Freedom to the Six!

If you wish to show your solidarity to the six Basque political prisoners in Mexico, here is a couple of options:

First you can sign the Petition on Line here.

Second, you can use the banner at the bottom, hang it at your own site and link it to this page.

We appreciate your efforts and your support.

Freedom 6 Mexico

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Mexico Violates Own Constitution

Taking advantage of a days ladden with political and social pivotal events, the head of the Secretaria de Relaciones Exteriores (Mexico's Foreign Ministry) Luis Ernesto Derbez decided to go ahead with the extradition process against the six Basque political prisoners behind bars at the Reclusorio Norte of Mexico City.

With this decision Luis Ernesto Derbez allows Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzon and Spanish Ambassador to Mexico Cristina Barrios to stomp on the Mexican Consitution that stablishes that no individual should be returned to a country were the person could face State harassment or discrimination for his or hers race, religion or political beliefs.

The Mexican Minister also stabs in the back the entire Mexican society that praises itself of being recognized around the world for its old heritage of providing safe haven for those who around the world suffer persecution, harassment, torture and even death due to their activism.

Shame on you Mr. Derbez!

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Told You!

Yesterday I informed you that Angel Acebes, former Interior Minister for Franc... I mean for the PP ruled Spain was to testify in front of the commission looking into the aftermath of the bombings in Madrid on March 11.

Well, believe it or not, after months of their political debacle due to their lies and manipulation in which one Basque citizen was murdered as direct result of their clumsy attempt to saddle the Basque society with the responsibility of the attacks, Angel Acebes went back to accusing ETA of being behind the attacks. In 10 hours of testifying he was unable to produce any evidence to support his accusations.

If this behavior does not tell the world that there is something definitely wrong with the likes of Acebes, Aznar, Palacio, Garzon and Rajoy, then the world just simply wants to look the other way while sadistic idiots like those above mentioned continue to rape one of Europe's oldest nations.

You can read the report in multiple sources, but I leave you with a report by a French judge denying a link between ETA and the Islamists.

Here it is:

NO LINK BETWEEN BASQUE AND ISLAMIC MILITANTS: FRENCH JUDGE

MADRID, July 27 (AFP) - No evidence has emerged to suggest any collaboration or connection between the Basque separatist movement ETA and extremist Islamic organisations, French anti-terrorist judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere told Spanish radio on Tuesday.

"We have uncovered no document showing a link, not even of a logistical nature, between ETA and Islamic organisations," Bruguiere, an expert on the Al-Qaeda terror network, told broadcaster Cadena Ser. Bruguiere has previously interviewed Jamal Zougam, considered to have played a leading role in the bombings of four commuter trains in Madrid on March 11, which killed 191 people in Spain's worst ever terrorist outrage.

Bruguiere questioned Zougam, now in Spanish custody, as part of an investigation begun in 1998 and focusing on young French radicals recruited to train at Al-Qaeda-affiliated camps in Afghanistan who are believed to have spent some time in Spain.

"That is to say this network existed, but I don't know that one could have anticipated or imagined an attack (such as March 11)," the judge said.

"We are facing a very different threat from that of ETA," he warned. "We are up against terrorism of the third millennium whose structure is global, ideological and loose," Bruguiere went on.

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Free Inaki Uria

Press Release from the Asociación Diáspora Vasca inviting you to show solidarity and sign a petition to demand the release of Inaki Uria -he is a member of the proscribed Basque newspaper EuskaldunonEgunkaria-who today is a prisoner of the Spanish State.

Solidarity With Basque Journalist Inaki Uria, Jailed Due to the Process Against the Newspaper "Egunkaria"

The Spanish State, that maintains the southern part of Euskal Herria (Basque Country) under occupation,attacks systematically and seeks to destroy the columns on which the land of our ancestors is built.Within this frame, on february 20th of 2003 the Government of then Spanish Prime Minister José María Aznar (infamous around the world for his cuestionable actions after the attacks of M-11 in Madrid) ordered the closing of the news paper Euskaldunon Egunkaria, the only one in the world published entirely inEuskera, the Basque language. It was not the first time something like this would happen: the newspaperEgin, the radio station Egin Irratia and the magazine Ardi Beltza, media outlets of nationalist tendencies, had been targets of similar attacks by the neo-Fascist Spanish State.

