Blair and the Process

One can never tell if this is good news or bad news.

Lets cut to the chase, Tony Blair is today's Benito Mussolini. He hitched his wagon to the world wide punitive campaign by Herr George W. Bush. He misses the old glories when England was an empire where the sun would never set. All that came crashing down in Dunkirk when the Nazi military spared thousands of English troops trapped in that port.

So, Blair got England to support the US invation of Afghanistan and Iraq. Let us remember here that it is in great part the responsability of England for the present day regional disputes in the Middle East and the Persian Gulf. Who can forget tha the first aerial attacks with biological weapons (what today is called weapons of mass destruction') against civilian populations were ordered by the bulldog butcher by the name of Winston Churchill.

But that was not enough, in the recent rape of Lebanon where hundreds of innocent civilians were murdered by the terrorist Israeli offense forces, it was Blair who supported Bush on his push for a delay in the international demand for a cease fire.

Therefore, to have Blair supporting Rodríguez during the peace process in the Basque Country is a bit worrying, despite the way London has been dealing with the IRA over the issue of the English occupation of Northern Ireland.

Here you have the note that appeared at Yahoo News:

Blair lends support to Zapatero's Basque peace drive

Tue Oct 3, 3:45 PM ET

British Prime Minister Tony Blair passed on tips gleaned from his experience brokering an uneasy peace in Northern Ireland as he backed Spain's current drive for peace in its troubled Basque country.

Blair said the oft-drawn parallel between Northern Ireland and the Basque conflict was on his mind after the watchdog monitoring disarmament of paramilitary groups in the British-ruled province sent a key report to London and Dublin on Monday ahead of key peace talks next week.

"If the report is positive it is a serious demonstration that the conflict is genuinely over," said Blair at the start of a two-day Spanish visit.

The Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC)'s disarmanent report, whose contents were scheduled to be disclosed on Wednesday, will be central to multiparty talks in Scotland on October 11-13 aimed at restoring power-sharing in Northern Ireland, nine years after multiparty talks started in 1997.

Those talks eventually culminated in the Good Friday Agreement of April 1998 which set out a plan for devolved government.

Blair cited the "many ups and downs and difficulties" of seeking peace.

"You need perseverence... patient determination," he told reporters, adding he had enjoyed a good and constructive meeting with his host, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.

"Resolving these very long-standing issues is very difficult work," said Blair, who noted that in Northern Ireland as in the Basque country "there can sometimes appear to be a blockage or you can get diverted off the path -- but this is a natural part of the process."

But he added that if the will existed on all sides to progress then peace was achieveable.

"It does happen if you do your best to move forward," said Blair, adding that in Northern Ireland progress had been made once "there was leadership prepared to take risks," a sense among people they want peace and a feeling that in the modern world this type of conflict was "alien to the 21st century."

Zapatero was keen to enlist Blair's support after a planned first meeting this summer between government officials and ETA representatives was postponed prompting further tension amongst Basque nationalists.

The Spanish leader, under pressure from opposition conservatives opposed to any dealings with ETA, said a Basque peace process had become reality six months ago when ETA announced a permanent ceasefire. Zapatero thanked Blair for his input.

"I received much information on the peace process in Northern Ireland and it was very useful to have heard his experiences," he said.

Blair noted the "positive" development of the ceasefire which has held notwithstanding low-level urban unrest since its announcement and also noted the last fatality in the conflict was in mid-2003.

But he warned that ending both conflicts was a "still difficult and complicated process".

On a positive note, today's Francisco Franco, blood thirsty José María Aznar, is not the one calling the shots from La Moncloa.

Besides, one has to wonder what Blair thinks about being a Basque descendant.

~ ~ ~

Venezuela's Basque Topic

Some news outlets have been covering the story about an ETA militant being employed by Hugo Chávez.

Here you have the note from The Herald Tribune:

Venezuelan official says no ETA member employed by Chavez's government

The Associated Press

Published: October 2, 2006

CARACAS, Venezuela Venezuela's justice minister on Monday denied that the government of President Hugo Chavez is employing any member of the Basque separatist group ETA.

