Eusko Flickr: What Have You Done with Jon Anza?

Jon Anza - Beth a wnaethoch chi â Jon Anza? Petra hoc'h eus graet gant Jon Anza? What have you done with Jon Anza?
Originally uploaded by bara-koukoug

Police Used as Political Tool

On August 28th of 2008, fifteen people took part on a peaceful sit in with the goal of momentarily paralyzing the construction work for the TAV (Fast Speed Train) in the Bizkaian town on Zaratamo. At the same time, another group displayed a banner as a protest for the construction of the mentioned railroad. The act came to an end when the Ertzaintza (Basque autonomous police force) proceeded to card and identify the protesters. Up until this point the whole thing was business as usual for this kind of demonstrations. The big surprise would come soon after when the Ertzaintza decided to send the event's report to the Spanish Audiencia Nacional after labeling the peaceful sit in as an act of "terrorism".

Those involved received the news with a mix of indignation and concern, despite the outrageousness of the police decision, the political character of the Audiencia Nacional did not overruled the chance for the process not to be disregarded, as it happened in the end. Yesterday, an entire year later, the case was taken to court in Bizkaia. The district attorney requested a fine of 150 euros for a misdemeanor, that could even be disregarded due to the fact that those accused never refused to be identified by the police. Thus, the intentionality of using the Basque police force as a political tool was evidenced since the commanding officers decided to sent to prison citizens that were only exercising their freedom of speech.

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Eusko Flikcr : 2009, September 6th. Ursaltu

2009, September 6th. Ursaltu
Originally uploaded by iikki

Eight Injured by the Ertzaintza in Lekeitio

The Madrid imposed government in the Basque Autonomous Community insists on unleashing police brutality against the Basque civilians during the traditional summer fetivities. As a result, eight people were deprived of their freedom in clashes with the Ertzaintza (Basque police force) in Lekeitio, in the early hours of Monday during the town’s main festivity. It’s understood that seven people were injured, including a police officer.

The violence escalated after a group of citizens began shouting out insults at officers inside the police station, with others joining in the crowd as police violently tried to disperse the group, who found themselves resorting to their favorite repressive tactic, to open fire with rubber bullets. A number of rubbish containers were set alight, and damage was caused to banks and insurance offices.

Rapid action by fire crews managed to prevent any serious damage to the PNV Basque Nationalist Party’s offices in the town which some amongst the crowd had tried to set alight.

The street violence came during the Lekeitio’s traditional "Day of the Goose" – the Antzar Eguna - when locals attempt to cross a stretch of water hanging by their arms from the neck of a goose suspended on a pulley across the port. It’s understood the geese used today are either already dead or artificial.

Despite Madrid and Gasteiz's efforts to criminalize the Basque solidarity with the victims of political persecution, there are reports that some of the boats used in the Antzar Eguna were seen displaying photos of Basque political prisoners or flags in their support.

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Direct Attack Against Democracy

Baltasar Garzón, Spain's top inquisitor and enforcer of the Apartheid against the Basque people's civil rights who earlier this year suspended all activities of two Basque political parties, has now charged 13 of their members using the "one size fits all" accusation, belonging to ETA.

The candidate lists presented by D3M and Askatasuna for the Basque regional elections were banned by the Supreme Court in February this year and, 2 weeks before the poll was due to take place, Garzón suspended all of the two parties’ political activities for a period of 3 years.

In a ruling released to the press this Monday and without presenting one single piece of evidence to support his alegation, the judge has now indicated that D3M and Askatasuna both ‘acted under the leadership of the terrorist organisation Batasuna-ETA’. The 13 members charged include D3M’s spokesperson, Amparo Lasheras, and the President of Askatasuna, José Antonio Munduate.

The charge is membership of and collaboration with an armed group. 10 others escape the charge for lack of evidence, while a further 2 will not be prosecuted, as they are either charged in another case or are already in prison for another crime.

We would like to remind you that all these repressive measures against the Basque people were validated not too long ago when Strasbourg's Human Rights Court decided to join the flanks of those who refuse the right of the peoples (the nations without statehood in this particular case) to their self determination. So now the responsibility of an increased number of Basque political prisoners is shared by Madrid and Strasbourg's Court.

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Eusko Flickr: In Bayonne

In Bayonne
Originally uploaded by Schwelmo

No to Catalonian Self Determination

This note was published at Critics and Monsters:

Spanish court blocks vote on Catalonia independence

Barcelona- A court in Spain's north-eastern Catalonia region on Thursday blocked one village's planned referendum on independence for the state, judicial sources said. The vote had been called for September 13 by Arenys de Munt, a village of 8,000 near Barcelona. In a preliminary ruling, the Barcelona court accepted the appeal lodged by lawyers representing the Spanish state, who argued that only the state could stage referendums.

The villagers were to be asked whether Catalonia, a wealthy region of more than 6 million residents, should become an independent state within the European Union.

The referendum plan had sparked a national controversy, with the government fearing that it could become a precedent for other similar votes in the country beset with separatist currents.

Catalan top politicians have not followed the example of former Basque prime minister Juan Jose Ibarretxe, whose attempts to call a Basque vote on self-determination were foiled by the Spanish parliament and Constitutional Court.

¿Separatist currents?

Maybe the people at Monsters and Critics should learn about the international treaties protecting the right to self determination of the nations without statehood signed among others by Madrid and Paris.

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Zinemira in Donostia's Film Festival

This information was published at Variety:

San Sebastian sets up Basque section

John Hopewell and Emilio Mayorga

MADRID -- The San Sebastian Festival has created a new section: the Zinemira-Basque Film Showcase.

