Time Magazine and Navarre

A couple of weeks ago I sent this letter to TIME Magazine:

Navarre, the Basque Kingdom

Dear Editor,

On your current issue you cover the story about the bombings in Madrid last week in which hundreds of innocent people were killed or wounded. I am guessing that since the Spanish government decided to use Basque nationalism as a escapegoat to their arrogance and disdain for the will of their own people you decided to print a map of Western Europe where you illustrate where the Basque Country is. The problem is, from the seven provinces that conform the Basque Country you willfully removed Navarre from the map. It is a real shame that you decided to legitimize what the murderous dictator Francisco Franco claimed throughout his reign of terror in Spain. Navarre was for hundred of years the kingdom of the Basques, if this ancient people ever claimed a state that was the Navarrese kingdom that at its height encompassed not only all the seven provinces but parts of Gascony. Today the Basque Country is divided in two states (Spain and France) and three political entities: The Foral Community of Navarre (Navarre) and the Autonomous Basque Community (Alava, Viscaya and Guipuzcoa) in Spain and within the Atlantic Pyrenees Department the provinces of Labourd, Basse-Navarre and Soule in France. In order to provide accurate information to your readers it would be good if you print a map of the Basque Country that is not missing a piece. In the Basque Country we say, Zazpiak Bat, the seven are one, and their Basque names of our provinces are Nafarroa, Araba, Gipuzkoa, Zuberoa, Bizkaia, Lapurdi and Behe-Nafarroa.

I was hoping they would publish it on the magazine as part of our ongoing campaign to get the media to be accurate when it comes to the Basques, well, not such luck. But today I got this letter from Time Magazine:

Thank you for writing prompted by the section labeled "Basque areas," on the map of Spain and part of Southwestern France that was included with the March 15 report "A Deadly Morning." We have made note of your charge that Navarra is missing from the Basque areas, and we agree that the area taken up by the province--between the Ebro River and the West Pyrenees, and bordering France--was not fully represented. But, with our apologies for the skimpiness, we ask that you consider the fact that the map was drawn only in outline, as it was intended to give a general idea of the geographical context of the Basque Country, not to identify its seven provinces.

Again, our thanks for letting us hear from you, and best wishes.


Gloria Hammond
TIME Letters

Ask and you shall receive...

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Anti-Torture Campaign

Today at Berria English:

TAT: “Last year was a significant one in the anti-torture campaign”

They say “a massive outcry” against torture has come from society, but the momentum has to be kept up

Ainhoa Oiartzabal – HERNANI (Gipuzkoa)

“Unfortunately, we’ve already begun to gather material for next year’s book. Because there are arrests and tortured people.” That is how Iñigo Elkoro, the TAT-Anti-Torture Group lawyer, began yesterday’s presentation of the book which provides an assessment of 2003. It will be distributed on April 24 and 25 together with the Gara daily newspaper. Thereafter it will be on sale at bookshops.

In the TAT’s view, 2003 was “a significant year” in the anti-torture campaign. Indeed, “there was a massive outcry against torture from Basque society when detainees denounced tortures in the wake of the closing down of Egunkaria, but unfortunately it did not last.” Elkoro stressed that this attitude was “praiseworthy, but we are going to repeat what we have said time and time again: this momentum of denunciation has to be kept up, if we are to put an end to torture.” In this respect, the TAT lawyer highlighted the 50,000 signatures against torture collected last year and made a call to politicians: “Society has shown it is prepared to take steps against torture. Now it is up to the political parties to take up society’s cause.” After the political assessment, Elkoro and Aiert Larrarte, the TAT representatives, presented the main areas covered by the book. A number of them are referred to below.

25th Anniversary of the Spanish Constitution

“Last year was the 25th anniversary of the Spanish Constitution and although it prohibits any form of torture, 10,000 Basque citizens have been arrested and held incommunicado over the past 25 years. 25% of them have suffered torture or bad treatment.” Elkoro added that six people had died as a result.

In the lawyer’s view, it has become patently clear over the last 25 years that the Constitution is no guarantee against the use of torture on Basque citizens: “On the contrary, laws have been changed to ensure torture can be used.”

