Gora Maite!

There is a soccer team with a lot of tradition in the Basque Country, it is called the "Athletic de Bilbao" and is the team that represents the city of Bilbo on Spain's Premier League.

A couple of weeks ago they defeated Soccer's Dream Team "Real Madrid", a team that fields some of the biggest soccer stars in the world, names like Luis Figo, David Beckham, Zinedine Zidane and Ronaldo.

And what makes the Athletic so special? Only Basques can play in it. A few years ago they were about to sign the biggest Basque star from the French league, Bixente Lizarazu, but something did not work and Bixente ended up at the "Bayern Munich". Bixente has played numerous times with the Euskadi team which is the Basque Country's national team, but if the deal had taken place it was going to be the first time the Athletic would boast a Basque from Iparralde.

Well, the Athletic has a women's team also, and they are the defending champions in their league.

A couple of days ago a Basque from Boise arrived in Bilbo, her name is Maite Zabala and she was a goalkeeper for the WUSA(Women's United Soccer Association), she was the best goalkeeper in the league and the reason why she is in Bilbo is because she is going to try out for the team. If she signs with them then the club would be ackowledging us Basques outside of Euskal Herria as part of our beloved land. We are the eight Herrialde!

I wish the best of lucks to Maite, I got to learn about all of this thanks to her aunt Miren who is so proud and happy for her.

Gora Maite!

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IBO : Unfair Jail Time

The International Basque Organization for Human Rights has issued a new press release:

Basques Imprisoned For 2 Years For Crimes They Did Not Commit

How many more stories such as this will have to be repeated before the international community understands that there are serious problems in Spain regarding false accusations of terrorism directed towards Basques? Over and over it happens - anyone with any of the same goals as ETA can and are considered accessories to ETA, or apologists for terrorism. When we talk about the same goals as ETA, we are not referring to violence; we are talking about the non-violent political and cultural goals that many Basques have in order to ensure the survival of their culture. Supporting political parties that advocate self-determination. Supporting Basque history and language in schools.

Supporting Basque language newspapers and radio stations and Basque language cinema and rock and roll. All these actions come under suspicion. The Basques in this news story reported being tortured before the judge, several years back. The judge not surprisingly, discounted their stories. Now that they have been found innocent, will anybody listen? Does it even matter whether or not they were innocent or guilty of crimes? Is it right to torture people to secure confessions? In Spain, it seems to be, even if the confessions given turn out to be false, as in the case documented here. How many other false confessions have been tortured out of suspected Basque "terrorists", one has to wonder?

The Basques are crying out to the international community for help. Who will respond?

*/This campaign is based solely on word of mouth. It is CRUCIAL that you tell others. Please pass this e-mail on to anyone you think may be interested/.*

For more information, please contact:

International Basque Organization For Human Rights
PO Box 225
Corte Madera, CA 94976
www.euskojustice.org

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Enough is Enough!

One of the strongest motivations behind this Blog is the sense of duty I feel towards shedding light on what is happening to the Basque people.

For decades there the Spanish government ran a successful campaign of misinformation of everything Basque, knowing well that it is just impossible for people around the world to keep up with everything that is going on in the planet they were able to create a series of fake concepts about the Basque society and the history of the Basque Country.

They took advantage for the longest time, and people like me had no way of communicating our concerns on a broad basis, then along came the internet and a lot changed.

What happened yesterday reminded me of why it is so urgent that the international community start looking into the so called Basque conflict as soon as possible.

The name Ainara Gorostiaga may not mean a whole lot to you, Ainara like many other Basques believes in the right to the self determination of her people, and like many others like her, Ainara ended up in jail accused of belonging to ETA. She was not convicted in the act of committing a crime, nor was she arrested after a thorough investigation that yielded enough evidence to indict her. No, she was abducted by a judicial system that accused her of terrorism just because she was an active exponent of the Basque struggle.

