chávez.

Over the past month, the Committee held demonstrations and wrote letters urging the denial of Etxeberria's extradition to Internal Affairs and Justice Minister Tarek El-Aissami, National Assembly President Cilia Flores, Finance Minister Ali Rodriguez, and top leaders of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, but received no reply.

The Committee, which includes distinct leftist organizations such as Marea Socialista, C-CURA, the Bolivarian Continental Coordinator, and the political studies department at Venezuela's Bolivarian University, says the government should provide refuge for Etxeberria out of solidarity with the cause of Basque independence, not just because "Bourgeois laws" rule extradition impermissible.

"Beyond this bourgeois legality, we should pressure our government to address these problems in a revolutionary manner," Committee spokesperson Susana Gonzalez told Venezuelanalysis.com. "Someone who struggles for the liberation of his people from two terrorist states like Spain and France should not be criminalized by any revolutionary in the world."

More than 5,000 Basques have been tortured over the last three decades and hundreds remain under arbitrary arrest on suspicion of being ETA militants, according to the Committee.

The United Nations Human Rights Commission has repeatedly reprimanded Spain for the use of torture and preventative detention under the auspices of domestic anti-terrorism laws, and for failing to turn in human rights reports to the U.N. that are mandatory for signatories of the International Pact on Civil and Political Rights.

The Spanish government considers ETA a terrorist organization and blamed the group, which is a clandestine movement as well as a public political party, for the bombing of a Spanish Civil Guard barrack last week. The Venezuelan Foreign Relations Ministry and Chavez himself publicly condemned what it called the "terrorist" attacks.

The attacks came while Venezuelan and Spanish officials and business executives were meeting in Caracas to arrange joint energy production and finalize details in the indemnity payments for the nationalized Bank of Venezuela.

Maybe one day Hugo Chavez will tell the world why he hates the Basques so much. Then we will remind him that his beloved Simon Bolivar was a Basque and how much the Spaniads loath his memory.

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Solidarity With Etxeberria in Venezuela

This article was published at VHeadline:

AD thugs attack solidarity with the Basques activists outside Supreme Court

Patrick J. O'Donoghue

The Solidarity with The Basque People has organized another rally in front of the Supreme Tribunal of Justice (TSJ) in Caracas protesting against the possible extradition of Inaki Etxeberria to Spain.

According to a spokesperson, Etxeberria has been living legally in Venezuela for more than 12 years and the group accuses the State of illegally arresting Inaki in Valencia, Carabobo on April 21.

According to Venezuelan law, the case should have been declared proscribed because of the 15 years and four months that had passed since Etxeberria was charged in Spain for assassination.

The arrest warrant issued by Interpol, the spokesperson adds, contains contradictions in stating the actual terms surrounding charges.

The TSJ has not ruled on the matter, a spokesman comments, despite the fact that the Attorney General has declared that the case does not merit extradition.

However, it emerges that the protesters were attacked by opposition sectors that turned up outside the building accompanying Metropolitan Mayor Antonio Ledezma and opposition hardliner, Oscar Perez.

According to a report published by Aporrea.org, those supporting the Basque revolutionary were attacked with sticks and fists by Accion Democratica (AD) thugs.

Organizers complain that the Metropolitan Police (PM) not only failed to provide any protection, even though the anti-extradition group was there first but also forced them aside with tear gas to allow Ledezma, Perez and followers through to the TSJ building.

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Campaign Against Extradition of Basque Activists

This article was published at An Phoblacht:

Don't Extradite the Basques Campaign launched

Emma Clancy

The Don’t Extradite the Basques Campaign was formally launched on Wednesday 10 June against the extradition to Spain of Belfast-based Basque pro-independence activists Iñaki de Juana and Arturo ‘Beñat’ Villanueva at a press conference in An Chultúrlann.

Civil rights activist Fearghas Ó hÍr outlined the campaign on behalf of the committee, joined by a range of supporters including prominent human rights defenders and community activists, aiming to demonstrate the broad support for the human and civil rights of the Basque people from across the Belfast community.

An online petition against the extraditions was also launched at the press conference. Initial signatories to this petition include Fearghas Ó hÍr, human rights lawyer Pádraigín Drinan, Eamon McCann (NUJ National Executive), Gerry McConville (Chair, West Belfast Partnership Board) and Michael Culbert (former Antrim and St Gall’s Football Manager).

Iñaki de Juana

Speaking on behalf of the campaign, Fearghas Ó hÍr said: “The Spanish authorities are trying to extradite Iñaki de Juana, who served 21 years in Spanish jails, from Belfast, where he moved immediately after his release in August last year, to face questioning related to charges of ‘glorifying terrorism’.

“The arrest warrant is based on somebody at a rally in Donostia in August, which was celebrating Iñaki’s release from prison, reading a letter that used the popular Basque expression ‘Aurrera bolie’ (‘Kick the ball forward’). The Spanish authorities claim this phrase constitutes a call for the continuation of armed struggle.

“Iñaki was not present at this rally and denies writing such a letter, which Spanish police admit they cannot produce. There is no evidence that this comment was Iñaki’s or that it somehow constitutes a terrorist offence.

“There has been a virulent and sustained hate campaign against Iñaki by the Spanish media for many years, and Spain’s former justice minister has previously publicly called for the judges to ‘construct new charges’ against Iñaki to ‘keep him in jail’,” Ó hÍr explained.

“It is very clear that behind the warrant for ‘questioning’ issued by Spain is the agenda of putting Iñaki back in prison, despite the fact that these new charges are baseless.”

Arturo ‘Beñat’ Villanueva

Ó hÍr then outlined the case of Basque youth activist Arturo ‘Beñat’ Villanueva, who was arrested in March 2001 by the Spanish police, with 15 other young pro-independence activists, and was accused of being a member of Basque pro-independence socialist youth organisation Jarrai.