Jesse Chacon's comments came after opposition candidate Manuel Rosales accused Chavez of flirting with terrorist groups, citing Spain's announcement last week that it was investigating reports that Arturo Cubillas — an alleged former ETA militant — has been working at Venezuela's agriculture ministry since October 2005.

"No member of ETA exists in the government," Chacon said Monday.

The justice minister told reporters that Cubillas has lived in Venezuela since 1989 with his Venezuelan-born wife, who works for the government.

He said Cubillas came to the country along with 10 other "people linked to the Basque problem that existed at that moment in Spain" as part of a diplomatic agreement that year between Venezuela, Spain and Algeria.

"They remade their lives here, and they don't have any arrest warrants out (for them) by any government," he said.

Chacon did not say whether Cubillas was employed by the government, however, adding that he doesn't "know who the agriculture ministry hires."

Spanish Justice Minister Juan Fernando Lopez Aguilar said last week that officials were investigating whether any criminal charges are still pending against Cubillas.

Earlier Monday, Rosales, used the revelation to attack Chavez, who he faces in Dec. 3 presidential elections.

"It's not right that we have a terrorist in the government," Rosales told a news conference. "We shouldn't be forging ties with groups that are identified with terrorism."

Chavez has rejected previous accusations that he sympathizes with terrorist groups and has strongly condemned terrorist attacks in Spain, the United States and elsewhere.

Cubillas is wanted by Spanish police for allegedly having belonged to an ETA commando unit blamed for three murders in 1984-85, according to the Spanish newspapers ABC and El Mundo. He was arrested in France in 1987, deported to Algeria and sent from there to Venezuela in 1989, along with 10 other ETA members, ABC said.

Cubillas was detained by Venezuelan police in 2002 but released when they determined that his name was not on a list of ETA members sought by Spain's National Court, the papers said.

Not much to add to what the venezuelan official already stated, only the little irony of Chavez getting this accusation even after he extradited three Basque political refugees right after he occupied the presidential office. And he did so knowing that there is torture in Spain and that Aznar was allegedly one of this sworn enemies.

Rome does not pay traitors Hugo!

~ ~ ~

University of Ulster and the Basque Peace Process

This news release comes to us straight from the University of Ulster website:

UU Expert Helps Push for Peace in Basque Region

A University of Ulster academic is helping the search for peace in Spain’s Basque region.

Professor Alan Smith, UNESCO Chair in Education for Pluralism, Human Rights and Democracy was among a group of international experts invited by the Basque Regional President, Juan José Ibarretxe, to analyse and contribute to a peace plan for the region.

The Peace and Coexistence Plan was approved in April and sent to the Basque Parliament for consultation with interest groups.

It has five key points – promotion of human rights; solidarity with victims of terrorism; reparation for the victims of Franco’s regime; defence of civil and political rights; and, prevention of torture and defence of prisoners’ rights.

Each of the group has a particular field of expertise and Professor Smith along with Pamela Aall, vice president of the US Institute of Peace and Ann Hope, a member of the NI Human Rights Commission, studied the part of the plan dealing with the defence of human rights and the role of education in reconciliation.

Brandon Hamber, a clinical psychologist amd honary INCORE Fellow, who helped in the work of transition and reconciliation in South Africa and Northern Ireland, examined the section dealing with terrorism victims.

Pierre Hazan, former correspondent with French daily newspaper, Liberation, and a researcher with the Swiss National Foundation on Human Rights in Geneva, made recommendations on recovering historic memory and reparation for Franco’s regime victims.

Andrea Bartoli, director of the International Conflict Resolution Programme at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and advisor to the UN Secretary General on the prevention of genocide and conflict, analysed the section of the plan dealing with defence of liberties and civil and political rights.

Ciaran O’Maolain, of the NI Human Rights Commission, contributed to the section on torture and respect of prisoners’ rights.

