Oinkari's Golden Anniversary

This article was published at The Idaho Statesman:

Oinkari Basque Dancers to celebrate golden anniversary

The group that began with 7 dancers plans a year of anniversary observances.

BY TIM WOODWARD

You can't call yourself a true Boisean if you've never seen the Oinkari Basque Dancers. They're part of our heritage, like Music Week or tubing the Boise River.

But do you know when and how they started?

Probably not. They're so much a part of the local scene that they seem to have always been here.

The group began after seven Boise Basques in their early 20s visited Spain and learned some Basque songs and dances. They thought the dances would be a fleeting diversion.

Nearly half a century later, Idaho Basques are planning more than a year of events celebrating the 50th anniversary of that trip and what it started. What began with seven 20-somethings has become a tradition that has included more than 800 dancers performing at venues from local parks to the rotunda of the U.S. Senate.

"They've represented Idaho nationally and internationally," Basque Museum and Cultural Center Director Patty Miller said. "And they've been great preservers of our culture. When the visitors' bureau or the tourism department want to point something out about Boise culture, there's nothing more visible than the Basque dancers."

The seven who started it all - Al Erquiaga, Delphina and Diana Urresti, Toni Murelaga, Simon Achabal, Clarine Anchustegui and Bea Solosabal - spent the summer of 1960 in Europe. While visiting the Basque country, they met a group of dancers who called themselves the Oinkaris, which loosely means dancing feet.

"They taught us two dances to take home," Boisean Toni Achabal said. (Her last name being the same as that of another member of the original seven isn't a coincidence. She and her husband, Simon, were the first of many Oinkari dancers to be married.)

"We had the idea of starting a group in Boise," she said, "but we never dreamed what it would become. We thought it would be here today and gone tomorrow."

When the Boiseans visited Spain, dictator Francisco Franco was ruthlessly suppressing Basque culture. Basques couldn't fly their flag, speak their language or write down their music. The novice dancers had to try to remember the songs until they returned to Boise.

"We got together with Jimmy (local accordion legend Jimmy Jausoro) right away because we didn't know how long the songs would stay in our heads," Achabal said. "He wrote down what we could remember. We made our own costumes and started practicing. It wasn't authentic, but it was as authentic as we could make it."

It was authentic enough that their first performance for Boise's Basque community in December 1960 was a hit.

"We were so nervous we didn't know if we were coming or going, but we wowed them," Achabal said.

The performances will continue with more than a year of anniversary observances, beginning with the St. Ignatius picnic Aug. 1-2 (the current Oinkari dancers will perform), culminating with Jaialdi in July of 2010 and ending with a dinner dance in December of 2010 - 50 years after the first group's first performance.

"We're going to try to get all the alumni to dance at one time at Jaialdi," Erquiaga said. "That will be over 700 people."

Though two of the original dancers now live out of state, all seven - now in their 70s - plan to join in the festivities.

"Hopefully we'll rehearse first," Erquiaga said. "Then we'll stagger through it."

That's a greater accomplishment than it might seem.

The Oinkari group that taught them their first dances in Spain? It disbanded decades ago.

Darin Oswald / Idaho Statesman: Toni Murelaga Achabal, Diana Urresti Sabala, Delphina Urresti (front row), Simon Achabal and Al Erquiaga (back row) helped found the Basque Oinkari Dancers. Current and former dancers are about to kick off more than a year of celebrating their 50th anniversary.

Just one little detail, the original Oinkari group was not from Spain, it was from Euskal Herria.

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Basque Rustic Cuisine

This article was published at The Australian:

Basque in rustic glory

Christine McCabe

I WAS introduced to Basque cuisine a lifetime ago in, of all places, Reno, Nevada, at a small family-run restaurant where patrons crowded at long, communal tables tucking into steaming bowls of lamb stew.

In food-savvy San Francisco, Basque-born chef Gerald Hirigoyen has given his native cuisine a fresh, west coast twist at the acclaimed Piperade, one of this city's must-visit restaurants.

