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LEAGUE: 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 Batasuna and its

Par Cathal Ó Luain pour Celtic League le 4/01/08 11:03

"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 ( (voir le site) 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. - "

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