Cross-Border Civil Rights' Violations

Judge Baltasar Garzón incarcerated Basque political refugee Juan Manuel Intziarte who has detained by police at Madrid's Barajas airport after being expelled from Mexico. Itziarte's forced departure from the North American country, according to leaked information, was preceded by unusual circumstances, being that his detention began due to an "anonymous tip" that claimed that the presence of the Basque political refugee was "irregular". After the case of the six Basque political refugees extradited by former president Vicente Fox in which the Mexican citizenry took the streets in support of the prisoners the Mexican has resorted to expelling the Basque citizens requested by Madrid to avoid another sticky situation that may again highlight the human and civil rights' violations that have to be in place to achieve an extradition since the Mexican Constitution forbid extraditions to countries that practice torture and summary executions, like Spain.

With a complete different outcome, another Basque political refugee, in this case in Venezuela, this very same week faced the possibility of being extradited to the Spanish State. Eventually, Iñaki Etxeberria was released at dawn on Friday after the Supreme Court in the South American country found no elements to support his extradition. The "unusual" circumstances" were also present in this case as denounced by Etxeberria himself. He was illegally questioned by the Interpol, there was unjustified delays for his release and he even witnessed the visit of the very Spanish Foreign Affairs Minister, Miguel Angel Moratinos. This chain of events made him fear for a negative outcome to his situation, that fortunately, did not come through.

Both cases are evidence of the unflinching efforts by the Spanish regime to bully sovereign states into violating international law regarding the figure of political asylum. That legal frame was seriously damaged by the offensive initiated by the US administration after the 9-11 attacks in the so called "war on terrorism", an offensive that counted with the enthusiastic support of many other states, among them, for obvious reasons, the Spanish state. But time has proved the complete and utter failures of this strategy that violates human rights as a cover up for more devious goals and, more so, its slow but unstoppable lack of support within the international community. A reality that the Spanish state rebuffs obsessed in extending it policy of suppressing the civil liberties beyond its own borders.

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Extreme Basqueness

This article and recipes come to you courtesy of Canton Rep:

Extreme surroundings yield extreme cuisine

Jim Hillibish

Imagine living in rugged mountain territory isolated from the 21st Century. Your land spreads over two vastly different nations.

As with many things Basque, cooking reflects their culture. These are tough sheepherders and fishermen along the Pyrenees separating France and Spain. Their isolation has allowed their culture to grow. They are accustomed to doing things their own way and protect this freedom from the outside.

The result is a cuisine drawing from the countries it touches. Then the Basque Way is applied — supercharging with strong ingredients, getting the absolute most flavor out of everything. This is not subtle stuff. Your own most flavorful American recipe would be considered way bland here.

They use strong olive oil in almost everything, and garlic to the point of tears.

Stews and soups simmer for hours. A Basque cook shakes the pan violently where we would stir. He (men often do the cooking) produces dishes ahead, knowing that flavors increase with advance preparation.

Spanish tapas, the appetizers so popular in bars worldwide, started with the Basques. Now we know why they are flavor-packed. Chorizo is another Basque contribution, a dried or semi-cured sausage of potent power from heavy and heady use of pepper and hot paprika.

Basques have endured a number of scatterings as their people seek better lives in new countries. A million of them live in Chile. There are major concentrations in Mexico. The few who have made it to the United States seek territory similar to their home country, many in Idaho. Boise has a sizable Basque population, and the restaurants to prove it.

Chorizo in wine is simple but hearty enough to be consumed only with homemade bread. Basque pot roast features the flavors of bacon, pork and garlic all melded together in a powerful mix. This is classic Basque technique.

CHORIZO IN WINE

1 pound chorizo, the softer semi-cured instead of the dried hard-cured
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup dry white wine
1 baby leaf
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Slice the chorizo into inch-long rounds. Brown in oil and drain off the fat. Add wine and boil. Add bay leaf and pepper flakes, reduce to low, cover and simmer 45 minutes.

Serves four with a loaf of homemade bread and butter.

BASQUE PORK ROAST

4 slices bacon, thick cut and peppered, diced
3 pounds boneless pork roast, fat included
3 cloves garlic, sliced
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt
Pepper
1 large red onion, sliced
1 large green pepper, seeded and sliced
1 small jar pimento
1/4 cup white wine

Wash and dry roast. Pierce meat with a knife in several places and insert slices of garlic. Rub with salt and pepper.

Place bacon in a heavy pot and fry until crisp. Remove bacon and add roast. Brown on all sides. Add onion, green pepper and pimento. Add wine and cover, baking slowly at 325 degrees for three hours. Drippings may be converted to gravy by heating and whisking in a tablespoon of cornstarch.

