The "Black Hole"

You are not going to read about this note in the main stream media for one simple reason, the Spanish state enjoys the benefits of being considered one of the darlings on the eye of the news industry moguls. So lets get to it.

Amnesty International has issued yet another statement demanding for Madrid to stop with the incommunicado regime against alleged "suspects of terrorism", a label that pretty much applies to any Basque working in behalf of the cultural, linguistic and social identity of Euskal Herria, let alone in behalf of the right to self determination.

"They disappear as swallowed by a black hole". Amnesty International can not be more specific when it comes to referring about the detainees who receive the incommunicado regime while they remain in police facilities to be interrogated. They are also quite firm when they demand from the Spanish Parliament to void a law that "violates the rights of individuals to their freedom" and that fails to comply "with a total of seven pacts, agreements and international laws that guarantee the rights of the detainees".

The human rights NGO released to the public yesterday an inform in which it portraus the incommunicado regime as a common practice: the police requests it by default and by default is conceded by the judges, judges who had little or no interest with what goes on during detentions and interrogations at police facilities.

From then on, the detainee is not only deprived of his own defense lawyer, but soon the detainee realizes that the one assigned by court has very limited duties; its not allowed in certain "casual" interrogations (despite the fact that the content is later used in formal accusations) and never allowed to talk in private with the defendant who is supposed to be representing. The detainee can neither request a medic that he trusts, and any medical evaluation is conducted in the presence of police officers, with the degree of intimidation involved. More so, independent inquiries have shown that the majority of those "medical evaluations" do not comply with, by far, the international standards and protocols in the subject.

The rigorous inform by AI highlights the complex structure developed in the Spanish state throughout the years to make the incommunicado regime into a fool-proof system that bestows with complete freedom of action to the police officers conducting the interrogations, a system that also guarantees complete impunity. A "black hole" to swallow each and very single one of the violations to the rights of the detainees, defenseless before an all too powerful state.

Here you have a video released along the inform entitled "Spain: out of the shadows":

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Political Prisoner Released in Myanmar

In Yahoo News they posted a news article regarding the liberation of a political prisoner by the name of Win Tin, a journalist.

Here you have it with, some comments:

Longest-held political prisoner freed in Myanmar

2 hours, 39 minutes ago

Myanmar's longest-serving political prisoner, journalist Win Tin, was freed Tuesday after 19 years behind bars and vowed to continue his struggle to achieve democracy in the military-ruled country.

The Basque political prisoner Joxe Mari Sagardui "Gatza" has been incarcerated in Spain for 28 years. Spain is also a military-ruled country due to the fact that Juan Carlos Borbon (the true ruler) has a military education and acts as the commander in chief of Spain's military forces. Every four years the Spaniards are allowed to vote for Borbon's second in command, a mere minister.

Win Tin's release came as part of an amnesty granted Tuesday to 9,002 prisoners around the country. It was not immediately clear how many of those released were political prisoners. Amnesty International said last month there were 2,050 political prisoners in Myanmar.

Spain sentenced members of two Basque organizations seeking amnesty for the Basque political prisoners to 10 years of incarceration. So, far from considering the release of political prisoners Spain is actually expanding the amount of Basques in Spanish jails.

The amnesty came just days ahead of the one-year anniversary of the junta's deadly crackdown on anti-government protests that were led by Buddhist monks. The U.N. estimated at least 31 people were killed when the army fired on peaceful protesters in the Sept. 26-27, 2007 crackdown, sparking global outrage.

The 78-year-old Win Tin said he would continue to wear his light blue prison uniform as a show of protest against the junta, which has ruled Myanmar for 46 years.

"I have to continue with my unfinished task of trying to achieve democracy in Myanmar," Win Tin told reporters at a friend's home in Yangon after his release from the notorious Insein Prison. He appeared alert and healthy despite recent reports that he is ill.

Asked how it felt to be out of prison, Win Tin replied, "I will be happy only when all political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi, are released."

A longtime journalist and poet, Win Tin became active in opposition politics and helped found Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy opposition party in 1988. He was a close aide to Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who is currently under house arrest.

Win Tin was arrested on July 4, 1989, during a crackdown on opposition politicians. Tried in a military court, he was sentenced to 14 years in prison for allegedly being a member of the banned Communist Party of Myanmar.

Last week, Spain banned two Basque political parties, including the Communist Party of the Basque Lands (EHAK for its initials in Euskera, the Basque language).

He was most recently sentenced in March 1996 to an additional seven years' imprisonment for writing to the United Nations about prison conditions and for writing and circulating anti-government pamphlets in prison, which authorities characterized as "secretly publishing propaganda to incite riots in jail," the statement from London-based Amnesty said.

Iñaki de Juana was sentenced to an additional two years of imprisonment for writting to articles of opinion regarding the prison conditions for Basque political prisoners. Today Spain asked the Interpol for the whereabouts of Iñaki de Juana citing a letter read the day of his liberation from jail. Spanish authorities characterized the letter "as terrorism apology". London-based Amnesty is keeping quiet about the rabid persecution against de Juana even after he completed his jail sentence beyond the grace time given to all other prisoners in Spain.

The United Nations and international rights groups had repeatedly called for the release of Win Tin and referred to him as the longest-serving political prisoner in Myanmar.

The United Nations has never called for the release of Basque political prisoners in Spain and France. The United Nations has never referred to Joxe Mari Sagardui, Nathalie Meningon and Briggitte Mohnhaupt as the longest-serving political prisoners in Europe.

While incarcerated, Win Tin had two heart attacks, a hernia operation and suffered from high blood pressure, diabetes and spinal inflammation, according to international media groups.

The infamous Guardia Civil tortured Basque journalist Peio Zubiria who suffered of Ankylosing Spondylitis, then a judge ordered him imprisoned. Just last week Martxelo Otamendi who was arrested along with Zubiria during an operation against Basque newspaper Egunkaria took his own torture demand to Strasbourg. Many Basque political prisoners who suffer of terminal illnesses have been denied the early release as marked by Spanish law.

State-controlled media announced the prisoner amnesty Tuesday, saying that freedom was granted to prisoners around the country who exhibited good "moral behavior."

"The government is trying to transform these convicted prisoners into citizens who can contribute to the building of a new nation," the Myanma Ahlin newspaper said, adding they were released "so they could participate in the fair elections to be held in 2010."

Spain puts Basques in jail for contributing to the building of a new nation, the Basque Country.

The elections are part of the junta's long announced "roadmap to democracy," which will give voters the first chance to cast ballots since 1990.

Critics say the roadmap is a sham designed to cement the military's power.

In 1990, Suu Kyi's opposition party won a landslide victory that the junta refused to acknowledge. Instead, the generals stepped up arrests and repression of dissidents. Suu Kyi has spent more than 12 of the past 19 years in detention, mostly under house arrest.

The government often grants prisoner amnesties to mark important national days, but usually most of those released are petty criminals.

Good thing Spain is considered to be a democratic state while Myanmar is largely seen as a military dictatorship.

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Sloppy News Coverage

My goodness!

Talk about some sloppy news coverage regarding the current events in Euskal Herria.

I would like for you to start by reading this article published at Monsters & Critics:

Police clash with Basque protesters in northern Spain

Europe News
Sep 14, 2008, 14:46 GMT

Madrid - Police clashed with Basque separatists during a protest march in the northern Spanish city of San Sebastian on Sunday, media reports said.

Police fired rubber bullets after some of the marchers pelted the officers with stones, the reports said. Two people were arrested.

