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The Foro Ermua is contacting the Presidents of the European Commission and Parliament and other international leaders to denounce the Basque nationalist Government's tolerance of ETA's political agenda Bilbao. 6 April 2005. The Vice-president of the Foro Ermua, Mikel Buesa, sent a letter today to the following leaders of international organisations: José Manuel Durao Barroso, President of the European Commission; Josep Borrell, President of the European Parliament; Koffi Annan, Secretary-General of the United Nations; Terry Davies, Secretary-General of the Council of Europe; Álvaro Gil-Robles, Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe; Nikiforos Dianmadouros, The European Ombudsman ; and Louise Arbour, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. The above mentioned leaders are the same ones that were contacted on 1 April by the Justice Counsellor of the Basque regional Government, Joseba Azkarraga, denouncing "a situation (the Court annulment of Aukera Guztiak’s candidate list) that, from our perspective, is a clear violation of a fundamental right of the citizens, that of suffrage”. In his letter the Basque leader expressed the opinion that both PSOE and PP “with a clear political agenda, have determined the Courts’ decision (the Supreme Court and Constitutional Court)". This
same letter from the Vice-president of the Foro Ermua has also
been sent to the following Vice-presidents of the European Parliament,
Messrs. Moscovici, Trakatellis, McMillan-Scott, Mauro, Cocilovo
and Vidal-Quadras. It was also sent to the EU Vice-President responsible
for Justice, Freedom and Security, Mr. Franco Frattini, the Ombudsman
of France, Mr. Jean-Paul Delevoye and of The text of said letters is reproduced below. ---------------------------------------------- The Hon. Mr. José Manuel Durao Barroso President of the European Commission Brussels Bilbao, 6 April 2005 Dear Mr. President: It has come to our attention that the Justice Counsellor of the Basque regional Government, Joseba Azkarraga (of the EA nationalist party) contacted you on 1 April by letter denouncing what, in his opinion, was a “new disregard of democracy” committed by the Spanish Government for having disallowed the Basque list of candidates denominated Auskera Guztiak (AG). In light of this new initiative taken by the Basque Autonomous government against the Spanish constitutional regime, the Foro Ermua – an association comprised of Basque citizens – would like to bring the following points to your attention:
1) The decision to annul the AG list of candidates was
adopted unanimously by the Special Section of the Supreme Court
comprised of 16 judges including the President of that very Court
and the presidents of its five divisions. The decision was further
adopted by the Constitutional Court on 31 March based on the unanimous
criteria of the six members of that Court’s second division.
It should not be forgotten that in EU Member States such as 2) The legal proceeding was carried out with full respect for the rights of the Basque citizens who presented said candidate list and furthermore was grounded not only on the European Court of Human Rights judgements (of 7 December 1976 and of 13 February 2003) but also on solid case-law derived from the enforcement of the 2002 Political Parties Act at previous elections held in 2003 and 2004. 3) The ETA terrorist group and its political wing Batasuna, are on the EU and US lists of terrorist organisations. 4) The judgements are not based on "mere indications" as Mr. Azkarraga would have you to believe, but rather on judicially established verifiable facts.
5) What those judgements are condemning and what the Political
Parties Act penalises is not the ideology or the political
platform of the promoters of said candidacy but rather the fact
that the latter is actually an instrument of the ETA organisation
or collaborates on a regular basis with such organisation. Nevertheless,
as you are well aware, in 6) The foregoing is certainly nothing new to the Basque autonomous Government or to its Justice Counsellor, Joseba Azkarraga.
7) The Basque Government and its coalition of nationalist parties
have systematically opposed nearly all law enforcement, legislative
and judicial measures that have been taken in -- They describe the arrest of terrorists as unjust and ineffective. -- They send “observers” to the trials held at the Audiencia Nacional (National High Court) in Madrid against ETA members. -- They scorn ETA victims and their families whose organisations (AVT and Covite) continuously denounce the Basque Government’s leniency in respect of terrorists. -- In August 1998 the two nationalist parties of the Basque government (PNV and EA) formally signed a secret pact with ETA which the latter made public some time later. -- They oppose the new Political Parties Act of 2002 whereby ETA’s political wing (Batasuna) was made illegal. -- They also described the illegalisation of that party as a “serious anti-democratic attack on fundamental rights”. -- One of several judicial resolutions, an Order handed down by Judge Baltasar Garzón (December 2001), established that several organisations which the Basque Government was financing actually form part of the ETA network. -- In 2001, the nationalist parties PNV and EA elected to the Human Rights Commission of the Basque Parliament, the parliamentarian from Batasuna Josu Ternera who, as was publicly know, had been one of ETA’s highest ranking leaders for years and who since 2003 is once again a fugitive of the Spanish justice system for his alleged participation in numerous assassinations including the murder of five children in Zaragoza in 1987. -- Since March 2003 the nationalist parties in the Basque Parliament have refused to execute the specific Supreme Court order to dissolve the parliamentary group Sozialista Aberzaleak which is comprised exclusively of parliamentarians from the illegalised Batasuna. 8) This permanent Basque Government tolerance (under nationalist party control since 1980) of ETA and its different satellite organisations represents the greatest single obstacle that Spanish democracy has had to face and continues to face in defeating terrorism in our country.
9) In his 9 March 2001 report following a visit to 10) The Basque Government’s international denouncement lodged against the Spanish State once again underscores its sympathy for the political objectives of ETA and its insistence on keeping this organisation from vanishing from the Spanish political arena. 11) Joseba Azkarraga, as Justice Counsellor and therefore directly responsible for Rule of Law in the Basque Country, has taken part in a number of demonstrations organised by the Batasuna network encouraging civil disobedience on the part of Basque citizens ... against the Spanish State and its laws. This fact defines his true convictions and sense of responsibility. Thank you for your kindness, warm regards, Mikel Buesa Blanco Vice-president Foro Ermua |
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Foro Ermua documents