Maragall Supports Otamendi

We all know that the main political parties in Spain, the PSOE and the PP are nothing more than the two wings of the Franco regime-styled monarchy that rules that country at this time. So you can understand how any sympathy shown by a member of the PSOE towards a Basque always comes as a surprise.

The note you are about to read will show you how Aznar's openly authoritarian measure against Egunkaria and the torture suffered by those detained in the raid against the news paper has gone too far, high profile PSOE members are speaking out in favor of the Basque struggle.

Here you have it:

Former mayor accuses police of torturing Basque editor

Spain under human rights spotlight after senior Socialist backs victim's account of police brutality

Giles Tremlett in Madrid
Friday March 7, 2003
The Guardian

A fierce row over the use of torture by Spain's anti-terrorist police erupted yesterday after a senior Socialist politician accused them of torturing a Basque newspaper editor.

The former mayor of Barcelona Pascual Maragall claimed that Martxelo Otamendi was tortured while held incommunicado under terrorism laws for five days, after his daily newspaper, Egunkaria, was shut down by a magistrate two weeks ago. It was suspected of collaborating with the armed Basque separatist group Eta.

"Personally, I think that man was telling the truth," Mr Maragall said, after hearing Mr Otamendi detail how members of the civil guard police force's anti-terrorist unit had allegedly asphyxiated him by covering his head with plastic bags.

The support from Mr Maragall, who heads the Socialists' powerful branch in Catalonia and is their candidate to become regional premier, came amid a growing debate in parts of Europe about whether, in exceptional circumstances, torture was justified.

Mr Otamendi also claimed that during his spell in custody he had a pistol held to his temple, received death threats, was deprived of sleep, and was subjected to a continual barrage of verbal abuse.

A previous Egunkaria editor, Peio Zubiria, attempted suicide after being detained at the same time as Mr Otamendi.

Mr Maragall's support for the editor, echoed by members of the moderate Basque nationalist party which runs the regional Basque government, has enraged the conservative People's party government of Spain's prime minister, Jose Maria Aznar.

The deputy prime minister, Rodrigo Rato, used a parliamentary debate to accuse Mr Maragall of "covering up" for people "who could be connected to Eta".

After the Socialists threatened to sue, the accusation was changed from "covering up" to "giving credence".

The interior minister, Angel Acebes, accused Mr Otamendi of following Eta's instructions to its members that they must automatically allege torture if detained.

"The civil guard risk their lives every day and it is intolerable that someone should give more credit to the words of a presumed terrorist," he said.

Officially the Socialist party said it believed Mr Acebes. A spokesman, Rodolfo Ares, urged Mr Otamendi to sue the civil guard if he was serious.

Mr Otamendi said he had been stopped from complaining to a court- appointed doctor by a police interrogator who allegedly threatened to shoot him if he spoke out.

"The insults, physical exercises, abuse, and a sort of homophobic obsession started _ they said, 'put yourself in that position, take your clothes off, do it the way you do it with your friends' - things that would have made the inquisition feel ashamed of itself," he said. "They made me do exercises, or crouch, or remain bent over for hours."

The suffering caused by having a plastic bag put on his head was intense, he he claimed. "I never imagined it would be so terrible. You can feel yourself going after just two seconds," he said.

In a recent article in El Pais newspaper, jurists, police and court doctors said allegations by Eta detainees that they had been beaten or sexually assaulted were almost always disproved by the doctors who visited them regularly. Other experts warned, however, that the police might be using sophisticated torture methods that left no marks.

In a report to the UN committee against torture last October, Amnesty International said that it did not believe torture was used systematically in Spain. But it warned that not all allegations could "be explained away as a strategy by detainees to undermine the moral credibility of the authorities".

"Amnesty International has received some very serious and highly detailed reports, which appear to be corroborated by medical evidence," the report said. "Many of the allegations referred to _ asphyxiation with plastic bags, repeated kicks and blows of the hand on the head or testicles, forced physical exercises for long periods of time, claims of sexual harassment _ threats of execution, rape, miscarriage or injury to partners and relatives."

Notice the reaction by Acebes, for him, there is no presumption of innocence, if you are Basque you are guilty, as easy as that.

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Against the 800 Paragraph

If by any chance I am forced to use a note published by the media corporations that uses the infamous and derogatory "800 paragraph" I will replace it with this one:

"On one single attack that lasted three hours, the fascist forces of Spain, Nazi Germany and Italy killed 1,600 helpless Basque civilians in the town of Gernika in 1936, a crime for which Madrid has not apologized to this day."