Serves 6 to 8.

Note: Lamb or venison may be substituted for pork.

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Javier Aguirre's Basque Identity

Being a Mexican of Basque background is often misunderstood in Mexico, this is why we are glad to present this article about one of Mexico's must famous Basques, Javier Aguirre, the coach of the national soccer team published at Sign On San Diego:

Patriotic Aguirre leads with passion

El Tri coach follows no-nonsense path

Mark Zeigler

“Guernica” is the famous mural by Pablo Picasso depicting the 1937 bombing of the Basque village during the Spanish Civil War. It is painted in black, white and a dark blue.

Javier Aguirre looks at “Guernica,” at the haunting images of death and devastation, and sees another color.

Green.

Aguirre is Mexico's national soccer coach, the man charged with forging a route to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa at a time when a wide freeway has dwindled into a lonely dirt path leading into a dark, uncertain jungle. He is here not because it is necessarily a good career move, or because he thrives on the challenge of qualifying Mexico for the World Cup after a 1-3 start, or because of the six zeros on his paycheck, but because he has to.

“A commitment to my country, you know?” says Aguirre, 50, whose team plays Guatemala in a friendly today at 5 p.m. at Qualcomm Stadium. “I have to give something back to my people.”

Aguirre's nickname is “El Vasco.” The Basque. He wasn't born in the Basque region of northern Spain, but his parents were. His father fought in the Spanish Civil War at 17, was captured by Gen. Franco's nationalist army and later forced to fight for it in North Africa. His mother was from the village of Guernica.

She was there, standing in front of a church, when the planes from Nazi Germany's Luftwaffe began dropping the bombs. She was 7.

Someone grabbed her, rushed her into the church's bomb shelter.

That was 1937. Aguirre's father would get out of the army, meet Aguirre's mother, get married and look for a fresh start.

“Sometimes the worst part about the war is the post-war: no food, no job, (political) parties in jail, persecution,” says Aguirre, who speaks fluent English. “My parents decided to move to Mexico in 1950. My father changed his nationality from Spanish to Mexican.

“My parents spoke Basque at home, the food was Basque, but they knew that I was Mexican and I was born in Mexico. They told me the Mexican flag, the Mexican anthem, the Mexican language was the most important thing. My parents, they told me I have to love Mexico.”

In April, the bosses from Mexico's soccer federation called. They were desperate. The grand experiment of hiring a Swede, Sven-Goran Eriksson, had gone terribly wrong and El Tri found itself on the brink of not qualifying for a World Cup, on the brink of the unthinkable, the unfathomable.

Would he help?

Aguirre did this once before, swooping in during the rocky 2002 qualification and going 4-0-1 over the final five matches to secure a World Cup spot. He left to guide Osasuna, an unfancied club from the Basque city of Pamplona, to the UEFA Cup. From there he took Atletico Madrid, after a decade of embarrassing finishes, to the UEFA Champions League before a string of poor results led to his dismissal in February.

He was in demand. He could wait for another big club's job to open. He could stay in Spain, where his two sons attend college. He could let someone else step onto the bridge of El Tri-tanic.

And he couldn't.

A commitment to my country, you know?

There was the new life that Mexico gave to his parents, and the life it gave him. There also was 1981, when Aguirre was part of the national-team player pool that failed to qualify for the 1982 World Cup in Spain.

“I don't want to talk about it, but of course I know what would happen if we don't qualify for this World Cup,” he says. “I remember that feeling. It was a disaster, terrible. It was devastating, for the federation, for the people, for everyone.”

So he said yes.

San Diego is a city Aguirre knows well. He has owned a condominium in La Jolla Colony for the past decade, vacationing here with his family during the offseason, going to beach, attending Padres games.

But this trip is no vacation. “We are not here to relax,” he says.

Aguirre is known for crafting teams in his image, of a kid discovered by pro scouts relatively late in his career, of a player who relied on raw grit more than raw talent, of someone who never stops working. Superstars often don't flourish in his system, and he is not afraid to jettison them if they pout.

“He tries to make a good group,” goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa says.

Aguirre also talks of wanting “hungry players,” and one of his first acts as national coach was to eliminate their per diem on road trips. Not so they literally wouldn't eat, but to reinforce the notion that you play for pride on the national team and nothing else.

His roster for today's game, and for the CONCACAF Gold Cup that begins next week, has few of the veterans who play for some of the biggest clubs in Europe – much to the consternation of Mexico's predatory soccer media. In their place are youngsters with little international experience.

Or, in other words, the exact type of player Aguirre loves to coach. To mold. To motivate.

