9-15 May.
The Constitutional Court revises the Bateragune case.
Popular wall in Ondarroa.
In Brief.

The Constitutional Court revises the Bateragune case

Eleven months after the defence presented there appeal, finally the Spanish Constitutional Court has decided to deliberate on the sentence that condemned five leaders of the Abertzale Left for their political work and promoting a political change in the Abertzale Left that has opened the doors to a new political scenario that the Basque Country is living in. The trial of the so named Batreragune showed the support of the commitment of the Abertzale Left that has opened the doors to a new political scenario of the commitment of the Abertzale Left and the lack of will of the Spanish state to advance to a resolution of the conflict.

The first that the Court will have to do is free Arnaldo Otegi and his comrades until they take a definitive decision and have a decisive sentence. The court must give a response as soon as possible to this demand. And the leaders of the Abertzale Left must be freed immediately.

It has to remember that the only thing they have done has been to promote the political debate in the Abertzale Left. A political debate whose consequence was the commitment of the Abertzale Left for the exclusivity of political and democratic ways to achieve their historic objectives. A change of strategy that makes possible the resolution of the conflict. A political debate whose consequence was the commitment of the Abertzale Left for the exclusivity of democratic and political ways to achieve their historic objectives. A change of strategy that has made possible the advances towards the resolution of the conflict in past years. Therefore it is totally incomprehensible that these people continue to be imprisoned. They have to be released now; they have to be together with the rest of their comrades working so that the process advances. So that the longed for scenario of peace and reconciliation converts into a reality for the Basque Country.

We hope to see them free soon and contributing together for the resolution with these comrades.

Popular wall in Ondarroa

After the positive experience of Askegunea as a model of peaceful civil resistance to confront the arrest of Basque citizens a new initiative has begun, this time in the locality of Ondarroa to try to impede the arrest of Urtza Alkorta, a neighbour of this town.

To continue trying to arrest Basque citizens is another sign of the lack of will from the Spanish government that instead of taking steps in favour of a definitive resolution and peace, far from confronting the path that time ago this country has decided to traverse, they continue with their commitment to a repressive strategy, and they close their eyes to the will of Basque society, which demands agreements to advance towards political normalization.

The popular response has been an example. Hundreds of citizens are taking part in this initiative, each one giving what they have, some sleeping on the avenue of Ondarroa together with the convicted person, others bringing food, others organizing solidarity activities, but everyone with a clear purpose, it is not a time for arrests, it is time to advance towards a resolution. It isn’t a time to fill the prisons but to empty them. This is the desire of this country, the Basque Country.

Representatives of SORTU are participating in this citizens’ response. Hasier Arraiz came to Ondarroa to show his support for this initiative and to Urtza Alkorta herself and declared that this is “an exemplary initiative that demonstrates a people on the move for peace and their future”.

URGENT UPDATE: Urtza Alkorta has been arrested a few hours ago. Numerous agents of the Ertzaintza (Basque Autonomous Police) have come to the town of Ondarroa where they found a popular wall of peaceful resistance. However, the intervention of the Ertzaintza hasn’t been peaceful as they have beaten, insulted and threatened those present.

IN BRIEF:

Amnesty International about torture in the Spanish state: The person in charge of Amnesty International in the Spanish state considers that torture supposes a “structural problem” in the Spanish state. Esteban Beltran pointed out that his understanding is that mistreatment isn’t a “systemic” problem in the interrogation cells and prisons that Madrid depends on, but he did point out that torture isn’t limited to “isolated cases” as the Executive branch of Mariano Rajoy sustains. He also underscored that incommunication of prisoners’ favours that cases of torture occur.

Assembly of HARRERA Elkartea: The association that helps former prisoners and refugees celebrated last weekend their first assembly. In it they gave an account of the work done since their creation about a year ago and made a balance of the contacts maintained with political parties, trade unions, management and businesses.

1-8 May

The CPT asks the Spanish state to take measures to avoid mistreatment.
Mayors for the rights of prisoners.
New initiatives in response to political sentences.
Arrests of Basque militants

The CPT asks the Spanish state to take measures to avoid mistreatment

The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture considers “believable and consistent” the testimonies of torture of ten detainees during 2011.

The report elaborated by the CPT about the visit made to the Spanish state in 2011 confirms that Torture is an instrument that continues to be used in the Spanish state against Basque militants. The report considers totally credible the testimonies of 10 of 11 Basque citizens detained in the regimen of incommunication with whom they have interviewed and have denounced as having suffered mistreatment. The report makes special emphasis on the testimony of Beatriz Etxebarria, who denounced having been raped in the interrogation cells.