The clashes erupted after police tried to stop the march, which was called by an organization seeking an amnesty for jailed members of the Basque separatist movement ETA.

Authorities had earlier banned the march.

On Thursday, Spain's top court ruled that a plan by the Basque regional government to stage a referendum-like vote on the self- determination for the northern region was unconstitutional.

The Basque parliament had approved holding the vote on October 25, but the Spanish government and opposition conservatives lodged a complaint with the Constitutional Court.

Anyone that reads the article would think that all the events described in the article are related when in reality they are two diametrically separated incidents.

The police force mentioned in the first part of the article is the Ertzaintza, the Basque regional police. The Basque regional police acted on orders of an authoritarian individual by the name of Javier Balza who is the mastermind behind a campaign of repression by the government of the Basque Autonomous Community against the part of the Basque society generally associated with the pro-independence left.

Which takes us to the second part of the article, it is that same government of the Basque Autonomous Community the one that got its proposal rejected by the Spanish Constitutional Court.

You get it now? The bully in the first part of the article and the victim in the second part of the article are one and the same, the government of the Basque Autonomous Community.

So, while Madrid supresses the rights of the entire Basque people, some Basque politicians supress the rights of a certain sector of the Basque people.

This is why a peace process is needed, but one in which the international community will make sure that Spain will not resort to its old tricks and that a true disposition to a peaceful resolution of the conflict will be the driving force so once and for all the Basque people can enter the international arena as a free and sovereign nation.

As for the article, Monsters & Critis should know better than to depend on the Spanish Ministry of Propaganda to get its information about what is going on in Euskal Herria.

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Empty Promises

Zapatero will continue with the Spanish State policy of depriving the Basque citizens of their must basic human rights. Irene Khan of Amnesty International would make a huge mistake if she takes Zapatero's word as the word of a man with moral integrity.

This report appeared today at Amnesty International's page:

Time for Spain to deliver on human rights

20 June 2008

In Madrid today, Amnesty International made public the human rights agenda for the Spanish government’s second term, a review of progress to date and a number of concrete suggestions for future action which was presented yesterday to President Rodriguez Zapatero.

“We welcome the commitment President Zapatero gave us to adopt a national Human Rights Plan by the end of 2008,” said Irene Khan, Amnesty International’s Secretary General. “This is an opportunity to show leadership in delivering results on human rights.”

Spain – a Stronger commitment, more effective action – A Human Rights Agenda for 2008 – 2012 reviews progress made over the government’s previous term, defines the key human rights challenges facing Spain, and sets out a roadmap for change which includes a list of 17 indicators to test the government’s performance against its promises.

“President Zapatero told us his Human Rights Plan will be ambitious, and we shall certainly hold him to that,” said Irene Khan. Amnesty International is calling for a plan which is widely consulted, consistent with Spain’s international obligations, and coherent in demonstrating the same commitment to human rights at home and abroad. The plan must be responsive to the human rights challenges facing Spain, strengthening protection for those most vulnerable in society such as women survivors of violence, children, migrants and the detained. It should set challenging and clear benchmarks, against which progress can be mapped in a transparent manner.

“The plan must not be just a paper promise – it must be a plan for delivery of results,” said Ms Khan.

Amnesty International’s review of the past four years shows progress in some areas but also the need for stronger commitment and more effective action in some others. Amnesty International welcomes the law to control the trade in military equipment and the law to combat gender-based violence. They show political will but much more than political will is needed to convert these measures into effective action. The law on the rights of victims of the Spanish Civil War and the Franco regime was an important first step but it has fallen short of expectations on truth, justice and reparation.

“The time is ripe for a truly ambitious national Human Rights Plan – a Plan that builds on these achievements and boldly moves further to tackle the critical human rights challenges of today,” said Ms Khan.

One of the challenges the government faces is that of the continuing grave abuses by Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA). Amnesty International has consistently and unreservedly condemned the violence by ETA as grave human rights abuses and categorically refutes any arguments or objectives which attempt to justify them.

The government has an obligation to protect people from such attacks but it must do so within the framework of human rights and the rule of international law. “Terrorism cannot be overcome by undermining human rights and the rule of international law – that is Amnesty International’s message in the fight against terrorism worldwide and it is our message in Spain,” said Ms Khan.

Another of the complex challenges facing Spain, and indeed the whole of Europe is that of migration. While Amnesty International recognizes that states have the right to control their borders this should not, however, be at the expense of undermining the human rights of migrants, whether they have documents or not.

“Having no documents does not mean you have no rights,” said Ms Khan, “and Amnesty International is deeply disappointed by the adoption on 18 June of a European Union directive which will now allow member states to detain people who have not committed any crime, including minors, for up to 18 months”.

The Spanish government has indicated that it will be revising its Aliens Law. Amnesty International calls on Spain not to drive down its standards on the treatment of migrants to the lowest common denominator of Europe. The government reiterated the commitment it made in its election manifesto to ratify the Convention on Migrant Workers, which Amnesty International welcomes. “We challenge the Spanish government – in developing its National Human Rights Plan – to take the lead in Europe to build a migration policy of best practice based on human rights,” said Ms Khan.

Spain must also wake up to the Europe-wide challenge of racism and xenophobia. Despite the creation in Spain of an Observatory on these issues, no data or statistics have been published. “Racism and xenophobia are alive in reality, but invisible in official terms. Such a situation must be brought to an end immediately,” said Ms Khan. Amnesty International calls for the adoption of a comprehensive strategy for gathering and publishing such information throughout Spain, as part of a wider plan to combat racism and intolerance.

Research by Amnesty International and others shows that incidents of torture and ill-treatment, while not systematic, continue to be reported by a wide range of individuals from across the country. The organisation welcomes the increasing recognition on the part of the authorities that torture and ill-treatment are not isolated aberrations, and calls for action to tackle the problem, including through the establishment of an independent mechanism to investigate complaints against the police, as is done in a number of European countries. Safeguards such as this are the best way to protect both the rights of detainees and the reputation of law enforcement officials against false complaints.

One welcome preventative measure in this regard has been the introduction of video cameras to monitor detainees in police custody – a move pioneered by the Basque Country and now followed by Catalonia. The introduction of measures that would allow judges to order the video surveillance of incommunicado detainees held by state police forces is an improvement. Amnesty International calls for such a measure to be made compulsory in all cases of detention. “In any case, the Spanish law on incommunicado detention is an anomaly in Europe, and should be repealed,” said Ms Khan.

In the international arena Amnesty International calls on Spain to show a commitment to human rights consistently across the entire spectrum of its foreign policy. Amnesty International welcomes Spain’s commitment to multilateralism and the positive support it has given in recent years to the human rights institutions at the United Nations. But it needs to show a similar commitment to human rights in its bilateral relations with governments such as China, Colombia, Morocco, Russia, and the USA.

“Subordinating human rights to short-term economic, strategic and political interests in bilateral relations is not only short-sighted, it contradicts and undermines the Spanish government’s overall foreign policy goals of promoting human rights multilaterally,” said Ms Khan.

“President Zapatero has launched a bold initiative for a global moratorium on the death penalty, which we support,” said Ms Khan. “We challenge President Zapatero to be equally bold in leading on other pressing human rights challenges at home, in Europe and abroad. In its second term the Zapatero government has got a unique opportunity to deliver on human rights.”