“The Mexican national team does not depend on anybody,” Aguirre says. “There are no starters. We are all Mexican. There are some people who may not agree with me. They may have favorite players. But that's the right I have been given, to choose who I want.”

He taps his coaching jersey. It's green.

“I need people who want to win, who are proud of this shirt,” he says, “proud to be on the national team, proud of the anthem, proud to be Mexican.”

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Visiting Zapatista Chiapas

This article was published in the section Frugal Traveler at The New York Times:

In the Village of the Zapatistas

The entrance to Oventic, a village in the Chiapas highlands about an hour north of San Cristóbal de las Casas, is easy to miss. It’s a simple metal gate with nothing in particular to distinguish it. Cargo trucks and Nissan taxis roll by as they do anywhere else in the state, and in the cold fine mist of an October morning, Oventic seemed to vanish behind the gate into thick fog.

That was oddly appropriate, given that Oventic is an autonomous enclave run by the Zapatista National Liberation Army, the armed, largely indigenous rebel group that for many in the United States is synonymous with Chiapas. It was the Zapatista uprising on Jan. 1, 1994, that put Chiapas on the political map and drew attention to the group’s war against Mexico’s government over the poverty of peasants in Chiapas.

With the suave, pipe-smoking, balaclava-clad Subcomandante Marcos as their mysterious frontman, the Zapatistas captured towns (including San Cristóbal), issued communiqués and declarations from the Lacandón jungle (whose outer edge I visited last week) and managed to negotiate agreements with the government on land reform and autonomy for the region’s native people. Those agreements, however, were never fully enacted, the Mexican military occupied swaths of Chiapas, and paramilitary groups killed Zapatistas sympathizers (the most notorious being the 1997 massacre of 45 Tzotzil Indians in the village of Acteal). Rarely, if ever, were tourists affected by the conflict.

In the last several years, however, the conflict has calmed significantly (although not necessarily to the Zapatistas’ benefit) and receded from international view, leaving the movement of today a bit of a mystery. After reading “The Zapatista Reader,” an anthology of essays, magazine articles and documents, I wanted a firsthand view of life in a modern Zapatista community. As it happened, Oventic, which is apparently open to visitors, was just a 30-peso colectivo ride away from San Cristóbal.

First, however, I had to get through the gate.

“Your passport,” said the man standing guard, his voice muffled by a ski mask.

I handed over my passport, and he walked into a nearby shack, emerging a few minutes later to escort me in. Inside the shack, two men sat at a table, ledgers open, while three others stood around them. All wore ski masks as well, not — as I’d first thought — to ward off the chill but to hide their identities.

They, too, asked for my passport and began to fill out a form. Where did I come from? Why was I here? How long did I hope to stay? All were easy to answer — until they asked my profession.

The problem: As a New York Times travel writer, I’m not supposed to reveal my identity to the people I’m writing about. This is primarily to prevent hotels, restaurants and other businesses from giving me special treatment, but it’s also so that I experience places as an everyday tourist would. To tell the Zapatistas I’m a writer would alter their attitude toward me, and worse, I wouldn’t be able to find out if a regular tourist could visit.

Still, I hated lying — I couldn’t simply invent a profession. Fortunately, as a freelancer, I technically don’t have a job. Plus, my wife was about to have a baby, and we’d decided that I would stay home to take care of our child. Conveying this arrangement, however, was a challenge. A jobless American on vacation without his wife, but planning to watch the baby? Leaving the form blank was an impossibility — they may have been rebels, but they were also bureaucrats.

Finally, after several minutes of questioning, we settled on a profession: amo de casa, the male version of ama de casa, or housewife.

A guide brought me out of the shack, and I began to get a sense of Oventic. Structurally, the village was simple. A wide, straight concrete road led steeply down the hillside, with buildings on either side. Some had obvious functions — a hospital, a school — while others did not. Many were low, wooden buildings with corrugated tin roofs and brilliant murals mythologizing the struggle. Emiliano Zapata — a hero of the 1910 Mexican Revolution — stared out from the Snail Mu’ktal Tzob’onbail (in Tzotzil, the House of Grand Meetings), machete in one hand, an army behind him. A purple-faced woman, the red handkerchief around her face stamped EZLN (the movement’s Spanish abbreviation), looked out from another wall under the slogan “There is no weapon more effective than truth in thought.”

The guard led me to another shack, on whose door was a painting of an ear of corn, each kernel representing a masked Zapatista. The room was decorated with leftist paraphernalia from around the world: posters of Che Guevara and Hugo Chávez, the flag of Brazil’s Landless Workers Movement, a banner calling for Basque prisoners to be returned to Basque country, and even a big Mexican flag. The Zapatistas may be rebels, but they’re also patriots.

