Stop the Torture!

international | rights, freedoms and repression | news report Thursday July 10, 2008 17:43 by Diarmuid - Dublin branch of Irish-Basque Committees www.irishbasquecommittees at blogspot dot com

Dublin picket denounces ill-treatment and torture of Basque Political Prisoners by Spanish and French states

The DIBC and Éirigí organised a joint picket on Saturday (5th) , supported by other organisations and individuals, to protest the ill-treatment and torture of Basque political prisoners by the Spanish and French states. Over 530 Basque political prisoners are being systematically dispersed by the two states throughout their territories but away from their homeland and their families. Many prisoners and detainees complain of being ill-treated and some of being tortured. Meanwhile, political prisoners are having to serve longer sentences unless they renounce their former activiities and allegiances.

The Dublin branch of the Irish Basque Committees organised jointly with the Irish Republican organisation Éirigí to hold a picket on Saturday last (5th July) in front of the General Post Office in Dublin’s main street, O’Connell Street. The picket was attended by supporters of both organisations as well as by supporters of the Irish Republican Socialist Party and of Republican Sinn Féin – altogether around 30. However, on a number of occasions the picketers were joined by visitors from the Basque country, swelling their numbers to around 60.

As well as visitors from the Basque country there were people from other countries passing by and many took the leaflets being handed out by the Dublin Committee, as did many Irish people. Some Spanish visitors were supportive (especially those from the North of Spain) but there were some hot words exchanged on occasion and two incidents of leaflets being torn up by angry Spaniards.

On many occasions, however, young Spanish people were willing to discuss and where this happened, the picketers were willing to discuss with them, on the basis that where people are willing to discuss there is an opportunity to break through propaganda and prejudice.

“We held the picket to raise public awareness in Ireland of the conditions of Basque political prisoners in French and Spanish jails”, said a spokesperson for the Dublin Irish Basque Committee. “We intend to organise others, too. This picket was organised by us along with Éirigí, whose help we’re grateful for, as we are for the support of the others who attended. We invite other organisations to step forward to help. We shouldn’t let countries in the European Union get away with torturing prisoners -- we should make our Government and our public representatives in the EU ask questions”.

“There are over 530 Basque political prisoners, most of them dispersed far away from their homeland in Spanish or French territories,” the DIBC spokesperson continued, “so that their families have to travel long distances to visit them. It’s not uncommon that when the visitors finally arrive, they find that the prisoner has just been moved to another prison, with no notice, even though the visit was scheduled weeks in advance. Basque political prisoners are forbidden to speak their own language to their relatives; beatings are becoming more common, including actual torture, as in the case of a young man in Algericas prison in June who was tied to his bed naked for 48 hours.

“The time the prisoners must spend in jail has been lengthened too, unless they renounce their past activities and their allegiances. Many of the prisoners have been accused of supporting terrorism on the basis of their open political organising for self-determination for the Basque country, or for their activism in support of their culture or their political or civil rights, or against the destruction of their environment.”

The dispersal of prisoners far from their families is particularly hard on the children and the elderly and is contrary to decrees and conventions on the treatment of prisoners from the UN, the EU and other organisations. If one takes a conservative estimate of four family members per prisoner who would be heavily affected by the circumstances one reaches a figure of 2,120.

The Basque political prisoners' support organisation Etxerat! (Return Them Home!) also stated recently that at least seven prisoners in Spanish jails are either gravely or terminally ill but that the Spanish Government refuses to release them to recuperate or die at home.

Last month, two prisoners in French prisons and one in a Spanish Prison were on hunger-strike. The mother of the one in Spain, in Algericas prison, stated to a meeting in Elorrio (where they are both from) that her son had been beaten all over his body and had been tied naked to a bed for 48 hours. "Despite that, he is strong. I am strong. We will stay strong" she told the meeting.

Amnesty International HQ and the European Commission Against Torture, both of which have sent investigative commissions to the Spanish state, have condemned the use of physical ill-treatment and of torture against Basque political detainees and convicted prisoners. They have remarked also that the judiciary chooses not to credit the accounts of the victims, even when they appear before them with obvious marks and signs of their ordeal and when they denounce their persecutors out of their own mouths. In such a civil and political climate, police and jailer torturers and beaters of prisoners can continue with impunity.