Background

An Amnesty International delegation, led by Secretary General Irene Khan, has been in Spain since 14 June, meeting with representatives of civil society, parliamentarians and members of the government. In the Canary Islands the delegation met with the President of the autonomous government and visited a centre for unaccompanied minors. In the Basque Country Irene Khan met the President of the autonomous government, the Ombudsman and the Counsellors of Interior and Justice. She was also invited to address the Basque parliamentary Human Rights Commission. While in Madrid Irene Khan´s official meetings included those with President of the government, the Minister of Justice, the Secretaries of State for Migration, Interior and Foreign Affairs, the Attorney General, the President of the Criminal Chamber of the National Criminal Court, representatives of the General Council of the Judicial Power, and representatives of different political parties in the parliament.

Following their crazy imperialist quest, the Spaniards have been murdering people for the last 500 years, they have destroyed entire civilizations and countless cultures and languages and to this day they have never apologized for what they've done, so why is Zapatero going to change things now? After all, he watered down "the law on the rights of victims of the Spanish Civil War and the Franco regime" despite the fact that his own grandfather was assassinated by Franco's underlings. Zapatero is a spineless coward at the orders of Juan Carlos Borbon who today is Spain's king due to the work of one man, Francisco Franco, you do the math.

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Canada Collaborates With Torturers

Canada is supposed to be a country that protects and defends human rights, well, it just failed to live up to that status. As it happens, Canada just delivered a Basque citizen to a government known around the world for its widespread practice of torture.

This note comes to us via Yahoo News:

Suspected Basque terrorist has been deported to Spain from Vcr

Tue Jun 17, 2:34 PM

By The Canadian Press
ADVERTISEMENT

VANCOUVER - A man accused of being a Basque terrorist has been deported from Canada to Spain, where he faces trial for attempted murder and his alleged role in a bombing campaign.

Canada Border Services Agency confirms Victor Tejedor Bilbao was put on a plane in Vancouver and sent back to Spain on Monday.

"The government takes its obligation to safeguard public safety very seriously and will take all necessary measures to ensure Canadians are protected. Canada's doors are not open to those who break the law and endanger the safety of our citizens," the agency said in a statement released Tuesday announcing the deportation.

Agency spokeswoman Faith St. John said no further details would be released.

Late last year, 51-year-old Bilbao was ordered deported by the Immigration and Refugee Board after it ruled he had been a member of the Basque terrorist organization ETA and had engaged in terrorism in 1981.

Spanish authorities accuse Bilbao of taking part in the bombing of power stations and the attempted murder of a Spanish journalist considered a "squealer" by ETA. Two of his co-accused have been sentenced to 17 years in prison in Spain.

Bilbao was arrested in June 2007 in Vancouver, 11 years after arriving in Canada and beginning a new life under an assumed name.

Bilbao tried to claim refugee status in Canada after his arrest, arguing that he was a member of the Basque political group Herri Batasuna nearly 30 years ago but, to his knowledge, it wasn't a front for the Basque terrorist groups.

The Immigration and Refugee Board denied his claim and ordered Bilbao deported last November.

A lawyer for Canada Border Services had argued that Bilbao was considered to be a flight risk, saying Bilbao confessed in 1988 that leaders of ETA had ordered the hit on the reporter.

But Bilbao later recanted and said he made a false confession because he was tortured.

His lawyer Phil Rankin fought the extradition, warning his client faced the risk of torture or death at the hands of Spanish police.

Rankin cited an Amnesty International report stating Spain cannot control the police treatment of prisoners - particularly Basques - but the board disagreed and ordered the accused terrorist returned to face Spanish justice.

Agency lawyer Jesse Davidson told an earlier hearing that there was no finding by the court system that Bilbao was ever tortured.

The Immigration and Refugee Board has also ordered the deportation of Ivan Apaolaza Sancho, who was arrested on board a Quebec City ferry last summer.

Sancho, who is wanted by Spain in connection with a series of car bombings tied to ETA, had been living in Canada since 2001 under false aliases and forged documents. Sancho initially lived in the Vancouver area, rooming with Bilbao, and moved to Montreal in late 2006.

He, too, says he will be tortured if returned to Spain and his lawyer is appealing the board decision.

Sancho has admitted to being part of the Basque nationalist movement but has denied ever supporting ETA.

I'm sure that wherever he is, Francisco Franco is proud of Jesse Davidson.

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Canada Endorses Torture

A Canadian immigration officer has decided that testimony obtained under torture is fair evidence to order the deportation of a person to Spain, a country that just last week was labeled by both the United Nation's Human Rights Commission and Amnesty International as a state where torture is practiced in a regular basis against Basque activists.

Here you have this note from Globe and Mail:

Basque separatist suspect ordered deported

SIDHARTHA BANERJEE

The Canadian Press

May 14, 2008

MONTREAL -- Immigration officials have ruled that a man suspected of being a Basque terrorist should be booted out of the country after he lived illegally and in relative anonymity in Canada for nearly six years.

In ordering Ivan Apaolaza Sancho deported, Immigration and Refugee Board commissioner Louis Dubé did reject some federal evidence that appeared to have been obtained when another person was tortured. But Mr. Dubé ruled that there was more than enough additional evidence, including police warrants and affidavits, showing Mr. Sancho has ties to ETA, a Basque separatist group involved in terrorism.

Those documents were sufficient to kick Mr. Sancho out of the country, Mr. Dubé ruled yesterday in Montreal. Mr. Sancho is wanted by Spain in connection with a series of car bombings tied to ETA.

Mr. Sancho has been living in Canada since 2001 under aliases and forged documents and says he will be tortured if returned to Spain.

Mr. Sancho's Montreal-based lawyer, William Sloan, didn't agree with the commissioner's ruling, which excluded some evidence while accepting police versions of the same facts. "It doesn't make a terrible amount of sense," Mr. Sloan said.

In particular, the lawyer keyed in on testimony from Ana Belen Egues Gurruchaga, a Basque detainee in Spain, who fingered Mr. Sancho during questioning.

Her 2001 testimony was rejected by Mr. Dubé because it was likely obtained under torture while she was in Spanish police custody after a Madrid car bombing.

Mr. Sloan said Ms. Gurruchaga filed a criminal complaint of torture not long after she was released. He said roughly the same information provided by Ms. Gurruchaga was used in the police warrants.

"I am shocked that the tribunal could find that the only evidence against me was obtained under torture, while at the same time concluding that the Spanish allegations, which are based on that same evidence, are somehow valid," Mr. Sancho said in a statement released by his supporters.

Mr. Sancho admits to being part of the Basque nationalist movement but has denied ever supporting ETA.

Mr. Sancho has been held since last June in a wing of the Rivière-des-Prairies detention centre in northeast Montreal. He was ordered yesterday to stay there for another 30 days until his next detention review.

Therefore, Mr. Dubé blemishes Canada's reputation as a country that respects human rights. More than that, Louis Dubé is a torture apologist.

Just one more thing, the name Louis and the last name Dubé both sound awfully Québécois to me. Nice way to show solidarity to the peoples struggling for self determination there Mr. Dubé.

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Report by EHW

This report comes to us thanks to Euskal Herria Watch:

33/01 Case against Gestoras Pro-Amnistia-Askatasuna

Description of the case

Repression against the Basque People, conducted by the Spanish State and - to a lesser degree- by the French State has been constant in recent years. It is easy to trace a continuous line throughout the last decades that can show us the persistence of torture, massive and arbitrary detentions, a penitentiary policy with terrible consequences, banned associations and organizations, closure of media, outlawing of political parties and total discrimination from public life against a section of the population. To sum up, an exceptional situation that has generated a dangerous scenario of suppression of the most basic political and civil rights, a scenario that can now be seen in all its brutality.

