WE ARE NOT ALL PRESENT AND ACCOUNTED FOR IN EUSKADI

Commissions of the Basque Democratic Diaspora

diasporademocratica@foroermua.com

Madrid 26 February 2005

Preamble

During the democratic stage in Spain’s recent history, following the death of Franco in 1975, many thousands of Basque citizens left our land under the pressure of terrorism perpetrated by ETA and nationalism which was imposed through the unfair use of a number of instruments of regional authority (granted under the 1978 democratic constitution). On the heels of the exile caused by the Franco dictatorship is this new democratic Diaspora (now in its third decade) of Basque people whose ideas do not coinicide with those of the nationalist movement.

In addition to the loss of nearly 900 individuals assassinated at the hands of ETA and the wounded and mutilated (more than 3,000) who have abandoned Euskadi (Basque Country) along with their families, there are more than 200,000 Basque exiles either under threat by ETA or suffocated by the lack of freedom and the legal impunity of violent individuals and organisations which have flourished under nationalism (in power since 1979). In a region of two million inhabitants, these figures speak for themselves and bear witness to how the democratic system has been perverted to the point of creating, thanks to gaps or legal loopholes, a “nationalist state of emergency”, a political regime of terror which is very difficult to defeat at the ballot box due to its extralegal and intimidatory nature. Therefore, we citizens who have been forced to abandon the Basque Country due to the direct or indirect pressure of ETA and the so called compulsory nationalism, have now taken the initiative of joining forces as "Commissions of the Basque Democratic Diaspora" and stand together in making the following declaration:

Declaration

1.- The presence of ETA and its political, financial or moral accomplices in Basque society, the social and political stigmatisation of non-nationalists who dare to express their views in public, the arbitrariness that reigns at the regional government level as well as in professional and labour circles that depend on the institutions governed by the nationalists, along with cronyism, nepotism and all forms of corruption rooted either directly or indirectly in terrorism, constitute either a distant or very real threat for all of us and are the reason why we have had to leave our land. For many of us, even the idea of us or our children having to live in a region of Europe where freedom does not reign is simply unbearable. 

2.- In these circumstances, to call on "the will of the Basque people" to replace the Gernika Regional Statute of Autonomy (passed by a 90% majority of the popular vote in 1979) with a plan for secession (which is what the so called Ibarretxe Plan really amounts to), is not only unlawful but is also antidemocratic and immoral. [1] The will of the Basque people is also the will of all of us who have been forced to leave and who now take part in this Euskadi pilgrimage. In the absence of freedom, it is impossible to know the will of the people. Today, that will is being manipulated and usurped as the fear that pervades the Basque society is ignored and a deaf ear is turned — a tactic commonly practiced by Ibarretxe, the President of the Basque regional government — to the open opposition of the majority of the population that continues to reside in our land and of the exiled. Only when violence has definitively ended and a sufficient amount of time has passed free of terrorism and any type of threat, thus allowing for the return of those of us in exile who desire to do so, can one speak sincerely and truthfully of “the will of the Basque people”.

3.-–The Basque Government and the nationalist political parties (PNV and EA) have shown obscene concern for terrorist convicts serving prison sentences outside of the Basque Country, for their families who have to travel outside of our community to visit them and for Batasuna (the now illegal political arm of ETA) and has also avoided any measure aimed at defeating ETA, but has done nothing to prevent our having to leave, to facilitate our return or to allow us to exercise our political rights in the region from which we were banished. Not only have they done nothing to remedy the dramatic reality of the Basque exile, they have taken advantage of our absence to establish an authoritarian  dominance over the Basque society.

4.- We denounce the unlawfulness which, from a democratic perspective, is part and parcel of the way in which the current political situation of the Basque Country has evolved. Not only do all politicians in the opposition (to the nationalist government) need the protection of bodyguards and are deprived of equal conditions in which to make their voices heard in the political struggle, but also many tens of thousands of Basque citizens are missing because terror, in its most subtle and grotesque forms, has cast us out of our land. The Basque electorate has been gravely altered due to terrorist action and coercion and this has affected the very core of the political process.

5.- As long as terrorism continues making a mockery of elections and distorting the electorate, we oppose any and all reform of the Gernika Statute of Autonomy which is not agreed by consensus by all democratic political parties.

6.- We demand our right, expressed in article 19 of the Constitution, to “freely select our residence and to travel in national territory” as well as that of being able to freely decide to return to the Basque Country or to remain outside; a freedom held by citizens of any democratic nation. 

7.- The problem of the Basque Country is not one of peace but rather of freedom.  This lack of freedom endangers the lives of those who express ideas which go against the nationalist project. And this problem is not limited to terrorism but also overlaps with ideological and ethno-cultural discrimination in all facets of daily life. An example is the linguistic apartheid practiced against teachers who have been forced to join the ranks of exiled Basque citizens over these last several years for not attaining the required level of proficiency in the Basque language.  We therefore also demand compliance with the right (explicitly set out in article 6 of the Gernika Statute) which states that “No one shall suffer discrimination for reason of language".  

8.- We encourage all Basque citizens residing outside of the Basque Country to join us in the defence of our rights and in the struggle for dignity, freedom and democracy which are trampled day in and day out in the land we were forced to leave.

9.- And finally, we would like to express our appreciation to all of the regions of Spain that welcomed us in solidarity when we left our land, showing us warmth and making us part of their customs and traditions bearing witness to the relevance of our common, secular culture which strengthens and unites us. We have never felt like immigrants but rather like citizens with full rights thanks to that cultural, historic, linguistic, sociological and political reality which is known as Spain. 

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ACT OF PRESENTATION of the STATEMENT

This Statement made by the "Commissions of the Basque Democratic Diaspora” was made public and presented before the media in Madrid (one of the cities in Spain hosting the greatest number of Basque people) on 26 February 2005. It was read by  Mikel Azurmendi, an exiled Anthropology Professor from the UPV (University of the Basque Country) and a founding member of the Foro Ermua. The act was chaired by Mikel Buesa, full Professor of Economy and Vice-president of the Foro Ermua as well as the brother of Fernando Buesa, ex-vice-president of the Basque Government from the PSE — Partido Socialista de Euskadi (Euskadi Socialist Party), assassinated by ETA. The panel was also comprised of the following individuals, all currently residing outside of the Basque Country: Carmen Las Heras, the widow of Fernando Múgica, councillor from the PSE party assassinated in the city of San Sebastián; Fernando Savater, full Professor of Ethics and leader of the Citizens' Initiative known as “¡Basta Ya!” (Enough is Enough) (San Sebastián); Joaquín de Paúl Ochotorena, ex-dean of the Psychology Department at the UPV (San Sebastián); Jaime Larrínaga, ex-priest from the town of Maruri (Vizcaya); Ramón Martínez Arocena,  surveyor from the town of Rentería (Guipúzcoa) who had to abandon his home because he refused to pay extortion money to ETA; Jorge Konpf, ex-councillor of PP (People’s Party) from Zarauz, the town he left behind two years after a fellow party member was assassinated — it was during a memorial ceremony in honour of the latter that ETA set off a bomb that destroyed half of the cemetery; José María Calleja, journalist; Carlos Fernandez de Casadevante, full Professor of International Law, currently in Madrid; Ramón Aguirre, resident of Barcelona. In addition to this eleven-person panel, two-hundred Basque people of all ages and representing all walks of life were also present with a banner bearing the slogan: “We are not all present and accounted for in Euskadi”. Among them was Loyola de Palacio who, until 2004, was Vice-president of the European Commission and one of the leaders of the People’s Party in Spain.