From behind a wide table, two middle-aged men in balaclavas — one portly and sleepy, the other thin and earnest — invited me to sit down on a bench and asked me for the same information (my passport, name, origin and profession) causing the same confusion along the way.

Formalities out of the way, the thin one — who identified himself as the Explanation Committee — began to tell me the Zapatistas’ story. Before 1994, he said, poor people in Chiapas couldn’t get clinics or schools built in their communities, or have electricity installed, or benefit from the gold, oil and other valuable commodities on the land.

Now, he said with some pride, they had their own towns that existed entirely apart from those governed by Mexico, with their own clinics and schools. Oventic — named for a local tree — was just one of the many Zapatista ejidos, or communes, throughout the state, with new inhabitants joining all the time. How many? “Muchos,” he said.

The Zapatistas’ separatism was not, however, without its drawbacks. The government may tolerate ejidos such as Oventic, but it still restrains the movement. When I asked about the military checkpoints along the Chiapas highways, the Explanation Committee got emotional. The military, he said, often denied his people passage, justifying the blockade by saying, “These roads and bridges are only for Mexicans, and since you’re in opposition to the government, you’re not Mexican.”

I then asked about Subcomandante Marcos, the charismatic and still-unidentified Zapatista frontman, who has written everything from elliptical political tracts to children’s books. The Mexican government has been saying for years that he was in fact Rafael Guillén, an economics professor from Mexico City. Who, I asked, was he?

“Es muchos,” said the Committee, seeming to smile under his ski mask. He is many.

Outside, the mist felt colder and thicker than before. I wandered — alone, unescorted — down to the bottom of Oventic’s main road, where it dissolved into a muddy field. It looked like the edge of the world.

Maybe it was the dreary, cold weather that day, but Oventic hardly felt like a place where “muchos” lived. The only people in the street were 16 unmasked men hoisting a new electrical transformer atop a pole, and I watched them work from the veranda of the only open business in Oventic, a general store, where I bought a cup of coffee (10 pesos) and a folk music CD, “Canta David del EZLN y su Guitarra Volume 2” (20 pesos). Perhaps the most surprising thing about Oventic was its normalcy. Apart from the masks and the murals, this could have been any sleepy ejido in Mexico.

At the same time, I knew there were things as an outsider I could never see, like the weapons the Explanation Committee said they still possessed. While the officials and citizens of Oventic calmly answered my questions, they were not exactly outgoing. (Perfectly understandable, given the history.) And while I was allowed to take pictures, I was twice told not to include people in any of them.

Then, with nothing more to do in Oventic, I left through a smaller side gate, hailed a pickup-truck colectivo and climbed into the back, where two boys were hanging onto the railings and enjoying the rollercoaster ride. We stopped once on the way down, to pick up an older couple and their plastic crate full of hot corn on the cob. The smell was wonderful, and as I inhaled deeply, the old man offered me one. I pulled off the husk, removed a small worm that had been steamed along with the kernels and, in the honest chill of the highlands, ate my last lunch in Chiapas.

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Antonio Barberena in Orlando

This note was published at the Orlando Sentinel:

Antonio Barberena in concert

Concert in the gardens of the Maitland Art Center.

The Maitland Art Center (MAC) and the Consulate of Mexico in Orlando are proud to announce the special presentation and concert of the classic accordionist, Antonio Barberena. The free concert is scheduled for Sunday, November 16 at 6 pm in the Mayan Courtyard.

Antonio Barberena was born in Mexico City in 1962. He started playing the accordion piano system at the age of 11 years in a lyric way; at 15 he started with formal classes with the Italian teacher Sergio Rizzardi, changing to chromatic or botton system. He has performed with the Phylarmonic Orchestra of the UNAM, the Opera Orchestra of Bellas Artes and as a soloist with the Classical Orchestra of Mexico. To date, he has been presented in the main concert halls of the city of Mexico and in most of the main theaters of Mexico.

His music has been played on TV and on the radio in the capital city. During his career he has played the world premiere of several works for accordion in Mexico. In 2004 he was prized by the Mexican Basque Society with the title “Number One Member” in recognition for playing Basque music in Mexico.

Since 2003, he has performed contemporary music together with the Marimba player Javier Nandayapa and Mirna Yam in percussion. Today he is working in the third volume of classical music in accordion and a DVD of a life concert in the Basílica de Guadalupe. He is visiting Orlando as a featured guest of the Florida Accordion Association.

