Batasuna, Yes to Dialogue

This came as a surprise only to those who benefit from the status quo in the Basque Country, Batasuna announced that they will be joining the demonstration called by the lehendakari Ibarretxe.

Here you have the report from Prensa Latina:

Batasuna for Dialogue, Stirs Basque

Madrid, Jan 11 (Prensa Latina) The announced participation of the illegal political organization Batasuna in the march against the ETA attack at the Barajas Airport, scheduled for Saturday in Bilbao, has caused a huge commotion among Basque political parties, it was revealed on Thursday.

Basque government spokeswoman Miren Azkarate asked pro-independence politicians to clarify whether they will be calling for the end of ETA during the protest, convened by regional President Juan Jose Ibarretxe.

Accompanied by his colleagues Joseba Permach, Joana Regueiro, and Imanol Iparragirre, he affirmed they will attend the march with the slogan "For Peace and Dialogue."

Batasuna leader Pernando Barrena told press in San Sebastian they will join the march because "it is the right time to give an impulse to the political process" in the Basque country.

And why not?

Besides ETA, the only ones that have been working towards the strenghtening of dialogue as a solution to the Basque issue are the people from Batasuna. Everyone else was taking profits and politics above peace and the right of a people to their self determination. Plus, the decision to go to the demonstration situates Ibarretxe and the pseudo-socialists from the PSOE on the spot light.

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Basqueing in Stanford

Well, this comes to us via The Stanford Daily:

New Basque Studies class elicits strong support

January 11, 2007
By James Hohmann

Senior Casey Nevitt’s dream of starting a Basque Studies class on the Quad was realized Wednesday when almost 30 people crammed into a classroom for the first session of her student initiated course.

“It’s been a work in progress since last school year,” she said. “There’s been so much support.”

Of course, it helps when the University’s chief academic officer and its top donor both trace their roots to the relatively small region in northern Spain, one of 17 autonomous states in the European country.

“It’s about time,” said Provost John Etchemendy, who could not recall a Basque Studies course since he first came to Stanford in 1976.

Billionaire construction magnate John Arrillaga is one of the “students” taking the course. He said his father was conceived in Spain and remembered playing basketball in Bilbao in 1960.

“We have nine sessions in which we are going to try and cover thousands of years of history, culture and identity,” said course instructor Gloria Totoricaguena. “Basque culture is not monolithic. It is very heterogeneous.”

Totoricaguena is the director of the Center for Basque Studies at the University of Nevada, Reno. The preeminent Basque scholar will fly in Wednesday afternoons to lecture.

Students said they enrolled in the course for a variety of reasons. Some visited Spain and fell in love with the culture. One student said she was taking the course because her boyfriend is from the Basque region. A Human Biology major said she dreamed of one day living in Spain.

“I wanted to learn about Basque culture beyond what’s on Wikipedia,” said senior Ash Siddiqui, who is studying math and computational studies.

Through the hour-and-a-half meeting, Totoricaguena offered an executive summary of her survey class. Using vivid, high-resolution photos in a PowerPoint, she previewed what will be covered each week.

She noted that women traditionally dominate the Basque family unit and cited recent archaeological discoveries of entire towns in the region, which she described as “absolutely incredible.”

The class will learn three traditional Basque folk dances one week and will make a field trip to a high-end restaurant another. Totoricaguena also plans to delve into what motivates the Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA), a terrorist group that strives for an autonomous, socialist Basque state.

After class, in a corner of the room, Nevitt sold the books that will be referenced through the quarter. With a Basque flag hanging behind her, she assured her peers that the books were the best deal she could find. She bought them used on Amazon, she said, and was selling them at cost.

Arrillaga was the first in line to buy the texts, with cash in hand.

One can only hope that by the end of the class the references to Spain and the Spaniards will cease.

And does Arrillaga really needs to buy discount books?

I mean, after donating millions of dollars to a sport that NO ONE practices in the Basque Country, he should be ashamed.

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ETA's Press Release

A man is seen reading a newspaper in Pamplona, Spain, Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2007, with the headline reading that the Basque separatist group ETA claimed responsibility for a bombing in Madrid that killed two people last Dec. 30. ETA claimed responsibility for the bombing, but insisted the truce it called in March which they described as permanent is still in force. It was the first deadly attack by ETA since May 2003. (AP Photo/Alvaro Barrientos)

Now, if the Spanish politicians would get some sense of what is going on maybe there would be a chance for justice to prevail.