During their visit to the region the group met with the Political Council of the Basque Government to analyse and make recommendations on the plan.

Ends


For further information, please contact:

Press Office, Department of Public Affairs
Tel: 028 9036 6178
Email: pressoffice@ulster.ac.uk

Now, if they could all stop calling it a region, the Basque Country is exactly that, a country, a nation occupied by two foreign powers. Doing so would put everything into the right context.

~ ~ ~

Talks and More Talks

This note comes to us thanks to EITb:

BASQUE PEACE PROCESS

Basque PM says talks among political parties underway

10/02/2006

Basque Premier Juan José Ibarretxe said that "official talks" between the armed Basque band ETA and the Spanish Government are underway as well as the talks among all the political parties, so he is optimistic about the Basque peace process.

In an appearance at the IV Meeting of the Chamber of Commerce of Bilbao in the Guggenheim Bilbao Museum, Ibarretxe stressed the importance of "sending a message of optimism" on the Basque peace process to the Basques. The Basque president also urged the politicians to be "well-balanced" because "it is not right to send a message of optimism in the morning and a message of pessimism at night."

Ibarretxe said he understands Basques are worried about the peace process but he added he was optimistic as, on the one hand, the "official talks between ETA" and the Spanish Government are underway, and , on the other hand, the talks among all the political parties.

The Basque premier said he is confident the political parties are currently "more mature than ever to deal with the Basque peace process" and, therefore, "make the dream of peace and of political agreements come true."

~ ~ ~

Kilometroak in Oiartzun

Oiartzun was one of the places I was lucky enough to visit during my trip to Euskal Herria at the end of the summer.

So, I was glad to read this note at EITb:

KILOMETROAK 2006

Oiartzun celebrates Basque schools' day of Gipuzkoa

10/01/2006

Kilometroak 2006, the Basque schools’ day of Gipuzkoa, is been celebrated in Oiartzun in a festive atmosphere. The event is been accompanied by a wonderful weather. This year’s edition has been organised by the local school Haurtzaroa Ikastola.

The commitment to the Basque language and to the Ikastolas (Basque schools) is so rooted in the Basque society that thousands of people are awaited in the festival in order to enjoy the day and to pay tribute to the ikastolas.

The day will be packed with music and dance performances, as well as sports activities and other kind of attractions.

Organisers aim at getting enough funding to be able to guarantee a wide teaching offer. The takings from this event will go towards the restoration of the school’s facilities and the construction of a new building.

The opening of the festival took place at 09:00 am with the ribbon-cutting ceremony. Principal Arantxa Manterola welcome the attendants, including Basque government’s spokesperson Miren Azkarate.

~ ~ ~

Oliver Stoned

I have not seen the last Oliver Stone movie, I simply refuse to donate any of my pesos to perpetuating the September 11 lie.

Plus, the last Oliver Stone flick was a complete disappointment, and it has nothing to do with Alexander the Great being portrayed in all his homosexuality, no, the movie is bad, period.

But then today thanks to a right-wing blog I learned that Oliver Stone went to a Basque city to take part in a film festival and he took his turn at the microphone as an opportunity to... insult the Basques.

Here you have the note about how in a rather clumsy way he mixes some Bush bashing with the disrespectful generalization that the Basques are terrorists, all the Basques. Check it out:

Oliver Stone takes a blast at Bush

By CIARAN GILES, Associated Press WriterThu Sep 28, 8:33 PM ET

Filmmaker Oliver Stone blasted President Bush Thursday, saying he has "set America back 10 years." Stone added that he is "ashamed for my country" over the war in Iraq and the U.S. policies in response to the attacks of Sept. 11.

"We have destroyed the world in the name of security," Stone told journalists at the San Sebastian International Film Festival prior to a screening of his latest movie, "World Trade Center." The film tells the true story of the survival and rescue of two policemen who were trapped in the rubble of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, after they went to help people escape.