Within the frame of the political, judicial and law enforcement operation against Egunkaria, many of the people in charge of the publication were detained and held incommunicado, enduring torture from the hands ofthe Guardia Civil. What Martxelo Otamendi told the public after his release on bail was heart wrenching.He was fisically and emotionally abused, with absolut impunity. That is the way the Spanish State and its alleged democracy behave with those who defend, with their work, the right of the Basque women and men to access balanced information of unmatched quality inEuskera. Today, one of the assesors of that newspaper, Inaki Uria, remains in jail. He is one of the many political prisoners that are behind bars in a state that has been denounced on the international arena for mistreating and harassing the Basque prisoners. His one and only crime was to work towards the freedom of speech of those Basque women and men that every morning wished to read the news of their country and the whole world, and do so in their own ancient language.

The Spanish Audiencia Nacional, heir to the infamous Francoist Tribunal de Orden Publico, has imposed a bail of 600,000 euros on Uria as a pre-condition for him to secure his freedom. Later the amount was reduced to 450,000 euros, a steep amount that makes it impossible for his loved ones to raise it any time soon.The Asociacion Disapora Vasca, nationalist group integrated by over 300 people with presence in 20 countries, whishes to inform that we support the campaign of signatures initiated by the group “InakiUria Askatu” (Free Inaki Uria), to demand his freedom. We invite you to access the web pagehttp://www.uriaaskatu.com/gutunerako.php and add your signature as to tell the Spanish Government that our political prisoners are recipients of our support and our solidarity not only from the Basque women and men in Euskal Herria but also from the ones in the Diaspora, and also from those women and men that defend the freedom of speech throughout the world.

Due to the fact that the page is written entirely inEuskera, we provide this information:

Izen-abizenak: Name and Last Name.
E-posta: E Mail.
Nortasun Agiria: ID Card Number.
Kargua/lanbidea: Occupation.

Once the fields have been filled, you can click on“bidali” (send).

We want to thank you in advance for your support.

Iñaki askatu orain!

Free Iñaki Now!

Asociación Diáspora Vasca

Germany, Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Bolivia,Brazil, Castile, Catalunya, Colombia, Chile, Denmark,Ecuador, Spanish State, French State, United Kingdom,México, Perú, Puerto Rico, Sweeden, Switzerland,Uruguay, USA, Venezuela.

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Angel Acebes the Scumbag

Here you have uber-scumbag and Spain's former Interior Minister Angel Acebes, as he arrives today at the parliamentary commission investigating the March 11 train bombings, in Madrid, where Acebes was due to testify. Acebes and the Popular Party have been criticized by the international community for blaming the Basque separatist group ETA for the attacks on the eve of the general elections fearing a voters backlash if the attack were related to former Prime Minister Jose Maria's support for last year's U.S.-led invasion of Iraq .

My opinion?

This sad little piece of shit along with Jose Maria Aznar, Ana Palacio and Mariano Rajoy should be taken to The Hague to be put to trial for their repressive campaign against the Basque people. If Europe wants to honor its history and racial diversity, no one should be allowed to conduct all out campaigns against the nations without state within Europe.

As I said before, they did not blame the attacks on just ETA, they blamed the attacks on the whole of the Basque society, they blamed the attacks on the yearn of the Basque people to exercise their right to self determination.

Acebes

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Edurne Pasaban

Gora Edurne!

Edurne Pasaban smiles after returning from her K2 summit climb in Islamabad July 28, 2004. Nursing bandaged, frostbitten feet, Pasaban has just joined the ranks of the international mountaineering circuit's elite. On Monday, the slim 30-year-old from Euskal Herria became only the sixth woman to reach the peak of K2, the world's second highest mountain.

Here you have a little more information at Berria.

Edurne Pasaban

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Basques Must Decide

After three years of being banned by the Government of fascist Jose Maria Aznar, Juan Jose Ibarretxe, the Prime Minister of the Basque Autonomous Community was receive by Spain's new Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.

Rodriguez Zapatero was nice enough to even display an Ikurrina along with he Spanish flag outside of the Presidential Palace of La Moncloa, something never done before.

