From: "EH - International" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
THE SPANISH STATE OFFENSIVE CONTINUES AGAINST
Recently a number of incidents have happened, the concentration
of which in a
short space of time has had an effect that the previous incident is
forgotten about. A
scandal is being covered up. Each one of these reveals the
undemocratic character of
the Spanish State and the lack of respect it shows for the minimal
demands for the
functioning of a Democratic state.
Without any doubt we are being faced with a serious political
regression in the
Spanish State. The concentration of these incidents in a short space
of time shows the
pace that this regression is proceeding at.
In addition to the Spanish State's refusal to accept the necessity of
a negotiated
solution, democratic and pacific, to the conflict in the Basque
Country, we must add
that they are developing a more right-wing, and even fascist process.
Liberties are
denied and constitutional rights too. This brings us to roundly
confirm that a State
of Exception against the Basques is a reality that can be clearly
observed
It should be noted the acceleration and widening of this repression
coincides with the
signing by the PSOE and PP of the so-called "Pact for Freedom and
against terrorism".
Within a few days of it's signing it was obvious that that pact was
in reality a pact
against freedom and for repression. This path has failed before and
can be seen by
looking at the recent history of the Basque Country.
January 6th: the media informed us of the pardoning by the
Spanish Government of
14 torturers, who had been found guilty of such acts by the Spanish
Courts.
January 16th : the media informed us that Alberto Ruiz Gallardon,
President of the
Autonomous Community of Madrid (PP), forced the Director of Public
Television for the
Community to resign because he had shown a report titled "the paths
in Euskadi". He
had committed the crime of allowing representatives from all the
social and political
forces in the Basque Country to be heard. That is, he allowed the
spokesperson for
Euskal Herritarrok, Arnaldo Otegi, and that of Gestoras Pro Amnistia
(prisoners
support group), Julen Zelarain, to also have their say. The
surprising reason in
justifying the decision was that the report was "neutral and not
belligerent".
January 19th : Judge Baltasar Garzon orders the arrest and
imprisonment of the
journalist, and director of the Ardi Beltza magazine, Pepe Rei. They
accuse him of
breaking the conditions imposed on him when he was freed on bail.
Without showing any
objective evidence the Judge claimed that the work carried out by the
journalist as
director of the magazine constitutes a crime of collaboration with
ETA. This is the
same crime for which he was arrested and imprisoned on March 3rd
1999, and the same
crime for which he was later freed on bail.
January 19th: the Spanish Government honours Meliton Manzanas, a
torturer of hundreds
of people during the Francoist dictatorship- it wouldn't be an
exaggeration to class
his actions as war crimes- a collaborator with the GESTAPO, who
persecuted those who
had fled the Nazi regime and sought exile in the Spanish State.
January 23rd: the Spanish police under instructions from the Judge
Baltasar Garzón
raid the offices of Zabaltzen, a distributor of books and discs on
the Basque language
and Basque culture. Although the reasons for the raid are still
unknown it appears
that Garzón is trying to implicate this distributor in the so-called
"macro case
18/98", in which the cases against the Egin newspaper and the radio
Egin Irratia are
included. Included also are a group of people accused of financing
ETA through
businesses, people involved in international work for Euskal
Herritarrok and Gestoras
pro-Amnistia, people involved in the teaching of euskera (Basque
language) to adults,
people who promoting civil disobedience as a way to sovereignty,
people that work in
different areas of the Basque popular movement etc. In total more
than 80 people have
been tried in this "macro case" which has been criticise for it's
lack of judicial
consistency by the greater part of the political class and Basque
society.
All of this is produced in the days when the relatives of those
arrested in Barcelona,
and those handed over by Mexico, have complained about the torture
suffered by those
arrested. It falls also on the days when Gestoras pro-Amnistia are
making public their
annual report, in which they give information about the 700 people
arrested for
political reasons over the year 2000. Of these 253 were subjected to
Anti-terrorist
legislation and 77 made complaints of having been tortured.
International Department of Euskal Herritarrok.
Euskal Herria 24th January 2001