Criticism from international institutions

Elkoro highlighted the fact that Spain had come in for fierce criticism abroad over the last few years. “We can refer, for example, to the visit by Theo van Boven, the United Nations Rapporteur on Torture, and to the criticism voiced by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture.”

Change in attitude of the French Police

“Last year saw the French Police joining the torturers’ club”. In fact, four people arrested by the French Police in 2003 denounced torture.

Role of court-appointed doctors

The book deals at length with the part played by the court-appointed doctors. In this respect Benito Morentin, a Bilbo court-appointed doctor, Itxaso Idoiaga, the TAT doctor, and Hans Draminsky Petersen, member of the Danish association Physicians for Human Rights (Rehabilitation Centre for Torture Victims) examined the work of Spanish court-appointed doctors, criticised them and explained what they should be like.

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Spain's Harsh Truth

This article published at The Militant removes the smoke curtain around Spain's alleged democratic institutions.

Here you have it:

Spain ‘antiterror’ drive targets workers’ rights

Imperialist powers in Europe step up police spying


BY PATRICK O’NEILL

Targeting Moroccan immigrants, police in Spain have arrested 20 people as part of the “antiterror” campaign that the government there has intensified since the March 11 train bombings in Madrid. Those detained are being held under Spain’s Antiterrorist Law, which allows authorities to jail individuals for extended periods without a trial, restrict their access to legal counsel, and deprive them of other rights. For years the law has primarily been used to victimize Basque independence supporters.

Imperialist governments throughout Europe have seized on the Madrid bombings to step up police spying and disruption and other attacks on the rights of working people. At a March 25-26 summit in Brussels, the European Union approved a series of “antiterrorism” measures, including increased cooperation among the spy agencies of member governments.

Making it clear that his administration will use the “war on terrorism” to defend Spanish imperialist interests in the world, incoming prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has announced that the number of Spanish troops that are part of the NATO occupation force in Afghanistan will be doubled to 250. Zapatero has said that the Spanish troops in Iraq will remain there if the international occupation force comes under United Nations sponsorship.

Only five of those arrested in Spain have been charged with taking part in the March 11 attacks and “belonging to a terrorist group.”

Another six have not been accused of participation in the bombing but rather of “collaborating with a terrorist group.”

Under Spain’s Antiterrorism Law, those arrested by police can be held incommunicado for five days. They can be jailed for up to four years while prosecutors conduct an “investigation” to find charges to be brought against them.

The law, which has been used for years against Basque independence fighters—and against the leadership of the dockworkers union in 1995—gives the minister of the interior the power to order searches, wiretaps, and the opening of mail without court warrants.

Spanish, German, and French police have cooperated in the arrests. Three of those detained were formerly legal residents of Germany. According to German television, Berlin’s secret police claim the three are linked to “Hamas and other extremist groups” and has declared them to be among 300 Muslims in Germany dubbed “potential terrorists,” without explaining what that vague category means.

The media and authorities present Moroccan immigrant Jamal Zougam, a resident of Spain, as the “prime suspect” in the bombings. All but one of those arrested—the Spanish-born man, accused of selling explosives for the bombings—have denied any involvement in the attacks. One told the court that he learned of the attacks on the morning of March 11 while watching television with his children.

Of those arrested in connection with the bombings, 15 are immigrants from Morocco. Others are from Syria, Algeria, and India; one was born in Spain.

In Spain today there are an estimated 2.2 million immigrants, the largest number of whom are Moroccans, estimated to number some 334,000. About one-third of them live in Barcelona and other parts of Catalonia.

Madrid has used the March 11 train bombings, in which 190 people were killed, to broaden its “antiterrorism” offensive, especially among North African immigrants. The March 25 International Herald Tribune noted that Spanish authorities have undertaken a “crackdown on Muslim groups following the Madrid rail bombings,” including people not accused of any link to the attacks.

As one example, the big-business daily reported that Spanish High Court judge Baltasar Garzon had “ordered the return to prison of four suspected Muslim radicals who were released last year by another judge.” The judge cited “new police reports” but provided no evidence and presented no charges against them.