Two years later she was released after being held incommunicado and tortured, she was in jail awaiting a trial based solely on the confessions they extracted from her during the "questionings" she was subjected to, she and other three people were accused of killing a politician. Then, in France they captured a real ETA member that led the French police to the real authors of that assassination, and so the sorry ass excuse of a judge by the name of Baltasar Garzon ordered her free.

So, in Spain, a regime that is identified by many as a democracy you are guilty until proven innocent. That is why it is so urgent that the international community moves to stop events like this from taking place. Madrid is on a vendetta against Basque self determination.

The depths of this ill conceived campaign against the Basques were exposed by the fatal bombings in Madrid a couple of weeks ago. The Spanish official went to the extreme of providing the German intelligence with false information on their obsession in blaming ETA for the bombings just for political gains. Lets not forget that the Saudi Arabs that destroyed the World Trade Center and damaged the Pentagon in September of 2001 had support from a terrorist cell in Germany, and that Germany has troops deployed in Afghanistan which makes them targets of Bin Laden's wrath. The Spanish official could care less about that, they wanted to pin the bombings on ETA and they were as far as misleading their European allies which could have resulted on more attacks around European capitals since the intelligence agencies were thinking it was a domestic problem. How idiotic can that be!

The "International Basque Organization for Human Rights" has ongoing campaigns in defense of Basques incarcerated both in Spain and around the world, they are people that share their love for their country and that today are behind bars on flimsy accusations by a regime very willing to lie, just to mention a few examples there is six Basques down in Mexico City that stand accused as a cell that was laundering money for ETA in Mexico, then there is Josu Lariz who was abducted from Uruguay after that South American country had denied his extradition to Spain, Josu is now on a cell in Argentina and could be extradited at any time. Xarlo Etxezaharreta sits in a cell in Spain, he is a French citizen for the virtue of having been born in Iparralde, the Northen Basque Country which is under French administration, yet, he was abducted in Spain without a warrant against him just for being the director of a leftist and pro-Basque magazine.

Like them, there is many more, their lives destroyed by a regime that refuses to acknowledge the right of the Basques to their self determination.

Enough is enough!

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This Is The Real Garzon

Did you read about a "judge" who got a Nobel nomination because he "dared" to open a motion to bring Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet before a court of law?

Well, the article you are about to read was published at Berria and it describes the case of Ainara Gorostiaga who spent two years in jail for a crime she never committed. Worst of all the fact that three other men accused of the same crime had been acquitted previously for lack of evidence to support their consignation. The reason why Ainara was kept behind bars is because she confessed to the crime after having been tortured by members of the Guardia Civil.

So here comes Garzon who releases her after two years saying that her confession did not match the details of how the alleged crime was committed.

Is he going to start an investigation on all the human rights violations suffered by these four Basques? Nope, after all, he is an important piece in the repressive machinery built by Spain.

After two years in prison Ainara Gorostiaga is released by Garzon

The judge says there is no evidence supporting the charge that she took part in the assassination of Mujika

Irene Arrizurieta - IRUÑEA (Pamplona)

Baltasar Garzon, the Spanish National Criminal Court judge, decided yesterday to release Ainara Gorostiaga, the Iruñea-born prisoner. Gorostiaga was due to leave Soto del Real prison (near Madrid) the same evening. Garzon had charged Gorostiaga with involvement in the assassination of Jose Javier Mujika, the UPN town councillor of Leitza (Navarre), but now Andoni Otegi and Oscar Zelarain, who are currently in prison in France, have been charged with the assassination.

According to a French police report, papers seized from Ibon Fernandez-Iradi indicate that Otegi and Zelarain had carried out the assassination. Garzon released Gorostiaga and withdrew the charge from Jorge Txokarro, Mikel Soto and Aurken Sola on the basis of these papers. French police say the papers tell how the assassination of Mujika was carried out and their conclusion was that Otegi had written it, after a handwriting analysis had been carried out. News agencies said yesterday that Garzon had received the document on 15th through a rogatory letter. After examining it, he decided to prosecute Otegi and Zelarain and asked for their extradition.