I will not be part of the propaganda campaign against the Basque people.

.... ... .

Gernika Then and Now

Here you have one more article about Euskal Herria from South Africa's Daily Dispatch:

War on terror comes to haunt Basque rights

Picasso's Guernica protested at Franco's bombing of innocents. Now the war on terror risks crushing civil rights in the Basque country.

Dispatch Editor Gavin Stewart reports -- part 2 of 3.

MARTXELO Otamandi, 45, says he was deprived of sleep and made to crouch naked. A plastic bag was pulled over his head for minutes at a time, in sessions lasting two or three hours.

He became so desperate he told police: "Go ahead, take my life once and for all." He reported the assaults to a doctor, he told Associated Press, but the torture continued.

We hear the echoes of South Africa's security police offices years ago. But this is Spain's Guardia Civil headquaters in Madrid. Last week.

Otamnandi was one of 10 editors and managers arrested after Judge Juan del Olmo shut down the Basque newspaper Egunkaria. The paper was accused of being a tool used by ETA's "terrorist" commandos to communicate.

Otamnandi says editor Peio Zubiria was so severely tortured he tried to commit suicide. Respected Basque linguist Juan Maria Torrealdi, in his 60s, was also tortured.

AP reports that the claims were rejected by Spanish justice minister Joseba Azkarraga as "pure invention".

Three years ago the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) noted the persistent reports of torture in a report published in April 2000. It urged Spanish authorities to be vigilant in their treatment of prisoners, and urged that prisoners held incommunicado be guaranteed the right to see a doctor of their choice.

Basques say little has changed. Spain's government continues to suppress Basque institutions and publications. The European Union, its Human Rights Commission and its Court file reports.

But the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York and the Pentagon in Washington DC have not helped.

Amnesty International's last annual report noted: "The war on terrorism launched by the United States is being used by different governments to repress dissidence and cut back liberties".

Basque hopes of deciding their own future and taking their place in the new Europe next year are among the victims.

Batasuna, perhaps the major Basque nationalist party, was suspended in September for three to five years, on the grounds that it was associated with "terrorist" groups. When that order expires, the party can be suspended again for three to five years, pending legal action.

The bishops of three of the seven Basque provinces rejected the order and warned of "dark consequences".

But the Spanish parliament has amended the electoral law to allow the government to ban political parties, groups associated with banned parties, any new party resembling a banned party, people previously associated with any banned party...

To hear Fernando Berrana tell the story is to drop back 50 years to South Africa's Suppression of Communism Act of 1950, later renamed the Internal Security Act.

The Communist Party was banned immediately, the African National Congress and the Pan Africanist Congress in 1960, after the shootings at Sharpeville. Their leaders were issued with banning orders, or listed as communists, which meant they could not be quoted anywhere. Leaders of all the congress movements, the Liberal Party and even Defence and Aid, a legal fund, were similarly silenced. Dispatch editor Donald Woods was banned; World editor Percy Qoboza was imprisoned.

Replace "communism" with "terrorism", add 50 years, and the old South Africa resonates through the new Spanish law.

The Law of Political Parties allows any party to be declared illegal -- if it attacks constitutional principles. The principles include Spanish as the only language and the present borders of Spain.

Many Basques want their language and territory -- which straddles the border of Spain and France -- recognised.

"Nearly 800 councillors, 70 mayors, 25 MPs and provincial MPs are members of Batasuna," says Barrana. If the suspension is not lifted, none of them will be able to contest Spain's local government elections on May 25.

"Sixty percent of the popular vote in the Basque regions is nationalist."

In darker moments, even the leading members of Udalbiltza admit that the banning and the new law could be devastating. Udalbiltza is the first assembly of Basque elected public representatives and almost half of them are from Batasuna.

The Batasuna party survives in France, but its offices in all the Spanish Basque cities have been sealed.

Hopes of finding a space for a Basque national identity in the new Europe next year are uncertain.

The heads of government of the European Union could not agree on a definition of terrorism when they met in Laeken, so they adopted a definition which takes into account the causes and intention of actions.

The effect, argues the Basque Observatory on Human Rights, is that any dissidence can be considered terrorist in Europe.

That makes it easy to group all Basque opposition to the Spanish government as terrorist -- the objectives of all Basque nationalists groups are indeed very similar.