At the time of their original arrests in January 2003, Prime Minister José María Aznar claimed that his government had smashed a “major terror network.” Two of the men were released within a couple of months after the traces of chemical weapons they were accused of storing at their homes turned out to be laundry soap.

On March 25 police in the Spanish city of Valencia released one Syrian and two Algerian citizens, after having jailed them on accusations of membership in a “radical Islamic cell and armed group.”

Offensive against Basque nationality

Under the banner of fighting “ETA terrorism” Madrid has also stepped up its attacks on the struggle for self-determination by the Basque people, an oppressed nationality in both Spain and France. ETA is an armed Basque independence group that over the years has claimed responsibility for killing numerous Spanish government officials and others.

On March 22 Prime Minister-elect Zapatero dismissed an offer of talks announced by ETA the previous day. “The only communiqué I await from ETA,” he said, “is one in which it abandons violence.”

Aznar’s government waged an intense crackdown against Basque organizations, arresting more than 150 people last year accused of membership in ETA and claiming success in reducing the number of ETA actions.

Nearly 600 Basque political prisoners are in French or Spanish jails. In Spain, most of these have been jailed under the Antiterrorist Law.

The Socialist Party (PSOE) government of Felipe González, which preceded the Aznar administration, was particularly notorious for its repression against the Basque movement.

Under González, who served as prime minister from 1982 to 1996, the government waged a brutal “dirty war” against the Basque pro-sovereignty movement, including the use of death squads such as the Antiterrorist Liberation Group (GAL), made up of cops. Revelations about police murders of 27 people accused of being ETA members helped to end González’s reign in disgrace.

Without offering a scrap of evidence, Aznar and other government officials, along with Zapatero and other PSOE leaders, initially blamed ETA for the March 11 attacks.

The Spanish rulers sought to whip up public opinion to step up their attacks on the rights of working people and the Basque struggle.

Among those helping mobilize a large turnout for “antiterrorist” demonstrations after the bombings were the two main trade union federations—Workers’ Commissions (CC.OO.), led by the Communist Party, and the General Workers Union (UGT), led by the PSOE. In a joint statement issued March 11, the CC.OO. and UGT blamed “the terrorist ETA group.” The union officials called on workers to join a 15-minute “moment of silence” in order to “express solidarity with the victims and their families and roundly condemn terrorism.” They urged participation in nationwide government-sponsored mobilizations March 12.

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Aupa!

Aberri Egun On!!!

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Happy Aberri Eguna!

Today Basques around the world celebrate the Aberri Eguna, the Day of the Basque Fatherland.

There is festivities both in the Basque Country and in every Eusko Etxea around the world, from Sydney to New York to Mexico City to Buenos Aires.

It is a day to celebrate our Basque identity, our culture, our language.

Gora Euskal Herria Askatuta!

Long Live the Basque Country!

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Press Release

Six months ago IBO sent out this press release about the arrest of Basque journalist and politician Xarlo Etxezaharetta: Basque Journalist Snatched Off The Street. Here is a little update.

Yesterday, the Audencia Nacional decreed that Xarlo and three other members of the political federation Udalbiltza, Loren Arkotxa, Miren Josu Aranburu and Imanol Esnaola, will be released from prison upon posting bail. We are extremely happy that these men and women will finally be released from prison and we fully expect that they will be found innocent of charges when their trials do come up in the next year or so. The question is, why did it take six months and more for these people to be released from prison? Maybe now that actual ETA members are being captured, the authorities decided to release some of the innocent prisoners? Maybe under the new government, the authorities are trying to send a message that they can be a little more reasonable? Who knows...this is all conjecture.

I would also like to remind you of the tragic case of Ainara Gorostiaga who was just released from prison this past week after serving 2 years for a crime she did not commit. For two years she proclaimed her innocence and declared that her confessions and testimony given against several other people were tortured out of her. For two years the authorities ignored her pleas, claiming she was just following the ETA handbook by claiming torture. Then, a real member of ETA, Ibon Fernandez-Irati, was captured and in his papers were the accounts of the killing that Ainara was accused of, accounts which proved her innocence and the innocence of those she implicated under torture. Ainara was immediately set free.

http://www.berria.info/english/ikusi.php?id=369

You would think that the human rights organizations in Spain would be outraged. There has been no comment. You would think that a story like this would be front page news. Spanish newspapers have not carried the story; only Basque newspapers.

