2007/IV/02
EHNews periodical information of the Basque Country

-The processed proudly kissed goodbye the 18/98 trials (15th March)
-The Basque pro-independence will presents its electoral proposal the 31st of March in the BEC (Basque Exhibition Centre) of Barakaldo (Bilbao) (18th March).
-Trial against Arnaldo Otegi in the Spanish national hearing (22 March)
-A year since ETA's permanent ceasefire Batasuna underlines that the resolution path is still possible (23rd March)
-A year of a cease-fire in numbers

The processed proudly kissed goodbye the 18/98 trials 15th March

It could not have ended any other way. With the president of the court annoyed, bawling out to the defence and threatening the defendant, and these paying a tribute to their friend and comrade Jokin Gorostidi. Murillo left the trial ready for sentencing and the room cried out: "Gora Euskal Herria askatuta" (Long live the free Basque Country).

The last intervention of the defence in this trial corresponded to Iñigo Iruin, the lawyer dedicated his last words to explain that he should have defended Jokin Gorostidi, deceased in the spring of the last year, the day before declaring before the court.

He remembered that the public prosecutor office accused the historical Basque militant of a "crime of integration" for its work in favour of the Basque political deported, with his trips around the world with the objective to improve the life conditions of these people.

As the lawyer remembered "A political and humanitarian" activity, Gorostidi always developed "from its political militancy, to which it dedicated his time and that gave sense to its life". An activity that was the origin of serious diseases that put in risk his life, until the 18/98 definitively snatched him.

"We are not going to listen his last words, but Jokin left written a few lines of what he thought of this trial", detailed Iruin to a silence court.

The lawyer then read what this untiring Basque pro-independence militant had written almost two years ago, in a notebook in which multitude of neighbours, sportsmen and representatives of social, union and political organizations exposed their reflections on this judicial process. First in Basque, and then in Castilian, so that the judges understood what they had heard, the lawyer detailed how Gorostidi had been condemned to two death sentences of in the "Burgos Process", and denounced that 35 years later was again "kidnapped" by "the military strategy of the Spanish State" in the 18/98 summary.

The veteran abertzale demanded "the word and the decision" for the Basque Country, and noticed that "we would not be silenced" till it was achieved.

After reading his friends last words, commented that he would of added to those last words his "pride" for having shared the bench with the rest of the processed. "That pride is also shared by these nine lawyers, who we accepted the defence of all these people and who again would do it as a sign of solidarity and affection towards them", then Iruin declared that, raising the intensity of the emotion of those Basque citizens who listened to him, "you will be able to acquit them or to condemn them, but what you will not be able to prevent is that a big sector of Euskal Herria has seen in these people an example to follow in the defence of the rights". An ovation on the part of the creditors of such touching words closed the last intervention of the lawyer.

Judge Murillo took the word to warn the 52 defendants that in his last interventions they had to take care of not "to offend the moral" and "to jail to respect the court". She added that they had "to kip herself to the pertinent object" of this judgment, and noted that as president could stop to them when she considered opportune.

But the fifty people that because of their work had seated in the bench of the National Hearing during year, in different scopes, in favour of the rights of the Basque Country knew very clearly what they were going to say before the court.

One by one they stood before the microphone to explain that made theirs Jokin Gorostidi's last words. When they all expressed themselves, the Judge Murillo spoke again without surprising anybody at all, to censure the performance of the defence and to threaten the defendants, once again.

"In the past few days, just as during all the trial, the defence has been allowed to make dissertations outside place, with the intention of making this trial viable, that have tried so many times to prevent, when not to stop it", said the president.

She also added that through out this time the judges had warned the processed in several occasions and, making reference to what happened in the morning, announced that the
"Testimony could be deduced" against "without damaging other preventive measures" that they could decide.

Said this, the president left the judgment "ready for sentencing", it was then when the defendants shouted, "Long live the free Basque Country!" The court was emptied little by little, and the defendants -all apart from Iker Beristain that remains imprisoned- came back to the Basque Country, for the first time in long time, they won't have to think of returning to Madrid on Monday.