“While Jarrai is a solely political organisation, it was declared illegal by the Spanish authorities in 2005 and categorised as a “terrorist” organisation by Spain’s Supreme Court in 2007,” Ó hÍr explained.

“Charged with ‘membership of a terrorist organisation’, Beñat faced a possible 14-year jail sentence for his political activism. Released on bail after 10 months in prison, he did not attend what many believed to be a political show trial.

“In 2004, Beñat decided to seek refuge in Belfast from Spanish political persecution and the risk of torture.

“At the time of Beñat’s alleged membership of Jarrai (1994-2000), the organisation was legal. The Spanish court is applying the law that criminalised Jarrai retrospectively.

“Beñat is being targeted by the Spanish authorities for carrying out political, public and peaceful youth work in the Basque Country. His only ‘crime’ has been his political ideas in favour of Basque independence and socialism,” Ó hÍr said.

Political persecution

“In its effort to prevent the Basque people from exercising their democratic right to self-determination, Spain is breaching several fundamental rights as outlined in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, including the right to freedom of opinion and expression, of peaceful assembly and association, the right to take part in the government of their state and the right not to be subjected to torture or abuse,” Ó hÍr said.

“Iñaki de Juana and Arturo ‘Beñat’ Villanueva are clearly being persecuted solely for their political opinions, not for any criminal activity. We believe that there is a serious danger that they will not receive a fair hearing within the Spanish judicial system and face the risk of torture.

Mr Ó hÍr continued: “These extradition requests are politically unacceptable and we are calling on all those who support basic civil rights to sign the petition against the extraditions.”

The campaign petition demands that the Spanish government respects the fundamental human, civil and political rights of the Basque people as laid out in the UN Declaration of Human Rights and that it ends its campaign of criminalisation against the Basque pro-independence movement.

The petition supports the human right of de Juana and Villanueva not to be persecuted by the Spanish government for their political opinions.

It calls on the British government to immediately reject the extradition requests and to refuse to collaborate with the Spanish government in this political persecution.

Finally, the petition supports the right of de Juana and Villanueva to live freely in Ireland.

To sign the petition visit www.dontextraditethebasques.org

Once again, thanks to our Irish friends for their solidarity and support.

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A Petition to Stop Extraditions in Ireland

We received this information regarding an internet based campaign demanding to stop the extradition of Basque political refugees living in Ireland:

Sign The Campaign Petition!

* We, the undersigned, demand that the Spanish government respects the fundamental human, civil and political rights of the Basque people as laid out in the UN Declaration of Human Rights.

* We demand that the Spanish government ends its campaign of criminalisation and political persecution against organisations and individuals that are in favour of Basque independence.

* We support the right of Iñaki de Juana and Arturo ‘Beñat’ Villanueva not to be persecuted by the Spanish government for their political ideas.

* We call on the British government to immediately reject the extradition requests and to refuse to collaborate with the Spanish government’s political persecution of Iñaki de Juana and Arturo ‘Beñat’ Villanueva.

* We support the right of Iñaki de Juana and Arturo ‘Beñat’ Villanueva to live freely in Ireland.

Show your support for Iñaki and Beñat and sign this petition here.

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Another Extradition Case in Ireland

Spain is increasing its persecution campaign against Basque activists in Ireland. With the extradition trial against Iñaki de Juana still going on now we learn about another detention thanks to this article published at An Phoblacht:

Basque youth activist to fight extradition from Belfast

Emma Clancy

Basque activist Arturo Villanueva Arteaga (32), who has lived in west Belfast for four years, was arrested in a raid on 21 April under a European warrant issued by the Spanish authorities who are seeking his extradition to Spain on “terrorism” charges.

Villanueva, who is well-known in the west Belfast community and has been running a tourism business providing tours to European tourists, has said he will fight the extradition attempt. He was released on bail under conditions of reporting to police daily and living under a 9pm curfew, with the extradition hearing to begin on May 13.

The Belfast Basque Committee protested against the extradition attempt outside the court, calling for the case to be dropped. A spokesperson said: “Arturo has been living openly in Belfast for four years and has a life here.

“We are calling for the immediate dropping of this case and an end to the repression of Basque civil society.”

The charges relate to the pro-independence Basque youth organisation Segi, which was made illegal in 2001 and declared a “terrorist” organisation by the Spanish Supreme Court in 2007. If the extradition is successful Villanueva faces up to 14 years in prison.

In 2001, following the banning of Segi, Villanueva was among 17 young people charged with being a member of the group. Segi, an independent socialist youth organisation with thousands of members, organised political campaigns around the right to Basque self-determination as well as social and economic issues that affect youth.

Released on bail, he did not attend the political show trial. In 2005 Spanish prosecutors called for Villanueva to be sentenced to 14 years in prison in his absence.
Segi’s proscription by the Spanish government was part of the state’s long-standing policy of criminalising virtually all political parties, media sources and civil society groups that are in favour of Basque self-determination – and jailing the leaders and members of those organisations.

In December UN human rights special rapporteur Martin Scheinin said Spain’s Law of Political Parties 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.

Villanueva’s arrest comes after the Belfast Recorder’s Court in March ruled in favour of a Spanish extradition request for former Basque prisoner Iñaki de Juana Chaos to face charges of “glorifying terrorism”. De Juana is appealing the ruling on May 15.

The Basque Committee is urging the local community to oppose the targeting of Belfast’s Basque community by the Spanish authorities and to support Villanueva and de Juana in their fight against extradition.

Once again we thank our Irish brothers and sisters who support our quest for self determination.