The United Nations special representative on human rights, Ms Hina Jilani, noted last year that "while spuriously equating legitimate and peaceful advocacy of the right to self-determination with terrorism -- however defined -- is not a new phenomenon it is certainly assuming greater resonance, and human rights defenders working for the realisation of peoples' quests for self-determination are experiencing some of their darkest hours" because they are "under new and sustained attack world-wide".

Appeals to the Spanish courts and even to the European Court of Human Rights appear to offer some hope.

"Not really," says Barrana. "The new act does not comply with the Spanish constitution's declaration on human rights. But it could take five to six years to get a hearing in a Spanish court." The European court offers an equally distant glimmer.

"Seven years ago the Turks banned a Kurdish party and the European court has just decided. It could take five to six years for them do decide our case. The elections are in a few months."

Batasuna is appealing anyway.

Barrana shrugs.

Banning judge

JUDGE Baltasar Garzón argues that virtually all Basque nationalist groupings "act at the service of the terrorist organistation" ETA.

ETA, he says, is "a sum of structures that give cohesion, sense and objectives to a whole wide range of multi-formed criminal activities". Their objective is to "subvert the constitutionsal order, seeking the dismembering or 'self-determination' of a part of Spanish territory and the serious agitation of the public peace".

Garzón names in the network of organisations: "txonas", mobile street bars which appear at fiestas, the sale of subscriptions, lotteries, business, an advertising agency, ventures selling Latin American products.

Garzón is one of six investigating judges in the Spanish National Court, a similar position to director of public prosecutions here. He investigates cases, gathers evidence and decides whether to prosecute.

Now 48, Garzón led the indictment of Augusto Pinochet and other leaders of the Chilean junta, on charges of genocide, terrorism and torture.

He banned KAS, an association of Basque independence groups; the newspaper Egin and Egin radio and ordered the arrest of members of Ekin, an organisation accused of being the successor to KAS. In September he suspended the Batasuna party.

According to one biography he ran for a seat in the Spanish parliament in 1993 on the socialist ticket, but soon resigned. One version is that the party failed to implement the reforms it had promised, the other is that he was not made minister of justice.

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Social Initiatives in Support of Egunkaria

This just in:

Several social initiatives on behalf of Egunkaria

Several social initiatives are taken place in the Basque Country on behalf of Egunkaria

Among them we can mentioned the one led by the university students of the UPV - EHU who after a long tradition of occupation to raise different issues, also squatted some university premises twice. The occupation started on the 4-3-03: loads of posters were made and put all over the campus of Leioa (Bilbo) and a free euskaltegi (Basque language school) operated during the day. On 5th March the infamous and feared Beltzas (The Black Ones- Basque regional anti-riot police) evicted the students locked -up in one of the university premises. They were evicted in the same way and for second time on the 7th March.

The Basque parliament has decide with the support of EA, PNV and IU to demand the reopening of the paper Egunkaria. Sozialista Abertzaleak (former Euskal Herritarrok) on the other hand demanded this, plus the end of exception state in Euskal Herria (Basque Country). The municipality representatives of EA and PNV are waiting for judge Del Olmo's decision to see how they help economically and technically Egunkaria to reopen.

Meanwhile the unions, Kontseilua (council of Basque language organizations: EHE, Emun, AEK, Elkar and Hika) and the workers of former Egunkaria have call to stop working for an hour on the 13th March. Among those unions: ELA-STV, LAB, EHNE, STEILAS, ESK-CUIS, ELB, HIRU and EGAS. Apart from the parties mentioned before, other parties like Aralar are backing this initiative. Sortzen-Ikasbatuaz is planning to launch support initiatives in all the schools of the basque Country too. University teachers have presented a communiqué too. A demo has been called for the 15th march on behalf of the self-determination.

On the 27th February, more than 300 solicitors from Bilbao positioned themselves against the closure of Egunkaria.

Outside the Basque Country , in Catalunya a platform has been created in support of Egunkaria (Plataforma per Egunkaria ). They have organised several acts like demos and talk with Martxelo Otamendi. The Catalonian regional government (Generalitat) decided to advertise itself in Egunkaria (now Egunero). The leader of the Catalonian socialists paqual Maragall has been scapegoat of the PP governemnt for asking that the tortures against Egunkaria's editor martxelo Otamendi should be investigated. This was also supported by the Catalonian union leader Joan Coscubiela and the basque socialist Odon Elorza.

Otherwise, the day before yesterday the workers of Egunkaria joined the dole office as staff sacked from a company. The paper's staff was 149, though the number of contributors, collumnists and freelance who'll be affected by this situation will be 300.