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Mexico and Euskal Herria in Berlin

This article comes to us thanks to Open PR:

Focus On Mexico and the Basque Region at interfilm Short Film Festival Berlin

Arts & Culture

Press release from: interfilm Berlin Management GmbH

(openPR) - The 24th International Short Film Festival Berlin mounts a cinematic expedition to the tradition rich film scenes of Mexico and the autonomous Basque Region.

The programme features award winning cortos by up and coming young filmmakers, world renowned directors and actors as well as a selection of the best Basque short film productions from the past ten years.

No fewer than five programmes are dedicated to Mexico’s outstanding short film output: Directors such as Guillermo Del Toro and Alejandro González Iñárritu have enjoyed distinguished careers in Latin America for some time and have gradually become established in North America and Europe. Fernando Eimbcke was still an unknown director when his film “La suerte de la fea, a la bonita no le importa” was shown at interfilm Short Film Festival a few years ago. In the meantime however, Eimbcke has managed to scoop-up the Berlinale’s FIPRESCI-Award two years running, while earning a wide audience with his films "Lake Tahoe" and "Temporada de Patos".

Even celebrated Mexican actors including Salma Hayek and Gael García Bernal began their careers in shorts as revealed in the “Before Fame and Fortune” programme. In keeping with the "Día de los muertos" festivities held on 2 November, “When the Lights Go Out” is a collection of short films that reflect the multi-facetted but rarely sorrowful relationship that Mexicans have with death.

Not only does Basque short film have a long tradition in Europe, it seems as though two Oscar nominations and numerous awards at international festivals over the past few years have secured it a promising future. One of the main reasons for the international success of Basque short film can be credited to its support and promotion by the KIMUAK project, founded in 1998 by the cultural department of the Basque Government and the Basque Kinemathek. interfilm Short Film Festival presents a selection of Basque short films in two programmes, “Forever Young” and “Amor traumático” – work that is stunning, humorous and ceaselessly engaging.

PROGRAMMES

Focus On Mexico

MEX 01 / When the Lights Go Out

Dancing skeletons with giant sombreros, skulls, alters and the so-called bread of the dead, Mexicans really do have a special relationship with death and often refer to it in the form of a joke, poem or song.

Film however, is a magnificent platform for celebrating this glorious and multi-facetted aspect of Mexican culture. While the films in this programme may have death as a common theme, it is addressed in ways entirely exotic to most Europeans. Let these Mexican directors take you on a journey to their fantastic, surreal, sarcastically humorous, tragic or sometimes completely accidental, visions of death.

MEX 02 / La vida y otras curiosidades

Show me your films and I'll tell you who you are. Even if it is impossible to represent the full diversity of Mexican film in just 90 minutes, this programme does offer an insight into the themes, techniques and stories that most occupy the filmmakers of Mexico. Haughty artists, a desperate roadside family, a robot that can't stand being watched and many other fascinating characters, powerfully transport the viewer to a variety of worlds revealing cultural aspects that leave you wanting more.

MEX 03 / Clips and Commercials

Young Mexican filmmakers are not likely to underestimate the promotional opportunity afforded by music video and commercial commissions. Even many established filmmakers exploit the genre as a creative exercise in sound and image. This collection illustrates their highly original work in this area.

MEX 04 / Before Fame and Fortune

Names such as Guillermo del Toro, Alejandro González Iñárritu and Fernando Eimbcke are known to film lovers the world over. They were able to gain a foothold in North American and European film industries, thus resulting in multi-award winning work that has been consistently celebrated at international festivals. However, aside from their prize-winning feature films, it is important to remember that these filmmakers began their careers in short film. The same can be said of such illustrious, world-class actors like Salma Hayek and Gael García Bernal, whose early work can also be enjoyed in this programme of shorts by renowned Mexican directors.

MEX 05 / Una Década en Corto: The best of 10 years Expresión en Corto

Expresión en Corto is one of Latin America's most popular film festivals. Serving as a platform for the launching of new careers, this national and international competition pits newcomers alongside the industry's most seasoned veterans. In the amazingly beautiful host cities of San Miguel de Allende and Guanajuato, a wonderful atmosphere of camaraderie and respect has been created where new and aspiring filmmakers mix with industry professionals in an open, accessible and competitive environment. The 2008 edition received 1,750 competition entries from 82 countries alone. This represents a small selection of the best Mexican short films, taken from eleven years of festival history. www.expresionencorto.com

Focus On the Basque Region

BA 01 / 10 years Basque Short Film - Forever Young

Come and be amazed: A programme for anyone who has ever wondered what it’s like to be a human cannonball, who would give anything to win the lottery, or perhaps even give up their life to defend a loved one. This is for small kids and big kids with curious collections, for people who become enraged at injustice and for those who are likely to fall in love with someone because they play with words and adore absurdity. For all of you!