The Basque pro-independence will presents its electoral proposal the 31st of March in the BEC (Basque Exhibition Centre) of Barakaldo (Bilbao) 18th March

The 31st of this month the Basque pro-independence left will make present in the BEC of Barakaldo in a political gathering its new electoral proposal for the city councils and Navarre's Parliament elections of May. This demo was presented yesterday in a crowded press conference in Iruñea, in which the "political importance" of the moment that lives the Basque Countrywas underlined.


Trial against Arnaldo Otegi in the Spanish national hearing 22 of March 2007

The Spanish National Hearing forces the arrest of Arnaldo Otegi. The National Hearing turned yesterday the judgment against Arnaldo Otegi into a media event that culminated with Arnaldo's absolution when the public prosecutor office retired the imputation of "extolling terrorism" because of its participation in the 2001 funeral of the ETA militant Olaia Kastresana. The Spanish special court ordered the arrest by the Civil Guard of Arnaldo Otegi, who was brought to Madrid by an airplane chartered by the Ministry of Interior.

At first the National Hearing required a sentence of fifteen months imprisonment. The member of Batasuna's national executive was arrested by the Civil Guard at five o'clock of afternoon in home of Elgoibar and transferred by airplane to the Ministry of Interior of Madrid, guarded by agents of the Spanish Security Forces.

The Magistrate Fernando Bermúdez, who presided the Courtroom that judged Arnaldo, forced the arrest of Otegi after not being able to be present in the National Hearing because of the meteorological inclemency that caused the impossibility to circulate beyond Burgos. The special court emitted a judicial decree to both the Civil Guard as well as to the State Traffic Office in order to confirm it.

Finally, the Penal Room of the Fourth Section was forced to absolve the leader of the Basque pro-independence left after the public prosecutor Fernando Burgos, once taken declaration to Otegi, chose to retire the imputation against him for not having any particular accusation in the judicial process.

The politician of Elgoibar returned to the Basque Country, where few hours before had been arrested by the Civil Guard to fulfil the affirmation of the president of the Courtroom, Fernando Bermúdez, made in the morning that said that the trial was going to take place in the indicated date.

The bizarre judicial day covered many digital newspapers and media from the first hours of the morning, while minute by minute the information agencies followed the events derived, like the diverse emissions of judicial writs, the arrest by the Civil Guard of the leader of Batasuna in Elgoibar, his arrival to the Spanish capital under police custody and the outcome with their acquittal.

During the past two weeks, Jone Goirizelaia as well as the own public prosecutor office has reiteratly requested the court the suspension of the trial against Arnaldo Otegi. This request did not obtain any favourable answer.



A year since ETA's permanent ceasefire
Batasuna underlines that the resolution path is still possible 23rd March

A year after ETA made public their permanent cease-fire; the Basque pro-independence left labelled as "ominous" the performance carried out by the Spanish Executive. Never the less it is convinced that the opportunity to resolve the political conflict "is still current". 365 days after ETA made public its decision to call permanent cease-fire, the Basque pro-independence left offered a detailed balance on the course of the process as well as the present situation.

After labelling the performance developed by the Spanish Executive during last twelve months as "ominous", the Basqie pro-independence left assured that the opportunity to simultaneously obtain the resolution of the conflict of the Basque Country "is still effective", and informed that "at the moment" they are "immersed in the third negotiation attempt". In sense insisted that, all the agents of this country must "make an exercise of responsibility". It also mention that, before the "irresponsible answer" given by the Spanish and French states, the Basque pro-independence left has been the one that "has offered permanent options to give a solution to the democratic process".

The members of Batasuna's executive Marije Fullaondo and Pernando Barrena, which appeared before a nourished group of journalists in Donostia, asserted that the Basque pro-independence left "has taken the political initiative at all times" and, as an example, recalled the negotiation attempts impelled in June and November of the past year. They also remembered that both the formation led by Josu Jon Imaz (PNV) as well as the PSOE "backed down at the time of making and defining the specific objectives of the process, refusing the first attempt of agreement".

Fullaondo commented that "these negations to reach at the root of the conflict" have been the ones, as well as the attitude of the Spanish Government, "the responsible" for the current situation of the resolution process.

As Fullaondo explained, the relations maintained with the PSOE showed, a year ago, that we where before "the sufficient objective conditions to approach a democratic process that could result on the resolution of the political conflict" and that is why, this leader of Batasuna believes, ETA gave green light to the permanent cease-fire "as a contribution to the democratic process".