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Arrests of Refugees and Dispersal

We received this text from our friends at the Irish Basque Committees:

Basque political refugees arrested in Belfast and Venezuela

At the request of the Spanish authorities Arturo “Benat” Villanueva was arrested last Wednesday by the Extraditions Team of the PSNI. The arrest happened at 8am at his home. The PSNI officers involved in the arrest were correct throughout the arrest and the custody at the Musgrave barracks.

40 people supported Benat inside and outside the Court buildings. After a hearing before Judge Burgess and having previously agreed with both the Crown prosecution and the PSNI Benat was released on a £5000 bail, curfew at home from 9pm to 7am, he has to remain within the six counties and has to sign at a barracks every day once. A full hearing will be held on the 13th of May at the Lagan Court in Belfast.

As we’ve reported many times Benat’s case is not an isolated one, it’s part of a broader pattern of repression against the Basque Country . Over the last decade newspapers, political parties, youth groups, cultural associations...have been banned and their members arrested.

Benat has been living and working openly in Belfast for the past 5 and half years. He said: “I’ve made this country my home, made many great friends and become a proud part of a very strong community. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank everybody for the welcome and support they’ve extended to myself and the Basque people over the years.”

Between Tuesday and Wednesday Basque political refugee Inaki Etxeberria was arrested in Venezuela. Very little information has come out surrounding this arrest.

The Basque pro-independence movement spoke out against the arrests and branded them as political and reflection of the overall political situation of repression in the Basque Country. The pro-independence movement asked other governments not to follow the Spanish authorities estrategy. Finally expressed their solidarity with the arrested and thanked those in Ireland, Venezuela and the rest of the world who have welcomed and supported Basque refugees along the years.

The Belfast Basque Solidarity Committee has stated that the arrest of a member of the Basque community , living in Belfast, is yet more evidence of the Spanish authorities attack on Basque Civil society.

Speaking on Wednesday a spokesperson for the group, Kevin Morrison, said:

“The arrest of a member of the Basque community, living in Belfast, Arturo “Benat” Villanueva, is yet more evidence of the continuation of attacks by the Spanish government on Basque civil society.

“The extradition warrant issued by the Spanish authorities is accusing Arturo Villanueva of membership of Segi, a youth organization banned in 2005 in a series of draconian clampdowns on Basque cultural and societal organizations.

“Since then newspapers and radio stations have been closed, human rights groups have been banned, and Batasuna, the Basque pro-independence party has been proscribed and its leadership arrested and imprisoned. All of these are blatant infringements of basic human rights and the freedom of speech within the European Union.

“This attitude of the Spanish government has recently been described by UN Rapporteur, Martin Scheinin as ‘too broad’ targeting ‘groups that have nothing to do with violence’.

“Benat has been living openly in Belfast for over five years and now has a life here.. We are a calling for immediate dropping of this case and an overall end to such repression of Basque civil society.”

20 years of dispersal policy

The EPPK/Basque Political Prisoners Collective released a statement on the 20th anniversary of the implementation of the dispersal policy by the Spanish government followed after by the French authorities. Since 1989 hundreds of Basque prisoners have been scattered in dozens of prisons across Spain and France. Nowadays 765 Basque political prisoners are imprisoned in 85 jails.

In the statement the EPPK says they won’t allow to be used to damage the Basque National Liberation Movement. They called upon Basque society to continue working against the dispersal policy.

The EPPK goes on to ask the French and Spanish government to take the prisons policies out of the confrontation lines and take the path of common sense.

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Irish Judge Pleases Spain

On a dramatic flip flop, an Irish judge has decided to please a country that violates a number of human rights on a daily basis by allowing the extradition of Basque political refugee Iñaki de Juana according to this article published at An Phoblacht:

Court backs Basque activist's extradition

BELFAST Recorder’s Court ruled on 9 March that Basque nationalist Iñaki de Juana Chaos is eligible for extradition to Spain. He has been paroled until May when he will appeal the decision at a further hearing.

A European arrest warrant for de Juana Chaos was issued by the Spanish authorities to the PSNI in November. The Belfast court has since then discussed the legal issues surrounding the warrant, ruling last week that the charges alleged in the warrant of “glorifying terrorism” constitute an extraditable offence.

De Juana Chaos spent 21 years in Spanish jails for his role in ETA (Basque Homeland and Freedom) armed attacks during the 1980s. He moved to Ireland after he was released in August last year.

The Spanish warrant alleges that, on the day of his release, he gave a woman a letter to be read out in his name at a rally in Donostia in Euskal Herria (the Basque Country), that allegedly “publicly justified terrorism”.

But the Spanish authorities admit they do not have this letter and de Juana Chaos’s defence lawyer stated in court his client did not authorise anyone to speak on his behalf. The comment allegedly read out at the rally was “Aurrera bolie” – a Basque expression meaning “Kick the ball forward.”

The Spanish Government is basing its legal effort to extradite de Juana Chaos on somebody at a rally in Donostia saying “Kick the ball forward” without any evidence that the comment was de Juana Chaos’s or that it somehow constitutes a terrorist offence.

This relentless harassment of de Juana Chaos by the Spanish courts is not surprising in the context of the current ramped-up repression in the Basque Country, where several nationalist parties and candidates were banned from participating in the 1 March elections and where more than 700 pro-independence political activists are being held prisoner.

The Belfast judge accepted the advice of the Spanish authorities that the phrase “Kick the ball forward” constitues “praising terrorism” and that this offence has a legal equivalent under the British Terrorism Act 2006.

De Juana Chaos’s lawyer, Edward Fitzgerald, said he would contest the move on human rights and procedural grounds.

This judge is going against the Irish solidarity towards the Basque right to self determination, we wonder if there was some euros involved in his decision.