BA 02 / 10 years Basque Short Film - Amor traumático

What is it about love that makes us fall for it? Is it because love is so diverse that it offers something for everybody? Well that is definitely the case when it comes to this selection of Basque highlights from the last ten years. These films tell of crazy love, forbidden love, love at first sight, macabre love, motherly love, the “why are we calling this love when we actually mean sex” variety, wilting love and many others. A programme of love stories, without limits.

Contact us if you would like to be sent footage relating to any of the particular programmes. You’ll find related film stills on our web page: www.interfilm.de/festival2008/presse-fotos.php.

interfilm Berlin Management GmbH

So, if you happen to be in Berlin, don't miss it!

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Zapatero Retaliates in Mexico

Upset because he has been exposed as a lame politician, a man bent on perpetuating the colonialist occupation of a nation that cries for freedom, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has demanded from his allies to start punishing Basque citizens no matter where they are.

This is why Mexico deported Andoni Azpiazu Alcelay, a week after the ETA said it was ending a 15-month ceasefire in which Spain did absolutely nothing to negotiate a peaceful resolution of the political conflict that pits Spain against Euskal Herria.

Migration authorities found Andoni Azpiazu Alcelay in the city of Cuernavaca, thanks to an anonymous tip, and expelled him because he lacked a visa, Mexico's government said.

ETA, which has been fighting for an independent Basque state in northern Spain and southwestern France for four decades, said last week it was abandoning a ceasefire it had declared in March 2006.

The government of Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero started exploratory peace talks in mid-2006, but broke them off at the end of the year after ETA detonated a bomb at Madrid's airport in December after Zapatero arrested ETA's envoys to the peace negotiations in clear violation to international treaties.

In 2006, Mexico extradited six people to Spain for suspected links to ETA after a three-year legal battle in which Spain failed to produce a single piece of evidence to support its outlandish accusations.

In the mid-1990s, Mexico signed a extradition treaty with Spain in which it ceased to treat suspected terrorists as political refugees in clear violation with Mexico's Constitution and the country's hard earned recognition in the international community as a safe haven for those who are escaping ethnic, religious or political persecution. But Spain is taking advantage of its position as a trade mediator between Mexico and the European Community, demanding Basque citizens in return for their support.

Zapatero is exporting Spain's brand of repression against the Basque people as a result of his refusal to sit down with the Basque political forces to seek a peaceful end to the occupation of Euskal Herria in its peninsular portion. He is no different from Milosevic.

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BIC's January Newsletter

We got this information this morning via email:

Dear sympathisers of BIC,

Here you will find the new Monthly digital BIC-Newsletter. Please take a look also in our Shop on our website, you will find some English material for sale and some documents in English as well, for example the Anoeta- proposal of the left-wing Basque independence party Batasuna.

We will give information evenings explaining this proposal with a new DVD by Batasuna and we will also talk about the current situation in the Basque Country and the new campaign of the Basque political prisoners. We will be the 17 of February in Nijmegen, the 18 in Amsterdam and the 28 in Utrecht. Please check our Monthprogram for the addresses. The infos will be in English.

Cheers
BIC

Monthly digital BIC-Newsletter nr. 1, period 1 until 31 January 2005

1) Basque political prisoners

2) Initiatives from Euskal Herria to come to a political solution of the conflict

3) Repression in the Basque Country

4) ETA

1) On the last day of the year 8000 people in 60 villages throughout the whole Basque Country hit the streets to ask attention for the more then 700 Basque political prisoners. 50 people demonstrated outside the largest prison in Madrid, Soto del Real. According to the prisonhelporganisation Etxerat 2004 showed a worsening situation, with 712 political prisoners more then ever in the history of Euskal Herria, spread around over 88 different prisons in 6 countries. Many critics were also for the Basque political parties who are not doing anything to ‘end the suffering of the prisoners and their relatives’, meaning the isolation and the dispersion policies.

The Basque prisoners collective EPPK gives out a statement at the 4th of January where they announce to take action and that the Basque prisoners in Mexico, Belgium, some in France and Spain, 37 people, started the first ‘estaffette’ and until 13 January won’t leave their cells. The prisoners all sent a letter to their prisondirector to tell their motives. They demand recognition of their basic rights as prisoners, but also the status of political prisoner and want to be involved in the process to come to a political resolution of the conflict in the Basque Country.

