Saturday, June 20, 2009
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Disrespect at Ezkaba
A group representing the Asociación de Familiares de Fusilados, Asesinados y Desaparecidos de Nafarroa (an organization that brings together relatives of those victims of the Spanish government that have been executed by firing squad, murdered or gone missing in the Basque province of Navarre) stated their disagreement to Elena Torres regarding the approach given to the guided visits at the Ezcaba fort.Yesterday, Elena Torres (president of Navarre's Parliament), received the delegation for the association, headed by association's own president, Mirentxu Agirre, who counted with the company of Olga Alcega, Tomas Dorronsoro, Josefina Lamberto and Roberto Rocafor. At the end of the meeting the association stated that they do not agree with the approach that they are giving to the guided visits a the Ezkaba fort, "because they barely portray its real purpose, a jail for extermination". As it is well known, during the guided visits the main focus are historic and architectonic information about the fort, but they barely make any reference to the use given to the fort as a jail by the Francoist dictatorship.
During the meeting, according to a press release by Navarre's Parliament, Agirre was pleased by the degree of development in the agreement between that the Parliament decided to establish with the Universidad Pública de Nafarroa (Navarre's Public University) to create an archive dedicated to the Historic Memory.
"We are very satisfied by the interest and sensibility shown by Elena Torres time and again towards our cause. We trust that, just as she told us, the archive dedicated to the Historic Memory will be active by the next legislative period. On our behalf, we assured her that we are willing to collaborate in any possible wasy", informed Mirentxu Agirre at the end of the meeting. She also made public the "gratefulness" from the association for the cycle of conferences that, under the title "Victims of the Civil Was and Historic Memory" was organized by the Parliament on November of 2008, and to this matter they asked Elena Torres if there was a possibility to make such conferences an every year occasion.
The association was created back in November of 2002 with the objective of "reclaiming the historic memory in regards of the victims of the Francoist genocidal repression during the Civil War". On March of 2003, the Parliament approved a declaration in favor of the acknowledgment and moral reparation of all those Basques from Navarre executed by firing squad in the aftermath of the Francoist coup d'etat in 1936.
We sustain that a lot more needs to be done regarding all the heinous crimes committed by the Franco regime from 1936 until today that Juan Carlos Borbon perpetuates the murderous regime as king of Spain.
.... ... .
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Friday, June 12, 2009
Campaign Against Extradition of Basque Activists
This article was published at An Phoblacht:
Once again, thanks to our Irish friends for their solidarity and support.
Don't Extradite the Basques Campaign launched
Emma ClancyThe 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.
.... ... .
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
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.
.... ... .
Saturday, June 06, 2009
Wednesday, June 03, 2009
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
Mikelo Gets Wiki Recognition
Mikelo, one of our contacts at Flickr who has been featured a couple of times at our Eusko Flickr section has been awarded by Wikipedia according to this note published at EiTB:
Zorionak Mikelo!
Wikipedia appraises picture taken by Basque
Estibaliz Sainz
Mikel Ortega, a young photographer from Renteria, Gipuzkoa, found inspiration on Bianditz mountain.A picture taken by Mikel Ortega Mendibil (Renteria, Gipuzkoa) has been chosen as the best free image of the year 2008 by the editors of Wikipedia, the free and multilingual on-line encyclopedia project.
The picture shows two horses on Bianditz mountain (Gipuzkoa) with the so-called Aiako Harria/Peña de Aia, or Aia's peak, in the background.
Mikel Ortega told eitb.com reporter David Pérez that the picture was taken "about two years ago, " when he was trekking in the mountains with several friends.
The 31-year old uploaded the image to Flickr under the Creative Commons license, which allows creators to communicate which rights they reserve, and which rights they waive for the benefit of recipients or other creators.
Someone decided to upload Ortega's photo to Wikipedia and suddenly, he got a stunning surprise without "promoting the picture," as he said astonished.
The picture was modified by a German user called Richard Bartz, who removed a horse that was in the background - see the original image.
However, he clarified that he is not engaged in professional photography but in computers.
Zorionak Mikelo!
.... ... .
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)