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Basques Are Not Spaniards

The article you are about to read was published at a web page called 24 Hour Museum, and it is a fine example of how wrong things can go if you sacrifice historic accuracy for political correctness. Here you have it:

SOUTHAMPTON BASQUE WAR REFUGEES ARCHIVE WINS HLF AWARD

By Culture24 Staff

A project to preserve the memories of nearly 4,000 Spanish children who fled to Southampton more than 70 years ago has received a grant of £47,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Uh!?

The header says they were Basque children by suddenly the first paragraph insists they were Spaniards. This could be just a small little details of no consequence if it was not for one single devastating fact: the Basques were forced to evacuate their children because the Spaniards were conducting an ethnic cleansing campaign in the Basque Country. Would you swap nationalities between Serbs and Bosnians? Or between Israelis and Palestinians? Of course not!

Sarajevo, a Bosnian city, was demolished by Serbian troops, so everyone is extra careful not to call the Bosnian refugees by the nationality of those who mercilessly attacked them. Well, Basques deserve the same kind of attention and calling them Spaniards is a real insult.

But lets keep reading:

The Los Ninos exhibition at Southampton University will produce an education pack for schools and an online exhibition chronicling the stories of Basque children who arrived in the city during the Spanish Civil War.

Professor Chris Woolgar, Head of Special Collections at the University of Southampton Library, said: “HLF support creates an important opportunity for us not only to record the life stores of some of the child refugees who came from Spain in 1937, but also to engage today’s children in understanding how conflict and migration have an impact on everyday life.”

Once again, those children did not get there from Spain, they got there from the Basque Country, a newly created republic attacked by Francisco Franco's troops that were supported and armed by Adolph Hitler and Benito Mussolini. Would you start calling the Roma by the term of German just because the Nazis slaughtered them?

Accompanied by teachers, assistants, Catholic priests and doctors, the cherubic fleet made the pilgrimage to a makeshift camp at North Stoneham, and were later resettled by the Salvation Army and the Catholic Church. Most returned to Spain at the end of the civil war in 1939.

Ok, for the last time, they went back to the Basque Country, a nation violently occupied by Spain. Are the Albano-Kosovars to be called Serbians?

The following paragraph contains the only historically accurate fact about why those children had to be evacuated to England:

Thirty surviving members of the group, who escaped attacks by fascist forces in the Basque region and a Nazi bombing campaign on the town of Guernica, will have their memories recorded, creating a travelling exhibition which will tour museum and library venues around Hampshire.

Michelle Davies, Head of Heritage Lottery Fund South East England, said: “This project is perhaps the last opportunity to record the memories of some of those who were involved in this unique event – the first mass evacuation of child refugees to Britain following the first-ever massed bombings of a civilian population.”

A spokesperson for the Basque Children of ’37 Association UK added: “As time goes by and more and more of the children enter their 80s, it is difficult to stress how important and urgent it is to record their memories and preserve them for future generations.”

So, as you can see, despite being a well intentioned note in the end it becomes another piece of propaganda that only serves Spain, condemning the Basque people to a media limbo. Talk about how to prostitute freedom of speech.

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Spain Insults Basque Refugees

Sadly, the article you're about to read contains an useful idiot by the name of Natalia Benjamin.

As it happens, this article published by the BBC informs us that the Spanish government is willing to grant the Spanish nationality to the Basques living in England who as children were evacuated during the invasion by Franco, Mussolini and Hitler's forces to the Basque Country. Notice who Spain refused to recognize the right to self determination to the Basques but dares to bestow the Spanish nationality to the very victims of Spain's imperialist and totalitarian past.

Not one single Basque and their descendants should ever apply to obtain the Spanish nationality, they would be betraying all those Basques who died fighting against the European fascists powers from 1936 until 1945, and beyond since they continued to demand their independence from the different Francoist governments.

Here you have the article:

Nationality for 'Basque children'

An Oxford woman is welcoming a new law which will allow "Basque children" and others who fled the Spanish civil war to apply for Spanish nationality.

Four thousand children were evacuated to Britain as refugees in 1937 and more than 100 came to Oxfordshire.

Now, they and their descendants are to be allowed to apply for citizenship.

"I am pleased," said Natalia Benjamin, who runs the Basque Children of '37 Association from her home in Oxford, "It is long overdue."

Ms Benjamin, 64, is half-Spanish. Her mother, Cecilia Gurich, fled Spain in 1937, as Franco's troops advanced.

She now plans to apply for a Spanish passport.

"It is good, because I am finding my Spanish roots in middle age," she said.

"I regret not having asked my mother more, or having listened more while she was still alive.

"I will apply for sentimental reasons, to get back my roots."

History's 'overlooked'

Ms Benjamin set up the Basque Children of '37 Association so the children who found refuge from the Spanish civil war in Britain would not be forgotten.

There were four "colonies" for Basque children in Oxfordshire; in Thame, Shipton-under-Wychwood, Aston and Faringdon.

"Eighty members of our association are Basque children," said Ms Benjamin.

"They are now in their seventies or eighties and are often overlooked in history books.

"It's very sad that women who fled Spain and married foreigners lost their nationality.

"Now they can get a Spanish passport and their descendents can also."

The measure is part of new legislation that aims to compensate and rehabilitate victims of Spain's 1936-1939 civil war.

An estimated 500,000 people died in the war, which left Spain a dictatorship under the rule of the Fascist General Francisco Franco.

Please, feel free to contact the members of the Basque Children of '37 Association to inform them that they have no need to betray their forebears by acquiring the Spanish nationality, after all, it was the Spaniards the ones destroying the right of the Basques to have an independent republic, to have their own statehood, which is why they had to be evacuated so they would not be murdered like the children at Durango or Gernika.

And, don't forget, you can always request your Basque nationality document known as EHNA from Udalbiltza.