Prominent artists, writers and politicians from France demand at 7 January the release of the singer Peio Serbielle from Zuberoa, who was arrested in the French-Spanish police operation at 3 October last year in Béarn. Serbielle is now 700 kilometres from his village in prison and declared that he gave shelter to people, apparently ETA-members, out of humanitarian reasons and was taken before a judge at 9 November. There was said he didn’t pose any ‘danger’ and that his trial wouldn’t take place before the end of 2006.

At 8 January 32.000 people demonstrate in Bilbao for the transfer of Basque political prisoners to the Basque Country. The parties Batasuna and Aralar and the unions ELA and LAB supported the call from the pro-amnestia-movement. At the head of the demonstration were 100 ex-political prisoners and after them the relatives and friends of the 712 Basque political prisoners walked with photo’s of them.

The Basque political prisoner Iñaki de Juana Chaos, who was to be released at 9 February because he finished his 18-year sentence, hears at 10 January that he will not be released. Judge Fernando Grande-Marlaska De Juana wrote 2 opinion articles in the leftwing Basque newspaper GARA, for which he now is accused of being ‘ETA-member’ and ‘making terrorist threats’. De Juana was convicted for ‘helping’ in an attack in 1986 in Madrid were 12 members of the Guardia Civil were killed.

A similar case is that of the Basque political prisoner Edorta Sainz-Lobato, who should have been released on 13 January after 17 years, but on orders of judge Javier Gomez-Bermudez had to stay behind bars until the ‘measures of shortening the sentence’ are fully investigated. It is no coincidence; the Spanish juridical system and the Spanish Minister of Internal Affairs Jose Antonio Alonso look for measures to prevent Basque political prisoners to be released after serving their sentence. The Spanish Minister of Justice Juan Fernando Lopez-Aguilar said ‘they are not to be released before they shown remorse’. At this moment there are 100 Basque political prisoners who can be released according to the Spanish law, after serving ¾ of their sentence. Also the shortening measures won by working in the prison or good behaviour work not for them. Another example is Filipe Bidart, who was due for release in February 2003. At this moment there is a campaign for his release, among other through the French-Basque website www.filipeaska.com

2) The in May 2003 banned local election platforms of the left independent movement say in a statement at 13 January that 80 chosen councillors have failed to take their seat or left in at a certain moment. They announce that the coming week more councillors will give up their seat and that the 472 council seats where the left platforms are entitled to according to shadow-elections in May 2003, will be requested by them.

At 15 January 1000 people, among them 40 majors, attend the establishment of Euskal Herriko Laborantza Ganbara (the Agricultural Chamber of the Basque Country) in the French Basque province Behe Naffaroa. After years of campaigning and the refusal of the French Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Basque farmers in France made their own representation.

3) At the end of December the Spanish Parliament took a law into effect that the Spanish army, eminent present in the Basque Country, can be deployed against ETA. The army asked for such a law for a long time, but after the attacks on 11 March by Islamic extremists in Madrid it is there. The Basque Country suffers already for years from military manoeuvres, such as parachutists landing in villages and asking people for their identity-papers, or full-scale practice bombardments in Naffaroa. In 1981 the army helped to close the border between Spain and France, the river Bidasoa, that runs also as a border between the Basque Country.

The Public Prosecutor Enrique Molina of the Audiencia Nacional in Madrid demands at 4 Janaury alltogether 654 years imprisonment for the 42 accused youngsters in the case against the left independent Basque youth organisations Jarrai-Haika-SEGI. According to Molina the youngsters, who all had public functions in their organisations, are all ‘member’ or ‘co-operatives of ETA’ and he concludes that because the organisations have the same goals and even are a ‘financial unity’. From 10 of the 42 the where-abouts are unknown. Against Asier Tapia Molina demands 111 year and 10 months in prison because of the press conference he gave at 6 March 2001 after the arrest of 15 Haika members at the orders of judge Garzón. Tapia called to react on this arrests and Molina now holds him responsible for ’22 acts of terrorist street violence’, that followed on the arrests, and demands on top of that 24 million euro for the damage. The trial has to take place quickly now, because in March 2005 the terms of 4 years ‘research arrest’ is over and the first youngsters should be released. In the village Lekeitio, where 3 of the accused used to live, 125 people went onto the streets to protest against the charges.

Several days later 7 of the accused responded on a press-conference, where they were literally backed by 80 people representing all kinds of social organisations, on the charges of Molina: “This is apparently the price we have to pay for our work against job insecurity, for our struggle for better education and linguistic rights, for the alternative life-style in the social centres and for our fight for equal rights for the sexes”, they said.