So the charges were withdrawn and Ainara Gorostiaga was set free; she had been arrested on February 24, 2002 on the orders of Judge Guillermo Ruiz Polanco. She had been kept in incommunicado detention from the moment she was arrested until March 5, 2002, and when this was lifted she denounced tortures.

Apart from Gorostiaga another three people believed to have been linked to the assassination of the UPN councillor were also arrested: Jorge Txokarro, Mikel Soto and Aurken Sola. The four of them had been prosecuted for membership of the alleged ETA cell /Urbasa /. Txokarro, Soto and Sola spent two years behind bars and were released last month by Judge Guillermo Ruiz-Polanco, after they had posted bail.

The three of them testified before Garzon on March 3 in connection with the Mujika assassination and were released after it was decided that there was insufficient evidence against them. Gorostiaga, however, was ordered to remain in prison. In fact, according to the judge, she had admitted in front of the Spanish Civil Guard that she had taken part in the killing and that the other three had been involved, too. Gorostiaga said the statement had been extracted under torture. In connection with her complaint Garzon said in yesterday's writ that the statement had been taken in accordance with Criminal Prosecution Legislation. He nevertheless admitted that the information in that statement did not concur with "the objective information relating to Otegi and Zelarain" that had emerged.

Please, take not that the three men had to post bail even after the judge had determined that there was no sufficient evidence to sustain a guilty verdict. This is why I insist that those amounts of money should be called ransom instead of bail.

Garzon is guilty of depriving these individuals of two years of their lives, guilty of imprisoning innocent people over confessions extracted through torture, guilty of being behind shady police investigations that net innocent people. But no one is going to do anything about it, he is after all, a Nobel nominate.

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Wheels in Motion

Today at Berria English:

The wheels have been set in motion

The Spanish Supreme Sports Council is to lodge an appeal against the existence of the official roller skating team of Catalonia. Another five federations are seeking to compete officially

J. O. – DONOSTIA (San Sebastian)

Without anyone realising it, the Catalan Roller Skating Federation has joined the International Federation. Approval was obtained in a meeting of the International Federation on Saturday and the presentation was made yesterday. However, the moment the Spanish Supreme Sports Council (CSD) found out that Catalonia could have an official skating team, it got down to work. Juan Antonio Gomez-Angulo, the Spanish Junior Minister for Sports, said yesterday that the CSD would be filing an appeal against the approval, and announced that it would be sending letters to all the federations that belong to the International Federation.

With these letters the CSD aims to get Saturday’s approval suspended. The decision is provisional at present and the International Roller Skating Federation (IRSF) will have to give make it permanent on November 26 in Fresno (USA). In a repetition of what happened with the Basque pelota team of the Basque Country, Spain now wants to influence the vote of the other international federations. The CSD said yesterday, “We are going to explain to them that according to Spanish regulations it is impossible for Catalonia to have an official team and they are going to be asked not to admit Catalonia."

What is hard to understand is why territories and regions like Puerto Rico, Northern Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Hong Kong, Taiwan and even Palestine are allowed to compete in different international events under their own flags but not Catalonia or Euskal Herria, hmmm...

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Aznar is Gone, Good Riddance!

Only a couple of weeks ago José María Aznar was cracking up huge face-splitting smiles, he was riding high and nothing, absolutely nothing could stop him.

He had managed to make the whole world believe that he was a great statesman, the international community and the media were lazy on realizing that they had been fooled by an arrogant bore.

Throughout his eight years as Prime Minister of Spain he has been the mastermind behind the Popular Party's success in bringing back some of the worst elements of the Francoist dictatorship into the political and cultural life of Spain. It helped that the media and the international organizations employed the last 30 years on sanitizing the image of one of Europe's worst dictators.

From his hand the establishment in Madrid suffocated the cultural and political life in Euskal Herria and Catalonya; newspapers were closed down, political parties were banned, elementary schools were accused of being "hotbeds of terrorism", artists were persecuted and activists were incarcerated with often unsustainable accusations of abetting terrorism.