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Food for Nahr El Bared

This note comes to us thanks to Relief Web:

Basque Government donation aids food security in Nahr El Bared

The Basque Government has contributed US$192,308 over the past year towards UNRWA's Relief and Early Recovery Appeal to provide humanitarian relief work for 27,000 refugees displaced from Nahr El Bared Camp.

The donation was used to procure food items between September 2007 and August 2008, to complement the food assistance for displaced refugee families from Nahr El Bared.

The project contributed to the ongoing UNRWA intervention to ensure food security for all of the families from Nahr El Bared and ensure that all of the families affected by the Nahr el-Bared conflict are able to maintain basic nutritional standards. Addressing the problem of food accessibility, potentially reduces the burden on overstretched healthcare providers, and relieves tensions amongst the community. It also allows families to redeploy their resources towards restoring their livelihood.

This project was part of the Emergency Appeal, which ran from September 2007 to 31 August 2008. UNRWA is seeking further support from donors for Nahr El Bared and launched the Recovery and Early Recovery Appeal in September 2008. This is an appeal for $42.7 million to maintain temporary services- up to December 2009 – for the displaced pending reconstruction. Interventions include temporary shelter for 16,000 refugees and emergency food rations for all 27,000 displaced as well as other essential services such as temporary healthcare, education, water and sanitation.

The first stages of a major reconstruction and recovery effort of Nahr el-Bared camp – to rebuild the camp and allow displaced refugees to return to their homes – are now underway. A phased approach to reconstruction is planned, through which families will begin to return to their homes inside the camp by the end of 2009. The reconstruction is due to be completed by mid-2011.

Just in case you want to know, Nahr el-Bared is a Palestinian refugee camp located in northern Lebanon.

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Canada Extradites Basque Citizen

Ivan Apaolaza Sancho, 36, was extradited to Spain despite the evidence that the charges brought against him by Spain were based on information obtained through torture.

Disregarding the many reports on the subject of torture against Basque citizens by human rights organization like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, the Canadian government acted against the rights of Ivan Apaolaza.

Ivan Apaolaza is wanted by Spanish authorities on charges of terrorism, hiding arms and explosives and collaborating with an armed group, the kind of charges that Spain always issues against Basque nationals. Just a reminder, Asier Arronategi who was extradited from Mexico to Spain has been released after more than four years of incarceration without Spain ever taking him to court for the alleged charges that prompted his extradition in the first place.

Ivan was arrested in Quebec in June 2007 carrying false identity papers. Immigration officials ordered that he be deported back to Spain in May this year. Apaolaza's supporters fear for his safety when he arrives in Spain and are calling for Spanish authorities to guarantee he will not be subject to incommunicado detention and torture.

No matter the outcome, with this decision Canada has become a country that approves the use of torture against members of minority ethnic groups, rights activist and authoritarian regimes' dissidents.

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Basque Refugee Children in Scotland

Thanks to The Courier for publishing this article:

Weekend events mark civil war

SOME OF the lost children of the Spanish Civil War who stayed in Angus were remembered yesterday with the unveiling of a plaque at the house they lived in.

Meanwhile, “missing” fallen Dundee soldier Allan Craig, rediscovered through an article on the city’s contribution to the International Brigades, is also now commemorated.

None of the surviving 24 children brought from the Basque region to Mall Park House, Montrose, were able to attend the ceremony but Tom Borland provided a moving account of his mother Encarnation Buenavente, who arrived as one of the refugees in September 1937.

Despite the British policy of non-intervention during the war, it allowed voluntary groups to arrange the evacuation of children and in May 1937 the Habana docked in Southampton carrying around 4000 in the biggest single influx of refugees in British history.

Miss May Wilson, who was fluent in the language, was put in charge at Montrose, while Basque teacher Adelina Larraga and helper Maria Blanco came with the children.

To raise funds, the children performed Spanish and Basque dances and songs across Scotland, often accompanied by accordionist Charles McNeil. One in Dundee in November 1937 attracted 3000.

By 1939 many of the children had been repatriated, but others had no home to go to so stayed in Britain.

In Dundee, Mr Craig’s son Allan jun unveiled the plaque, alongside former Transport and General Workers Union general secretary Jack Jones—at 95, the oldest surviving British volunteer.

Mr Craig died after being wounded near Madrid in February 1937 and a granite memorial will be placed alongside the existing plaque in Albert Square.

Allan (74), who lives in Glasgow, saw an article in the Scottish Local History Forum journal which said 16 men from Dundee died in Spain, though the late Tom Clarke, the last survivor, always claimed 17 volunteers from Dundee had died.

“I thought my father was born in Dundee, so I got in touch with the article’s author,” said Mr Craig.

Dundee TUC secretary Mike Arnott, who wrote the article, was delighted to have tracked down the city’s “missing” soldier.

Other events at the weekend included a Saturday march and a meeting at the Central Library.

Dundee TUC has also published a book tracing the city’s involvement with the International Brigade, available in city bookshops from next week. An exhibition is also on show at the Central Library.

The rescue operation described in this article had nothing to do with the Spanish government, it was negotiated between the Basque government and the UK.

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Basque-phobe of the Week : Louise Lemelin

The doubtful honor of "Basque-phobe of the week" goes to a pro-torture Canadian judge by the name of Louise Lemelin.

She has decided to deny the right to habeas corpus to Basque political prisoner Ivan Apaolaza, by doing so Lemelin tells the world that the law in Canada is not for everyone, just like in South Africa back during the Apartheid regime.

Here you have the note from The Canadian Press:

5 hours ago

MONTREAL — A Quebec judge has denied a bid for freedom by an alleged Basque terror suspect who faces deportation.

Quebec Superior Court Justice Louise Lemelin ruled Tuesday she would not hear a motion for a writ of habeas corpus from Ivan Apaolaza Sancho's lawyers. Lemelin would not hear the motion because Sancho is not a Canadian citizen.