The CPT expresses a lot of criticism with the arrests in the regimen of incommunication. They enumerate a series of recommendations to guarantee that the regimen of incommunication doesn’t become something that facilitates mistreatment and torture. They recommend establishing a code of conduct for the interrogations. And textually they consider that: “They must expressly prohibit covering the eyes or the heads of the people who are in police custody, even during the interrogations.”

In the report they also gather different testimonies of tortures, in which the detainees explain how electrodes are applied, the “bag”, sexual threats and other forms of torture. For the CPT, the objective of the mistreatment, they continue, was to get a signed declaration before the oral hearing.

For all this the CPT asks the Spanish authorities to carry out a rigorous and independent investigation about the methods employed by officers of the Guardia Civil during arrests with incommunication.

From SORTU we wish to denounce that the practice of torture to obtain forced confessions has been constant in the Basque Country in the past decades as testified by hundreds of people.

The practice of torture against Basque detainees has always been despicable and indictable and even more so in the new context of the peace process and normalization.

It is necessary to call to attention the position of the Spanish government; which not only does not implement measures of control and safeguards for Human Rights in police dependencies that the CPT demands, but also with torture and mistreatment.

Mayors for the rights of prisoners

Mayors of localities in which there are political prisoners with serious illnesses (currently fifteen) have united to try to find a solution to this grave situation that their neighbours. With this objective they have created a commission that asks the Spanish and French states to end with this policy of blockage and to release all prisoners with serious illnesses.

They also have the intention to meet with political parties and institutions to deal with the subject of their ill neighbours and to seek specific commitments for their freedom.

New initiatives in response to political sentences

Facing trials of a political character that are due in the coming months and the Basque citizens waiting legal sentences for their political activity, different groups are pushing society to organize itself in their spheres to defend the victims of this political repression. Creating networks of local protection to protect the citizens from unjust laws that undermine their civil and political rights.

Arrests of Basque militants

Six alleged members of ETA have been arrested in the past hours in the French state. The French police in collaboration with the Spanish police have arrested six Basque citizens in different parts of the French state who they connect with ETA.

These new arrests respond to the obsession of the government to try to act as if nothing has changed in the last year and a half, from the Declaration of Aiete to the definitive cessation of armed activity on the part of ETA.

From SORTU we demand that the French and Spanish states to act in symphony with what Basque society demands to guarantee the peace process and a process of democratic coexistence. These arrests only prolong the conflict, bringing more suffering. This is not the way, the way is dialogue and understanding, respecting the desires of the society of the Basque Country.

Around 4 o’clock in the morning of March 1st, 2011, they broke down my door. They grabbed me by the hair and brought me flying to the living room. I am in a bra and they won’t let me put on clothes during the search of the house. In the living room they bring me down with violence and on the sofa they try to put on the handcuffs. They get mad because they are too small for me. They tell me while I am seated on the sofa: “You’ll see in five days what’s going to happen.”

They put me in the patrol car. They force me to close my eyes and they cover them with a hand. I listen to them speak when they come up to another car.

They stop. A Guardia Civil who called himself The Commissar comes to look for me and we change cars. The one now isn’t a patrol car but a normal one by the space and height when I get in. The Commissar begins to shout in my ear and to threaten me, “I’m from the military and I am trained to kill”. He says I have two options, to speak from the beginning, or not. I note how he brings out a bag and they put it over my hands. On the way to Madrid they punch and slap me on the head, and constant threats. They say they are going to stop the car and “I am going to take your clothes off, shoot you in the snow and slit you open.” The Commissar takes off his jacket and begins to rub himself against my body. The other police who was at his side “calms down” the Commissar but he also threatens me. They give me “the bag” [asphyxiation by a plastic bag over the head] twice on the way to Madrid.

In the police station there were different rooms: in one you heard the shouts of the rest of those detained and there was another that was below and it gave me the sensation that it was isolated, and there the treatment was even worse. The first one I would call “the hard room” and the other “the very hard [room]”.

The threats continue and the Commissar puts me in a cell and tells me to think well on what I am going to do. He takes me out of the cell and brings me to the medical examiner.

It’s about 8.30pm on Tuesday. I tell him that I am being tortured. They come to bring me back to the cell.

