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FORGOTTEN VICTIMS OF SPAIN'S BASQUE PRISONER POLICY |
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AnKesunyansKeltekKernow
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Posted: 30.12.2007, 14:52
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registered: Dec. 2007
Posts: 73
Status: offline
last visit: 14.04.08
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FORGOTTEN VICTIMS OF SPAIN'S BASQUE PRISONER POLICY
In this detailed article for Celtic News Celtic League General Secretary,
Rhisiart Tal-e-bot, looks at the forgotten victims - the families
- of the Spanish governments policy of dispersing Basque prisoners
far from their homeland. He also criticises Spain's policy which banned
the Basque political party ETA and its youth movement and new threats
to other Basque political parties.
"In the north of Ireland, the British Government was well known for
its policy of dispersing political prisoners. More recently the tactic
was used on Breton prisoners who were arrested (without charge) after
the 2000 Pornic bombing and kept for years in Paris jails.
Dispersing prisoners ? sending people to jails as far away from family
and friends as possible ? not only causes psychological strain on
the prisoners themselves, but is also against international legislation
on the treatment of prisoners. Moreover, dispersal also affects the
families of the prisoners, because it is they who are forced to travel
the long distances necessary to make visits to their relatives. Frequently
family members arrive at a jail only to be told that the person they
have come to visit has been moved to another prison. This strategy
is employed to cause added strain on the prisoner and their relatives
and means that the visit has to be postponed until another day, with
a possible repetition of the same ordeal.
There are some obvious costs for family members who want to visit
a relative in prison in a jail hundreds of kilometres away from their
homes. Financially the journey is expensive and, due to the long distance
travelled, the visiting family member often needs to stay away from
home for at least one night. It is also highly likely that the visitor
needs to take time off work in order to arrive at the prison at the
appointed day and hour. Another cost for family members going to visit
a relative in jail on a several hour long journey, is the risk of
accident.
When you are tired, worried if the person you are going to visit will
still be in the same jail, under stain or duress from seeing your
family member in prison, then accidents are more likely to occur.
Such accidents have occurred to many family members from the Celtic
countries visiting 'dispersed' relatives in jail. Today, in the Basque
Country, the policy of dispersal is a popular tactic used by the Spanish
authorities against Basque political prisoners and their families.
It also has its consequences. This month, the mother in law of one
'dispersed' Basque political prisoner, who was on her way to see her
relative, was killed in a road traffic accident. Natividad Junko,
became one more victim in the growing list of Basque family members
who have lost their lives travelling long distances to visit a 'dispersed'
relative in jail.
The Celtic League has often highlighted and reported on the injustice
of the dispersal of political prisoners from the Celtic countries
for many years. In 2006, in an effort to avoid dispersal, the League
called for the repatriation of all political prisoners in and from
the Celtic countries to their homes. In the past the League has also
taken up the causes of individual political prisoners who have been
held in jails far away from their homes, as in the cases of the Breton
Gael Roblin (who was released in 2004) and more recently Irishman
Noel Maguire, who is still being held in prison in England.
Sometimes the situation is not so cut and dry, as in the case of Basque
political prisoners Iñigo Albisu, Zigor Ruiz and Ana Lopez who had
an extradition order placed against them this month to send them to
Spain. The three were arrested last April in Sheffield, England over
their alleged connection with the Basque group ETA. The English courts
decided not to appeal against the order, despite several apparent
irregularities in the accusations made by the Spanish authorities.
Consequently, the Basque pro-amnesty organization Askatasuna says
that those irregularities will now go unsolved in the Spanish court
and the prisoners will be imprisoned unfairly.
When injustice is blatant, the Celtic League aims to show its solidarity
with other peoples internationally, if only through reporting on the
situation to its members and its wider network. This is especially
the case when the injustice is one that the League, its members and
supporters can easily empathize with, because of their similarity
to situations that have arisen in the Celtic countries. In the Basque
Country today a situation of political and social repression is occurring
that is largely unknown outside of the state of Spain and in writing
about it the Celtic League would like to expose some of the injustice
that has taken place in recent months.
In the run up to the General Elections of March 2008, the Prime Minister
of Spain, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, appears determined to show
the Spanish right wing that his Socialist Government can also be as
tough on 'perceived' terrorists as the Conservatives can. Zapatero's
touch stance on terrorism has allowed the appointment of some well
known Spanish nationalist judges to pursue justice in the name of
Spanish terrorism, which has led to political repression on a scale
not seen in Spain since the death of Franco.
In 2001 the Spanish court banned the nationalist political party Batasuna,
for their alleged sympathies with ETA. A ban of their youth group
was later to follow. In the last month, the Spanish court has said
it is reviewing the case of two other nationalist and left wing political
parties, Basque Nationalist Action ANV and the Communist Party of
the Basque Lands EHAK, with the prospect of banning them early in
January 2008. This is despite the fact that over 60% of people from
the Basque Country in the Spanish state are against the further bans
of political parties.
Also in the last couple of months the Spanish High Court decided to
arrest 52 people and outlaw their respective groups, with the judges
deciding on their sentences before they appeared in court. Many of
the groups were youth or social groups such as Ekin, Orain, Xaki and
Fundación Joxemi Zumalabe and all were said to be part of ETA' social
network.