Perhaps an American newspaper will do what the Spanish papers won't?

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The Professor's Legacy

It was a bittersweet day yesterday in the Basque Country, on one side there was happiness due to the release of four courageous Basques that have been in jail accused of abetting terrorrism just because they belong to Udalbiltza, the Basque Country political institution that empompasses the seven provinces. After more than a year the Spanish authorities have been unable to come up with solid evidence so they ordered them released on bail, which means that now they have to pay their ransoms and still fight hard to prove their innocence since the Spanish system refuses to admit they are victims of a witch hunt and exonerate them.

And all of this is the legacy that the spanking new Professor at Georgetown University leaves behind. Hundreds of Basques are today in jail for the only crime of loving their country and working towards the advancement of Basque culture, language and the dream of achieving self determination.

While the Spanish regime was busy prosecuting innocent people (and holding their lives in the mean time preventing them from using them to strenghten the Basque organizations working towards solidifying the Basque cultural and political identities), the real terrorists got deep within the Spanish state and were able to plan the attacks on Madrid and the subsequent acts of violence like the bomb found on a train last week and the standoff that resulted on the death of four terrorists and one special forces agent, a bombing that also destroyed a building and wounded eleven police officers.

And I say it was bittersweet because eight more people related to the Udalbiltza case are still in jail, waiting for the Spanish Inquisidor Baltasar Garzon to either free them or hold them for even a longer time on some hokey pokey charges,

Freedom to the Udalbiltza eight!

Arkotxa, Esnaola, Etxezaharreta and Aranburu to go free

If the four are released today, another seven linked to the case will still be in prison

Eider Goenaga – DONOSTIA (San Sebastian)

Loren Arkotxa, Imanol Esnaola, Miren Josu Aranburu and Xarlo Etxezaharreta, four
of the people linked to the Udalbiltza case and who had been in custody, are to be allowed to leave prison today after the Spanish National Criminal Court ordered that they should be released on bail. The Court’s decision was announced yesterday, but the families of the four did not have time to pay. Once they have done so, the detainees could leave prison today. Arkotxa, Esnaola and Aranburu have been ordered to post bail of 30,000 euros each and Etxezaharreta 60,000 euros.

When the four are released, seven will remain in custody in connection with the Udalbiltza case: Karmele Urbistondo, Miriam Campos, Lander Etxebarria, Txema Jurado, Oskar Goñi, Xabier Alegria and Joseba Garmendia. Back in September and October last year Eider Casanova, Leire Idoiaga and Larraitz Sanzberro were released by Judge Baltasar Garzon.

On April 29 it will be a year since Judge Baltasar Garzon ordered the raid on Udalbiltza. His committal warrant states that Udalbiltza is “ ETA’s tool”. He outlawed Udalbiltza and accused the detainees of being ETA members and of promoting the creation of the AuB and the town platforms (*) on the orders of the organisation. The Spanish Supreme Court in fact based its suspension of the AuB and the town platforms on Garzon’s warrant.

In that police raid Garzon remanded eight people in custody –Campos, Etxebarria, Idoiaga, Casanova, Urbistondo, Sanzberro, Jurado and Goñi– and despite the Public Prosecutor’s request to allow Idoiaga to go free, the Judge remanded them all in custody. But the Udalbiltza operation did not end there. On May 23 last year Garzon summoned four more people to give evidence and except for Xabier Iragorri, the Mayor of Oiartzun (Gipuzkoa), the other three –Arkotxa, Esnaola and Aranburu– were remanded in custody. On the same day he also questioned Xabier Alegria, detained in connection with the operation against Egunkaria, and Joseba Garmendia, in custody in the operation against Batasuna’s Herriko Tabernas and party premises. Both were already in custody and Garzon added Udalbiltza to their previous charges. The last arrest was that of Xarlo Etxezaharreta. Garzon took advantage of a visit to the Southern Basque Country of this former elected representative of Hazparne (Lapurdi). His arrest took place in Abadiño (Bizkaia) when he was participating in Askapena’s Internationalist Day. He was charged with working to consolidate Udalbiltza in the Northern Basque Country, despite the fact that it had not been outlawed there.