These circumstances have forced hundreds of Basque citizens to create a retaining wall, to confront repression and participate in different civic organisations, human rights organisations, and activist organisations in what has become known as the Amnesty Movement. Without such a movement, the lack of activation of the people and, therefore, of social opposition would have resulted in a total acceptance of the impunity of the structures of the Spanish State. That is why many and varied activities have been channelled through this Movement -conferences, demonstrations, public appeals, contacts with all kinds of political and social agents…- in order to demand a scenario of respect for basic democratic conditions, of enjoyment of basic civil and political rights.

In this context, the organisation Gestoras Pro Amnistía was born three decades ago as the main platform for solidarity with the people that suffered political repression and to campaign against the situation. This association carried out a process in 2002 to converge with the association Koordinaketa, made up of the committees that worked in solidarity with political prisoners in the North of the Basque Country, under French administration. Askatasuna emerged as a result of this process, to carry out these activities in the whole of the Basque Country. In other words: an organization that focuses its activity on the promotion and protection of the human rights of the victims of repression, that fights for the eradication of torture, for the rights of arrested or imprisoned Basque citizens and the overcoming of the causes that are at the origin of State violence.

This task has always been carried out completely within the law and with a continuous public expression of its activities –press conferences, peaceful demonstrations, organisation of debates, conferences, compilation of information and figures of repression, the diffusion of these through reports, publications, public exchange with other social agencies, political parties, trade unions…-. That is why Gestoras Pro Amnistía–Askatasuna have become a reference for the grassroots movement, with a reputation and social recognition and an important capacity for activating Basque society. We could say that this organisation is present in all cities and neighbourhoods throughout the Basque Country, with the participation in its activities of thousands of people.

Police operations

This task and goals mentioned were criminalized and, in fact, suspended after the police operation carried out by the judge at Central Investigation Court nº 5, Baltasar Garzón. On October 31st, 2001, 12 organizers or spokespeople of this organisation were arrested under the accusation of belonging to a terrorist organisation. Juan Mari Olano, its national coordinator was arrested some weeks later in Bayonne –North Basque Country, under French administration- and after a long process, extradited to the Spanish state. All those people were been in pre-trial imprisonment –remand in custody- for the maximum limit allowed by Spanish law in these cases, of four years awaiting trial. The right to be presumed innocent has disappeared; convictions are now served in advance, before any hearing at a trial. They were released under astronomical amounts of money as bail in May and June 2004.

In the context of this operation, a virulent campaign by the media and politicians was implemented against the professional activity of the lawyers that work on cases that can be labelled “political”, under the argument that these lawyers belong to the “prison front” of the armed organisation. Thus, on the morning of October 31st, as the premises and offices of the Gestoras Pro Amnistía were searched, the police entered the offices of lawyers which are registered in the Bar Association of Lawyers in Gipuzkoa and Pamplona respectively. It must be remarked that the judge Baltasar Garzón, who was leading the operation in Bilbao was personally warned of this situation. Nevertheless, the judge took no notice of that information and carried on with the search, with both offices being sealed off and computers and documents belonging to the twelve lawyers that worked there being seized.

The investigation judge later ordered the lifting of the sealing of both offices and the restitution of the confiscated material, after duplicating and copying all the content of the computers and the documents seized during the searches. This is a flagrant violation of the rights of the lawyers to professional secrecy, as well as other guaranties that must be observed in these cases. Lawyer Julen Arzuaga will be subjected to these proceedings because of this illegal action.

On February 5th 2003, in a new raid, five people that worked as spokespersons in the new association Askatasuna were arrested, their homes searched as well as the premises of the association of relatives of political prisoners Etxerat in Bilbao, Hernani and Gasteiz. On February 6th Central Court of Investigation nº 5 took the decision to merge the proceedings into Case 33/01.

These operations have a continuity in the present, as on September 11th 2007 Juan Maria Olano and on October 3rd 2007 Ohiana Agirre, also spokespersons of Askatasuna were been arrested and jailed for “reiteration in their public activity as representatives of Askatasuna”. Olano will be released in early March 2008. Meanwhile, Ohiana Agirre is in prison, under new proceedings opened by judge Baltasar Garzón against Askatasuna.

Charges

With these proceedings, the investigation judge Baltasar Garzón suspended the activity of Gestoras Pro Amnistía and Askatasuna, considering its public activity illegal from the point of view of the criminal law and accused the 17 that were in prison and other 10 of a crime of “belonging to an armed organisation”.

The judge reverts the process of the investigation, contrary to law and logic, as first, a conclusion is given out –that Gestoras belongs to the structure of ETA- and later, through interpretations and speculations they look for the evidence, the factual arguments to support that theory.

The alleged criminal actions of Gestoras would be:

1.- Exercising control over the collective of ETA prisoners, connecting and communicating with the members and representatives through their lawyers.

2. - Guaranteeing internal cohesion and obedience to the discipline imposed by this organization on the collective, avoiding any individual initiative in the course of their prison sentence and cancelling any possibility of dissent or breaking from the collective.

3.-Co-operating with and financing the maintenance of ETA prisoners and refugees.

4.- Co-ordinating and driving forms of struggle that complement those of ETA and support for the demonstrations of the prisoners’ collective.

5. - Gathering important information for ETA’s internal security, taking this from the penal processes that members are involved in, and passed on by some of their lawyers, greatly exceeding the right to defence.

6. - Pointing out who they believe are responsible for the situation and condition of ETA prisoners, turning them into possible targets for that organization; or against persons or institutions that don’t back the demonstrations called in support for and solidarity with ETA prisoners.

7.- Taking advantage of the sensitivity caused by the supposed violation of the rights of ETA prisoners to induce volunteers and regenerate the operational structure of ETA.

8.- The setting up and development of the project named Alde Hemendik .

9.- Co-ordinating and directing the so-called “X and Y struggles” Kale borroka (urban struggle) and “days of struggle” that are carried out in support of ETA members or due the death of a member, or other contingent circumstances.

10. - The initiative and decision on when the ETA prisoners collective begin a hunger strike or cell lock- in and other actions.

11.- Publishing the magazine ZOHARDIA, directed by Mikel Korta Carrión, who was included in the Indictment 18/98 for his membership of ETA-Ekin.

All these activities are carried out by Gestoras, under the control and direction of ETA-KAS and ETA-Ekin, through the corresponding instruments developed by those detained and others accused”.

In the following points of the indictment he goes over each one of the detainees and assigns them greater responsibility in one or another of the activities above, in an attempt to justify their supposed “criminal” activity. Amongst the elements of accusation in the indictment is the fact of having belonged in the past to other student, youth or social organizations, to be connected emotionally with a prisoner or a political refugee, participation in acts of homage to prisoners, campaigning, calling demonstrations, attending meetings, developing projects...

These activities, in any case, were publicly carried out by this organisation and in no way could be understood to constitute a crime, as is proven by the fact that they have never been accused of other minor crimes such as “glorifying terrorism”.

In the case of other activities that have are criminal and are may lead to the charge of belonging to a terrorist organisation, they is no way to prove these charges, as no rational evidence of criminality has been presented, no reference to damage against any juridical good protected by the criminal legislation. Again, the charges are generic, brought against groups of people, collectively, in a clear breach of the individuality and precision that must be the basis of any criminal charges.

Conclusions

In the face of these charges and in these circumstances, the trial against these 27 colleagues from the Amnesty Movement will begin on April 21st, 2008, with a petition from the public prosecutor of 10 years in prison.