"From Sept. 12 on, the incident (the attacks) was politicized and it has polarized the entire world," said Stone. "It is a shame because it is a waste of energy to see that the entire world five years later is still convulsed in the grip of 9/11.

"It's a waste of energy away from things that do matter which is poverty, death, disease, the planet itself and fixing things in our own homes rather than fighting wars with others. Mr. Bush has set America back 10 years, maybe more."

The director of blockbusters such as "Platoon," and "JFK" said the U.S. reaction to the attacks was out of proportion.

"If there had been a better sense of preparation, if we had a leadership that was more mature," he said. "We did not fight back in the same way that the British fought the IRA or the Spanish government fought the Basques here. Terrorism is a manageable action. It can be lived with," said Stone.

So now Oliver congratulates the Spanish government for hanging on to its colonial past. Oliver tells the world that unlike the US, Madrid's approach to the issue of the Basque drive for self determination is more mature, I guess he refers to how well placed the repressive machinery is in Euskal Herria.

The arbitrary detentions, the torture, the preventive prison, the dispersion, the life term sentences, the fascist laws that make political parties illegal, the closing down of newspapers and elementary schools, the makeshift extraditions, it all has to do with a better sense of preparation.

And he said it in the home town of Iñaki de Juana, the home town of two of Mexico's six.

Well Mr. Stone, thanks for reminding us that the Basques are between the rock and the hard place. On one side the right-wingers hate us because we opposed Franco and Aznar, and on the other side, the left hates us because damn it, the main stram media says so.

Oh, by the way, congratulations to the organizers of the event for inviting this moron.

~ ~ ~

The Basque Gentle Boxer

This story comes to you from England (from all places) thanks to Preston Today.

Enjoy it:

Liz knocked out by her father's past

A Lancashire woman has uncovered some astonishing secrets about her late father.

When champion boxer Fernando Tena Vildarraz met his wife Kath in a ballroom in the 1960s, he told her he was an Italian trapeze artist in a visiting circus.

His wife-to-be would later find out the truth about Fernando, who had just arrived from the Basque region of Spain to start a new life.

But over the four decades he lived in Preston, he told no-one just how much he achieved as an amateur boxer in his home country.

His only daughter Liz, of Allerton Road, Walton-le-Dale, knew of her dad's fighting past, but he always just told her "it was a long time ago".

It was only after Fernando's death at the age of 69 in October 2004 that Liz began researching her family history and uncovered a knockout secret.

Fernando, a 6ft-plus bear of a man but a 'gentle giant' to family and friends, was a boxer in the 1950s – an unbeaten amateur fighter who beat one of Spain's greatest pugilists.

After he died, Liz and her mother began clearing out his wardrobe and found piles of photos, cuttings and promotional posters for his fights.

Fernando's illustrious amateur career saw him fight across the five Basque regions of France and Spain and included a victory in 1955 over "unbeatable" Luis Folledo, who went on to hold the Spanish welterweight and middleweight belts for a decade.

Fernando also turned professional for one fight.

Liz said: "He was always a very shy, private man and he never bragged about anything.

"When I found out I was so proud of him. He was massive, but he was the most gentle man you would ever meet."

The discovery of her father's secret opened up a whole new chapter in Liz's life.

Fernando had married and had another family in Spain before coming to England and following his death, Liz's research led to the discovery she had two long-lost half-brothers.

More than a year after their father's death, the three had an emotional meeting in Barrow.

And just weeks ago, after months of exchanging letters and e-mails, she visited her father's family in Spain for the first time.

She said: "The last 18 months have just been amazing."

28 September 2006

Correction to the last paragraph, she visited the Basque Country, I mean, after all the mentions to his Basque background it is just logical to leave that other country out of the picture.

~ ~ ~

End To Violence, Period

This is funny, the Spanish repressive machinery has been grinding down on the Basque society for the last six months.

Suddenly, three men appear from the woods and the entire world goes ga-ga over it.

