Itoiz Committee regards judgement as “scandalous”, and lodges appeal
The lawyer Beaumont has denounced the use of “false or erroneous arguments” by Strasbourg
Edurne Elizondo – IRUÑEA (Pamplona)
The Itoiz Coordinating Committee regards the verdict on the reservoir handed down on Tuesday by the European Court of Human Rights as “scandalous” and has announced its intention to lodge an appeal against it with the Grand Chamber of the Strasbourg Court.
In a press conference held yesterday Jose Luis Beaumont, the Coordinating Committee’s lawyer, stressed: “If the Spanish Government had good advisers, it would know that there are many possibilities of the latest verdict being quashed, because it has been based on false or at least erroneous arguments.”
“The judges of the Fourth Division of the Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg have reached their verdict without taking the reality into consideration. These judges have in fact stressed that they do not know what the politicians responsible for Itoiz have said again and again, and what everyone knows,” explained Beaumont.
The Strasbourg judges say they do not know the aim of the new National Parks Law passed by the Navarrese Parliament in 1996. “Those responsible for the reservoir admitted dozens of times, and with pride, too, that the change was made to the law so as not to comply with the verdict handed down by the Spanish National Criminal Court in 1995; that verdict and also the one handed down by the Spanish Supreme Court in 1997 regarded the Itoiz reservoir project as illegal.” Beaumont added that the Spanish National Criminal Court itself had admitted that the aim of the new law was to seek a way of not complying with the verdict handed down against the project, and that is what it explained, when it presented the case on that law to the Spanish Constitutional Court.
Uria required to post bail of 600,000 euros to go free
The 1st Court of the Spanish National Criminal Court's Penal Division has not only set an extremely high figure, it has also denied the detainee the chance to provide security and has ordered him to report to the police station every day
Imanol Murua-Uria DONOSTIA (San Sebastian)
The Spanish National Criminal Court has imposed an unprecedented bail figure on Inaki Uria, the former managing director of Egunkaria: the 1st Court of the Penal Division has ruled that he will have to post bail amounting to 600,000 euros to secure his release on-trial, and has denied him the opportunity of paying by providing security. The court's panel of judges has taken this decision in response to an appeal presented by Uria's defense team, and has thus overruled the order issued by Juan Del Olmo, the instructing judge, that their client should be remanded in custody. The panel of judges has ruled that Uria will also have to report to the police station every day in addition to posting bail.
In the brief writ issued by Siro Garcia, the head of the panel of judges, Antonio Diaz-Delgado, the judge responsible for delivering the leading opinion, and the Judge Manuela Fernandez, Uria has been granted release on bail, because the danger of his hampering the investigations is believed to have disappeared in view of the time that has elapsed. Nevertheless, the strict precautionary measures have been imposed, because the danger of his absconding is not thought to have disappeared. Defense Counsel Jose Maria Elosua regards the setting of such high bail as "absurd" and is planning to file an appeal. Elosua went to the Spanish National Criminal Court yesterday to talk to the judge responsible for delivering the leading opinion in the panel of judges about reducing the bail or allowing for it to be paid through providing security, but he didn't even agree to see him. The lawyer Enekoitz Etxeberria will be meeting with Inaki Uria at the Aranjuez prison this morning to inform him of the decision and to discuss the steps that need to be taken. If the appeal is presented, it will not be necessary to await the Court's decision. If this is decided and there is a possibility of finding the money, the bail could be posted.
The lawyer Elosua believes that the panel of judges has not borne in mind "who Inaki Uria is nor what means he has of being able to post the bail". By demanding bail of 600,000 euros "it has set an amount that cannot be paid, unless it is with the support of the public". The lawyer has pointed out that bearing in mind the decisions taken until now in the Egunkaria case, another measure is being used in Uria's case: "They are treating Inaki differently, without justification and, among other things, without stating the reasons in the writ."
Mayor wants recognition that Franco ordered the bombing
The mayor of Gernika has made this request to the Spanish Government on the 67th anniversary of the massacre of the town
Editorial Staff – BILBO
Yesterday was the 67th anniversary of the bombing of Gernika by the German Condor Legion on the orders of the dictator Francisco Franco. Although many years have passed since those events and numerous calls have been made for Franco’s responsibility to be acknowledged, there has been no response as yet from the Spanish Government. That is the request made by Migel Angel Aranaz, the mayor of Gernika, to Jose Luis Rodriguez-Zapatero’s Government: to admit that Franco ordered the bombing of Gernika.
Aranaz pointed out that many people who experienced the massacre and descendants of those killed there are still alive “and their wounds have not yet been closed”. In the mayor’s view a formal acknowledgement by the Spanish Government would help them to come to terms with what they went through.
“Germany acknowledged seven years ago that it was the Condor Legion which had bombed Gernika and it had of course done so on Franco’s orders,” explained Aranaz in an interview broadcast on the Euskadi Irratia radio station. That being the case the mayor of Gernika said: “We want the Spanish Government to admit its responsibility, too.” He added: “67 years have gone by and it’s time that things were recognised.”
In a letter presented in the Spanish Senate (upper house) Iñaki Anasagasti, the EAJ-PNV Senator, called on the Government to accept responsibility for the bombing. In it he recalled that Congress (the lower house) took the decision to formally admit responsibility in 1999 and with the support of all the parties; so “the decisions taken should be fulfilled”.