Section's first Zinemira Award will go to Imanol Uribe, who directed three key titles in a brief but vibrant new Basque Cinema after Franco's death: "The Burgos Trial" (1979), "Escape from Segovia" (1981) and "Mikel's Death" (1984).

Zinemira will also feature the first screening of the new Kimuak catalog, a prestigious short-film collection from a Basque Country that has struggled to make multiple feature films over the past two decades but won a large reputation for its curation of shorts.

Section presents one U.S. pic, Andrea Oibarra's "Rough Winds," a teen obsession drama produced by Miami-based Spoon Ent., and toplining Danna Maret, John Lovino, Jessica Brydon and Albert Campillo.

Section includes the latest feature from Uribe's first producer Angel Amigo: Aizpea Goenaga's gentle satire of Basque's gastronomic devotion, "Tales from the Kitchen," featuring some of the Basque Country's top-notch thesps such as Isidoro Fernandez.

Two other pics hit the section with good prior buzz: Roberto Gaston's rural gay drama "Ander," which sparked praise and deals for sales company Latido off a Berlin Panorama world preem; and Gorka Gamarra's "Umurage," a docu on the Rwanda reconciliation process.

Section opens with a Gala perf of Patxi Telleria and Aitor Mazo's rites-of-passage tale set in a Bilbao working-class environment.

Zinemira features the latest pic from one of Spain's best-regarded docu feature directors, Javier Corcuera, who teams with Fermin Muguruza for the Israel-Palestine set music docu, "Checkpoint Rock."

Three films are portraits: Juan Miguel Gutierrez's "Action, Please!," about filmmaker Juanjo Franco Zabalegi; Arkatz Basterra's "The Labyrinthine Biographies of Vojtech Jasny," about the Czech director; and Jose Martinez's "Sea's Daughter," a docu about the daughter of Mikel Goikoetxea, piecing together an idea of her father, a head of the ETA terrorist org murdered by a Spanish government hit-squad when she was two.

Talk about misleading information, Mikel Goikoetxea was the victim of state sponsored terrorism by Madrid, yet, according to the authors of the article Goikoetxea is the terrorist. That is exactly what happens when you obsess over saying something about ETA in an article dedicated to art and cinema.

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Eusko Flickr: Cascade dans les Gorges de Kakuetta

Cascade dans les gorges de Kakuetta
Originally uploaded by tizef

A Pact Against the Pro-Independence Left

Just yesterday the president of the Basque province of Nafarroa, Miguel Sanz, announced a new political pact with the Navarre Socialist Party (the PSN, a satellite of Spain's ruling party) that, at first glance, constitutes flagrant evidence that is nothing more that a call to act against the Basque pro-independence left in every single possible way, including the displays of solidarity towards the Basque activist suffering political persecution. Trying to emulate the "change" enforced by Francisco Javier López in the Basque Autonomous Community, the pact includes threats against the political parties that fail to show open support for the State's armed and police forces.

All what Sanz needed to do was to seat down and wait for the Socialist government in Gasteiz to set the pace against the pro-independence left, yesterday was the day for him to announce that his government would promote along with the PSN "a great political and social pact in favor of freedom, coexistence and democracy" with the specific goal of "reducing any room available to impunity" in the public sphere. Regarding "impunity", Sanz referred to the pro-independence left being in charge of kick starting the festivities in Berriozar.

Despite the fact that during their meeting at the beginning of summer both Miguel Sanz and Francisco Javier López insisted about the differentiated identity of Nafarroa as opposed to the Basque Autonomous Community, when it comes to the pro-independence left this difference gets blurry. The PSOE, presiding the government in Gasteiz and maintaining the one in Nafarroa propped up, is in fact calling the shots regarding the line of action for Hegoalde.

Sanz spoke about the pact with the pSN during a press conference, just after celebrating the firs session of the Navarrese executive. He pointed out the the core issues of the pact have been adressed through the dialogue between himself and representatives of the PSN. "This is about reducing the room to impunity in the institutional sphere, during festive and cultural acts, in public spaces and such that the terrorists use to expand the criminal activities and berate both their victims and the government officials democratically elected". He then went on to criticize the opening ceremony in the Berriozar festivities because the person in charge of hosting the event is a pro-independence mayor (displaying his selective memory, Sanz forgot to mention that he was too democratically elected), and that during the txupin (a firework that is launched to signal the start of the festivities) a banner in support of bringing home the Basque political prisoners was prominently displayed.

In the political sphere, the pact will be enforced by avoiding to reach institutional agreements with "outlawed" political formations and with political parties "that refuse to firmly denounce ETA's violence or fail to support the institutions that conform the State, like the military and police forces. In doing so, Sanz directed a warning against Nafarroa Bai after the verbal brawl carried out in Iruñea in the aftermath of the attacks in Mallorca and Burgos when Aralar criticized the partisan nature of the "condemnations". Soon after Nafarroa Bai accused the ultra-conservative (the UPN is a satellite party of Spain's PP) government of using the announcement of "a pact that is a throwback to fascism in order to create a smoke curtain around the failed economic policies". The spokes person for NaBai, Maiorga Ramírez, disqualified the pact because its goal is to exclude "anyone that those not share the UPN's postulates", stating that in his opinion, "an authentic pact regarding coexistence and democracy must first acknowledge, respect and advance an stage that provides freedom of expression that ensures the development of plurality within Nafarroa". Ramíres also criticized the PSN due to the fact that with this new proposal "once again it surrenders to the postulates of the extreme right that consider that those who do not comply with their ideals must be excluded from the political sphere".

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