Set two blocks from the waterfront, wedged between the Embarcadero and the Financial District in a renovated warehouse, this charming eatery, opened seven years ago to rave reviews and a chef-of-the-year gong, is a long way from the humble shepherds' fare of northern Nevada or indeed the Basque country.

But Hirigoyen pays homage in the form of a large shepherd's table, anchor to the restaurant's rustic, but stylish, fittings that include an oversized clock face and a chandelier fashioned from used wine bottles.

Lunch starts late on a Friday here. Barely anyone tips up before 2pm, giving we famished tourists a substantial head start. Our French waitress is all smiles and clearly knows her way around the Spanish and California-centric wine list (where Basque wines are a feature), recommending a cava to start: d'Abbatis Brut Nature, Catalunya 2005 ($US10 ($14) a glass) made from 30-year-old parellada vines.

It's the perfect accompaniment to our entrees or tipiak (small plates): a sensational house-cured bacalao ($US12), salt cod topped with small, silken oysters and a drizzle of lemon creme fraiche, and a grande white bean salad served with boquerones (Spanish anchovies), fresh herbs and crumbled, hard-boiled eggs ($US11).

Our tipiak triumvirate is made replete with a wonderful, salty-licious terrine ($US12) of ham and sheep's-milk cheese finished with a crispy, caramelised crust and dressed with aged sherry. A perfect tapas dish designed to tickle the appetite and the thirst, never a bad thing when one is en vacance.

As the cava evaporates at an alarming rate, folk begin trickling into our warehouse bolthole, drawing up to linen-dressed tables lined with festive red, white and blue runners. You get the feeling this a favourite luncheon hideaway for city folk, set on a broad, leafystreet (there's even parking), with a relaxed, urbane atmosphere.

The mains, or handiak (big plates), are a slightly smaller, but just as tempting, selection of Basque-influenced dishes. The restaurant's namesake seems compulsory for first-timers: piperade ($US17), a traditional Basque concoction of sauteed peppers, tomatoes, onions and garlic topped with serrano ham and a poached egg. It's simple but elegant, the Coco Chanel of stews. Just as light on the hips is another signature Hirigoyen dish, a braised seafood stew ($US20) of salmon, prawns, mussels, cockles and squid.

To wash down our mains we plunder the Spaniards again: a Vionta Albarino 2007 ($US10 a glass), a rather fashionable variety Stateside, and a Volver Tempranillo La Mancha (also $US10).

By mid-afternoon the small restaurant has filled with a cheerful local crowd giving it the cosy ambience of a corner cafe. There are zero tourists; one imagines they're loitering on the waterfront paying premium for Dungeness crab while missing this quintessential San Francisco dining experience.

Make a day of it by beginning at the nearby Embarcadero Ferry Plaza, exploring the wonderful food shops in this elegantly restored city landmark (artisan chocolates, cheeses and bread are specialities) before jumping a heritage trolley (or tram), reminiscent of Moscow, Milan, even Melbourne, along the waterfront. Then enjoy a stroll to Piperade if for no other reason than to order dessert. Hirigoyen's orange blossom beignets ($US8) are recommended in almost every food guide to the city, with good reason. They are divine.

Having lived in San Francisco for more than 25 years (and now operating two restaurants, including a casual tapas eatery in North Beach), Hirigoyen is firmly entrenched as one of city's leading food identities, his simple dishes a celebration of Basque tradition and Californian innovation.

He has said he doesn't want to be labelled a Spanish chef but enjoys integrating different flavours while drawing on his culinary roots.

And there's something very San Franciscan about his food: fresh ingredients prepared simply in relaxed surrounds where, with a little imagination, one can hear the jingle of a sheep's bell on a Nevada hillside.

From this blog we express our dream that one day those who write about the Basques will finally refrain from insulting our identity by calling us Spaniards.

And just so you know, there is an active Basque community in Australia.