He went to the extreme of threatening the Basque Prime Minister with incarceration if he was to push forward with his plan to a referendum in the Basque Autonomous Community aimed at finding out were the Basque society stands regarding self determination and independence.

He said no to dialogue, it was his way or the highway, his arrogance was so blind that he created the devastating conditions for Europe's worst environmental disaster, the sinking of the Prestige off the coast of Galiza.

During the build up to the war on Iraq the majority of Spaniards opposed the rush to start a war over accusations of Saddam's links to Al Qaida and the non existent weapons of mass destruction. Aznar could care less, it was his golden opportunity to be one of the big dogs mostly after France, Russia and Germany decided to remain on the sideline.

Oh how much he loved that picture of him with his buddies Bush and Blair in Lanzarote. In his mind that picture rivaled that one of the Four in Malta during WWII. He was the second or third most important fella in the world, depending on how the world saw that pansy ass Blair.

Something in his little peanut mind told him that running for a third term would be a little too bold, so he decided to be the puppet master and have one of his minions taking the front stage, he then tapped his dauphine, Mariano Rajoy, to run for the position of Prime Minister of the One and Christian Kingdom of Spain.

And then on a cold winter morning the peyote induced dream came crashing down. But it was not the bombs that killed and wounded so many innocent people what destroyed the foundation of that ivory tower he was living in, oh no, it was the acid of his own lies what in the end melted away his credibility and the credibility of his officials.

Last week he was caught with his pants down trying to hatch a coup d'etat, attempting to walk the elected Prime Minister and his party into a political quagmire, Spain was ready this time and once again his true colors disgusted the public.

A couple of days ago during the summit of European leaders in Brussels he was not smiling that dumb and arrogant smile of his, he sat, lonely, while the European leaders greeted each other before the meeting. He was the fallen angel with all the ugly colors of Fascism smeared all over him.

Good riddance to one of the world's most sinister and idiotic leaders of modern days.

Agur txakurra!

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Andolin Eguzkitza

Eguzkitza

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Encouraging Basque

Today at Berria English:

ELA and LAB unions launch campaign to encourage Basque in companies

A clause calling for “practical steps” will be added in this year’s collective bargaining

Jakes Goikoetxea – DONOSTIA (San Sebastian)

“It’s high time Basque was introduced into the work sphere and companies”. “The situation of Basque in these areas is on red alert”. These were the messages transmitted yesterday by the ELA and LAB unions. Basque has made progress in many other areas and now it is the turn of work and companies. A campaign has been launched for this purpose: It’s High Time. In Basque, in Companies, a Good Investment . Jabi Garnika, member of the LAB executive committee, stressed: “It is not, however, a campaign for appearing in the photos.” It is based on stark reality. “There is a chasm between the linguistic reality of society and the presence Basque has in the field of work and companies.” Garnika provided figures: less than a hundred out of the 2,600 companies employing over 50 people have implemented a normalisation plan for Basque.

They want Basque to take a qualitative leap forward in the sphere of work and companies and this is why ELA and LAB have announced their commitment to this. Jose Elorrieta, the ELA General Secretary, said: “We are Basque nationalist unions and the normalisation of Basque is one of our concerns. We have supported many initiatives by citizens, but the time has come as a social agent to make active commitments and to encourage the normalisation of Basque,” added Rafa Diez, General Secretary of LAB.

ELA and LAB plan to draw attention to the importance of Basque in their collective bargaining and in their sector agreements: they have made a commitment in this year’s collective bargaining for demands relating to Basque to be included in sector agreements and company agreements. A special clause on Basque will be added calling for “practical steps” in favour of the normalisation of Basque.

“The commitment that may be included in the sector agreements is fairly general,” admitted Leire Txakartegi, member of the ELA executive committee. But she added that the unions wanted to go further: “We want to encourage plans and steps for the normalisation of Basque in companies, so as to gradually change the reality of Basque in these areas.”

ELA and LAB have called on management and workers to adopt an active, effective attitude in favour of the normalisation of Basque, “to turn the woeful situation of Basque in the sphere of work and companies around.” Elorrieta said, “Basque will not achieve normalisation in companies without the commitment or approval of the workers.”