They bring me to the “hard room”. There I hear the shouts of the rest of the detainees. They sit me in a chair and they soak my hands, while I hear sounds of something that seem like electrodes. When I was in the cell I also heard the same sounds. They tell me that I must talk and they begin to take off my clothes until I am completely naked. While I am naked they begin to throw cold water over me. They put the bag on me up to three times in a row. They threaten to waterboard me. While naked they put me on hands and knees on top of a kind of stool. They put Vaseline in my anus and my vagina and they put an object in a little. I am still naked and they cover me in a blanket and beat me. They grab me, they shake me and they pull me off the floor.

They bring me back to the cell until Wednesday morning, when I go back to visit the medical examiner. I tell him something about the treatment I am being submitted to and his attitude was very bad.

I go back to the cell and I try to “rest” a little. After awhile the Commissar comes and brings me to the “very hard” room. They undress me again. He pulls my hair; he punches me in the head and shouts in my ear that his is in the military and is trained to kill and that “I am going to destroy everything inside so that you can’t have little etarras.”

They bring me back to the cell, and after being there, to the medical examiner. I don’t tell him anything after seeing what his attitude was on the last visit when he questioned the account of torture that I had made.

In the interrogations there were always a lot of people. Once I counted up to seven different voices. They constantly threatened my partner (who I could hear how he was being tortured). They also threatened to arrest my brother (…)

On the penultimate day the Commissar undressed me again. He threw a blanket on the floor, shouted and they said they were going to rape me, again. I had the impression that he began to take off his clothes; I heard how he took off his belt. Then, someone they called Garmendia tried to calm him down. They took him out of the room where they were and I hear how they talk. Garmendia comes in again into the room and he tells me that he promises that I will declare.

The last day I had up to six interrogations. The second police declaration I had on Saturday at 5.40. Later they don’t take my clothes off again and the aggressiveness was less. They even came to ask me if I wanted to see Iñigo. The threats didn’t cease until I arrived at the Spanish National Court. In the van, the Commissar, who was seated next to me, told me that I had to ratify my declaration before the judge.

During all this time of incommunication, except when I went to the medical examiner, I was with my eyes covered with different masks. There was one with latex that had a kind of powder that they said that if I opened my eyes I would go blind. I did note that when they took it off of me (to see the medical examiner) it burned my eyes for awhile. When I was with the Commissar he put on another mask that was like velvet.

During the incommunication I was with above all three policemen, the Commissar, the Inspector and Garmendia, although during the interrogations there used to always be many people in the room.

Facing the judge I denied my police declaration and denounced having been tortured.

original article in Diario Vasco newspapaer

The Portuguese lawyer Celso Jose Das Neves Manata is one of the members of the Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) of the Council of Europe, the organism the looks for a common political and legal space through the cooperation of the member states. Celso Manata formed part of the community team that visited several Spanish prisons in 2011 to analyze the penitentiary situation, the treatment of detainees and the functions of the police groups who assume the custody and interrogation of those arrested. In their report, in which Manata himself participated, the group denounced the lack of will on the part of Spanish authorities to correct situations of risk that could result in denouncements of torture.

What is the main worry of the anti-torture Committee after visiting Spanish prisons?

There are three different fields. The police forces, the prisons and also the centres for the internment of foreigners. The most worrisome situation would be that with the Police. The main part of the detainees with whom we have interviewed have said that they have been well treated, but others have said that they have suffered mistreatment on the part of the police. And we have cases of declarations that are serious and the Government doesn’t always attend to our recommendations. They tell us that they are political things and a strategy of ETA. I think the government should listen to us a little more. A few years ago, two detainees for belonging to ETA denounced mistreatment (in reference to Igor Portu and Mattin Sarasola, condemned for their participation in the attack on the T-4). The government denied it. And later, a Spanish Court, the Provincial Court of Gipuzkoa, condemned four Guardia Civils for torture (the Supreme Court absolved them two years later). This is a problem.

The Government, in their allegations, denies torture.

It’s a difficult situation. Sometimes the detainees lie to us, of course they lie. I’ve spent many years working in this field. We know when they lie to us and when they tell us the truth. For that the Government can’t say that everything is a lie. The majority of the people tell us that they have been treated well, but some have denounced tortures that are believable.

Are you convinced of the regimen of incommunication for those arrested for crimes of terrorism?