His lawyers say that means their client is denied his only recourse to fight what they call an unlawful 15-month detention based on evidence obtained through torture.

Lead lawyer William Sloan said in an interview he'll appeal Lemelin's decision.

"When it says everyone in the charter with respect to rights to habeas corpus, it means everyone except immigrants," Sloan said sarcastically.

"We have two different legal systems, one for human beings and one for immigrants who don't quite make it because they don't have the right to habeas corpus."

Sloan has argued the government's case against Sancho is based on evidence obtained through torture and should be thrown out.

Sancho is wanted by Spanish authorities in connection with a series of car bombings linked to ETA, a Basque separatist group.

Sancho admits to being part of the Basque nationalist movement, but denies having any ties to the group.

He faces deportation to Spain where, his supporters say, he faces the risk of being tortured. Canadian immigration officials ordered Sancho deported in May.

"Once again, Canada's courts are legitimizing evidence obtained by torture," Sancho said in a statement.

"I can only hope that Canadians of good conscience continue to speak out against this continued injustice, in my case, and in the case of others.

He has been in detention since June 2007 after the RCMP arrested him while aboard a ferry near Quebec City.

While an Immigration and Refugee Board commissioner rejected some federal evidence that appeared to be obtained through torture, he ruled there was more than enough additional evidence, including police warrants and affidavits, showing Sancho had ties to ETA.

Sloan has argued much of this evidence should be stricken.

A pre-removal risk assessment must still be performed before Sancho can be deported.

Sloan says he plans to revive his argument about evidence obtained through torture at that point.

"(The Immigration and Refugee Board) is just looking at the consequences of the deportation, so its position is going to be whether or not the evidence was obtained through torture.

"The only thing that counts is whether he'll be tortured or killed when he gets back."

Sancho had lived under a number of aliases using forged documents since arriving in Canada in 2001.

He lived mainly in the Vancouver area, rooming initially with Victor Tejedor Bilbao, another alleged Basque terrorist living illegally in Canada who was deported in June.

Sancho moved to Montreal in late 2006.

Has anyone in Canada inquired in Spain about what ever happened to Victor Tejedor, has he been charged? Remember, many Basques that have been extradited to Spain are now free without ever being charged, but only after spending at least four years in jail. Such totalitarian behaviour is the one that Louise Lemelin is endorsing with her decision.

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South Ossetia's Lessons

This article comes to us thanks to The Kurdish Globe:

Plaything of the gods

The Guardian

South Ossetia is a scrap of land with only a few thousand inhabitants.

As it tries to break away from its neighbour Georgia, independence movements around the world wonder what its fate will mean for them. But is it just a pawn in a larger political game? Tim Judah, who has just visited the region, reports Even before the fighting that claimed so many lives, Tskhinvali, the putative capital of South Ossetia, was a pretty miserable place. Stalin Street (really) was its one and only proper thoroughfare; it had a tiny market with a couple of old women selling vegetables and batteries, and billboards celebrating eternal Ossetian-Russian friendship. A couple of miles away, bored Georgians soldiers sat keeping warm around a brazier.

When I visited it a few months ago, South Ossetia seemed like the end of the world, not the place that would spark a new war in the Caucasus. It was one of the four so-called "frozen conflicts" of the former Soviet Union and, as it had been for years, still very much in the deep freeze.

The mood was not much different in Sokhumi, the capital of Abkhazia, to the west. This city by the Black Sea, much of which remains in ruins from the war of the early 1990s, was once the holiday playground of the Soviet elite. Now old men played chess under gently swaying palms in front of wrecked hotels, and I visited a memorial for the Abkhaz soldiers who had died fighting the Georgians. At the Inguri river, where you crossed from Georgia proper, the Georgians had erected a sculpture of a huge pistol pointing north to Abkhazia - but in a futile gesture the barrel had been tied in a knot.

South Ossetia and Abkhazia both broke away from Georgia in savage fighting when the Soviet Union disintegrated. The other two "frozen conflicts" in this region are Nagorno-Karabakh, an Armenian enclave wrenched from Azerbaijan, and Transnistria, whose Slav population rebelled against Moldova, whose people and language are closely related to Romania. All are the unhappy legacies of Stalinist map-making, lines drawn in a period when the wishes of people counted for little and the demise of the Soviet Union was beyond imagination. All are unrecognised but exist as de facto states, albeit with support from Russia and, in Nagorno-Karabakh's case, Armenia.

Take South Ossetia, which like Abkhazia had autonomous status within Soviet Georgia. Although many South Ossetians live in Tbilisi and elsewhere in Georgia, its people are really connected in terms of family, kin and language with North Ossetia, which is now in Russia, across the mountains to which it is connected through the Roki tunnel.

Ossetians speak a language related to Persian and believe (truly) that the King Arthur of British myth was actually an Ossetian. I found billboards in Tskhinvali emblazoned with pictures of men dressed as knights in armour celebrating the 17th anniversary of South Ossetia's declaration of independence.

Its population is tiny - somewhere between 22,000, as the Georgians claim, and 70,000, according to the South Ossetians. The numbers vary not least because, as there is no work (and no university) in South Ossetia, many go to Russia and only come home for the holidays.

Even before last week, South Ossetia was hardly a candidate to be a viable state, especially as large swathes of it - as much as a third - were held by the Georgians. Only 800 metres separated the centre of one Georgian-controlled village from Tskhinvali. The Georgians had recently built a brand new cinema and sports complex in that village, and roads and infrastructure were being upgraded.

The head of the Georgian administration for South Ossetia was a burly former military man who had defected from the separatists. He cut little ice in Tskhinvali, where officials scoffed at his notion of striking a deal and making peace with Georgia. Indeed, their plans were rather more ambitious.