What they need to do is to shake up their old glories, get rid of that false sense of honor they draw from their past as invaders and colonizers.

How can they be proud of the genocide they conducted in America?

How can they be proud of the amazing cultures and societies that they oblitarated?

How can they find excuses to continue to do it today?

How can they think like they did during the XV century at the dawn of the XXI century?

Are they ever going to evolve and become a democracy and justice oriented people?

The Spaniards do not deserve their political class. Starting with their king.

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Gero Arte Roberto

And now, we take a break from politics to give a warm farewell to Basque cyclist Roberto Laiseka, here you have the note from EITB:

Euskaltel-Euskadi

Basque rider Roberto Laiseka gives up cycling

01/09/2007

Euskal-Euskadi Basque rider Roberto Laiseka announced Tuesday he gives up cycling at the age of 37 years old.

In a press conference in the County Council of Bizkaia in Bilbao, Laiseka explained he took the decision to give up as he has not recovered yet from a long knee injury he suffered last Italian Giro.

Laiseka was the only rider in Euskaltel-Euskadi left from those that were in the Basque team when it was born in 1994. He has won stages at Spanish Vuelta and Italian Giro.

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ETA's Renewed Compromise

ETA expressed its commitment to the Peace Process in the Basque Country.

Here is the note by EITb:

Statement

Basque armed band ETA affirms March 24 cease-fire still holds

01/09/2007

Basque armed group ETA insisted Tuesday that a cease-fire it declared in March still stands, even as it claimed responsibility for a Dec. 30 car bombing that killed two people in Madrid. ETA made its assertion in a statement sent to the pro-independence newspaper Gara.

ETA said it did not mean to cause casualties in the attack, accusing the government of failing to evacuate the parking garage targeted at Madrid's airport despite three warning calls pointing out exactly where the car bomb was parked. The airport was largely evacuated, but both victims were sleeping in parked cars.

ETA blamed the Spanish Government and the governing Socialist Party for "placing obstacles endlessly in the democratic process," Gara said in a summary of what it called a long Basque-language statement.

Hours before ETA's statement, the government announced the arrest of two suspected ETA members in southern France linked to arms caches found in late December and last week in the Basque region. They were the first arrests since the Madrid car bombing.

Peace process, in danger

ETA and its political supporters had been warning in recent months that continued arrests and trials of suspected ETA members were endangering the peace process, which was launched with its announcement March 22 of a "permanent" cease-fire. It had been demanding, and the government refusing, the transfer of ETA prisoners from jails around Spain to prisons in the Basque region.

Spain's Government has responded to the bombing by scrapping plans for negotiations with ETA and declaring the once-promising peace process terminated.

Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said he had not immediately read ETA's statement, but his initial impression was that "ETA has only one path left to take, which is to end the violence."

Right to "respond"

In its statement, ETA reiterated a claim that the government had made, and was not keeping, unspecified promises as part of the process that began with the truce.

The group wants to promote the peace process, but reserves the right to "respond" if what it calls government aggression against the pro-independence movement continues, Gara reported.

ETA insisted progress in the peace process must come from a "political agreement" that includes "the minimum democratic rights owed to the Basque Country,'' an apparent allusion to Basques long-standing demands to be able to decide between independence and remaining part of Spain.

Demand to halt fruitless "police formulas and policies"

It called on the government to halt "police formulas and failed policies that lead nowhere," said Gara, which did not publish a full text of the ETA statement.

The explosion destroyed a five-story parking garage at Madrid airport, which in addition to killing the two Ecuadorean immigrants, injured 26 people.

Until now, ETA had not claimed responsibility for the bombing but a caller warning of the blast said he represented the group.

It was time for Rodriguez to be exposed in all his mendacity. He is no different from Aznar or Felipe Gonzalez (the creator of the state sponsored terrorist group known as GAL, that on top of the regular terrorist organization known as Guardia Civil). He thought he could bring ETA to the negotiating table while steping up the Spanish repression in Euskal Herria. And while Rodriguez was using the international forums to claim he was engaged in a peace process, all the while he was hammering down on one of the columns of peace, justice.

Now, if only Rodríguez and his PSOE and Rajoy and his PP can get it through their thick heads that they need to stop their genocidal violence against the Basque people, maybe in the near future we can finally see justice served, which in turn will usher a new age of peace.