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Spain's New Crusade in the Basque Country

For the second time, Spain’s conservatives and socialists are to share power in the Basque country. The banning from recent elections of pro-independence left-wing parties left the ruling Basque Nationalists with no natural allies. Despite winning the most seats, the PNV had no overall majority and was forced out.

In its place the Basque socialist leader Patxi Lopez will become regional prime minister, a significant political boost for Spanish premier Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. The post of regional parliament head will be filled by a member of the extreme right Partido Popular. There is no surprise whatsoever about this outcome which ends a three-decade period of Basque Nationalist rule in the region.

The PNV had enjoyed unbroken rule since 1980, but now faces time in opposition thanks to an deal between the PSOE and the PP that ends a masquarade. For the longest time these two parties were shown to the Spanish electorate and to the international community as two separate columns of Spain's alleged democracy. Now it is quite clear that they are little more than the right wing and the left wing of the same government, the one presided by Juan Carlos Borbon who was selected by the genocidal dictator Francisco Franco to replace him after his death.

The big wigs in Madrid decided that the precedents set by the independence of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Slovenia, Bosnia, Macedonia, Croatia and more recently Kosovo, plus the calls for independence from Scotland, Wales, Feroe Islands, Breizh, Corsica and even the possible split in Belgium were far too dangerous because they could not keep up with their campaign of lies and misconceptions that they erected around the right to self determination of their own continental colonies; Nabarra, Cataluya and Galiza. This is why they decided to forget about their "differences" and joined forces in order to secure that they will be able to continue to deprive the Basque people of their civil and political rights.

The main stream media insists that this was the first time ever which is not true, the PSOE and the PP did the same thing over a year ago in the Basque province of Nafarroa when they left out a Basque coalition party known as Nafarroa Bai (NaBai).

The BNP (PNV) will be in the opposition yes, and they deserve it, because for the longest time they enabled Spain to supress the political rights of the left-wing parties thanks to a Franco era like law, it is just right that now they will suffer the consequences of their betrayal to their own people, serves them well.

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Football's Identity Matters

The article you are about to read was published at Goal.com and it tip-toes around the fact that the inhabitants of Euskal Herria and Catalunya (two out of the three abducted nations by Spanish colonialism) do not feel Spanish and therefore do not support Spain's national football team. Here you have it:

World Cup Debate: Spain - Divided, But Still Successful

Goal.com takes a look at that land of many cultures - Spain - and the status of the national team...

It's a rare country that has everyone within its borders cheering for national team success. Virtually everywhere on earth you will find ex-pats, immigrants, and the children of immigrants - sitting quietly at home while the majority are out watching the national team compete in the World Cup.

What's more, in quite a few you will even find native-born citizens, stretching back generations, who are not the least bit interested in the fortunes of the national side. Perhaps nowhere in Europe is this more true than in Spain.

A House Divided

The Spanish football roadshow - easily one of Europe's more mobile national teams - seems to cover a heck of a lot of ground, but this is deceptive. The vast, vast majority of the matches are played in the various pro-Spain heartlands of Castile and Leon, Castile-La Mancha, Andalucia, Asturias, Extremadura, and even Galicia and Murcia. Valencia is well-resented, too, while La Rioja, Navarre, Aragon and the Canaries are also visited. But Catalonia? The Basque Country? No.

There are parts of Spain, then, in which the national side simply is not relevant. Catalonia is the first example: sure, there are Spain fans there, but not many, borne out by the fact that the Furia Roja have not played there since 2000. (To give some context, Spain have in the meantime visited such footballing hotbeds as Vila-Real, Elche, Logrono, and Leon.)

More amazingly, the last time Spain hosted international opposition in Bilbao was in 1967 - at the height of Francoism, in other words - and San Sebastian/Donostia in 1923. Have they any immediate plan to return? Why would they? The attendance would probably be low and the outcry massive.