"Our aim is unification with North Ossetia," Alan Pliev, the deputy foreign minister of South Ossetia, told me in his broom cupboard of an office. "We don't know if that would be as part of Russia or as a separate united Ossetian state." Juri Dzittsojty, deputy speaker of parliament, says: "I would prefer there to be an independent and united Ossetia, but today it is not possible. It is safer to be with Russia. The main aim of the struggle is to be independent of Georgia."

A few hours' drive away, along the road now cut by Russian troops, the Abkhaz dream was a different one. Their goal is simply to hang on to what they have got. And here's the rub. Before the Abkhaz war of the early 1990s, less than 18% of its population were ethnic Abkhaz. Today, of some 200,000 people, this group still constitutes only 45% of its people, and hundreds of thousands of Georgians who left Abkhazia in the 1990s want to return home. The Abkhaz, who are in firm control of the government and of all levers of power, argue that to allow more of these refugees back than they have already permitted would simply be to turn back the clock and to make the Abkhaz once more a small minority in their own homeland.

In the foreign ministry of the unrecognised republic I waited to see Maxim Guinja, Abkhazia's deputy foreign minister. Then he came out, and before we talked he tidied away some flags in the waiting room. There had just been a meeting in Sokhumi of the leaders of Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Transnistria.

"We became 18% because of Soviet rule and Russian before that," he explained. Abkhaz were deported to Siberia and Turkey, and Georgians settled here. "My grandfather was put on a train in 1937 with thousands of others, and the next day a train arrived with Georgian settlers. No one returned from Siberia." His dream is that one day hundreds of thousands of Abkhaz - or rather their descendants who fled the Tsarist invasion to Turkey in the late 19th century - will come home. A pipe dream? Maybe, but Guinja said that he had a very clear precedent in mind. Israel did it, so why not Abkhazia?

In the meantime, the Abkhaz have to play gingerly with the Russians, whom they distrust as much the Ossetians trust them. "For Russia, Abkhazia is just a card that can be played," I was told by Leyla Taniya, who runs a thinktank in Sokhumi. "Abkhazia is linked to Russia, and Russia is the only country that actually cooperates with Abkhazia, and today many are afraid this could lead to our political absorption." She wants to correct a "common misunderstanding" in the west: despite its small size, Abkhazia "is not a Russian puppet".

It is easy to comprehend why such a misunderstanding should exist. The Abkhaz, like the South Ossetians, have all been given Russian passports and vote in Russian elections, even though their unrecognised statelets are legally part of Georgia. They use the rouble, their people work and study in Russia and they speak Russian at least as much as Abkhaz or Ossetian. Their elderly receive their pensions from Russia. And, as the last few days have helped demonstrate, without Russian military support, it is doubtful whether the breakaways would still exist.

Yesterday, Abkhazia began a military operation to take back a strategic sliver of territory held by the Georgians within Abkhazia. They could do this because Russian troops had struck far outside Abkhaz territory, routing the Georgian forces. No wonder everyone was so relaxed when I was in Sokhumi. I went to see Stanislav Lakoba, the Abkhaz official in charge of security. Georgia, I put it to him, was pouring 10% of its GDP into its army, was bidding to join Nato, had intensely courted the US and was demanding that Russia pull its so-called peacekeeping troops out of Abkhazia, 14 years after their deployment. "Georgia just screams about it," he said laconically. "It would just mean suicide if they attacked." He obviously knew what he was talking about.

Despite its massive military support for the breakaways, the curious thing is that Russia does not actually want their full secession. It is a case of, "Listen to what I say, not what I do." After battling separatists in Chechnya and beyond for well over a decade, Moscow is afraid of anything that might set a precedent and encourage the break-up of the Russian Federation. It is not the only big power with such concerns: China is nervous about anything that might boost separatist hopes in Tibet or Xinjiang, let alone Taiwan.

This year the argument over breakaways and precedents has reached fever pitch, and the reason for that is Kosovo. On February 17, Kosovo, which has a population of some two million, 90% of whom are ethnic Albanians, declared independence from Serbia. Serbia of course rejects its independence, as does Russia, China and indeed the majority of countries in the world, including Georgia. Twenty out of 27 EU states have recognised it, however, alongside the US and other western countries. But in doing so these 45 states seem to have crossed a legal Rubicon. Until then, the only new states in Europe had been the six republics of the old Yugoslavia, such as Croatia or Bosnia, the 15 former Soviet republics and the Czech and Slovak republics. Kosovo is different. Like the four post-Soviet breakaways, it was a province or part of an existing republic. So, argued Serb leaders, it did not have the same right to independence as the republics did. "Yes, we do," argued the Kosovo Albanians. Their struggle, they argued, was based on the legal right of a people to self-determination - just like the Serbs argued in 1991 when they briefly set up a breakaway republic of Krajina in Croatia.

Quite simply then, in Kosovo as in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, two pillars of international law - that is to say, the territorial integrity of states versus self-determination - stand in stark opposition to one another.

Hence Russia's refusal to back Kosovo's independence. "The threat of a disintegrating Russia - comparable to the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991 - is still today seen as a very real threat by the Kremlin and the Russian elite," says Pavel Felgenhauer, a leading Russian commentator. "The west is seen today by many in the Russian elite and public as a threatening force that is plotting to tear Russia apart and rob it of its natural resources. By supporting Serbia's right to veto Kosovo's secession, the Kremlin clearly believes that it is defending Russia's undisputed right to sustain its territorial integrity by any means available."

Of course, Russia is interested in its territorial integrity, not Georgia's. By supporting Abkhazia and South Ossetia, it has the means to keep Georgia at its mercy and prevent it from following the pro-western path chosen by its electorate. But beyond that, it has little real interest in the breakaway states. Where the EU has poured billions into the reconstruction of Sarajevo and other Balkan cities ruined by wars of the 1990s, Russia has spent not a kopek in rebuilding Sokhumi or Tskhinvali.

