Spanish Governmente Turns the Screw on Basques

international | rights, freedoms and repression | news report Thursday October 09, 2008 17:21 by Mac Gall - Irish Basque Committees (Dublin) dublinbasque at gmail dot com

another political party banned by Spanish state; also jails officers of political refugees support group -- Dublin Committee issues leaflet of protest

On 16th September the Spanish State banned yet another socialist and pro-independence political party -- the ANV/EAE (Basque Nationalist Action). In the same month it jailed prominent members of the Amnistia movement.

Founded in 1930, the ANV created battalions to fight the against the fascist uprising against the Spanish Republic in 1936 and suffered 550 dead in the Civil War . It fought alongside the PSOE, which is now in government and has banned it.

After the defeat of the Basques, Catalans and Spanish Republican forces, the ANV fighters joined in the French resistance to the Nazis and its Gernika Batallion was one of the first groups to liberate Paris.

The Spanish state has in recent years banned, as well as the ANV, the parties Herri Batasuna, Askatasuna and Communist Party of the Basque Territories. It has also banned the youth organisations SEGI and Semideak. It has forcibly closed the newspapers Egin and Ekunkaria.

The Dublin branch of the Irish Basque Committees issued a leaflet in protest: "70 Years without civil rights in the Basque Country!" and handed it out at various events, including the 1968 Civil Rights Commemoration concert at Liberty Hall in September.

Speculation is now growing that Amnistia, the organisation that seeks an amnesty for Basque refugees, will soon be next. This was highlighted by the recent jail terms of around three years for leading activists in this organisation. Some of them had acted as mediators or go-betweens during the recent ETA truce and peacetalks with the Spanish government.

"The Spanish state is, one by one, closing all peacefull and democratic avenues to progress the Basque aspirations of self-determination for their country", stated a spokesperson for the DIBC.