Then, Rodríguez Zapatero says that something he calls the peace process will continue no matter what. How can you talk about peace process when you have unleashed a new dark period of state sponsored violence?

Here you have the note that comes to you courtesy of Yahoo News:

Spanish PM still expects an end to ETA violence

Wed Sep 27, 3:16 PM ET

Spain's prime minister said that he still expected armed Basque separatist movement ETA to renounce violence, despite the group's recent declaration that it had no plans to give up its weapons.

"The government maintains its principles and its convictions concerning the peace process," Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zaptero told the Spanish Parliament.

Zapatero was replying to a question on ETAs recent declaration that it would keep its arms "until the independence" of the Basque country.

"The government still expects to see an end to the violence, an expectation based on objective reasons: over three years without ETA being responsible for a death and a permanent ETA ceasefire ordered six months ago," the Prime Minister continued.

The government would base its action on "firmness, principles, convictions and on an engagement taken to achieve peace and an end to the violence", he continued.

"The government will stick to its plans," he added.

Asked about a recent rise in "kale borrokka," or street violence," in several Basque towns, which many analysts have said bear the hallmarks of ETA supporters, Zapatero remained upbeat.

"The perspectives for an end to the violence remain the same, with the same parameters as when ETA declared its permanent ceasefire," the prime minister said.

The leader of Spain's main conservative opposition Popular Party (PP) used Wednesday's parliamentary session to launch a new broadside at Zapatero's efforts to settle the Basque question.

"It's good to speak about being firm," PP leader Mariano Rajoy said, but "we must now take action (and) do everything necessary to stop the kale borroka."

In a statement read out on Saturday by three hooded men filmed in a forest in the Basque province of Guipuzoca, ETA said it "confirms its commitment to continue to fight, weapons in hand, until independence and socialism for the Basque country is won".

Oh, and by the way, since 1600 Basques were murdered by the Spanish government in less than four hours, I went ahead and removed one paragraph at the end of the article I'm linking to.

And really, there is no need to comment of Mariano Rajoy the Francoist Fool's statement.

~ ~ ~

The Basque Brits

Infamous Basque-phobe Colin Davis is simply going to love this one.

I found out about it thanks to a blog called The Duck of Minerva on a post titled "Who Are the British?" which directed me to the original source, what I believe is a magazine published in England called Prospect and its special report "Myths of British Ancestry" by Stephen Oppenheimer.

Here you have the parts that are pertinent to this blog:

The genetic evidence shows that three quarters of our ancestors came to this corner of Europe as hunter-gatherers, between 15,000 and 7,500 years ago, after the melting of the ice caps but before the land broke away from the mainland and divided into islands. Our subsequent separation from Europe has preserved a genetic time capsule of southwestern Europe during the ice age, which we share most closely with the former ice-age refuge in the Basque country. The first settlers were unlikely to have spoken a Celtic language but possibly a tongue related to the unique Basque language.

Another wave of immigration arrived during the Neolithic period, when farming developed about 6,500 years ago. But the English still derive most of their current gene pool from the same early Basque source as the Irish, Welsh and Scots. These figures are at odds with the modern perceptions of Celtic and Anglo-Saxon ethnicity based on more recent invasions. There were many later invasions, as well as less violent immigrations, and each left a genetic signal, but no individual event contributed much more than 5 per cent to our modern genetic mix.

And:

De Jubainville's Celtic myth has been deconstructed in two recent sceptical publications: The Atlantic Celts: Ancient People or Modern Invention by Simon James (1999), and The Celts: Origins, Myths and Inventions by John Collis (2003). Nevertheless, the story lingers on in standard texts and notably in The Celts, a Channel 4 documentary broadcast in February. "Celt" is now a term that sceptics consider so corrupted in the archaeological and popular literature that it is worthless.