In September, Serbia will ask the General Assembly of the United Nations to ask the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to hand down an advisory opinion on whether Kosovo's declaration of independence was legal or not. If this ever happens, the ruling could have tremendous impact - or not, as the case may be. If Kosovo's 1.8 million people can declare independence and be recognised without the permission of Serbia, then so can Abkhazia or South Ossetia, to say nothing of the Republika Srpska (the Serb part of Bosnia), Iraqi Kurdistan and - who knows? - one day perhaps even Catalonia or the Basque country.

On the other hand, the ICJ could declare that Kosovo's declaration was indeed illegal - and then what? Not much, probably. In 1975, the ICJ ruled that the people of the former Spanish colony of Western Sahara had the right to self-determination. This was disputed by Morocco, which had occupied the country. Now, 34 years later, Morocco, a good friend of the west, is still occupying Western Sahara, most of the population has been driven out and lives in miserable camps in the Algerian Sahara, and the Moroccans have built a wall around the country to keep separatist guerrillas out. No one outside the region cares a hoot about them because, when it comes to these types of conflicts, hypocrisy is everyone's order of the day.

What it comes down to is simple: being in the right place at the right time and having the right friends with the right guns and interests. Precedent, for all of the diplomats' fear of the word, is only part of it. It is where you are on the map and what you can get away with that counts. In 2002, on a trip to Iraqi Kurdistan, I was struck by the way the Kurds' homeland had been carved up as the Ottoman empire collapsed. Few Kurds I met then made any secret of their desire not just to achieve independence from Iraq but also to act as a vanguard that would eventually rally Kurds from Iran, Syria, and Turkey into one large Kurdish state.

I asked one official if the aim of a Kurdish federal unit in Iraq was to provide an example for Kurds in Turkey and so that later they could join together. "Yes," he said. "That's the aim." Then, embarrassed, he added: "But don't write that down." Musa Ali Bakr, the man who was then in charge of refugees in the Kurdish region of Dahuk, explained that if the Iraqi Kurds moved too quickly their neighbours would strangle them by closing the borders. He then summed up what for me then was the Kurdish dilemma, but I now realise is really the dictum of all successful separatists: "If you are sick, you visit the doctor. He prescribes the medicine. You take a spoonful three times a day and eventually you are better, you are free. However, if you drank the whole bottle all at once, it would kill you."

· Tim Judah covers the Balkans for the Economist. He is the author of The Serbs: History, Myth and the Destruction of Yugoslavia, and Kosovo: What Everyone Needs to Know, which will be published by Oxford University Press in September.

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Canada Collaborates With Torturers

Canada is supposed to be a country that protects and defends human rights, well, it just failed to live up to that status. As it happens, Canada just delivered a Basque citizen to a government known around the world for its widespread practice of torture.

This note comes to us via Yahoo News:

Suspected Basque terrorist has been deported to Spain from Vcr

Tue Jun 17, 2:34 PM

By The Canadian Press
ADVERTISEMENT

VANCOUVER - A man accused of being a Basque terrorist has been deported from Canada to Spain, where he faces trial for attempted murder and his alleged role in a bombing campaign.

Canada Border Services Agency confirms Victor Tejedor Bilbao was put on a plane in Vancouver and sent back to Spain on Monday.

"The government takes its obligation to safeguard public safety very seriously and will take all necessary measures to ensure Canadians are protected. Canada's doors are not open to those who break the law and endanger the safety of our citizens," the agency said in a statement released Tuesday announcing the deportation.

Agency spokeswoman Faith St. John said no further details would be released.

Late last year, 51-year-old Bilbao was ordered deported by the Immigration and Refugee Board after it ruled he had been a member of the Basque terrorist organization ETA and had engaged in terrorism in 1981.

Spanish authorities accuse Bilbao of taking part in the bombing of power stations and the attempted murder of a Spanish journalist considered a "squealer" by ETA. Two of his co-accused have been sentenced to 17 years in prison in Spain.

Bilbao was arrested in June 2007 in Vancouver, 11 years after arriving in Canada and beginning a new life under an assumed name.

Bilbao tried to claim refugee status in Canada after his arrest, arguing that he was a member of the Basque political group Herri Batasuna nearly 30 years ago but, to his knowledge, it wasn't a front for the Basque terrorist groups.

The Immigration and Refugee Board denied his claim and ordered Bilbao deported last November.

A lawyer for Canada Border Services had argued that Bilbao was considered to be a flight risk, saying Bilbao confessed in 1988 that leaders of ETA had ordered the hit on the reporter.

But Bilbao later recanted and said he made a false confession because he was tortured.

His lawyer Phil Rankin fought the extradition, warning his client faced the risk of torture or death at the hands of Spanish police.

Rankin cited an Amnesty International report stating Spain cannot control the police treatment of prisoners - particularly Basques - but the board disagreed and ordered the accused terrorist returned to face Spanish justice.

Agency lawyer Jesse Davidson told an earlier hearing that there was no finding by the court system that Bilbao was ever tortured.

The Immigration and Refugee Board has also ordered the deportation of Ivan Apaolaza Sancho, who was arrested on board a Quebec City ferry last summer.

Sancho, who is wanted by Spain in connection with a series of car bombings tied to ETA, had been living in Canada since 2001 under false aliases and forged documents. Sancho initially lived in the Vancouver area, rooming with Bilbao, and moved to Montreal in late 2006.

He, too, says he will be tortured if returned to Spain and his lawyer is appealing the board decision.

Sancho has admitted to being part of the Basque nationalist movement but has denied ever supporting ETA.

I'm sure that wherever he is, Francisco Franco is proud of Jesse Davidson.

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