Broad Campaign Against Basque Society

The closure of Egunkaria by the repressive Spanish state has been getting a lot of attention around the world, but there is one thing the international community needs to understand, the attack against Egunkaria and the torture suffered by 10 of its employees is far from being an isolated case. What took place a few days ago in Euskal Herria is part of a broad campaign set in place by Madrid to suffocate the Basque identity.

The text you are about to read talks about this Apartheid-like campaign:

Many Basque organizations, businesses and media had been closed or prosecutedbefore

This is not the first time that a Basque newspaper has been closed by a Spanish judge. Since Aznar´s Popular Party came to power in 1996, many Basque political or cultural organizations, businesses and media have been closed, declared illegal or prosecuted due to alleged ties with terrorism. The vast majority of these cases lead nowhere, are never even brought to court, and serve only to publicly discredit pro-Basque organizations.

This is not by no means exhaustive of those actions:

a.. AEK (Organization that works in the field of Basque language teaching and adult literacy. They have taught the ancient Basque language to thousands of citizens.) AEK was accused in 1998 of being part of the ETA's alleged "business network". A report by the judge-appointed administrator concluded there were no irregularities in AEK's management, and that the accusations made by the judge Baltasar Garzón were unfounded. At the end of 2001, the judge was forced to desist in his attempts to prove a link between ETA and the organization AEK.

b.. Egin and Egin Irratia (newspaper and radio station of the independence movement) were accused by judge Baltasar Garzón in 1998 of being part of ETA and were closed without trial. In 2001, the Fourth Section of the Penal Court decided to drop the main charges of "membership in an armed organization"; without this accusation, the preventive closing of a media organization is not possible. Five years later, however, both media outlets are still closed pending trial.

c.. The EKIN case (movement for the independence of the Basque Country): in 2000 the judge Baltasar Garzón accused this movement and four other groups to be part of ETA and declared them illegal, arresting 20 people. However, by December 20001 all of the people that were arrested in this case had been released on bail. Moreover, the Fourth Circuit of the National Court issued a decree ruling that these people had been held in prison for a year without sufficient evidence, once again discrediting Garzón's investigative work.

d.. Ardi Beltza (A magazine specializing in investigative journalism). The judge Garzón decreed in 2001 the closure of the magazine and imprisonment of its editor Pepe Rei. But Garzón received another setback when the Spanish National Court decided to release the editor Pepe Rei. In spite of all, the magazine is still closed.

e.. Zabaltzen (Basque book and music distribution business): In 2001, Garzón issued warrants to search the main offices of the company. Some months later the judge had to abandon this investigation.

f.. Haika (Basque youth movement for independence): In 2001 it was declared illegal by judge Garzón.

g.. Askatasuna (Movement in support of the rights of Basque prisoners): In 2001 Garzón declared illegal this movement too, and arrested 13 people.

h.. Batasuna (Political Party supporting the independence of the Basque Country; they get about 15% of the votes in Basque polls and many mayors belong to this party): In 2002 the judge Garzón decreed the suspension of all their activities under the accusation of being part of ETA.

What we find behind all these actions is that the Spanish Government is trying to take advantage of the Spanish people's rejection of the so called terrorism of ETA. By linking the Basque political and cultural movement with violence, Mr. Aznar's Government usually obtains electoral benefits in Spain, since it projects an image of firmness against terrorism. Most of these cases are eventually abandoned due to a lack of legal foundations, but often the damage caused to the people and organizations involved is irreversible. Arrests and searches are usually accompanied by extensive media coverage, but when the detainees are subsequently released and the charges are dropped, there is usually no mention of this in the media.

Besides, these political/police/judicial operations do not usually happen by chance. They always take place just before an election, or when the Government intends to adopt an unpopular measure, such as the "medicamentazo" (a decree that eliminates government health-care coverage for a large number of prescription-drugs), the "decretazo" (a decree that eliminates some of the fundamental rights of workers, and makes dismissal easier and cheaper for employers). It is not just by chance, then, that the actions taken against Egunkaria have occurred just when the Government of the PP (Popular Party) is going through its most delicate moment since coming to power, with everyone's eyes set on the ecological disaster caused by the Prestige oil spill and on the Spain's support for the upcoming war on Iraq.

Regarding the former, most of the Spanish people think that the disaster of the Prestige could have been much smaller and that in fact it was aggravated by the Popular Party's negligence, as was shown by the massive demonstration organized by the Galician platform "Nunca Máis" that took the streets of Madrid on February 23rd. As to the war, an overwhelming majority of the Spanish people is against an attack on Iraq: organizations, political parties and media are pressing the Spanish Government relentlessly on this issue, and they have it on the defensive. On February 15th, the marches against the war organized in Madrid and Barcelona gathered one million people each.

International experts agree that the actions of the Spanish Government and the Spanish judges can hardly be tolerated in a democratic state. Former Italian president Francesco Cossiga, for example, has declared several times that "since Franco's dictatorship and the nazi regime, this is the first time that the Spanish authorities have created a situation like this" or that the "PP's actions are antidemocratic and violate people's rights".

We cannot forget that although Mr. Aznar's Popular Party tries to situate itself in the center, it is the political heir to the Franco regime. The party's president and founder, Mr. Manuel Fraga, was the Minister for Information and Tourism as well as Home Minister during the Franco dictatorship. In the PP's web page (web del PP ) you can read that a "group of people met with Mr. Manuel Fraga Iribarne, in the need to create and articulate a reformist and centrist organization, in order to offer an alternative after Franco's death". Even Mr. Aznar himself and many of his ministers and party leaders are members of well-known francoist families. To read more about this, please visit here.

With respect to the Egunkaria case, apart from the difficult moment the PP is going through right now, we should highlight the fact that the Home Ministry and the National Court published a joint press release to explain the operation taken against Egunkaria. This action is a clear violation of the principle of separation of powers, as has been denounced in several quarters. There are two other remarkable facts about the case against Egunkaria. On one hand, the decade-old documents upon which the accusation is based are the very same that were used to shut down the Egin daily, only now the judge interprets them to refer to Egunkaria and not to Egin. On the other hand, the judge Garzon previously abandoned the idea of taking judicial actions against Egunkaria, having considering groundless the same police report that judge Del Olmo now uses as the foundation of his case.

Something tells me that Egunkaria will not be the last victim of Spain's all out (and often murderous) attack against Basque society.

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