Read that again, justice first, and then peace will take place as part of a natural process.

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The Ceasefire Stands

A young boy plays with the letters of graffiti from the Basque separatist group ETA that reads, 'It's Necessary To Make the Basque Country', in Alsasuna, Spain, Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2007. ETA claimed responsibility Tuesday for a powerful car bombing that killed two people, but insisted a ''permanent'' cease-fire it called in March remained in force and said the fatalities were unintentional. (AP Photo/Alvaro Barrientos)

For those who do not understand, is actually quite easy, the Spanish government never once gave up on their violence and repression against the Basque people, meaning, they did not live up to their part in the truce, they have no honor.

To all the little people that thinks this is a turn for the worst, show me in your blogs a post were you demanded a halt to the dispersion policy or to the rampant practice of torture against Basque political prisoners.

Once.

See?

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Batasuna's Call for Compromise

For those of you who do not know it, Batasuna is a political party that was banned by José María Aznar, yes, you read that correctly, in Spain a so called "young democracy" they ban political parties. You are going to love it even more when you learn that this Aznar is the son of a prominent junta member during the dictatorship of Francisco Franco. As you can see, some things never change in Spain, no wonder why the Basques want nothing to do with a country that shows such disregard for democracy, civil liberties and human rights.

Well, Batasuna was banned for refusing to state something some else wants them to state, as if you could be sent to jail for refusing to say "I hate rap music" when someone else demands it from you.

As it happens, the politicans from Batasuna are the only ones with the political courage to demand from ETA to stick to its compromise in behalf of the Basque Peace Process.

Here you have the note from Yahoo News:

Basque militant urges continued peace

By MAR ROMAN, Associated Press Writer

Mon Jan 8, 5:06 PM ET

A leading pro-independence militant urged the armed Basque separatist group ETA on Monday to maintain a cease-fire which the government declared void following a Dec. 30 car bombing in Madrid that killed two people.

Arnaldo Otegi, leader of the outlawed Batasuna Party, called on ETA "to keep intact the commitments and objectives stated in its March 22" cease-fire announcement. He also encouraged the government and ETA to resume contacts.

"Political dialogue has to be developed ... in the absence of any kind of violence," he added.

Batasuna, considered ETA's political wing, has never called on ETA to halt its attacks. Last week, party members said they said they were surprised by the Madrid bombing and offered condolences to the victims in another unexpected gesture.

The bomb destroyed a parking garage at Madrid's international airport, killing Ecuadorean immigrants Carlos Alonso Palate and Diego Armando Estacio, and wounding 26 people.

Hundreds of people in the Spanish capital, meanwhile, staged a silent protest in memory of the two victims.

Five-minute silences were observed at noon in Madrid from city hall to the airport. Workers, passengers, firefighters and police at the blast site stopped all activities for the five minutes of silence.

The bombing was ETA's first fatal attack in more than three years and it shattered a nine-month cease-fire that the group had described as permanent.

The government, which had announced plans to negotiate with ETA, responded by declaring the peace process was over.

On Monday, Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero met with opposition leader Mariano Rajoy for talks aimed at forging a united stance following the attack, but no agreement was reached.

ETA has not claimed responsibility for the blast, but a man who made a warning call to authorities before the explosion said he represented the group.

Zapatero has said he is more determined than ever to end ETA's nearly four-decade campaign of violence, aimed at achieving an independent Basque homeland.

Rodriguez (some like calling him Zapatero for some reason) must understand that to end violence one simple thing needs to be accomplished, for justice to be served, and that will happen when the Basques are allowed to go their own way, as enshrined at the UN's Charter.

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From Batasuna to ETA

Arnaldo Otegi (R), spokesman of banned Basque party Batasuna addresses a news conference with Batasuna negotiating team member Rufi Etxeberria in San Sebastian, January 8, 2007. Otegi asked armed separatists ETA to continue with their ceasefire agreements. REUTERS/Vincent West (SPAIN)

Now, this is politics, all the other tugs from the PP, the PSOE and the PNV are too busy trying to win their piss contest.

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Robocops Against Pro-Amnesty Demo

Acting as sidekicks to the Spanish occupation forces, the Ertzaintza (Basque Police) acted to stop a demonstration in Donostia following the orders dispatched from Madrid.