In view of all the above, we wwould like to make the point that the participation of these people in different areas and organizations of the broad Amnesty Movement has always been open and transparent and has always been known to the public. The connection of this social activity and the actions committed by ETA is absolutely unacceptable and is based on arguments and interpretations lacking any kind of factual or rational basis.

We are aware, nevertheless, that this extensive application of anti-terrorist definitions to public and transparent actions has a long history in the Spanish justice system, hence the Supreme Court in the case of Haika-Segi and the subsequent Audiencia Nacional verdict in reference to Case 18/98, which only makes the position of our colleagues facing this trial worse.

This process is simply a smoke curtain that attempts to discredit a social organization and tries to criminalize the work of denouncing the vulnerability of the rights of Basque prisoners, refugees and deportees and also tries to avoid the social expressions of solidarity with this collective. The r3emand in custody for four years of 13 of these colleagues, released on millionaire bails, the suspension of the activities of these organizations, have generated a total block of freedom of expression and of the right of association and peaceful petition, because the mobilizations and demonstrations organized by this movement have been consistently forbidden by court, suspended administratively and violently attacked by the State Security Forces.

This trial is a further landmark on the road to criminalize, with no legal basis, solidarity with political prisoners, opposition to repression and to state violence and mobilization in defence of human rights. The states, convinced of their strategy of maintaining the repression against increasingly broader sections of the population, require higher levels of impunity.

The way of doing things of the Audiencia Nacional as an instrument for the application of special antiterrorist laws, a vivid example of the “law for an enemy” shows us the impossibility of receiving a fair trial in front of this exceptional tribunal. Furthermore, keeping in mind the events mentioned above, we believe that the trial will be a mere masquerade designed without content to administer a previously written political verdict. We are not expecting, hence, justice from this court. Nevertheless, we are expecting an opportunity to explain to Basque and international society who we are and what we are seeking.

This type of political-judicial trials moves us further away from the aims we share with Basque society: ending the repression and seeking the definitive resolution of the Basque conflict.

.... ... .

Widespread Torture in Spain

Once again Spain (this time under Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and his PSOE) is exposed by Amnesty International as a country that practices torture.

Here you have the report by Madrid's little darlings, the media outlet AP:

Amnesty: Torture in Spain 'Widespread'

By CIARAN GILES – Nov 22, 2007

MADRID, Spain (AP) — A human rights group accused Spain's government Thursday of turning a blind eye to what it called the "widespread and persistent" torture and abuse of people held in custody.

Amnesty International also called for closed-circuit television cameras in police stations and an independent body to look into suspected cases of torture.

"Up to now, the official attitude, from ministries to prosecutors and judges, is that there are only isolated cases. Our investigations show this is not so," said Esteban Beltran, the director of Amnesty's branch in Spain.

There have been allegations in the past of torture and mistreatment by Spanish police toward jailed members of armed Basque separatist group ETA, but London-based Amnesty said abuse occurs with all types of suspects.

"In Spain, torture and mistreatment of detained people by officers responsible for making sure the law is obeyed is a widespread and persistent practice," Amnesty said.

A senior Interior Ministry official, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, rejected Amnesty's claims that torture and abuse was common. The official said that with some 150,000 police officers it was only logical that there should be some "isolated" cases.

The report referred to 15 sample cases, most involving beatings by police and threats of further violence to the victims.

The report said one man was arrested by police in the northeastern city of Lleida in 2003 and confessed to false charges of burning an automated teller machine after being allegedly made to stand or kneel without support for hours.

And this is what true human rights organizations qualify as state sponsored terrorism.

~ ~ ~

AI Welcomes Proposals

If there is one issue in which the government of the Basque Autonomous Community has failed to distance itself from the central government in Madrid it is the reports of police brutality against Basque citizens accused by Spanish judges of either terrorism or apology of terrorism (remember, speaking Euskara, the Basque language, is enough to get this accusation hurled at you).

Well, seems like some things are changing according to this report by Amnesty International:

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

Public Statement

AI Index: EUR 41/010/2007 (Public)
News Service No: 211
1 November 2007

Spain: Amnesty International welcomes Basque parliament proposal to install CCTV in all police stations and end incommunicado detention

Amnesty International welcomes the recent proposal of the Commission of the Interior of the autonomous Basque parliament, aimed at abolishing incommunicado detention and installing CCTV surveillance in all places of detention. On 25 October the Commission of the Interior of the autonomous Basque parliament voted in favour of the proposal, which must now be approved by the Basque parliament in plenary. If adopted, it will be passed on to the Spanish national parliament for consideration and possible action.

For many years Amnesty International and other international organisations have expressed concern about reports of torture and other ill-treatment perpetrated by members of state security forces in Spain. Amnesty International has repeatedly called on the Spanish government to abrogate Articles 520bis and 527 of the Law of Criminal Procedure governing the incommunicado regime, and to install CCTV surveillance of the custody areas of all police stations in order to protect detainees against the possibility of ill-treatment. This is one of the principal recommendations of a new Amnesty International report on police ill-treatment in Spain, to be published on 14 November.

In light of these concerns, Amnesty International calls on the autonomous Basque parliament and the Spanish national parliament to take swift, positive action on these proposals when they are presented.

Background
Under current law, the investigating judge can order incommunicado detention for persons in custody on terrorism-related charges for a total of up to 13 days, first on police or Civil Guard premises and, after five days, in prison.

In 2002 the UN Committee against Torture expressed "profound concern" at the Spanish incommunicado regime, stating that it facilitated torture and ill-treatment. Amnesty International itself has repeatedly called for the abrogation of Articles 520bis and 527 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which govern the incommunicado regime. It believes that the current, restricted legal safeguards are inadequate, and has called for the right of access to a lawyer from the outset of detention and the right to talk to the lawyer in private. Amnesty International has also repeatedly called for detainees to have the right to be examined by a doctor of their own choosing, in addition to a state-appointed doctor.

The legislative initiative approved by the Basque Commission of the Interior on 25 October would remove incommunicado detention from Spanish law and create a new article in the Law of Criminal Procedure making it a legal duty for all authorities responsible for places of detention to use CCTV security surveillance in these sites.

Now, the next step would be to demand the destitution of Xabier Balza as head of the ministry of the interior in the BAC. Balza is a butcher all to eager to please his bosses at the Audiencia Nacioanl and the Guardia Civil, if democracy is to take hold of the Basque Autonomous Community, he needs to go.

~ ~ ~

ETA Speaks Out

This note appeared at the International Herald Tribune, it talks about how Zapatero forgot all about a peace process to bring a political solution to the so called "Basque conflict" and instead applied all the resources of its government to obtain a total victory over ETA, forgetting about his promises and his alleged compromise with his own people.

Here you have the note:

Basque separatist group ETA says it will continue militancy in Spain

The Associated Press
Published: September 9, 2007

Madrid, Spain: The Basque separatist group ETA plans to continue its militant campaign against the Spanish state to promote its political aims, it said in a statement published Sunday.

"ETA will continue to hit against the structures of the Spanish state on all fronts until it can achieve democratic conditions which would allow for the defense of all political projects in the Basque Country," the statement said.

It appeared in the early edition of the Basque newspaper Gara — a publication often used as a conduit for communication by the group — and in the online version of Basque newspaper Berria.

ETA is considered a terrorist organization by Spain, the European Union and the United States.

In the statement, the group claimed responsibility for recent explosions in the town of Belagoa and at the Tour de France cycle race in July and a police station in Durango in August, as well as for a blown-up van in a field in Castellon. It also said its efforts to broker an end to the conflict had failed.