It is a very hard system. I don’t know it in other parts of Europe. What we want are more guarantees for the detainees. That they prohibit by law this system for minors, although we know that it isn’t applied in practice. The detainees must be able to speak to the judge before prolonging the incommunication. The judge can confirm in person if there has or hasn’t been mistreatment. We understand that those arrested can’t have their own lawyer because they could be colleagues suspected of having committed terrorist actions. But they must have a state lawyer, a public defender, to speak with the detainee in a confidential way before being interrogated by the police. Also, a doctor from the State could attend those arrested accompanied by a doctor of their confidence, to avoid mistreatment.

What do you propose to control the possibility of police abuse?

For years we have been recommending that the interrogations be recorded in audio and in video. This would also avoid false accusations from those arrested.

23-30 April
Gernika Prize for Arnaldo Otegi and Jesús Egiguren.
New initiatives in demand for the respect of those who suffered reprisals
In Brief.

Gernika Prize for Arnaldo Otegi and Jesús Egiguren

The city government of Gernika gives every year in the framework of the commemorative acts of the bombing of the village by fascist troops the Gernika Prize for Peace and Reconciliation. This year the prize was awarded to Arnaldo Otegi (Abertzale Left – Sortu) and to Jesus Egiguren (PSE) for their contribution to the pacification and normalization in the Basque Country.

Arnaldo Otegi and Jesus Egiguren began to meet about 10 years ago with the objective, as Otegi said in the letter he sent to the award ceremony, to reach an agreement based on justice and that would bring peace to the Basque Country. Today we still can’t say that this peace has arrived, but yes that we are closer than ever in achieving it.

Precisely for promoting this scenario of peace and the new political time open in the Basque Country Arnaldo Otegi is imprisoned. Therefore he couldn’t come to accept the prize. Jesus Egiguren, the other winner, considering this also decided that he wouldn’t come up to the podium. It was the daughters of both of them who represented their fathers in accepting the prize. In this way, both prize-winners wanted to display that the dialogue began by them will leave the Basque Country better for future generations.

In the act they read messages from the two prize-winners. Otegi recalled that those conversations had some success, alluding to the current situation, but there is a lot of ground to cover, there is still a ways to go. On his part, Egiguren desired in her intervention that “all of those who work for peace leave prison, like Arnaldo”, “that no one is far from their families”, that “the suffering caused by the conflict becomes a memory as soon as possible” and that “there is no more hate.”

In the act they also read letters by the Nobel Peace Prize winner, Adolfo Perez Esquivel, and from the president of the Irish Sinn Fein Gerry Adams. For Perez Esquivel, this prize means a rightful recognition of those who worked with decision to find a just and dignified end to the conflict that is lived in the Basque Country.

On his part, Gerry Adams congratulated Arnaldo for the prize and praised the work done in the last ten years, which has made reaching this new scenario possible.

New initiatives in demand for the respect of those who suffered reprisals

Next May 18th the citizens of the Basque Country have a new date with the rights of Basques who have suffered political reprisals. On that day more than 200 plazas of the Basque Country will take in concentrations and demonstrations with this demand. In the presentation of the publicity spot that they have made for this mobilization the members of Herrira point out that to give a solution to the subject of prisoners and those who have fled for political reasons popular implication is indispensable. This is what they want to reflect in this spot. In it they want to reclaim up to what point the families are indispensable subjects in the struggle for rights.

On the other hand the Basque senator of the French Socialist Party Frederique Espagnac, taking advantage of that in the French senate they were having a discussion about penitentiary policy, asked the French Justice minister Christian Taubira to modify the penitentiary policy applied to Basque prisoners. He recalled the death in prison of Xabier Lopez Peña, a Basque political prisoner who died a few weeks ago and affirmed that the Basque conflict must be resolved in a peaceful manner.

And meanwhile, as on every last Friday of the month, hundreds of people came out on the streets of the Basque Country to ask for the end of the measures of exception that are applied to Basque prisoners. In these mobilizations they especially demanded the release of the fifteen Basque prisoners who suffer incurable illnesses and the abolition of the 197/2006 Doctrine. For that, on this occasion there were also a large number of doctors and health professionals who concentrated in front of the hospital of Gasteiz to demonstrate their concern for the situation of these fifteen people with pathologies such as schizophrenia, cancer or sclerosis, for that that asked the corresponding governments to stop violating human rights.