If Ibarretxe and his minion Balza had a bit of dignity left in them, the first thing they ought to do would be to stop callling this Ertzaintza by that name in order to honor those Basques who fought against Spain's occupation as members of the real Ertzaintza.

Here you have the note by EITb:

Deemed illegal by high court

Basque police stops pro-amnesty rally in Donostia-San Sebastian

Basque police clashed on Saturday with Basque leftist supporters at a demonstration in the Basque Country on the day that the body of a man killed by a car bomb blamed on the armed Basque group ETA was flown home.

The rally had been called in the seaside city of Donostia-San Sebastian by Basque leftist militants to demand an amnesty for prisoners belonging to the armed group ETA.

The gathering had been deemed illegal by High Court Judge because it had been convened by outlawed organisation Askatasuna.

The rally was due to have taken place in the velodrome of Anoeta, next to the city's football stadium but protesters were stopped from entering the grounds by police. Protesters then began a sit-down protest, the spokesman said.

Police charged several times to clear the area around the Anoeta Stadium, and three people were arrested, the spokesman said.

One person was taken to hospital with light injuries and one police car was burned, the spokesman said, speaking on condition of anonymity in keeping with forces' policy.

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"Fashionable" Basque

A woman arranges clothes at a store in Guethary on 13 December 2006. The Basque country comprising northern Spain and southwest France is often associated, especially on the Spanish side, with its struggle for territorial independence. Now, people on the French side of the border are wearing their identity on their sleeve. Or, at least through other fashion details of their clothes, thanks to a half dozen 'Made in Basque' labels.(AFP/File/Daniel Velez)

Go figure, a fashion note gets it right.

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Four Decades?

Spanish Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba gives a press conference in Madrid. The Spanish government refused to confirm press reports of a first meeting with the Basque separatist group ETA, some nine months after a ceasefire revived hopes of ending four decades of violence.(AFP/Philippe Desmazes)

More like five centuries of violent oppresion, genocide and the clear attempt to wipe out Europe's oldest culture.

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Stanford and the Basques

Kudos to Gloria Totoricagüena and her efforts to provide Basque culture and identity with new spaces.

This note appeared at EITb:

Stanford University

Stanford University to offer Basque Studies course in spring

Totoricagüena, currently director of the Center for Basque Studies at the University of Nevada, Reno will be the primary instructor of this course that takes a multi-perspective approach to understanding Basque history, culture, and society. The course will be interactive and will include a section on Basque dance and a class trip to the Piperade Restaurant in San Francisco as part of the lesson on Basque cuisine.

The President of the Basque Country, Juan Jose Ibarretxe, has also been invited to lecture at Stanford as part of this class. Casey Nevitt, a senior at Stanford initiated this course last spring by securing guest instructors and faculty sponsorship with the support of Provost Etchemendy.

"I’ve always wished there were a course at Stanford on the Basques, who have a fascinating and remarkable history," said Etchemendy, who plans to attend and encourages other interested faculty and staff to participate as well. "Introduction to Basque Studies will provide an opportunity for those who are interested in Basque history, language and culture to learn more about them from experts in the field."

Nevitt stated that the purpose of the class is to spread awareness of historical and contemporary perspectives on Basque culture, politics, economics and society. She encourages all those interested to attend the class, whether taking it for academic credit or not.

Believe me when I tell you that the US citizens sorely need more understanding about the Basques, their history and political struggle. The way things are with the US media and the meddling of the self-righteous conservatives in every aspect of the US society, it is sad to see all the hatred and the degree of contempt you find against the Basques in the "land of the free".

By the way, where was this Provost Etchemendy during the campaign against Fascist José María Aznar's lectures at an US college?

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Paris Steps Up Repression

Not wanting to leave their partners in crime in Madrid all by themselves, the colonialist oriented Parisians find novel ways to attack the basic rights of the Basques.

Here you have the note that appeared at EITb:

Politics

Paris Court

Basque lawyers guilty of helping deliver ETA documents

12/20/2006

A Paris court ruled Wednesday that two Basque lawyers were guilty of having helped deliver documents to detained members of the armed Basque group ETA in 2003.

The court found the Donostia-San Sebastian-based lawyers used their access to members of the armed group detained in France, whom they were representing, to pass them internal ETA documents.