However, member of Batasuna's national executive indicated that the Government of Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero "has not responded in positive way to the necessities of the resolution process" and described his management as "ominous". On a graphical way, she evoked the situation of the leader of Batasuna Arnaldo Otegi, remembering that he saw from prison how the process began and, how this same Wednesday, was lead by the Civil Guard to the bench of the Spanish National Hearing to be judged once again.

From the repressive point of view, Fullaondo underlined that the Spanish State's attacks on against the Basque pro-independence left "have had no truce". In this line, she indicated that the pro-independence left "has been political and judicially persecuted", with the mere objective "to disfigure the nature and the objectives of the process".

The member of the national executive went beyond and assured that the Executive of the PSOE, "giving the back to his political responsibility, given more importance to the negotiation between Government and ETA than to the political negotiation between parties". And it has had "all the help and complicity" of the PNV. The leader of the pro- independence formation also described the performance of the French State these past months. She assured that the only contribution that has arrived from Paris is based on the "scorn and the negation" of the Basque Country.

After insisting that the Basque pro-independence left has held the political initiative political "at all times", she added that those attempts have been sustained with concrete proposals. As example of it remembered the Anoeta proposal, presented in November 2004 and where a concrete methodology was settled to approach the resolution of the conflict, or the proposal for a new democratic framework, presented the 3rd March 2007, which "it puts on the table concrete expositions which as a result would bring a stable resolution to the conflict".

On the other hand, Pernando Barrena insisted that, "in spite of all the grief and lack of political will", now a days "the historical opportunity for the resolution of conflict continues being open". For that reason, he underlined again that the present political scene demands "political will and the exercise of responsibility" to all the agents involved in the future of the political conflict.

After assuring that the reason for the lack of agreement lies on the objectives of the process, the leader of Batasuna insisted that the bases to make the resolution process viable come from obtaining, through negotiation, a political agreement of base between the agents of the Basque Country. An agreement that must answer to the two main knots of the decisive process: the territorial partition of the country and the negation of Basque citizens the capacity to decide their future.

In this sense, Barrena commented that in order to have a viable resolution of the conflict, "the ball must be upon the roof of all the political agents of the Basque Country". As he explained, the Basque pro-independence left proposal goes in that direction, because "it resolves the two keys of the conflict and gathers feeling of the majority of the Basque Country".

Barrena asked for what reason have the PNV and the PSOE "not shown any will to assume the risks and to start up the needed political dialogue for the resolution of the conflict". However, the Basque pro-independence left that it is time to turn page, "leaving aside the sterile debates of violence and politically implying themselves in political agreement schemes to bring, in the shortest time possible, a resolution scene for the Basque Country". He therefore summoned the other agents "to open the doors to political dialogue".

On the other hand, Joseba Permach, leader of Batasuna, criticized, before the microphones of Euskadi Radio, the form in which the PSOE "manages the process". In his opinion, the formation led by Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero mounts "attacks against the Basque pro-independence left that later abandons with the purpose of offering an image of made gestures". He made reference to the arrest and later acquittal of the spokesman of Batasuna, Arnaldo Otegi. Permach assured that these performances are the ones that "upset the PP and the extreme right-wing sectors".


A year of a cease-fire in numbers

2006
The 24th March, at 00:00 begins ETA's permanent cease-fire.

84.000
People take the streets of Bilbo, the 1st of April, under the motto of "It is time for a resolution. Decision. Agreement".

3
Have been the intensive negotiations carried out through out these twelve months, explains the Basque pro-independence left.

182
The people arrested in the Basque Country in these twelve months of cease-fire by the Spanish and French police.

77
The people injured by the different police forces during this year.
3rd March
The Basque pro-independence left presents in the Anaitasuna sports hall its proposal for the resolution of the conflict, in which a democratic framework formed by a political autonomy for the four territories of the south and another one for the other three of the north is forwarded.

3
ETA reitartes in 3 press-realises, an interview in Gara and two articles in "Zutabe" its compromise with the process, and at the same time, calls the Spanish and French states to to abandon repression and show their real will to find a solution.