The arrests and subsequent sentencing led to calls for a a political
rally last Thursday of political parties and trade unions, including
the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV), who are currently in Government
in the Basque Country. The rally was to protest against what the Basque
Government has called a "twisted interpretation of the law that leads
to deprive unfairly some citizens of their freedom" and where everything
is construed as ETA.
There have also been at least one protests in the Celtic countries
with Ógra Shinn Féin (Sinn Féin Youth) last week demonstrating outside
Ireland's General Post office about the arrest of the the entire National
Executive of the Basque youth group SEGI. The SEGI members have been
jailed for up to 6 years and their group outlawed. Ógra Shinn Féin
have drawn up an on line petition (http://www.petitiononline.com/SEGI/petition.html)
demanding that the Spanish Government reverse their decision calling
SEGI an illegal organization.
The repression and threat of jail even extends to the Basque President
himself, José Ibarretxe, was accused by the Spanish High Court last
month of meeting with members of the banned Batasuna Party in 2006.
Ibarretxe claims that he was attempting to further the dialogue with
ETA to secure peace, in the same way the Spanish Government did in
the same year. Surprisingly his arguments didn't stand up to the Spanish
Court and it looks likely he will be summoned to court in the near
future.
In recent months there have been obvious human rights abuses made
in the name of the Spanish High Courts and the Government in Madrid.
They have succeeded in taking away some of the liberties and rights
of Basque political and social activists, leading to accusations.
from the Basque Government that Spain is "imprisoning" ideas. This
certainly seems to be a fitting description of the events that are
taking place in the Basque Country right now, as more people are arrested
and more groups deliberately stifled or banned.
It has been quite a while since the Celtic countries have suffered
the extent of political repression in the name of justice that is
currently occurring in the Basque Country. News of this repression
should not be ignored, but rather widely circulated by the Celtic
League and other international organizations and the Spanish state
subsequently criticised for its repressive actions. The Basque County
is not a Celtic country, but this should not stop us from expressing
our opinion on how we expect other peoples of Europe to be treated.
The Basque prisoner support group Etxera had planned a series of demonstrations
over the death of Natividad Junko, the mother in law of the Basque
prisoner who died in an accident on her way to see her son in law,
to raise the injustice of the Spanish policy of prisoner dispersal.
Last Friday, the Spanish High Court, under pressure from the right-wing
organization Dignidad y Justicia, ruled to ban the rallies.
One Basque Blogger made the following comments yesterday in response
to the banning of the planned Etxera rallies:
- What's next?
The people will respond to Etxera's call and the state will send the
police force against them, which will in turn create confrontations
that will render a new wave of arrests, meaning, more political prisoners
whose rights will be trampled by the Spanish government. That is Spain
today. - "
I can be e-mailed at : michael.chappell@midasdsl.com
(Please no threatening or abusive e-mails)
I'm a member of the International Celtic League : http://www.celticleague.net
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Lanval
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Posted: 30.12.2007, 15:23
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registered: Dec. 2007
Posts: 99
Status: offline
last visit: 04.06.08
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Well said CL - this will be happening in Kernow next with the police state we are now in ! Civil disobedience is another answer though not just letter writing !
''TOO MANY MK WORDS LIKE 'SANDALS' & 'BEARDS' EQUALS A KERNOW FOREVER UNDER THE ENGLISH AND THEIR IMPERIAL ESTABLISHMENT ! MK AS MUCH USE TO KERNOW AS A FART IN A SPACESUIT
= REPUBLICAN KERNOW NOW !''
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Trevorpen
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Posted: 31.12.2007, 11:08
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registered: Mar. 2007
Posts: 161
Status: offline
last visit: 08.11.08
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Lanval you talk total crap - how on earth is this county (Cornwall) anything like a police state?
We have free and fair elections. Perhaps it is because no one would vote for some of the irrelevant notions some contributors have on this site.
I suggest you take a trip to Burma or North Korea to find out about living in a police state before you make such comments.
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marhak
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Posted: 31.12.2007, 11:48
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registered: Jun. 2006
Posts: 3904
Status: online
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Oh, we have free and fair elections, do we? So when did you get to vote for the existence of the South West Regional Assembly (which is spending our money and making decisions for us)or for the people who are on that Assembly? When did you get to vote for (or against) a Unitary Authority for Cornwall?
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Lanval
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Posted: 01.01.2008, 14:51
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registered: Dec. 2007
Posts: 99
Status: offline
last visit: 04.06.08
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Well said Marhak. For people like me there is no democracy in modern Kernow. I don't exist because I cannot afford a house of my own and because I believe in what I do, a free Kernow, the police harrass me !
''TOO MANY MK WORDS LIKE 'SANDALS' & 'BEARDS' EQUALS A KERNOW FOREVER UNDER THE ENGLISH AND THEIR IMPERIAL ESTABLISHMENT ! MK AS MUCH USE TO KERNOW AS A FART IN A SPACESUIT
= REPUBLICAN KERNOW NOW !''
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