The Paris court sentenced Unai Errea-Berges to four years in prison, while Itziar Larraz was given three years. Both were banned from practicing law in France and from visiting the country for ten years.

Lawyers for the defendants denounced the verdict as "unreasonably repressive," and said they would appeal.

The court also sentenced the four recipients of the documents to five additional years in prison. Three of them were definitively banned from French territory upon their release from French prison.

Poor Frenchies, they know that if things start looking up for the Basques, soon they will have to deal with the Bretons, the Corsicans and the Catalonyans. If they could shed their "old glory's complex" they would be able to understand that quashing the dream for self determination of the trapped nations within the French state goes against their principles of liberty, fraternity and equality.

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The Basque Race

He, I would love to see the face of those who lured by the title of the post came here thinking that I was going to splurge in some sort of glorification of what being Basque is. I'll leave that to the rabid nationalisms that fueled by an inferiority complex insist on stealing the land of others while unleashing genocide and repression (read Israel, Spain, France, England).

This is about another kind of race, the kind in which a group of people depart from one place in order to see who gets to the destination spot first.

Here you have the note, it appeared at EITb:

Organized every two years

Race to boost Basque language will pay tribute to female speakers

12/18/2006

The popular race Korrika, organised by Basque language school net for adults AEK once every two years, will celebrate its 15th edition in 2007. Its main aim is to boost the language, but this edition will pay tribute to female speakers for their job protecting and passing on language and culture. Under the slogan "Heldu," the race will kick off on March 22 at the Carranza Valley, northwestern Basque Country, and finish in Pamplona/Iruña on April 1.

The 2007 edition was presented Monday by the manager of the event Edurne Brouard, AEK general coordinator Mertxe Mujika and Asier Amondo, member of AEK's National Commission.

The slogan of the current edition will be "Heldu," "mainly because it defines AEK's job very well, teaching adult learners, 'heldu' means that in Basque," as Brouard explained. "Heldu is a Basque word with several meanings, all of them positive. It means arrive, grasp, hold, maintain, grow up and mature."

Thus, Edurne Brouard defended Basque language "as an identity document" since "we make up the Basque Country when we speak in Basque." That is why "we can't waste what characterises us."

Likewise, Brouard believes that "everybody's compromise to claim that we are the country of the Basque language" is necessary. Korrika 15 bets for the work and collaboration of "all agents in the Basque Country," political parties, associations, unions and institutions that "overcome laws and measures that deny or limit the survival of the Basque language."

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As The Peace Process Stalls

Ok, go ahead and read the footnote for this picture:

A couple walk past a wall painted with a mural supporting the Basque separatist group ETA, reading in Basque: 'Continue the struggle!' in the Spanish town of Alsasua, Spain, Friday, Dec. 15, 2006. Arnaldo Otegi, leader of the outlawed Batasuna party, considered ETA's political wing, spoke in Bilbao at a protest outside the Socialist Party offices saying that the fledgling peace process in the Basque region is now 'unviable', the starkest warning yet that hopes for ending the decades-conflict in northern Spain might be in jeopardy. ETA has been blamed for more than 800 deaths since the late 1960s and is Europe's last armed political militancy. (AP Photo/Alvaro Barrientos).

First of all, 'Bietan Jarrai' does not mean "Continue the struggle!", it would actually translate into "The Two Ways", the snake stands for knowledge as the ones you find in the symbol used by doctors, while the axe stands for struggle.

And well, seems like Augusto Barrientos forgot to mention the amount of Basques murdered by Spain and France throughout the last 500 years.

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Christmas in Euskadi

Basque Country tree : People attend the official lighting of the biggest Christmas tree in the Basque Country, in Barakaldo. (AFP/Rafa Rivas)

My guess is that this is a way to scape for a moment from a reality where the Spanish government continues to oblitarate the rights of the Basque people.

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Voices

A woman signs a peace petition at the end of an Ahotsak congress in Bilbao December 2, 2006. Ahotsak, or 'Voices' in Basque, is an all-female, cross party association formed to promote the Basque peace process, following the declaration of a ceasefire by armed separatists ETA. REUTERS/Vincent West (SPAIN)

Separatists?

The Basque Country (or Navarre, whatever way you want to call it) has never accepted Spanish nor French rule, you can not part from an entity you never joined by your own will. There is only one way it can be called, independentism, wether the word exists in English or not. Come on Vincent, give yourself a break.

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