In Brief

The Basque Association of Journalists denounced the treatment by the Ertzaintza of a journalist: The Basque Association of Journalists – Euskal Kazetarien Elkartea (AVP-EKE) expressed their indignation and concern for the violent treatment received by the writer of the “Argia” magazine on the part of the Ertzaintza during the eviction of the Aske Gunea. The AVP-EKE also expressed their solidarity with their assaulted companion. The Federation of Spanish Journalists also supported the communiqué.

Youths condemned for their political militancy: The eight youths condemned for their political activity in SEGI have gone to prison. Six of them were arrested in the Askegunea, another presented their self at the Martutene prison, and the last of the eight, Nahikari Otaegi went to prison with her 7 month-old daughter Oihana. Intense and difficult days were forced upon these Basque youths and their families.

Before anything I want to thank you for the prize that you have given me. It is an honour for me and my family to receive a prize that carries the name of Gernika. A task full of honour and responsibility facing the future. I won’t fail you in it… once again, a thousand thanks.

The story that began various years ago, in the Sallobente valley of Elgoibar, in the hamlet of Txillare, at a table well supplied by Pello, is in a great way the story that has brought us to the current political situation. With the passing of time I am ever more convinced that those of us who sat at that table began to make POLITICS with capital letters. At this table, little by little, leaving aside the elections, electoral results, political calculations, the custom that we have of playing small; we decided to play it big. We said that from that table an agreement had to come based on justice and peace, the agreement that the Basque Country deserves.

The path taken there has brought us to the current situation; the path has given fruit… but not all of it, there is still a ways to go, there is still fruit to be gathered.

I think that the path taken has left various lessons to continue advancing: among others that to put politics at the service of the people you have to play big and do it in CAPITAL LETTERS, and therefore leave aside partisanship, sectarianism, the competition for votes… leave it all aside and make way for the POPULAR WILL … because there is no one or nothing more important than the PEOPLE… and the people, my friends, is not just composed of those who think like us, those who don’t think like us are also the people, they are also the Basque Country. We have to build the Basque Country as the country of all the rights, made up of citizens born anywhere and who think in any form, a free and just nation socially and nationally.

To finish and, yes, just things must be spoken of; I want to end with two points of justice:

1. The first to my family, my wife, children, parents… Without your help, your support, your complicity, my work would have been impossible.
2. Second, to my friend and compatriot Jesus Egiguren… the Basque Country owes a lot to him, his commitment, honesty and loyalty has brought the Basque Country to this current situation. He deserves the prize that you award him. Also to him, his wife, his children, a warm embrace.

And finally, I would like to also name various members of the Abertzale Left who have participated in this enormous task… but especially those who with their work have brought us to this new situation and now remain in prison like myself: to the comrades Sonia Jacinto, Miren Zabaleta, Rafa Diez and Arkaitz Rodriguez… This prize is also theirs and for their families.

From the Logroño prison, thanks to everyone.

I congratulate you, for being awarded the Gernika Peace prize. It is a great privilege and honour for me to do so.

The peaceful conditions now being enjoyed by all the peoples of the Spanish and French States, and the Basque Country, result from the huge political discussion and political work over the past 10 years. This, in no small measure, is due to the political vision and work of leaders like yourself.

You have helped create conditions to ensure that all important political issues are addressed and dealt with by purely peaceful, political and democratic means.

The historic successes of Batasuna, Abertzaile Left, Amaiur and now Sortu is a vindication of your political work throughout the past 40 years.

Your recent election advances have changed the political landscape in the Basque Country and Spain.

You dared to dream and to chart a new peaceful and democratic path to Basque Freedom and Independence. For that you are now being rewarded.

I extend best wishes to all those committed to a peaceful and democratic process and to the building of a new relationship between the Basque Country and the Spanish and French States based on equality and the exercise of their right to self determination without impediment or external interference.

Gerry Adams TD
Sinn Féin President

7-22 April
A Popular Wall in support of Basque youth.
Political prisoners and the resolution of the conflict.
In Brief.

A Popular Wall in support of Basque youth

Last Tuesday came the news of the processing of the arrest order and imprisonment sent by the Spanish National Court against eight youths condemned for their political activity. After this news and facing the possible detention of them Askegunea decided to maintain itself active 24 hours a day to give support and protection to the condemned youth.

After various attempts on the part of the Ertzaintza, finally, on Thursday night to Friday morning more than 200 Basque Autonomous Police in 20 vans came to the Boulevard of San Sebastian to detain the youths who resisted their arrest in a peaceful manner. At that time, close to 1,000 people spent the night in Askegunea expressing their support and circled the Basque youths condemned for their political activity in the youth organization SEGI.