Flying The Flag

Yet despite the groundswell of opposition at grassroots level, when it comes to professional football, Spanish recognition remains the big prize. Proud Catalans such as Xavi and Bojan without hesitation - and without moderation - play for Spain as readily as they would their clubs. So fulsome were Xavi's efforts last summer, in fact, that he was named Euro 2008's Player of the Tournament.

That's not to say that there cannot be tensions. This current squad is undoubtedly one blessed with camaraderie and spirit, but previous coaches have not quite managed the same. Just look at Javier Clemente. He was accused by Marca, among others, of having a bias towards his beloved Athletic Bilbao, and selecting players who had 'a couple of half-decent games' for the San Mames outfit. Later, Luis Aragones weathered the same controversy for his Atletico Madrid predilection, but in Clemente's case there was, sadly, an ethnic undertone to both his (alleged) policy and some of his critics.

In other words, it's a minefield, and specifically so in the Basque country. This video, courtesy of Carlsberg and partofthegame.tv, featuring football writer Phil Ball, may explain more.

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What they do not point out is that unlike England that allows for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to play in international tournaments, Spain will not even allow Euskal Herria, Catalunya and Galiza to do the same which once again proves that those who call the shots in Madrid have little regard for the right to self determination of all nations in the world.

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Basque Good Friday

This information comes to us from our friends of the Irish Basque Committees:

6TH ANNUAL IRISH BASQUE NIGHT

GOOD FRIDAY 10TH APRIL


Featuring:


ERIK NOON & THE FUTURE GYPSIES

http://www.myspace.com/eriknoon


THE RED RASTA SOUND SYSTEM


with speakers, videos, raffles, merchandising, books...


DOORS OPEN 8PM

£5 BEFORE 10PM / £7 AFTER 10 PM

LIMITED TICKETS

Organised by: BELFAST BASQUE SOLIDARITY COMMITTEE

Keep up to date on Basque struggle news at: Irish Basque Committees

Listen to Basque Info at www.feilefm.com on line on Tuesdays from 6.30-7pm and Wednesdays 12-12.30pm

Once again, thanks to all of our Irish friends for your kindness and solidarity.

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Basque Co-Operatives

This article was published at The Economist, I bet it will be a huge surprise for those who claim that the Basque Country could not compete in Europe's economy as one of the excuses to deny the Basques their self-determination. Here you have it:

All in this together

How is the co-operative model coping with the recession?

THESE are difficult times for the Fagor appliance factory in Mondragón, in northern Spain. Sales have seized up, as at many other white-goods companies. Workers had four weeks’ pay docked at Christmas. Some have been laid off. Now salaries are about to be cut by 8%. Time for Spain’s mighty unions to call a strike? Not at Fagor—for here the decisions are taken by the workers themselves.

Fagor is a workers’ co-operative, one of dozens that dot the valleys of Spain’s hilly northern Basque country. Most belong to the world’s biggest group of co-operatives, the Mondragón Corporation. It is Spain’s seventh-largest industrial group, with interests ranging from supermarkets and finance to white goods and car parts. It accounts for 4% of GDP in the Basque country, a region of 2m people. All this has made Mondragón a model for co-operatives from California to Queensland. How will co-ops, with their ideals of equity and democracy, cope in the recession?

Workers’ co-ops are often seen as hotbeds of radical, anti-capitalist thought. Images of hippies, earnest vegetarians or executives in blue overalls could not, however, be further from reality. “We are private companies that work in the same market as everybody else,” says Mikel Zabala, Mondragón’s human-resources chief. “We are exposed to the same conditions as our competitors.”

Problems may be shared with competitors, but solutions are not. A workers’ co-op has its hands tied. It cannot make members redundant or, in Mondragón’s case, sell companies or divisions. Losses in one unit are covered by the others. “It can be painful at times, when you are earning, to give to the rest,” Mr Zabala admits. Lossmaking co-ops can be closed, but members must be re-employed within a 50km (30-mile) radius. That may sound like a nightmare for managers battling recession. But co-ops also have their advantages. Lay-offs, short hours and wage cuts can be achieved without strikes, and agreements are reached faster than in companies that must negotiate with unions and government bodies under Spanish labour law.