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Murderous Dispersion

One of the more brutal Apartheid-like policies that the Spanish State has set in place to punish the Basque society is known by the euphemistic name of "dispersion". This policy is applied only against Basque political prisoners and it goes against Spain's own laws. Due to this policy Basque political prisoners are jailed as far away from home as possible. What the Spaniards achieve by doing this is that they extend the punishment to the prisoner on to his relatives and friends which is a clear violation of international law.

The note you are about to read talks about the last two mortal victims of this policy:

Dispersion kills: 2 Basques killed while visiting relative

Relative of Basque prisoner imprisoned while visit

By Euskalinfo (www.euskalinfo.org.uk)

Yesterday (Monday 3rd March) the mother (73) and the brother (45)of the Basque prisoner Juan Karlos Balerdi died in a traffic accident while travelling to visit their relative in Almeria (South of Spain). The prisoner’s father resulted severely injured.

The victims were innocent people once again paying for dispersion: an extra punishment for Basque prisoners, where the consequences are paid by their relatives. Like in this case, the parents and brother of Balerdi had to travel 810 km (503 miles) to visit their loved one, to spend just five minutes with him. And when you have to be back to carry on with work, with your family, etc, all that distance can be done in very extreme circumstances.

The proof is that they are not the first ones suffering the consequences of dispersion: the Basque political prisoners support organisation Etxerat has reported thirteen people killed as a consequence of dispersion since 1982. Just last year there were 25 car accidents, 19 in 2001 and 13 in 2000. These car accidents have many times very serious consequences from loose of legs to -like in this case- death.

One day after the traffic accident was known, 250 people gathered in the family's hometown Lasarte to homage the 3 people. The official homage will happen on Saturday. In this homage, a member of the prisoner support group Etxerat stated that these victims were victims of the State's violence. He reminded that the dispersion of Basque prisoners was condemned by the Basque regional government on the 28th December 1995, but that this government doesn't put the resulted resolution into practice. He demanded human rights for those Basque citizens who have relatives imprisoned miles away from their home. On the same day demos happened in other towns while in other towns people also protested for terminal ill prisoner Bautista Barandalla who the government is denying the article 92 of the Penal Code which state the release for prisoners in this situation. Barandalla has had 10 operations. (Euskalinfo will provide broader information in this case in the near future).

Also linked to the dispersion, yesterday, the sister of the prisoner Xabier Irastorza, Itziar Irastorza was kept in the prison of Gradignan (French State) where she was visiting her brother. Apparently the whole reason to arrest Itziar Irastorza was the attempt of passing a letter together with a parcel that she delivered to her brother (!!!). Friends and relatives of this prisoner were kept inside before too. Xabier Irastorza has been imprisoned since the 1st August and he's awaiting to be extradited to Spain.

As it's usual with this cases the Spanish media ignored these cases in yesterday's papers.

Mortal victims of dispersion:

Rosa Amezaga

Arantza Amezaga

Pilar Arzuaga

Alfonso Isasi

Matilde Arribilaga

Antxoni Fernández

José Mari Maruri

Mari Karmen Salbide

Ruben Garate

Asier Heriz

Iñaki Sáez

Argi Iturralde

Iñaki Balerdi

Can you even imagine what a political prisoner feels when one of his/her loved ones dies while trying to visit him/her?

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Welsh Support For Egunkaria

The article you are about to read was published by Wales OnLine, in it you will learn about the Welsh support for the Basque people in general and those involved in the Egunkaria case in particular.

You will also learn about the disdain that conservative politicians have for human rights and true justice, in this specific case things are worst for the politicians are Welsh and they play along the line dictated from London by war monger Tony Blair.

Support for gagged Basques condemned

Mar 1 2003 Rhodri Clark Rhodri.Clark@Wme.Co.Uk, The Western Mail - The National Newspaper Of Wales

POLITICIANS and campaign groups in Wales were criticised yesterday for supporting a newspaper closed down because of alleged links to a violent terrorist organisation.

An MP and an AM from Plaid Cymru have signed a petition of support for the Basque-language newspaper Egunkaria, which was closed on February 20 on the orders of a Spanish judge. Petition organ-isers at Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg, the Welsh Language Society, say the newspaper's closure is a blow to European democracy and minority languages.

The judge in Spain's national court who ordered the newspaper's closure maintained that the company which published Egunkaria was created, financed and directed by the Basque armed group Eta, Euskadi Ta Askatasuna.