"All of ETA's efforts at the negotiating table to drive forward a resolution process which could answer the rights of the Basque Country have failed," the statement said.

In its first statement since it called off its self-imposed cease-fire, ETA blamed the government of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero for the breakdown in negotiations, saying the ruling Socialist party was "seeking to deactivate the Basque independence movement."

ETA declared a cease-fire in March 2006 and — despite blowing up a five-story car park at Madrid airport in December — maintained it was still in force until June when it called off the truce.

The statement said Zapatero's approach to Basque separatism had been "devoid of political content, aiming in the end just at defeat."

The Basque Nationalist Party, which rules the region, also faced ETA's anger for trying to "rupture" the nationalist movement.

ETA has often railed against the party, accusing it of not being interested in independence and of giving in to the government.

In June, when the cease-fire was formally called off, ETA blamed the party and the government, for the end of the truce.

In San Sebastian, a northern port city in the Basque Country, regional police on Sunday broke up a rally in support of ETA prisoners and detained several protesters, including Juan Maria Olano, spokesman for the Pro Amnesty movement Askatasuna. Protesters had been warned before the rally that the Interior Ministry had outlawed the demonstration, officials said. One policeman was seriously injured during the arrests, official said.

ETA, whose name stands for Basque Homeland and Freedom, has been waging a violent and explosion-marred campaign that has killed more that 800 people since the late 1960s. Its aim is to carve out an independent Basque state in parts of northern Spain and southwestern France.