The 13,000 members of Eroski, another co-operative in the Mondragón group and Spain’s second-largest retailer, have not just frozen their salaries this year. They have also given up their annual dividend on their individual stakes in the company. A constant flow of information to worker-owners, says Mr Zabala, makes them ready to take painful decisions.

It sounds conflict-free, but that is misleading. One of Mondragón’s many paradoxes is that worker-owners are also the bosses of other workers. People have been hired in far-flung places, from America to China, as the group has expanded. It now has more subsidiary companies than co-operatives. Mondragón has two employees for every co-op member. The result is a two-tier system. And when recession bites, non-member employees suffer most. They are already losing jobs as temporary contracts are not renewed. Like capitalist bosses, the Mondragón co-operativists must, indeed, occasionally handle strikes and trade-union trouble.

Some worry that Mondragón-style success kills the idealism on which most co-ops are based. Those within the Mondragón group are aware of the danger. Eroski wants to offer co-op membership to its 38,500 salaried employees.

The most successful co-ops, however, are those least shackled by ideology. Mondragón used to cap managers’ pay at three times that of the lowest-paid co-operativist, for example. But it realised it was losing its best managers, and that some non-member managers were earning more than member managers. The cap was raised to eight times. But this is still 30% below market rates, and some managers are still tempted away. “Frankly, it would be a bad sign if nobody was,” says Adrián Celaya, Mondragón’s general secretary.

Lately Mondragón has had trouble keeping successful co-operatives locked in. Irizar, a maker of luxury coaches, split off last year, reportedly because it no longer wanted to support lossmaking co-ops elsewhere in the group.

Henry Hansmann, a professor at Yale Law School, says co-ops often fall apart when worker-owners become too diverse. He points to United Airlines—not a co-operative, but once mainly owned by workers from competing trade unions—as an example of how clashing interests can kill worker ownership. By bringing in tens of thousands of new members at Eroski, many far from the Basque country, Mondragón risks falling into that trap. The group’s bosses believe, however, that the way forward is to promote the idea that co-operativism brings advantages. The global downturn may strengthen the group internally. As unemployment sweeps the globe, after all, there is no greater social glue than the fight to keep jobs.

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Language Education in the Spanish State

The article by the Guardian Weekly that you're about to read is quite a departure from the one written by Basque-phobe Keith Johnson a couple of years ago. Here you have it:

Spain's lessons in multilingual teaching

Spain offers some valuable lessons in Clil policy argues María Jesús Frigols Martín. She explains how the the promotion of Spain's regional languages in schools along side Spanish has helped to establish the teaching of content subjects through students' and teachers' second and third languages.

"There has been no single blueprint, yet Clil is now firmly entrenching itself as an innovative educational approach," states Hugo Baetens Beardsmore, one of the international figures in this field. This is very true of Spain, where Clil is now starting to go mainstream after a decade of pilot and experimental projects.

The Spanish experience of Clil continues to be eclectic. There is no single Clil model taking root across the country. There are as many models as regions, different in application but following the same core fundamentals. Spain could be viewed as a "microcosm" of Clil worldwide. This one country is developing different models which share the same main objective: upgrading education and competence in languages throughout the population.

The twin drivers that have powered the uptake of Clil in the last decades are regional and global citizenship. The energy has come from both the general public and, increasingly, political decision makers.

To understand Clil in Spain you first have to understand how the nation functions as a "state of autonomies", a unitary country with 19 autonomous communities (17 regions, plus the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla). Each of these has its own laws, and the power to administer certain aspects of the education system within its own territory. The Organic Act of Education (Ley Orgánica de Educación, LOE) establishes the general frame for the whole country.

This structure is very significant in terms of languages. Whereas Spanish is the official language of the country as a whole, certain communities (the Basque Country, Navarre, Catalonia, Balearic Islands, Galicia, and Valencia) also have their own regional languages, namely Basque, Catalan, Galician, and Valencian. In these communities, both the regional language and Spanish are mandatory in education at the non-university level.