Justice Minister Jose Maria Michavila said the newspaper had been used as a communications tool for Eta, which has killed more than 800 people since 1968 as part of its campaign for an independent Basque country in northern Spain and south-west France.

On February 20 hundreds of police officers in ski masks and bullet-proof vests searched and boarded up several Egunkaria offices, taking away documents and computers. The editor and other executives and journalists were arrested.

The newspaper had a circulation of about 15,000 and was Spain's only newspaper published exclusively in the Basque language.

Amnesty International, which highlights human-rights abuses around the world, did not condemn the newspaper's closure and said it recognised the judiciary's responsibility "to take any appropriate measures essential to the protection of life and integrity".

Caernarfon MP Hywel Williams and Ceredigion AM Elin Jones are among the 200 people who have signed the petition since it went on the internet a week ago.

Ms Jones said yesterday, "The fact that a democratic state within the European Union can arrest and, if some reports are to be believed, torture staff of an independent daily newspaper is frightening.

"Egunkaria is a reputable independent newspaper which prides itself on its journalistic independence. It seems that the notoriously right-wing Spanish government is working for a one-size-fits-all uniform Spain where freedom of speech is suppressed. I understand that the Basque government is demanding an inquiry."

Simon Brooks, of the protest group Cymuned and editor of the Welsh magazine Barn, said, "The Spanish authorities are systematically trying to target the Basques' language and culture. That's why they've targeted this newspaper. Welsh people, because we're a minority culture, have a responsibility to show support for the Basques."

Conservative AM for Monmouth David Davies said, "They should keep their noses out. We don't know enough about this newspaper. The only people who can ascertain this are the authorities in Spain."

Mr Davies said he was a member of Amnesty International, which did not support terrorist organisations but backed any people who were locked up for their political beliefs.

"If Amnesty International are merely saying that they think this investigation should be carried out speedily, that seems to be an eminently sensible position," he said.

Alun Cairns, Tory AM for South Wales West, accused Cymdeithas yr Iaith of a poor misjudgment.

"People have the right to say what they feel is right, but any link with a terrorist or unlawful organisation is unacceptable," he said. "I would approve the move made by the courts in Spain to curb that."

One more thing, the paragraph regarding the Amnesty International press release has been misquoted, here you have the link to the correct text in which the human rights organization condemns the closing of Egunkaria.

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More On Peio Zubiria

In case you want to learn more about Peio Zubiria and the ill treatment he is receiving from authoritarian Madrid from the KickAS webpage:

Judge orders prison for Pello Zubiria, but he will remain in hospital till he obtains medical authorisation

Zubiria is in the ICU taken of pneumonia and cannot move. Yesterday his wife Malores Etxeberria visit him twice. "He had a hard time and he is still having hard time" declares Malores Etxeberria after visiting her husband who has been seven days under arrest and in solitary confinement. Zubiria, co-director of Argia and former director of Egunkaria is in the Intensive Care Unit of Gregorio Marañon hospital since last Sunday taken of pneumonia. The doctors have not specified why he is taken of pneumonia.

In her first visit his wife found him laying on the bed "he cannot move and he is very tired, very sad and thinner than before". She could visit again her husband in the afternoon and found him better. She said to Egunero that they have been speaking and laughing. In the second visit he was sitting screened and with serum. In the few minutes the visits lasted Zubiria did not move. His ankles were swollen and in the opinion of his wife he couldn't move. He told his wife that he knew he was taken of Pneumonia as well as he was arrested.

As Pello Zubiria laid in the hospital the family could not know why he was admitted to. The ICU's doctors said to Malores Etxeberria he tried to commit suicide. Afterwards, last Sunday, they took him to Intensive Care Unit. Before admitting him in the ICU the doctors told to her wife they didn't know the state of health of Zubiria. In yesterday's visits Zubiria had not told even mentioned this. However, the judge's decree said that he ordered Zubiria´s admittance because of "his medical history" and "to take care him".

As the doctors told to his wife, Zubiria was admitted in the Intensive Care Unit seriously ill. In the opinion of Etxeberria now they are looking after him well in hospital. Zubiria is under surveillance of the Spanish police inside and outside his room. He will not be sent to prison to Soto del Real till the doctors allow it and in their opinion "he will have to stay longer".

Following ICU's regulations, his wife could visit him twice a day during ten minutes and so the family will be able to visit him too. In both visits they talk about family above all and the state of health of Zubiria. He didn't specify the Guardia Civil's behaviour clearly but said that "It has been very hard". He related he could hear the screams and cries of the other arrested ones. Referring to him, he said that he was forced to be on his feet all day and he felt cold.