On his first official visit to Madrid in three years, Ibarretxe took the opportunity to present his new plan that would revamp the relationship between Gazteiz and Madrid. Rodriguez Zapatero may have been nice enough to display an Ikurrina (a flag that was called "terrorist banner" by an Argentinean rightist news paper last week) but his position regarding the Plan Ibarretxe is the same as Aznar's, according to them it is an attack on the Constitution, the Spanish Constitution that is.

It is this position, or rather opposition to a peaceful and negotiated solution to the conflict that had Aznar ordering his underlings to produce banners last March that read "With the victims, with the Constitution, against terrorism" when him and his officials at the PP wanted to pin the bombings in Madrid on Basque nationalism as to kill to birds with one rock. First, to continue to deny the Basques their right to self determination, and second, to take the attention of the public off the boneheaded support of Aznar for the war on Iraq.

Ibarretxe told Rodriguez Zapatero that on the issue of their self determination the Basques must decide and he made a plight to continue with his project and to call for a referendum in which the Basques are allowed to express their opinion. The plan has room for improvement even from the Basque point of view, just recently Arnaldo Otegi of the nationalist left has pledged his will to sit down and negotiate with the other political forces in the Basque Autonomous Community.

Hopefully something good will come out from all this.

Ibarretxe in Madrid

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Woody in Donostia

My dear friend Woody Allen will open up the Donostia Film Festival with his movie "Melinda and Melinda".

I remember when I was a kid and I used to watch his movies with my parents, we appreciated his dry humor and his wit. Then came that ugly episode in his life and the even ugliest decision of a judge not to indict him for statuatory rape.

But hey, we have Roman Polanski and the one dweeb that sings "Great Balls of Fire", so why shoud I feel animosity for this adorable geek?

Good luck at Donostia Woody!

And please, can you inform the press that Donostia is a Basque city, not a Spanish one? I would really appreciate it. Agur!

Woody

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Occupying Forces

This is the XXI century and smack in the middle of "civilized and democratic" Europe, then the Spanish repressive system decides to occupy an entire Basque town for over three hours to make it known that Madrid does not approve of the Summer Camp organized by a Basque youth organization.

They take over the entire town, they randomly stop people to question them and check their id's, throughout the whole ordeal they behave in an arrogant and rude way and they even refuse to inform the mayor of what is going on.

Does that respond the obtuse and asinine question of why the Basques want independence?

Here is the note at Berria:

Spanish Civil Guard officers occupy Etxarri-Aranatz due to Summer School

After the town had been taken over for three hours, the organisers decided to suspend the activities

Alberto Barandiaran – ETXARRI-ARANATZ (Navarre)

At midday yesterday Spanish Civil Guard and plain-clothes officers staged a three-hour occupation of the town of Etxarri-Aranatz (Navarre), because of a Young People's Summer School being held there, and proceeded to identify many people. The town's main street was full of officers openly carrying weapons and when the mayor asked for an explanation for the show, they told him that they were "routine, precautionary exercises". "Besides, the way they told us was as if they were doing it for our own security," complained the mayor, Juan Bautista Marinelarena.

Marinelarena stressed that the occupation "was an attack on the whole town of Etxarri-Aranatz" and that the attitude of the security forces was unacceptable. "It has been a provocation and could have had serious consequences if the citizens of Etxarri had not acted in a mature way," added the mayor.

Emilie Laplacette, speaking on behalf of the organisers, stressed that it had been "yet another chapter in the series of attacks on young people". "But we want to make it quite clear that they will never block the course the young people have embarked on," she said.

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Mostar's Old Bridge

During the Balkan War if there was one country that endured the most wrecking effects of an armed conflict, that country was Bosnia.

Compared to the killing of 8,000 men and boys in the town of Srebrenica at the hands of the Serb forces what happened in Mostar does not look too bad.

On November 9th of 1993 the Croatians shelled the town and destroyed the Ottoman style bridge that connected both parts of the city. For many, the destroyed bridge came to identify the savagery of war.

Yesterday the town of Mostar marked the opening of their new bridge that is an exact replica of the old one. People from all around the world went there to take part of the celebrations. The people from Mostar hope that the new bridge will be identified as a link of friendship between Bosnians and Croatians.

For the good of humankind, I wish it is so.

Mostar Old Brigde

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