The stage was set for Clil when regional languages were granted official status in the 1980s. From this point onwards regional languages started making their way through the mainstream education systems as medium of instruction. This would become an invaluable experience, for the expertise acquired after years of practice could be easily transferred from bilingual to monolingual communities, and proved to be an excellent starting point for the design and implementation of programmes aiming to produce young people speaking two languages in addition to their monther tongue (MT+2).

Stepping from regional to foreign languages was a natural way for Clil to evolve at a time when increasing priority has been given to global citizenship. This meant generalising the use of more than one medium of instruction. That in turn meant that educators needed to adapt their teaching to suit this context and focussed interest on Clil as the best way to achieve their goals.

There was a transfer of know-how within the regions and across the country that allowed monolingual areas to keep pace with the bilingual regions.

This resulted in scenarios where education was:

* partly in Spanish, and partly in one or two foreign languages
* partly in Spanish, partly in a joint official language other than Spanish (Basque, Catalan, Galician, or Valencian), and partly in one or two foreign languages.

This has given the Spanish Clil spectrum a leading place in Europe. Clil programmes have been implemented in mainstream schools with direct support from educational authorities. The different models vary significantly from one region to another, but can be summarised as following one of these objectives:

* Promoting bilingualism in a monolingual community
* Fostering multilingualism in an already bilingual community


Even though Spain's regional Clil models are diverse, there are certain issues which have been addressed by central government. For example the teachers’ level of language competence has been given special attention. It has been set at B2 on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages for vocational, secondary education, and the Baccalaureate; and B1 for pre-primary and primary. In addition, vocational education is required to have at least two subjects taught through a foreign language. Meanwhile, the communities decide on questions such as subject choice, teaching time invested, and other operational factors.

The learning curve for teachers and administrators has been steep. For years, teacher training has been a major challenge for both central and regional governments. To provide teaching professionals with the necessary linguistic and methodological skills, a specific Clil training programme (Pale, Plan de apoyo al Aprendizaje de Lenguas Extranjeras), comprising improvement of communicative competence, methodology and periods of study abroad, has been designed and implemented. It is funded jointly by the central government and the autonomous boards of education.

Lack of teaching materials and resources is one of the major difficulties Clil teachers have to face. This is common to all the regions. As a general rule teachers develop their own materials by using realia from a target language country, translating and adapting first-language course books, or downloading resources from the internet. Exchanges through seminars, networking, creating data banks, collaborating over the internet, and using blogs have become common means of support.

It is too early to make definitive statements about the impact of Clil across the country. One reason is because some of the separate Boards of Education have not yet carried out extensive evaluation of their Clil programmes. But preliminary research indicators appearing from different communities point to the fact that content acquisition is similar when compared to education through the mother tongue, that learning in Clil substantially improves students’ linguistic and communicative competence, and that it would also appear to assist their cognitive development.

Clil is now consolidating as a trend at all stages of the Spanish educational system, including higher education. It’s a leitmotiv for profound change in the autonomous education systems which are rapidly attempting to adapt to the demands of the knowledge society.

As Rosa Aliaga, a Clil expert at the Basque Board of Education says: "It is fascinating to observe how four- and five-year-old children play, create and have fun in different languages. Their motivation is very high, and they are prepared to take risks in communicating with others with no fear or embarrassment of using the wrong words."

Contrary to common belief, Spaniards have long been keen to learn foreign languages, especially English. The barrier has not been lack of interest so much as lack of response to often outdated language teaching methodologies, and availability of curricular time. The Spanish Clil scenario is one which can serve as a dynamic and realistic model for other countries wanting to reduce barriers to language learning.

