Ertzantze (masked 'Basque' Police force) Attack Peaceful Protest & Fire on Spectators and Passersby

national | miscellaneous | news report Friday May 09, 2003 16:21 by Sean presently Bilbao, Euskal Herria

Ertzantze (masked 'Basque' Police force) Attack Peaceful protest today at Bilbao City Hall. A number were arrested and it is unknown how many were injured.

Euskal Herria (Basque Country) has in recent months witnessed what can only be described as an attack on civil liberties, democracy and the Basques themselves as a people.

Although we´re only halfway through 2003, for the Basques it has meant the making illegal of;

1. Batasuna, a Basque independentist & Socialist Party, who received almost 200,000 votes in the last election in 1999 .

2. Egunkaria, the only Euskera/Basque language Newspaper. A number of its Editors were arrested and tortured while they were held under arrest. N.B. Torture is common place here especially for Basque prisoners, as recent Amnesty International, UN and EU reports can testify.

3. Udalbiltza, a Basque institution founded by elected representatives from throughout the Basque Country. Its aim to highlight the identity of Euskal Herria as a country separate to that of Spain or France. Most of its work included organising national and international conferences, financing cultural projects and issuing National Identity Cards.

4. AUB-Autodeterminaziorako Bilgunea(Self-determination Group) and other popular leftist and independentist platforms. These electoral platforms were set up to try and ensure that around 200,000 Basque people wouldn´t be left without representation after this months elections. Although Spanish law does not allow for the making illegal of an electoral platform.
This does not seem to matter in today´s Spain as 225 of the 241 local platforms (consisting of anywhere between 2 or 3 to 40 candidates [not sure of the figures for the biggest local platform]).

This means that in some constituencies where only AUB and Aznar´s Partido Popular(rightwing Popular Party) are standing people will only be able to have a Partido Popular vote recognised.
Ah, democracy at its best!

Getting to the point of the article is that a 2 hour work stoppage was organised today by the main Basque Trade Unions and AUB to highlight the above mentioned 'democracy at work'.

AUB marches and rallies were held all over the Basque Country. In Bilbao a march was held, finishing with a rally at the Judicial Courts(where all illegalising takes place). However when many of those taking part in the went back to work or college etc around 60 AUB candidates and supporters made their way to Bilbao City Hall where they locked themselves in for around an hour.

An army of Ertzantze(Basque masked Police Force, reknowned for their heavy handedness) broke their way in through a side door and proceeded in baton charging the peaceful protesters out of the City Hall.

There was no attempt at discrimination between men and women by the Ertzantze, as both were beaten and thrown down the stairs outside the front of the City Hall.

A crowd had gathered on the opposite side of the road to see the comotion and on witnessing the ruthlessness of some of the Ertzantze the crowd whistled and shouted.

At no time was anything thrown at the Ertzantze nor did anyone cross the road. Yet the Ertzantze felt it necessary to fire a number of plastic bullets(different from those used by the Bastions of democracy north of the border) at the crowd.
It is presently unknown how many were injured as a result of the attacks.

Despite the constant State repression and denial of basic human rights, they undergo everyday I have been shown nothing but kindness and generousity by the Basque people since I have arrived. It is now more than ever that we must show our solidarity with our brothers and sisters in the Basque Country.
An often used quote by Dachau seems apt at this difficult time in Euskal Herria.

"In Germany, they came first for the communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists but I didn't speak up because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time nobody was left to speak up."
Dachau, 1944