In the second visit they talked a little about arrests and the operation against Egunkaria. Zubiria didn't know who were arrested. He was surprised about the reaction their arrests caused in the Basque Country and when he realised that was his wife was telling him was true "he cheered up a little".

In the first visit "Pello was semi-asleep", but it was obvious the visit "made him happy". "They were lots of days where no one could gave him a hand". For the second visit he wrote a poem dedicated to his fifteen-years-old son Eki and her twelve-years-old Itxaso, but they didn't allow his wife to take them out of the hospital. Zubiria gave evidence in the Juan del Olmo judge's court Wednesday night and yesterday morning and afterwards the judge ordered his imprisonment. However, he will be in hospital till the doctors decide otherwise. The decree the judge wrote to send five of the arrested people to jail and yesterday's decree are almost the same.

The unique difference between them are the decree's last lines. So, the charge against Zubiria is a couple of documents the police found to alleged ETA militants. In those documents there seem to be a comment about the activity of Egunkaria and some people's name, included Zubiria. However, It is not clear where those documents come from and who they are for and it is no evidence of relation between people in the documents and the ETA. Besides that, the judge mentions the business register information to prove Zubiria has been Egunkaria´s director in the first years.

In the end of the decree the judge says ETA took part in the nomination of Zubiria. As in the other cases the judge didn't specify if he charged Zubiria of being an ETA militant or he was charged of co-operating with the organisation.

The staff of Argia asked yesterday in a press note to try to avoid "Zubiria's imprisonment from the hospital because it could worsen his very serious health situation. In the press note Argia staff said that "they knew that different Basque institutions were working to avoid Zubiria's imprisonment, but they wanted to ask again to the institutions and authorities to try hard in the next hours". In the opinion of Argia's workers "It is symptomatic that something serious has happened in the Guardia Civil´s quarters because after testifying in the court the judge instead of ordering send him to prison, sent Pello again to hospital". Argia workers press note goes on saying that "particularly taking into account the reporting that the rest of the arrested workers are putting forth and what they claim they heard in the police quarters".

- That's a note someone posted here: www.sustatu.com/english/egunkaria

Keep referring to that address for information in English. Read also about reports of torture there. The site will move from one point to another until gets soon a definite domain, but clicking there you will get the proper redirection.

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I may also add:

The president of the Basque autonomous government Juan Jose Ibarretxe also asked, after a meeting of the Basque Language Council (a consultive body in the Basque autonomous region), for the immediate release of Pello Zubiria, for obvious humanitarian reasons. Ibarretxe also :

* asked for the opening of Egunkaria the newspaper,

* expressed great concern regarding reports of torture and asked for complete investigation.

* rejected strongly the association that some pretend to do between the Basque language community and terrorism

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The Long Battle

This article comes all the way from South Africa, a country that know a thing or two about self-determination:

Basques' long battle for a place in new Europe

Spain's government is in trouble with voters over Iraq and a disastrous oil spill -- but its war on the Basques is unrelenting.

Daily Dispatch editor Gavin Stewart reports.

MAYBE we should not draw deep meanings from the cavalier way José Maria Aznar's Spanish government copes with an oil spill, supports war in Iraq and treats the Basque people.

Or find too many links between those puzzles and the dark cupboards of history.

Last week they banned the Basque newspaper Euskaldunon Egunkaria and arrested 10 of the staff, "on suspicion of belonging to or collaborating with a terrorist organisation, ETA". The newspaper resurfaced defiantly one day later as Egunero.

More than 600 Basque nationalists are in prison; the nationalist party Batasuna is suspended, and the maximum prison sentence has been increased from 30 to 40 years.

The similarities to South Africa are so striking Basque leaders look to our successful struggle for inspiration and support. They have similar claims to an ancient home and similar experiences of oppression, massacre, imprisonment and torture.

But at the beginning and end of last week, the Spanish people took to the streets of Madrid in vast numbers. An estimated two million protested government support for war in Iraq, which is opposed by 85 percent of voters; and 500,000, said one report, protested Aznar's botched handling of the Prestige disaster, which dumped 25,000 tons of oil into the Bay of Biscay.

Aznar was not there. He was in the United States talking war with George Bush.

"We can understand your problem," he is reputed to have told Bush at a previous meeting. "We have our terrorists."

The Basques may be any government's nightmare -- a national group with a distinct language, culture and history claiming the right to decide their own future. But they are not Al Qaeda. Or AUM.

