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Spanish Police arrests further leading members of the Basque Independence Movement

>>>> Details and further information: GARA, 4. Februar 2008 (spanisch) <<<<

Pernando Barrena, Unai Fano and Patxi Urrutia were arrested on Monday, 4. February 2008 on the orders of the judge Garzon. All three men are well known political activists of the Basque Independence Movement. The allegations are "membership in a terrorist group, repeated criminal activities and ongoing activities in the name of Batasuna (who was banned 2003)".

Criminal activities? On Saturday, 2. February 2008, the left independence movement hold the first of a whole series of events in Iruñea (Pamplona, in Navarra) to discuss the failed conflict resolution negotiations in the autumn of 2006 in Loiola. Then the leadership of Batasuna were not in prison, but sitting at the negotiation table with the ruling Spanish party PSOE of Zapatero and the PNV of Ibarretxe, who is the ruling party of the three Basque autonomous provinces.

Arrested for their democratic commitment?

About 300 people were present at the event to discuss the proposals of the Basque independence movement for conflict resolution with Unai Fano and Pernando Barrena. In Loiola Batasuna proposed a way out of conflict which should be acceptable to all parties: not independence, but the right of the people, to decide in a democratic way by themselves, with all options open. The negotiators of the Basque independence movement in Loiola insisted that independence should be one of the options of such a democratic decision and should not be excluded.

Pernando Barrena response to a question from the floor of what happens if Nafarroa (Navarra) says no to independence was clear:

"The current political conflict is that the citizens can not decide. Our proposal puts the decision-making power into the hands of the citizens."

This is not criminal activity, but legitimate democratic, political commitment. The Basque Independence movement is looking for a democratic mandate for their own position.

Of course, PSOE and PNV have different positions on the failure of the negotiations in Loiola. That is their right and they should discuss their positions with the Basque citizens. Rather the Spanish government trys to violently end the discussion opened by the Basque independence movement.

Their violence will not succeed. State violence does not solve conflicts, but makes them worse. Sooner or later, the Spanish government has to talk seriously about conflict resolution with all the parties involved in this conflict. All violence and brutality will not change this lesson learned in many other conflicts. How much the "Anti-terrorist policy" by the Spanish government through its omnipotence and its lawlessness stands in the way of conflict resolution is described by the writer Cristina Maristany the following article:

Cristina Maristany, Writer
>>>> GARA, 2. February 2008 (Spanish language) <<<<

"Hautsitako Leihoa - the broken window"

an ordinary day in the Basque Country

Recently, I saw a very interesting documentary. It was produced already five years ago, but was now shown for the first time. More than ever up to date. The film is called «Hautsitako Leihoa» (broken window), its directors are Eñaut Toulouse and Hammudi al-Rahmoun and it's produced by ESCAC (School of Cinema de Catalunya). The film tells the story of an ordinary day in the Basque Country. Congratulations to the producers from Escándalo for their courage. The film is wonderful and necessary.

Subversion of the very Basis of the Law: the Presumption of Innocence

Through the stories of several jung lads arrested because of «kale borroka» (street violence) and the words of the then judge of the Provincial Court of Madrid, Joaquin Navarro Stephen, we are entering the terrible and concealed reality of the Basque Country. Navarro says that in this country North American criminal law is applied, which is characterized by the theory of the broken window: take rigorous punishment measures against the responsible person, because if you don't punish him as tough as possible he will end up murdering someone. Therefore Joaquin Navarro speaks of the different interpretations of a deed, dependent on whether it was committed within the Basque Country or outside. He gives an example: if a boy in Almería throws a firecracker against a cash machine, punishment will be minimal. Probably a simple fine. But if the same thing happens in the Basque Country, the deed will become immediately a terrorist act and the penalty is years in prison.

A devastating analysis on the situation of justice continues and shows the subversion of the very basis of the law: the presumption of innocence. Because the antiterrorist policy is the presumption of guilt. If someone has to prove his innocence, stresses Navarro, then there is no law. We are faced with an anti-terrorist policy where everything is possible to get maximum efficiency: five days in the hands of the police, detained «incommunicado» (without any contact to the outer world), without the presence of any lawyers - not even court-appointed - when the statements are signed. But later they are considered as evidence in a trial, as if there had been police affidavits, a trial that sometimes fails to be ever held, the case abandoned after the detainee spent months and months in jail, the policy of dispersal of prisoners to all prisons of the state as a flagrant violation of human rights, which punishes the perpetrator and the family, who are forced to travel thousands of miles, and sometimes not even see their loved ones.

One possible Solution: Dialogue and Negotiation

Navarro concluded his analysis by saying that there is only one possible solution: dialogue and negotiation.

Everything is an eternal cycle that repeats itself over and over again. Torture has never ceased to exist in the Spanish State, not during the long years of the Franco dictatorship nor later, during the decaffeinated transitional governments of Adolfo Suarez, Felipe Gonzalez, Jose M ª Aznar and the current Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. (transición - transition - is in Spain the name for power transfer of the Franco dictatorship to "democracy". But there was not much of a democratic change, not within the civil service or the police. The ideology of a Spanish state in the borders of Francos rule was written into the constitution and is used to suppress independent movements in the Basque Country, in Catalonia or Galicia.)

Torture has never ceased to exist in the Spanish State

The case of Igor Portu, who was arrested alongside Mattin Sarasola, was leaked only because they have not been able to hide the severity of his injuries which necessitated committal to an ICU (intensive care unit). The Government considers the hours between arrest and hospital admission as normal, and ensures us that the injuries are due to resistance during the arrest. Minister Perez Rubalcaba rallies behind this assertion, without realizing that the misconduct gives the impression - as noted in an article of Javier Ortiz - that "everything was done in accordance with anti-terrorist legislation."

Joseba Arregi died through torture several days after his arrest in Madrid on 13 February 1981. I would like to remind you of the facts of the then incidents. We were organizing an anti-NATO rally in the Ateneo in Madrid, in which many people were involved. It was one of the most important events of the newly created anti-NATO movement. The previous day Arregi was murdered, and when we started, we read out a communiqué condemning his death. I remember that I was in charge of it and reading it out I pointed to the brutality with which he was treated. When they noticed the statement the police intervened. The photographs of the savagely tortured corpse were terrible and, of course, the general director of the police said that the detainee never suffered abuse. Das war 1981. Later, under the PSOE government, they would descend to deeds even more repugnant: GAL, State terrorism. ()

"Why we, the Democrats ..."

Year after year Amnesty International has been demanding to abolish the special treatments during interrogation, detention and «incommunicado» detention. But in this country in which so frequently, almost on the brink to orgasm, "why we, the democrats ..." , is heared, one isn't responsive. And now we again commit an election fraud in the coming elections ... The judge Joaquin Navarro Esteban will not be able to see the documentary «Hautsitako Leihoa». He died on 29 April 2007 in complete loneliness.

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