Well, I can see that the "800 paragraph" has been reworked to look even more ominous.

~~~

AI: Uphold Human Rights During Talks

This is a quite interesting press release by Amnesty International, one of the few world wide organizations to denounce the practice of torture against Basque political prisoners in Spain.

They are one of the few organizations that refuse to excuse Spain's behavior when it comes to what could be considered state sponsored terrorism on ETA's actions.

I said it before too, a democratic state is not supposed to behave like a terrorist organization, and that is what Madrid has been doing for the last 69 years.

Here you have it:

Spain: Place human rights at the core of peace talks in Basque Country

Press release, 03/07/2006

Respect for human rights is vital for a sustainable peace in Spain and the Basque Country, Amnesty International said following the announcement of talks between the Spanish government and the armed Basque group Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA).

"In order to be lasting, the peace process must be firmly based on tackling the human rights issues in the Basque Country and in Spain. Human rights must be respected unconditionally and applied irrespective of political considerations and not used as bargaining counters," said Amnesty International’s Europe and Central Asia Programme Director.

Amnesty International has addressed the Spanish Prime Minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, on a series of human rights concerns that the organization believes are vital for the future of the peace process. Amnesty International calls on ETA to put an end to ongoing human rights abuses.

"ETA must ensure that the end of human rights abuses is complete and irreversible, including the end of harassment, threats and other violent or intimidating acts," Nicola Duckworth said.

Amnesty International believes that the truth needs to be established on all the human rights violations and abuses committed in the past. These should include allegations of killings/extra-judicial executions of people believed to be members of ETA by members of the illegal group entitled Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberación, (GAL) and the possible collusion by the State, as well as other human rights violations including torture and ill-treatment. ETA should provide to whatever mechanism that might be established to deal with the past with all the information available to establish the truth of the abuses committed in the past.

“Victims of terrorist acts and the victims of human rights violations committed by the State have equal right to truth, justice and reparation, as laid down in international human rights law and standards. Perpetrators of serious human rights violations and abuses, must be brought to justice,” Nicola Duckworth said.

"The rights of victims are never negotiable and cannot depend on the beginning or ending of ceasefires or on the particular circumstances of a peace process."

Amnesty International warns against the temptation to resort to amnesties or clemency measures that would undermine the rights of victims to truth, justice and reparation.

"Amnesties or pardons for those who, as part of ETA, committed serious human rights abuses or for human rights violations committed by state officials should not be adopted without legal proceedings having first taken place and a clear verdict of guilt or innocence being reached,” Nicola Duckworth said.

Amnesty International welcomed in 1999 the adoption of the Law on Solidarity with the Victims of Terrorism as a positive step. However, victims of human rights violations committed by the State, including torture and ill-treatment should have the same level of legal protection.

"While the victims of terrorist acts have legal avenues to justice, truth, remedies and reparations, the victims of human rights violations committed by the State do not have the same level of recognition and legal protection,” Nicola Duckworth said.

One of the organization’s main and long-standing concerns which directly affects the Basque Country, but is clearly not exclusive to it, is the climate of impunity for serious human rights violations due to the lack of independent, impartial and thorough investigations of all allegations of such violations, particularly allegations of unlawful killings and torture and ill-treatment by law enforcement officers, and the lack of effective prosecutions of perpetrators of human rights violations. It is in this context that Amnesty International has called for the establishment of an independent mechanism for police accountability that "would guarantee the independent, impartial, thorough and effective investigation of all allegations of human rights violations by law enforcement agencies and that those responsible were brought to justice".

In the context of the peace process, Amnesty International renews its call on the Spanish government to review and amend laws and practices that violate human rights and bring Spanish legislation and practices in line with international standards. Amnesty International also calls on the Spanish government to:

• abrogate the legislation permitting extended incommunicado detention following arrest;
• guarantee prompt and effective access to a lawyer of choice for all detainees;
• guarantee the right of inmates to serve their sentences close to their families, by reversing the long-standing penitentiary policy of dispersal of inmates suspected or convicted for terrorism throughout the Spanish territory;
• remove any ambiguity from the Law on Political Parties that makes it possible for political parties which peacefully advocate changes to constitutional principles or laws to be banned, in contravention of international human rights obligations.

Background

On 22 March 2006, ETA announced a permanent ceasefire stating that the aim of their decision was "to drive a democratic process in the Basque country . . . in which our rights as a people are recognized." The declaration of the ceasefire came 10 months after the lower chamber of the Spanish parliament authorized the government to open processes of dialogue with the armed Basque group if it "abandoned violence".

ETA has been responsible for the deaths of more than 800 people, including police officers and soldiers, during their campaign for independence for almost four decades. While it has not carried out a fatal attack for more than three years, during 2005 it claimed responsibility for 24 attacks on business and tourist interests that caused minor injuries and damage to property.

Amnesty International has consistently and unreservedly condemned the human rights abuses committed by ETA and has categorically refuted any arguments or objectives which attempt to justify grave abuses of fundamental human rights, and systematically called on ETA to put a definitive and immediate end to its campaign of killings of civilians, kidnappings, hostage-taking and other human rights abuses.

For decades, Amnesty International has documented serious human rights violations in the Basque Country, including unlawful killings, extra-judicial executions, torture and ill-treatment. Amnesty International has systematically called on Spain, among other human rights concerns, to end the incommunicado regime and to ensure that those responsible for torture and ill-treatment are brought to justice.

.... ... .

Basque Victims of Torture in Spain

For some reason I forgot to mention the report by the Clearing House from Australia concerning their investigation on torture carried out in Spain against Basque political prisoners.

Then this morning, Mizgin, author of the blog Rasti about Kurdish issues, sent me an email about the coverage by Istanbul Indymedia (Turkey) about this note.

Well, here you have it:

The Spanish Inquisition

(By the way, it takes too long for the video to show, so, if you want to see it, you can go to the web edition of Basque newspaper Gara)

For years now, the Basque people of Spain have alleged that Spanish police have regularly tortured suspects, arrested for having connections with the Basque separatist group ETA. Recently, those allegations have been backed up by the UN Human Rights Commission.

Broadcast Dateline 06/05/06 - SBS Australia

REPORTER: David O’Shea

Four years ago, Susana Alesanco and Juan Cortes were like any other couple getting on with their lives.

SUSANA ALESANCO, (Translation): I was 31 years old, I was at university, on a research project, I was… things were fine with me. I had my partner, my life was fine.

But on January 17, 2002, their world fell apart. Heavily armed police raided Susana’s family home. This is actual footage of the arrest.

SUSANA ALESANCO, (Translation): Lots of cops entered my home carrying torches and machine guns. It was like a scene from a movie.

The police suspected that Susana and Juan belonged to the violent Basque separatist group ETA. They were taken to a secret location in Madrid for interrogation. Under Spain’s tough anti-terror laws, they could be held incommunicado for up to five days, isolated from their families and lawyers.

SUSANA ALESANCO, (Translation): I had no idea why I was there, they asked me so many questions, about my friends, about who I went out with, about my brothers. Thousands of questions about where I had worked, about the trips I had taken. I got the feeling that everything I’d done in my life had been a crime.

Like thousands of Basques before her, Susana alleges she was tortured during the five days she was held incommunicado. Basque human rights activists produced these images which recreate some of the torture commonly described by former prisoners.

SUSANA ALESANCO, (Translation): Without a doubt the worst moment of all, the worst experience was in the last interrogation when, when they simulated a rape. They positioned me, ready to rape me. For three days they had been threatening to rape me. By that stage I , by then I was convinced they’d do it.

Susana says that she was deprived of sleep, sexually assaulted, asphyxiated, threatened with execution, and electrocuted - all methods of torture which inflicted pain without leaving marks.

SUSANA ALESANCO, (Translation): They kept me naked, threw water on me, they applied electricity to me….it’s hard to believe these things can happen in a democracy and very hard to prove. But that is what happened to me, I went through that and by the fourth day I couldn’t stand it any longer.

REPORTER (Translation): So there was a point where they broke you?

SUSANA ALESANCO, (Translation): Yes, that is right, completely.

At that point Susana signed a statement saying that Juan was a member of ETA and that she was a collaborator. This admission was later retracted. Since that time Susana and Juan have been out on conditional release, awaiting trial. They face a 7-year sentence.

Susana’s story is not unique. Theo Van Boven, the former United Nations special rapporteur on torture, has looked at scores of similar cases and concludes the Spanish police torture to extract confessions.

THEO VAN BOVEN, FORMER UN SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON TORTURE: The suspects will be softened up after torture and they will sign statements, the type of statements the government wishes them to make. That's one thing. And I think also that torture has quite a long tradition in this country. We had the Franco dictatorship up till - what is it? - 1975. And so it has been rooted, I think, in a long history and you don’t wipe that out from one day to another.

The government in Madrid dismisses torture allegations, saying they are part of ETA strategy to discredit the Spanish state. Antonio Camacho is the powerful Secretary of State for Security.

REPORTER (Translation): In 2006 there’s still torture in Spain, How can this be?

ANTONIO CAMACHO, SECRETARY OF STATE FOR SECURITY, (Translation): Look, this government is very clear abot this, and our daily polices demonstrate it, that we will not accept any kind of torture.

While the Spanish Government says it will not accept torture, the well-known case of Unai Romano is difficult to explain. This is his photo before and after his time in police custody in September 2001. He accused the police of beating him. The government said the injuries were self-inflicted and is suing him for defamation.

The former United Nations special rapporteur on torture, Theo Van Boven, was so concerned at reports from Basque human rights groups that prisoners were being tortured, he listed Spain alongside countries like Indonesia and Uzbekistan in his 2002 report. The then Spanish government was not happy.

THEO VAN BOVEN: They thought that my report and the recommendations should be put in the wastepaper basket - that was the only suitable place where my report should stay.

So outraged was Madrid, Van Boven was invited to Spain to investigate the facts on the ground. But as he tells this Barcelona conference on torture, the government's attempts to convince him his sources were wrong backfired.

THEO VAN BOVEN: The visit in Madrid was tense and tough. The authorities - some of them - and members of parliament went far beyond a technical discussion. They wanted to give me a lecture, particularly on the Basque problem, and I could not... I just felt this was an obsession.