"Europe is in the process of construction," says Loren Arkotxa, mayor of the fishing village of Ondorroa, which gets the best price for fish in Europe. "We want to take part in that construction."

Arkotxa left Basque country at 17 for Australia, where he spent seven years cutting cane and started his first gymnasium. Later he fled into exile, to work as a lumberjack in the Canadian forests.

Today he is president of Udalbiltza, the first Basque national assembly, comprised of almost 2000 elected representatives from local and provincial councils, the Spanish parliament, and one key member in the European Parliament in Brussels.

Late last year I was the guest of Udalbiltza at the International Conference for Peoples Rights in San Sebastian (Donostia) -- a conference of nations without states.

"What we seek is self-determination," Arkotxa insists. "Recognition of the right of Basque people to decide our own future."

The right is enshrined in a dozen international declarations, from the Charter of the United Nations of 1945 to the Durban Declaration against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerances of 2001.

But it finds little sympathy among governments. Far too many face "peoples" in their own states making their own claims -- Hawaiians and Native Americans seeking independence from the United States; Scots, Northern Irelanders and Welsh; West Saharans, Berbers, Kurds, Quebecois; Saamis from Norway; Catalonians, Corsicans, Sardinians, Flanderens; Mapuche from Chile; Chiapas from Mexico ...

The Basques themselves are divided on how much they want and how to get it.

Such claims raise questions about boundaries, challenge constitutions and threaten to remove prosperous regions from tax pools. They threaten the very idea of the state -- in a world built of states.

We all take the state as the defining unit of just about every human activity -- politics, economics, trade, money, maps, weather forecasts. Even the arts and sport are shaped by the biscuit-cutter of the state.

Hard core of Basque opposition to the Spanish state is ETA, Euskadi ta Askatsuna, born of the impatient years after the Second World War when national groups everywhere were claiming independence. One of their first actions was to define "a Basque" by language rather than race.

Basques trace a history back more than 100000 years to the time Cro Magnon people inhabited the region. So long as they were undisturbed, they were at peace.

Arkotxa says: "The Romans passed. They respected us. Islam did not intrude. The trouble began with the Gauls. They wanted control."

But Basque custom also scraped against religious neighbours. Women have long held almost equal power with men, able to inherit and control property and minister in churches: customs which so goaded the Spanish Inquisition there was a mass burning of witches in 1610 in the Basque town of Lograno.

"The real struggle in modern times started with the French Revolution and the creation of the modern state," says Arkotxa.

To people not of the mountains, the high ridges of the Pyrénées drew an obvious boundary between the new states of France and Spain. By 1800, the Basques were cut in half. Their old laws were abolished.

Many Basques backed the pretender to the Spanish throne, Carlos. "He said, support me and I will respect your rights," says Arkotxa. "We were betrayed."

By the time Spain made its second bid at becoming a republic in 1931, Basque mills were producing half of Spain's iron, three quarters of its steel; Basque banks controlled a third of investments.

A Basque government was sworn in under the ancient oak at Guernica in 1936.

But General Francisco Franco and his Falange mutinied against the new republicans. The Basques, who mixed the socialist and conservative of many rural peoples, were split between Falange and republicans.

Franco was happy to get help from the Nazis in Germany and the Fascists in Italy. As Mark Kurlansky puts it, "a 20th century force arrived to fight a 19th century war."

When civil war ended and the Second World War began in 1939, the Basques carried on their fight. They held the mountain passes and forest footpaths known only to local woodsmen and hunters. Hundreds of Allied airmen, spies, even German deserters, were smuggled to Vichy France.

As a reward, General Charles de Gaulle promised to rout fascism from Europe. The Basques would have their independence.

Ever the survivor, Franco quickly pointed to the "greater threat" of communism. The French wanted to sell him Mirage jets; the Americans needed air bases in Europe and a base for nuclear submarines at Rota.

Once again the Basques were sold out.

Franco ruled until his death in 1975, one of the longest reigns in modern history. But he would leave no heir.

His chosen successor, Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco, known as "The Ogre" to Basques, was blown to bits by ETA.

Franco's men shot scores of Basque prisoners. ETA murdered an almost equal numbers of Guardia Civil and other Spanish officials. 800 have died since then.

Basque politics remained divided. Udalbiltza is an attempt to create a uniting assembly, with Basque hopes pinned on next year's realignment of Europe.