María Jesús Frigols Martín works for the Programa Plurilingüe at the Conselleria de Educación de la Generalitat Valenciana, Valencia

One thing we would like to point out is that the advances in education when it comes to Basque and Catalonian are taking place DESPITE Spain and not thanks to its language policies. If it was up to Madrid, the only language spoken in the Spanish state would be Castillian. Just wait and see what will happen to Basque education programs when Spaniard Patxi Lopez takes the presidency of the Basque autonomous community.

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Eusko Flickr : Political Basque Prisoners Mural

Political basque prisoners mural
Originally uploaded by Soniko

Spain Punishes Basque Politicians

Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon charged 44 Basque politicians with membership of the militant separatist movement ETA, which the the fascist Spanish government calls a terrorist organization.

All were members of three banned separatist parties -- the Communist Party of the Basque Country (PCTV), Basque Nationalist Action (ANV) and Batasuna. Among those charged are the mayoress of the northern town of Mondragon, Maria Inocencia Galparsoro, as well as Pernando Barrena and Joseba Permach, leading figures on the radical left.

The charges are a new example of how Spain violates the civil and political rights of the Basque people, specially those who work towards the self determination and the eventual independence of Nabarra (the historic Basque Country) currently occupied by Spain and France.

Spain's Supreme Court banned two further nationalist parties from regional elections earlier this month using a so called Law of Political Parties, a Franco era style law that allows Madrid to ban any political party that demands and end to the long colonialist rule of the nations abducted by Spain's statehood, meaning that there is no truly democratic elections in Spain, a country ruled by a king elected by Francisco Franco since the death of dictator.

After more than one hundred thousand votes where declared null by Madrid, the ruling Basque Nationalist Party is expected to lose power in the Basque Country to a coalition of the two parties that represent Madrid's colonialist rule, the PP and the PSOE -- ending an unbroken run of Basque nationalist governments going back to 1980.

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Irish Judge Pleases Spain

On a dramatic flip flop, an Irish judge has decided to please a country that violates a number of human rights on a daily basis by allowing the extradition of Basque political refugee Iñaki de Juana according to this article published at An Phoblacht:

Court backs Basque activist's extradition

BELFAST Recorder’s Court ruled on 9 March that Basque nationalist Iñaki de Juana Chaos is eligible for extradition to Spain. He has been paroled until May when he will appeal the decision at a further hearing.

A European arrest warrant for de Juana Chaos was issued by the Spanish authorities to the PSNI in November. The Belfast court has since then discussed the legal issues surrounding the warrant, ruling last week that the charges alleged in the warrant of “glorifying terrorism” constitute an extraditable offence.

De Juana Chaos spent 21 years in Spanish jails for his role in ETA (Basque Homeland and Freedom) armed attacks during the 1980s. He moved to Ireland after he was released in August last year.

The Spanish warrant alleges that, on the day of his release, he gave a woman a letter to be read out in his name at a rally in Donostia in Euskal Herria (the Basque Country), that allegedly “publicly justified terrorism”.

But the Spanish authorities admit they do not have this letter and de Juana Chaos’s defence lawyer stated in court his client did not authorise anyone to speak on his behalf. The comment allegedly read out at the rally was “Aurrera bolie” – a Basque expression meaning “Kick the ball forward.”

The Spanish Government is basing its legal effort to extradite de Juana Chaos on somebody at a rally in Donostia saying “Kick the ball forward” without any evidence that the comment was de Juana Chaos’s or that it somehow constitutes a terrorist offence.

This relentless harassment of de Juana Chaos by the Spanish courts is not surprising in the context of the current ramped-up repression in the Basque Country, where several nationalist parties and candidates were banned from participating in the 1 March elections and where more than 700 pro-independence political activists are being held prisoner.

The Belfast judge accepted the advice of the Spanish authorities that the phrase “Kick the ball forward” constitues “praising terrorism” and that this offence has a legal equivalent under the British Terrorism Act 2006.

De Juana Chaos’s lawyer, Edward Fitzgerald, said he would contest the move on human rights and procedural grounds.

This judge is going against the Irish solidarity towards the Basque right to self determination, we wonder if there was some euros involved in his decision.

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