It’s impossible to understand the Spanish Government’s obsession with the Basques without understanding the Basque obsession with independence from Spain.

Until the 1970s Basques were not permitted to use their language, but they never lost their strong sense of national identity. In Hernani, near the French border, these people meet to sing Basque folk songs every Sunday morning. From windows around the square, people hang photos of Basques held in Spanish jails and banners demanding they be brought back to Basque prisons.

ETA has waged a horrific campaign on the Spanish state for decades. It has killed over 800 people in terrorist acts over the past 20 years. The government responds by sentencing the killers to thousands of years in prison. The current socialist government has continued the hardline response instigated by the previous conservative administration.

ANTONIO CAMACHO, (Translation): I think the struggle against terrorism has been maintained by all democratic governments throughout the history of this country. This government has been particularly careful to maintain pressure in the police struggle against ETA. And consequently, there have been more than 200 arrests in the two years or so that this government has been in power.

ETA’s bombs and the government’s draconian response have polarised opinion in Spain about the Basques.

ROSA URIZAR DE PAZ, (Translation): They think we walk around t he streets shooting people, blowing things up. They think we go around collecting revolutionary taxes and so on.

Rosa Urizar de Paz knows a lot about the struggle for independence. Her son joined ETA when he was 22 and has spent the last 15 years in prison. Rosa makes no apology for her family’s nationalism.

ROSA URIZAR DE PAZ, (Translation): This sign here means that everybody in life must sacrifice something sothat a few don’t have to sacrifice everything. That is what it means. This one was killed at the hands of the police.

Rosa’s favourite bar is clearly pro-independence. It is a virtual shrine to the many Basque prisoners.

ROSA URIZAR DE PAZ, (Translation): Look how beautiful our girls are.

Among them is a photo of her 22-year-old daughter Amaia. She was arrested in October 2004 and is still in prison. She, too, has accused the police of torture. Her case provoked outrage in the Basque country after she wrote a graphic statement describing the torture.

AMAIA, STATEMENT: They were all laughing, one of them held me by my neck while the other put the barrel of the gun in and out of my vagina and grabbed my breasts very violently. I could feel the cold metal inside me and they kept saying it was loaded and would be my fault if it went off.

ROSA URIZAR DE PAZ, (Translation): you know what hurt me the most? Have you read what she wrote about the torture? Of all those things, the thing I found most upsetting was the terrible loneliness…those poor kids suffer when incommunicado, while they’re being held by the civil guard or the police.

When Rosa visits her other daughter at work, she finds her on the phone to Amaia. Each week she is allowed a 5-minute call from her prison in Madrid.

ROSA URIZAR DE PAZ, (Translation): How are you darling? Yes Okay. How I wish I could hug you, very well my love, do you need anything? What about the dentist?

Amaia has now been in custody for 1.5 years and can be held for up to four years without trial.

ROSA URIZAR DE PAZ, (Translation): Okay my darling, I love you too darling. Bye.

On her way home Rosa bumps into a friend whose daughter is also in jail and has also complained that she was tortured.

FRIEND, (Translation): Some are eventually freed, having committed no crime at all, they have been tortured, put in jail, and they have had their lives ruined. Most of them are just kids. Just kids. Maybe because we’re talking like this we’ll get ten years and join our girls.

Outside the Basque country the allegations of torture haven’t gained much traction. Anyone with a connection to Basque nationalism tends to be dismissed as a terrorist sympathiser by the national government and media.

MARTXELO OTAMENDI, (Translation): There are many here who turn a blind eye to torture here but show concern about torture in Ireland, torture in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Palestine or Iraq

Martxelo Otamendi was arrested in 2003. He was one of nine directors of a Basque language newspaper called 'Egunkaria'. Five of them say they were tortured and they became known as 'the VIP torture victims'.

MARTXELO OTAMENDI, (Translation): At the time of all the outrage about the American torturers in that Iraqi prison, I said those images were of Egunkaria detainees. We just need to change the hood colour and swap the uniform of the marines.for the uniform of the civil guard.

Otamendi was arrested and his newspaper was shut down on the grounds that it was controlled and financed by ETA - an allegation that is yet to be proven.

In San Sebastian, thousands of people turned out for the city’s largest-ever demonstration. Meanwhile, Otamendi was being interrogated in Madrid about interviews he had conducted with the ETA high command. During the five days of incommunicado detention, he says he suffered stress positions, a mock execution, sexual harassment and asphyxiation.

MARTXELO OTAMENDI, FORMER TV PRESENTER (Translation): And then twice I was subjected to bag torture, which consists of putting a plastic bag you’re your head. And with a plastic bag over your head you feel like you are going to choke. It’s not a big plastic bag from a market with enough oxygen to last two hours, no it becomes a mask that moulds to your face, and the feeling of suffocation is immediate.

When the former TV presenter Martxelo Otamendi spoke out about his experience, it convinced many doubters that torture was indeed taking place.

MARTXELO OTAMENDI, (Translation): People wonder if they are capable of torturing the newspaper’s directors, what would they do to a 20-year-old, who’s unknown, not famous, somebody nobody knows? And someone the media won’t pay much attention to.

Otamendi believes the last conservative government ordered the closure of the paper and tortured him and the four others as a warning to other Basque nationalists.

MARTXELO OTAMENDI, (Translation): I think that with torture as I’ve said before, in the black period of the Popular Party They wanted to give Basques a shock, to frighten them, so they would give up their cause. The politicians’ plan was to close the newspaper, detain the staff and torture them. So that people would get the message that they were serious.

REPORTER, (Translation): But you don’t have any proof that it’s government policy, that’s just speculation.

MARTXELO OTAMENDI, (Translation): Yes, of course, it’s an opinion.

When the UN’s special rapporteur on torture, Theo Van Boven, finished his state-sponsored tour his report to the UN Human Rights Ccommission was damning.

THEO VAN BOVEN: It is my considered view in the light of the internal consistency of the information received and the precision of factual details, that these allegations of torture and ill-treatment are certainly not all invented and practices of this kind, though not systematic, were more than sporadic and incidental.

The Spanish delegation in Geneva was furious.

SPANISH AMBASSADOR TO UN, (Translation): someone’s made a big mistake, and those who know the country and it’s problems, know who it is. On reading the report, no one with any knowledge of our country would recognise Spain in it.

When the Spanish Ambassador to the UN couldn’t believe that the proudly democratic Spain was being tainted with torture.

SPANISH AMBASSADOR TO UN, (Translation): All that’s left for me to do in the name of a truly democratic state that leads in the defence and promotion of human rights is to express disappointment and bitterness at the lost opportunity and the outrageous injustice that the rapporteur’s report represents.

It was all the worse for the ambassador because he was the one who had advised his government to invite the special rapporteur to Spain to prove that torture did not exist. Once he had read his statement, the entire delegation got up and walked out.

THEO VAN BOVEN: They were extremely - what should I say? - disappointed. "We invited him, we had a certain scenario in mind and he did not fulfil our expectations." So I think that added to the fact they reacted so strongly.

It was a difficult time for Spain. Just two weeks earlier, terrorist attacks had rocked Madrid and prime minister Aznar was voted out of office for trying to blame the attack on ETA. The new socialist government claims that torture allegations are being properly investigated.

REPORTER< (Translation): But when Basques have been detained under the regime of incommunicado detention, do you agree that there have been incidents of torture?

ANTONIO CAMACHO, (Translation): You can not generalise, each claim of torture must be investigated.

REPORTER, (Translation): Let’s look at some examples of people reported having been tortured.

ANTONIO CAMACHO, (Translation): You can tell me the allegations, but it doesn’t mean there’s a serious investigation. European countries conduct serious judicial investigations in the most appropriate manner and with the required guarantees for all parties, in order to investigate these matters. A journalistic investigation is not acceptable for a state which follows the rule of law.

In the Basque country the issue of torture still strikes a raw political nerve. Thousands of people turned up for this anti-torture rally in San Sebastian in February.

MARTXELO OTAMENDI, (Translation): The big turnout was expected, because people are pissed off with the practice of torture. Because people want it to end once and for all.

THEO VAN BOVEN: For long in Spain it was a sort of taboo subject in Spain. Officially torture did not exist, or hardly existed in this country. Now this is raised at this meeting and I think this is a beginning of a movement against torture in Spain which is important.

But despite the change of government, allegations of torture during incommunicado detention continue.

REPORTER: There is no denying the reality that last year, during the Zapatero Government, there were over 50 cases documented in the Basque country of torture again. So, I mean, 50 too many, no?

THEO VAN BOVEN: It is apparently a practice that is very persistent so therefore I think in addition to accommodating and changing the political climate there must be a firmer position taken on the issues of torture also by the present government.

REPORTER: Do you see that ever happening?

THEO VAN BOVEN: Well, I'm hopeful.

The present government is clearly sensitive about the persistent allegations of torture.

REPORTER, (Translation): There are many people and many organisations, including Human Rights Watch, the Council of Europe, Amnesty International and 37 groups that met in Barcelona that have agreed that there is torture here in incommunicado detention…

ANTONIO CAMACHO, (Translation): Which country in the European Union, hasn’t had cases of torture reported?

REPORTER, (Translation): In the European Union as far as I know, Mr Theo van Bovan, the former rapporteur, said that there used to be in Northern Ireland, but now most of the allegations concern Spain.

ANTONIO CAMACHO, (Translation): Turn that off for a moment…

REPORTER, (Translation): No…

ANTONIO CAMACHO, (Translation): Turn it off for a moment! Let’s talk about the terms of this interview, turn it off. Turn it off for a moment.

MARTXELO OTAMENDI, (Translation): The Spanish government won’t own up to torture until a solution to the Basque conflict is found.

REPORTER, (Translation): Why can’t they admit it before then?

MARTXELO OTAMENDI, (Translation): Because if they do they will go to jail. The Minister would go to jail, it would be like in Argentina and Chile, where senior police and military officers are being prosecuted. In 20 years time some judges will start doing that here too. But I want this done now.

The prospects for a political solution to the Basque problem took a dramatic turn for the better last month. For the first time in its history ETA declared a permanent cease-fire as a prelude to negotiations.

ETA, (Translation): At the end of this process Basque citizens must have the final word and decide on their future.

Any decision on the future for the Basque country is going to have to deal with the issue of torture which has poisoned trust in the Spanish Government.

PEOPLE, (Translation): We are the Basque warriors to set the Basque country free. We are prepared to give our blood for freedom. Let us warriors all go and get our flags.

After decades of violent struggle, it will not be easy to bridge the gulf of trust between the Basques and the Spanish Government.

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Thanks for the heads up Mizgin.

Update: Mizgin provides with an excellent analysis of the video about torture against Basques in Spain in his post "Similarity and its discontents". It is a must read post, mainly because of the parallels he draws between the Basque and the Kurdish situation.

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