The Spanish Ministry of Internal Affairs published at 5 January their figures about ‘anti-terror’-operations in 2004. The Spanish security forces arrested 74 suspected ETA-terrorists and another 57 were arrested in France, and 4 in Belgium. Probably they added Luis and Rakel to Jon and Diego, but the first were dismissed from prosecution and not extradited. Also 3 members of GRAPO were arrested, 1 member of the Italian Red Brigades and 1 IRA-member. And 131 arrests of Islamic extremists. Concerning ETA the police claims to have dissolved 2 ‘terrorist cells’, 3 networks working on recruitment and infrastructure and various ‘leaders’ were apprehended. 2004 was the first year since 1999 without dead victims by attacks of ETA.

Against the spokesman of the Basque anti-repression organisation Askatasuna, Jean François Lefort, who was arrested at 7 December, the European Arrest Warrant comes into effect at 14 January. Lefort however is a French citizen and the Spanish Justice didn’t come with any evidence until now.

The Public Prosecutor Juan Moral orders at 17 January to judge Garzón to prosecute 36 members of Batasuna because of ‘belonging to ETA’. Also the Herriko Tabernas, de leftwing people’s pubs, remain closed and the accounts frozen (also Batasuna’s). In 2002 Batasuna was accused of damage after streetriots, and the goal from Moral of both measures is the covering of the debt of 24 million euro. Garzón produces at 25 January a document of 267 pages in which he explores the same thesis as in the case ‘18/98’, in which he accuses all kinds of sectors of the left independent movement of ‘ETA-membership’. The 36 are all in one way or another, according to Garzón, connected to ETA and they committed their ‘crimes’ by the use of the Herriko Tabernas. Some of the accused Batasuna-members are also member of the Basque parliament and thus cannot be prosecuted and that’s why the judge asked the Basque High Court to prosecute them.

The International human rights organisation Human Rights Watch publishes at 27 January a 65 pages document about Spains measures against terrorism. Heavy criticism is given by HRW on the since November 2003 possible lengthen of the notorious ‘incommunicado-detention’ to 13 days. Also the safeguards against abuse, maltreatment and torture are by far not sufficient and the Spanish authorities fail to conduct proper investigations into torture complaints. And the rights of terror-suspects are violated and the terms of 4 years in ‘research- imprisonment’ is totally out of proportions, also because the inmates are subdued to isolation in most of the cases. The recommendations of HRW are not really a surprise and are in fact a repetition of every year’s recommendations of Amnesty International and the United Nation. They demand direct access to a lawyer when arrested, the possibility of a private conversation with that lawyer, presence of juridical help during all steps in the trial, the reduction of the admission of secret prove, the trial has to be held within 2 years and last but not least the guarantee for the conditions during imprisonment at the police.

At 28 January the French police arrests Araitz Zubimendi, Ibon Arbulu and Unai Berostegieta in Baiona and Ziburu, on orders of judge Garzón. Details about the accusation are not known yet, but it is to be expected that the European Arrest Warrant is put into effect on them. Garzón filed an international arrest warrant at 16 April 2004 against Zubimendi, a former member of the left-wing party Sozialista Abertzaleak, for her role in SEGI, in which case she didn’t show up. The arrest warrant for Arbulu, former councillor in Bilbao, dates from 30 April 2003, when the Guardia Civil wanted to arrest him at home in the police operation against Udalbiltza, the self organisation of councillors in Euskal Herria. The arrest warrant for Berostegieta dates from 24 April 2003, accused of ‘member of ETA’s recruiting organisation’.

4) Halfway January ETA sends a statement to the Basque daily Berria, were they emphasise to agree with the ‘Anoeta’-statement of the left-wing independence party Batasuna of 14 November last year. ETA thinks a ‘broad carried, specific process of dialogue’ has to be put in motion to solve the political conflict. ETA is ‘fully prepared’ to participate in such a process.

At 18 January a car bomb of ETA explodes in the area Neguri in Getxo, the damage is quiet heavy and one officer of the Basque regional police Ertzaintza is wounded. The Basque left-wing newspaper GARA received a warning call half an hour before the explosion and the caller also said were the owner of the car could be found, tied to a tree. It was the 6th ETA-bomb in that area since 1999, where directors, politicians and known journalists live.

The rumours of talks between representatives from Spanish government circles and ETA are strong, for sure after Batasuna sent a letter to the Spanish Prime Minister Zapatero urging him to negotiate.

At 30 January an ETA-bomb explodes near a hotel in Dénia, 2 people get wounded. ETA warned before the explosion.

This overview is written by the Baskenland Informatie Centrum from The Netherlands. You can contact us at baskinfo@xs4all.nl and you can check our site at www.baskinfo.org

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