Althought. European and American Intellectuals Manifesto on Basque Country Local Elections

6 May 2003. Although Europeans exercise their constitutional right to vote in what is a healthy show of democratic routine, few of them imagine that in one particular corner of Europe, fear and shame oppress its citizens.

Although the memory of the Holocaust is honoured in Europe, in an attempt to provide some restitution to the victims of such a barbaric act and prevent such atrocities from ever happening again, few Europeans are aware that, even now, ordinary citizens are being slandered and murdered in the Basque Country.

Although it seems unbelievable, the representatives of the ordinary people of the Basque Country are being sentenced to death by ETA’s henchmen and denigrated by their Nationalist associates.

Although citizens of the Basque Country are being murdered for their ideas, and thousands of them have been physically and psychologically harmed, the terrorist attacks are carried out and openly sanctioned in a pitiful show of moral impunity drummed up by the Nationalist organizations and the Basque Catholic hierarchy.

Although the Nationalist parties enjoy the constitutional guarantees of Spanish democracy, ordinary Basque Country citizens are obliged to keep a low profile, cloak up their daily routines in secrecy, leave out their home address, request police protection, and live in constant fear of their lives and those of their kin.

Although it is often tempting to ignore what is happening, we request the citizens of Europe to declare a state of general indignation this coming May 25^th (Local Election Day in Spain): in memory of the victims who die for freedom in the Basque Country, in honour of those who today defend the same freedom with a courage that Europe will be moved by in the not too distant future.

Signed by: Fernando Arrabal, Alfredo Bryce Echenique, Michael Burleigh, Paolo Flores d’Arcais, Carlos Fuentes, Nadine Gordimer, Juan Goytisolo, Günter Grass, Carlos Monsivais, Bernard-Henri Lévy, Paul Preston, Mario Vargas Llosa and Gianni Vattimo.