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Attitude Towards Dialogue

Today at Berria English:

After meeting EAJ highlights PSOE’s open attitude towards dialogue

The EAJ says that they hope the change will have an effect on the PSE-EE

Agencies – MADRID

Josu Erkoreka, the EAJ spokesman, yesterday praised the PSOE’s open attitude in the Madrid Congress (lower house of parliament). He made these declarations in Madrid after meeting with the PSOE leaders Jesus Caldera and Alfredo Perez-Rubalcaba. “We have come across an open attitude and a disposition for dialogue which are a far cry from the aggressive, arrogant attitude of the past few years,” said Erkoreka, as he emerged from the meeting. He went on to say he was keen for the open attitude he had come across in the first meeting with the PSOE to pave the way for good mutual understanding with the PSE-EE.

Moreover, he praised the PSOE’s wish for the plural nature of the State to be reflected in the Congress and Senate (upper chamber). The EAJ has in fact asked to be represented on the Presiding Committee of either the Congress or of the Senate.

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To Andolin Eguzkitza

Some sad news at Berria English today:

“When it rains in our very depths” (*)

The unexpected news of Andolin Eguzkitza’s death has caused great sadness in the world of Basque culture

Juan Luis Zabala – DONOSTIA (San Sebastian)

The world of Basque letters was rocked by a sad piece of news yesterday: the writer Andolin Eguzkitza died of a heart attack yesterday morning in the hospital of Basurto (Bilbo). He had undergone a heart operation after an aneurysm was detected; although the operation appeared to have been successful, he died suddenly afterwards. This poet, novelist, full member of the Euskaltzaindia, lecturer and professor at the University of the Basque Country - EHU, former chairman of the EIE (Basque Writers’ Association) and Member of the Basque Language Advisory Committee of the Basque Government had worked untiringly in support of the Basque language and culture.

He was born on December 6, 1953 in Santurtzi (Bizkaia). He graduated in Romance Languages at the University of Deusto in 1975 and the following year continued his studies at the University of Salamanca where Koldo Mitxelena was one of his teachers. After spending two years at the Linguistics Institute of the University of Cologne he went to America, firstly to Iowa University and then to UCLA in Los Angeles. There he was awarded a PhD in Romance Linguistics for his thesis entitled Topics on the Syntax of Basque and Romance .

By then, however, he had conducted other pieces of research of a less official nature but by no means inferior: at the beginning of the 70’s he learnt Basque with the help of Gabriel Aresti, Xabier Kintana, Joseba Agirreazkuenaga and others. Eguzkitza was said to have amazed Aresti with his tremendous ability to learn the language and to acquire the distinctive features of local Basque language varieties. When Aresti realised Eguzkitza had this gift he regarded him as a “monster”. He was also acquainted with Jon Mirande. Eguzkitza prepared Mirande’s anthology of poetry Orhoituz for publication after the poet’s death. On his return to the Basque Country in the mid-80s he began to work as a lecturer, firstly at the University of Deusto and later at the University of the Basque Country, where he continued lecturing in subjects relating to linguistics. Last September he was awarded the Chair in General Linguistics and Typology.

In 1991 the Euskaltzaindia appointed him as an associate member and in March 2001 he became a full member to replace the late Luis Villasante. His presentation speech was in praise of candour. He headed the Dialectology Committee and sat on the Grammar Committee and on the “Exonomastics” or Foreign Names Sub-Committee, among others.

Apart from poetry collections and novels Andolin Eguzkitza wrote many articles for newspapers, journals and magazines throughout the Basque Country: Anaitasuna, Pott Bandaren Praka, Argia, Jakin, Euskaldunon Egunkaria, BERRIA, Hegats, Maiatz and Elhuyar, among others.

(*) This is a reference to Erraietan barrena euria egiten digunean , Eguzkitza’s translation into Basque of a work entitled Quan plou en les entranyes by the Catalan poet Manel Alonso.

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