Before the presence of the Ertzaintza the people who were at Askegunea formed a popular wall to protect the youths and avoid their arrest. The police surrounded those gathered there, who remained seated around the condemned youth.

The agents took away the members of the popular wall, one by one, and dragging them on the ground. Many denounced that the Ertzaintza acted in a very violent way. Various people suffered light wounds due to the punches and clubbing by the Ertzaintza. The members of the popular wall remained at all times sitting in an attitude of passive resistance.

The Ertzaintza needed more than two hours to arrest the youths from Donostia punished with prison for a political sentence. In front they encountered a popular wall that filled the Boulevard and faced them peacefully, but with firmness, for more than two hours.

The attitude of those condemned and of those who protected them was peaceful at all times, of passive resistance. There was a different attitude from the police, which at the beginning seemed to be relatively calm, as they got closer to the interior of Askegunea their violence increased. They employed punches, pulling hair and threats – a girl denounced intimidations of rape -, against those present. The Ertzaintza also hindered the work of journalists who covered the news, one of whom suffered an aggression on the part of the agents and was almost arrested. This aggression has been denounced by the Basque Association of Journalists.

After Askegunea “nothing will be the same”

What happened these days of Askegunea has been a great example of dignity and of peaceful resistance and civil disobedience in front of the criminalization of political activity in the Basque Country. After this response nothing will be the same. With the arrest of these youths nothing has ended, civil disobedience will continue to move forward in all of the Basque Country, we will build this great wall in defence of the political and civil rights of the Basque Country and for all of its citizens. Askegunea has marked a turning point in defence of civil and political rights.

As members of the Eleak movement affirmed, the promoters of Askegunea, with this initiative they have taken a step forward in the defence of political and civil rights. Facing the unjust order that came from Madrid, and that Lakua obeyed, they have activated a citizens’ wall. A wall that will each time be higher, every day more impregnable and will make clear who is searching for freedom and who wants to drown it.

From EH Bildu, we evaluate very positively the Askegunea initiative which is considered as a mobilization of a new mark, plural and open. An example of civil disobedience that marks the path to follow in the future. We also congratulate the participants in it.

Finally, EH Bildu remembers that there are more than a hundred youths that are awaiting trial or imprisonment, as well as another hundred members of political organizations. For that, they demand that they end the trials and political persecution. In this new time that the Basque Country is living in it is totally incomprehensible that dozens of Basque citizens confront trials and are at risk of being imprisoned for only and exclusively realizing political activities.

Political prisoners and the resolution of the conflict

The political prisoners are without a doubt an important piece in the resolution of any conflict with political roots, since they were imprisoned as a consequence of it and as a consequence of the resolution of it their situation also changes. The experiences of six different political conflicts and the role played by the prisoners in the resolution of those conflicts were analyzed in a roundtable organized by the group of mediators of the EPPK.

At the roundtable you could hear the stories of people who have lived first hand the conflicts of Ireland, Palestine, South Africa, Kurdistan, Colombia and, of course, the Basque Country. All of these people remarked on the value that the prisoners implicate themselves in the resolution of the conflict, that they be an active part of the resolution. Even more so, taking into account what you could hear in the roundtable about the referential role that prisoners usually have.

They also dealt with other subjects related to political prisoners and the resolution process. One of those present, a former Irish political prisoner commented that one of the biggest challenges once a process advances and the prisoners are released, is inserting them into society. How, after many years in prison, outside of society, they have to reintegrate themselves and confront daily life.

Interesting reflections could be heard at this roundtable. Ideas and contributions which must be dealt with more profoundly on the path so that the prisoners become part of the resolution and that they come home as a sign that the resolution process is advancing.

In Brief:

May 18th, a new date in defence of the rights of Basque political prisoners: More than 200 plazas of towns and neighbourhoods of the Basque Country, but also around the world, will have concentrations and mobilizations this coming May 18th in demand of the respect of the rights of Basque political prisoners.

Gernika Prize for Jesus Egiguren and Arnaldo Otegi: Jesus Egiguren and Arnaldo Otegi were awarded with the 2013 Gernika Prize for Peace and Reconciliation that the city hall of this locality awards annually. This prize has as its objective “the recognition of people or legal entities, which through their work have contributed to the construction of Peace and the promotion of Reconciliation.”