With more people and a more powerful economy than several countries which have the same aspiration -- Cyprus, Malta, Slovenia, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia -- there seems no logical reason why the Basque flag should not fly there.

"I am very optimistic," says Arkotxa. "The main task of Udalbiltza for 2003 is as a social agency for the Basque country -- language, culture, economy and sport."

But Spain is determined to stop them.

Source : Daily Dispatch

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Otamendi Denounces Torture

As more information about the Egunkaria case is disclosed more and more evidence about Madrid's dirty war against the Basque society comes to light.

Reporters Without Borders, a conservative group that claims to defend the press freedom has been unreachable regarding the abduction of the ten Basques by the Spanish repressive forces.

This note regarding the torture suffered by Martxelo Otamendi has been published by The Independent:

Police tortured me, Basque editor claims

By Elizabeth Nash in Madrid
27 February 2003


A Basque journalist detained for alleged links with Eta separatists has claimed he and his colleagues were tortured in Madrid by the Spanish Interior Ministry's police.

Marcelo Otamendi, editor in chief of the Basque-language daily Egunkaria, which was closed last week because of suspected Eta links, said yesterday he was tortured during an all-night interrogation session in the cells of the paramilitary civil guard.

The claims have further raised the tension between the Basque country and Madrid. The justice minister of the autonomous Basque government, Joseba Azkarraga, demanded that Mr Otamendi's allegations be fully investigated. "When a newspaper editor denounces ill-treatment, you can't just look the other way," he said. "You have to take action."

But Angel Acebes, Spain's Interior Minister, angrily dismissed the claims as "totally false" and "criminal" and said he would open legal proceedings against those who made them. "In this country, the only ones who violate basic human rights are Eta, who torture and kill," he said.

Mr Otamendi was among the paper's 10 executives and directors detained last Thursday. He was released on Tuesday on 30,000 (20,500) bail. Yesterday he said he was repeatedly tortured during questioning from midday Monday until Tuesday morning.

"They twice forced a plastic bag over my head, made me crouch naked, and pointed an unloaded pistol against my temple, whilst constantly hurling insults about Basque culture and Basque politicians," he said.

Five of the 10 detained were refused bail on Tuesday, suspected of being Eta members or collaborators. The judge said they might abscond "for personal reasons or as a result of suggestions or orders". Four detainees, including Mr Otamendi, were bailed. The 10th detainee, Egunkaria's former editor Pello Zubiria, is in hospital in Madrid, recovering from a suicide attempt at the weekend.

Mr Otamendi, who denies any link with Eta, said fellow executive Javier Alegria had also been subjected to "the bag", and Juan Maria Torrealdai, aged 60, chairman of the directors, was savagely beaten. "Their treatment was absolutely cruel," he said. "They treated us like rats." Mr Alegria is being investigated over the radical nationalist newspaper Egin, banned five years ago in a case still awaiting trial. Mr Torrealdai is a Basque linguist. They are still in jail.

Their detention order was signed by the National Court judge Juan del Olmo who cited internal Eta documents seized by police between 1990, the year Egunkaria was founded, and 1992. These documents constituted " incriminating indications" that Egunkaria belonged to a "terrorist project" and "supported and promoted terrorist ideology", Judge del Olmo's indictment, quoted in yesterday's press, says.

Police extracted the documents from the computers of Eta leaders, including its commander, Jose Luis Alvarez Santacristina, detained in France in 1992. They demonstrate economic links between the organisation and the newspaper, Mr del Olmo says in his indictment.

The documents published in the press yesterday indicate Eta was extremely interested in the creation of a Basque-language daily, and mentioned names of people they favoured to run it. They also discuss the possible transfer of shares from Egin to the company behind Egunkaria.

Mr Azkarraga said the case against the men contained "no concrete charges", rather "general accusations based on police reports from 10 or 12 years ago that bear no relation to the paper's operation in recent years".

The Interior Minister condemned the Basque government's 1.7m subsidy last year for Egunkaria Basque for newspaper as "absolutely intolerable, equivalent to subsidising Eta". But the Basque government said it would continue supporting Basque-language media.

Noticed how the reporter Elizabeth Nash used Madrid's lame excuse to cover up the reason why Peio Zubiria had to hospitalized after being tortured?

Elizabeth Nash is obviously in Angel Acebes' payroll.

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New Gallery

Well people, as promised, here is the first batch of pictures from my trip to San Francisco, enjoy them, and since there is no political context you should not be afraid to leave a couple of comments.

We will leave the search for peace, democracy and freedom to the trained professionals.

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