Numerous events were also organised to mark the anniversary. Yesterday the official event was held in Gernika. A floral tribute was made to those who suffered the bombing and who are still alive. Among those present were Idoia Zenarruzabeitia, the Deputy Lehendakari or President of the Basque Autonomous Community Government, Jose Luis Bilbao, the Head of the Provincial Council of Bizkaia, and the mayor of Gernika himself. The time of the bombing was marked by the sound of a siren and the Matraka play on the war was performed in the streets of this town in Bizkaia.
The XIV International Culture and Peace Symposium organised by the Gernika Gogoratuz association is currently being held. The Gernika Committee and the Arrano Cultural Association also organised a round-table discussion yesterday. Martxelo Otamendi, BERRIA’s Editor-in-Chief, and Alizia Stürtze, historian, were among those who took part.
• In 1937, planes from Nazi Germany raided the Basque town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War.
The attack was aimed at bringing fear into the hearts of the Basques who for months had been battling the combined forces of Hitler, Mussolini and Franco, Gernika was well behind the front line and had no means to defend itself, few weeks previous to that day the Germans had tried their bombers on the city of Durango killing dozens of people. This time Franco wanted to break the Basque will and allowed the Germans to go at it with everything, destroy Gernika and the Basques will surrender. At the end of the day up to 1,600 innocent civilians were dead, but the Basque resolve to face totalitarianism and the Oak of Gernika stood up, solid.Ibarretxe calls for practical constitutionalism
Juan Jose Ibarretxe, the President of the Basque Autonomous Community, went to Madrid yesterday to ask that the “new opportunity” be seized by addressing the contents and not just the form, and to offer dialogue
Agencies – MADRID
In a speech given in Madrid yesterday Juan Jose Ibarretxe, the Lehendakari or President of the Basque Autonomous Community, highlighted a message in favour of dialogue. He said he had come to Madrid to offer “sincere dialogue and the readiness of the Basque institutions to resolve the problems of the Basque Country” and not to demand rectification or that people should give in. Lehendakari Juan Jose Ibarretxe had been invited by the Nueva Economía Forum to give a speech yesterday morning at a Madrid hotel. At midday he attended the opening of the legislative session of the Spanish Parliament.
Ibarretxe spoke about the “new opportunity” that had been presented by the elections and about the new atmosphere in favour of dialogue. His appearance in itself bore witness to the new atmosphere. Instead of the cool reception given to the Lehendakari of the Basque Government during the trips made in recent times, he received the support of Jose Luis Rodriguez-Zapatero’s new government: Jordi Sevilla, the Public Administration Minister, welcomed Ibarretxe. Numerous politicians attended the breakfast speech. Javier Rojo, the Speaker of the Senate or upper chamber of the Spanish parliament, Santiago Carrillo, the former secretary general of the PCE (Spanish Communist Party) and Ricardo Fluxa, the former Junior Minister for Security, were joined by others who had travelled down from the Basque Country. Among Ibarretxe’s listeners were Josu Jon Imaz, Chairman of the National Executive Committee (EBB) of the EAJ-PNV, Miren Azkarate, Basque Government spokesperson and Minister for Culture, Gorka Knörr, Deputy Speaker of the Basque Parliament, the PSOE MP Ramon Jauregui and the EAJ-PNV MP Josu Erkoreka.
Lehendakari Ibarretxe held the view that the new opportunity opened up by the PSOE coming to power should not be restricted to matters of form. In contrast, he referred to the need to “address the contents”. With respect to the reforms announced by the Spanish Prime Minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez-Zapatero, Ibarretxe felt it was necessary to choose between two options: either to go down the road of “constitutional fundamentalism” or to choose the way of “practical constitutionalism”. The second option requires that political consensus be achieved first and afterwards that the law be adapted in accordance with that consensus.
In this respect Ibarretxe recalled that Rodriguez-Zapatero had said that he was prepared to accept what the people and Parliament of Catalonia accepted. In Madrid Ibarretxe posed the question as to whether he would be prepared to accept what the Basque Parliament and Basque society accepted. Ibarretxe said he was looking forward to meeting with Zapatero soon, but a date had yet to be fixed.
Gernikako arbola
Da bedeinkatua
Euskaldunen artean
Guztiz maitatua
Eman ta zabal zazu
Munduan frutua
Adoratzen zaitugu
Arbola santua~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~Tree from gernika
Is sacred
Among Basques
Much loved
Give and disseminate
Your fruit through the world
We adore you
Sacred tree
Oak of Guernica! Tree of holier power
Than that which in Dodona did enshrine
(So faith too fondly deemed) a voice divine
Heard from the depths of its aerial bower,
How canst thou flourish at this blighting hour?
What hope, what joy can sunshine bring to thee,
Or the soft breezes from the Atlantic sea,
The dews of morn, or April's tender shower?
----Stroke merciful and welcome would that be
Which should extend thy branches on the ground,
If never more within their shady round
Those lofty-minded Lawgivers shall meet,
Peasant and Lord, in their appointed seat,
Guardians of Biscay's ancient liberty.~ William Wordsworth