(*) Set up to represent Basque nationalist left interests in the May 2003 municipal elections after Batasuna had been banned.

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The Snake's New Nest

So, the heir to the Francoist regime, the fella that produced Western Europe's worst environmental disaster, the Fascist that closed down newspapers and banned political parties, the imbecile that mislead the UN to blame the attacks in Madrid on ETA, the sadist that accused the Basque society for the bombings in Madrid found a new home, and the derelicts that want him to teach the US next generations even awarded him with the "Distinguished Scholar in the Practice of Global Leadership".

What is he gonna teach, how to manipulate the media? How to demonize an entire culture? How to make Adolph Hitler look good?

Here you can read what the Georgetown University has to say about him, what a crock!

One has to see it to believe it!

Spain's Aznar accepts U.S. university teaching post

MADRID (Reuters) - Outgoing Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, a close ally of U.S. President George W. Bush, has accepted a post as associate professor at Georgetown University in Washington, a government spokesman said on Monday.

Aznar is due to step down later this month following Socialist leader Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's surprise victory in March 14 general elections, three days after suspected al Qaeda train bombings in Madrid.

Aznar, who retired at the election after two successive terms, has until now been coy about what he would do next and speculation over his future has provided endless material for political pundits.

The Catholic university, which was founded in 1789 and ranks former U.S. President Bill Clinton amongst its alumni, said that Aznar had been named Distinguished Scholar in the Practice of Global Leadership.

"I am greatly looking forward to this opportunity with Georgetown University. It will be a privilege for me to join the faculty of this world-class institution in the fields of international relations and political studies," Aznar was quoted as saying on the university's Web page.

Aznar, who angered some of his European counterparts with his support for the U.S.-led war in Iraq last year, will teach seminars on contemporary European politics and transatlantic relations, the university said.

What had long been billed as Aznar's triumphant retirement from politics was marred by the March 11 bombings, which killed 191 people and contributed to the shock defeat of his hand-picked successor Mariano Rajoy.

Aznar's initial insistence that Basque separatist guerrillas ETA were the main suspects, despite growing evidence of militant Islamic involvement, was seen as an important factor in Zapatero's victory.

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Maite Update

Today:

U.S. WOMEN ABROAD (April 4): Maite Zabala spends debut on the bench

4/5/2004 9:17:00 AM

Former WUSA goalkeeper Maite Zabala, who signed last week with Spanish League club Athletic Bilbao, watched from the bench as the Basque power rallied to beat visiting Estudiantes, 3-1, Sunday in a Superliga clash.

Zabala, who has Basque ancestry, agreed to join Athletic for the final five matches of the Spanish campaign. Elixabete Capa was in the nets for Athletic, which remained even on points (but behind on goal-differential) with Sabadell atop the Superliga standings.

Zabala, who played with the WUSA's Atlanta Beat, Philadelphia Charge and Carolina Courage, is an assistant coach at the University of California, her alma mater.

No Americans saw action in an abbreviated German League schedule.

GERMANY

*
Dianne Garza (SC 07 Bad Neuenahr, D1), at FSV Frankfurt, 1-0.

DNP. Second successive Frauen-Bundesliga victory vaults Bad Neuenahr (5-6-2) into seventh place, just two points from fifth. Season league stats: 0 games, 0 goals.

SPAIN

* Maite Zabala (Athetic Bilbao, D1), vs. Estudiantes, 3-1.

DNP. Athletic (16-3-3) scored three second-half goals to keep pace with first-place Sabadell in the Superliga.

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Lizarazu

Funny thing, I was just telling you about Basque soccer player Bixente Lizarazu the other day and bam! he makes it to the news:

Bayern Munich's Basque World Cup winner Bixente Lizarazu wants to spend another season with the reigning German champions and is set to sit down with the club hierarchy to discuss a new deal.

Sounds like since he is "ageing" Bayern Munich is considering replacing him, hopefully he still has a couple more seasons in him and he can go play at the Athletic de Bilbao or the Real Sociedad de San Sebastian, even with the Osasuna de Pamplona.

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