This is too drastic a view. It is only the central European homeland theory that is false. The connection between modern Celtic languages and those spoken in southwest Europe during Roman times is clear and valid. Caesar wrote that the Gauls living south of the Seine called themselves Celts. That region, in particular Normandy, has the highest density of ancient Celtic place-names and Celtic inscriptions in Europe. They are common in the rest of southern France (excluding the formerly Basque region of Gascony), Spain, Portugal and the British Isles. Conversely, Celtic place-names are hard to find east of the Rhine in central Europe.

Also:

A picture thus emerges of the dark-ages invasions of England and northeastern Britain as less like replacements than minority elite additions, akin to earlier and larger Neolithic intrusions from the same places. There were battles for dominance between chieftains, all of Germanic origin, each invader sharing much culturally with their newly conquered indigenous subjects.

So, based on the overall genetic perspective of the British, it seems that Celts, Belgians, Angles, Jutes, Saxons, Vikings and Normans were all immigrant minorities compared with the Basque pioneers, who first ventured into the empty, chilly lands so recently vacated by the great ice sheets.

There you have it, the English are direct descendants of Euskal Herria, maybe now they understand how deep their betrayal of the Basques at the end of WWII runs.

~ ~ ~

Useless Blaming Game

First, I would like for you to read this note by EITb:

Justice minister holds Basque Govt responsible for ETA appearance

Saturday Events

09/27/2006

The Justice minister, Juan Fernando López Aguilar, wondered why "it's possible" that a "grotesque, anachronistic and unacceptable act" was held last Saturday as three armed, hooded men spoke on the "Basque Fighter Day," and noted the Basque Government should give the explanations on that event.

"This show is within the field of the Interior Department, so Basque Government's competence. That is why it should give explanations on the events," López Aguilar said in statements for the Spanish radio station Onda Cero.

Asked about street violence events within the last few weeks, the minister admitted that those responsible for the incidents are hindering the path to peace, but he highlighted that the Government is working "hard" to reach the coveted aim.

Balza asks Aguilar to rectify

The Interior councillor of the Basque Government, Javier Balza, answered firmly to Juan Fernando López Aguilar's statements in an interview in Radio Euskadi.

According to Balza, it's "ridiculous" that the Interior Ministry requests explanations from the Basque Government when in his opinion, controlling such acts as ETA's last appearance "is everyone's responsibility."

"It was an act of pure terrorism and it's everyone's responsibility. The central Government must not slip away," he said. That is why he asked Aguilar to correct his statements and assume responsibilities.

According to the councillor, the Basque Government has been working with "absolute loyalty" to the Spanish Government in the fight against terrorism for months.

When you read notes like this one you realize why it is that it has taken so long for peace to arrive to the Basque Country.

First you have the ludicrous statement by López Aguilar regarding how hard the Madrid stablishment has worked to "reach the coveted aim".

Yes but...what exactly is the coveted aim.

What we saw from the Spanish government so far is an escalation of the repressive measures against the Basque society. More arbitrary detentions, more outlandish accusations from the likes of Garzón and Grande-Marlaska, no end to the dispersion policy and now, life terms to Basque political prisoners.

So, one could say that the "coveted aim" is to torpedo the peace process, in the end, Spain seems more at ease when destroying or suffocating a different culture.

But no, what López Aguilar means is that allegedly, the PSOE has been working towards a peaceful resolution of the Basque Country. Oh well.

But if that was not bad enough, then you have the declarations by Balza, the Basque governement official in charge of torturing Basque citizens. First he uses the "T" word as if he was taking his cues from Aznar himself. Then he claims that the Basque government has been working with "absolute loyalty" to the Spanish government.

Whoa, an official from the government that some identify as the only internationally recognized Basque political institution says that it works with "absolute loyalty" towards the occupying government. This is just sad.

One would think that the Basque government would only work with "absolute loyalty" towards the Basque people.

No wonder why torture is rampant at the Ertzaintza quarters, or why is it that the men in red-and-black are always looking for ways to use excesive force against those who participate in the different self-determination demos around the Basque Autonomous Community.

Balza, you are a shame.

~ ~ ~