Basque Youth leaders arrested
All members of the executive of Basque Youth Organisation Haika in the South Basque Country were arrested on the early hours of Tuesday 6 March. More than 300 police officers were involved in the operation. The 15 youths arrested were taken to Madrid.
The police also registered the offices of the organisation in Hernani, Iruñea, Bilbao and Gazteiz, taking with them documents and computers.
Once again, the investigation and the order for the arrests are the responsibility of Judge Baltasar Garzón, who continues with his personal and particular crusade against the Basque Pro-Independence Movement. Without any substantial evidence, Garzón claims to have established that Haika is linked to the Basque armed organisation ETA.
Haika was born on 22 April 2000 from the union between Jarrai -the youth organisation in Hegoalde, the Basque region under Spanish control - and Gasteriak - the youth organisation in Iparralde, the Basque Region under French control.
Some of those arrested are very well known in Ireland, as they have keep in contact with Ógra Shinn Féin, sister organisation of Haika. Arturo Villanueva and Ugaitz Elizarán were international guests at Ógra's national conference last year, as was Igor Suberbiola the previous year.
For years now, Spanish media and government officials have been claiming that the Basque youth movement is the recruiting and training ground for future ETA activists and the lack of evidence has not stopped them in their campaign, first against Jarrai and Gasteriak, and more recently against Haika. A statement from the Home Affairs Department has already tried and convicted the 15 youths, having stated that ``Haika is a school for terrorists''.
Imprisoned Basque journalist has heart attack
Pepe Rei, the editor of the Basque publication Ardibeltza, was taken to hospital last week after he suffered a heart attack. Pepe Rei has now been in prison for more than month a half, his fourth time in prison. In one of those previous imprisonments, Pepe was also hospitalised with heart problems.
He has had four bypass operations to date, so he doesn't have the best health to be kept in prison and to suffer all the consequences of this.
Rei was imprisoned on 19 January by the Spanish High Court, again acting on an accusation by Judge Baltasar Garzón after a massive media and political campaign aiming at closing the magazine he edits.
Rei is accused of working with ETA by providing information. The evidence used against him is that ETA has targeted some of the people he and Ardibeltza had written about and on this latest occasion the accusation has been focused on a video produced by the magazine.
Rei is in prison for ``collaboration with an armed organisation''. He has faced similar charges on previous occasions but has bever been convicted. Rei faces from two to four years' imprisonment without even having a proper trial.
The real reason behind the campaign against Ardibeltza and its editor is related to the magazine's editorial agenda. It is committed to uncovering corruption, injustice and violations of human rights within the establishment, politicians, institutions and armed forces. Pepe Rei was the director of the research department of the Basque daily newspaper Egin, which was proscribed by the Spanish government in 1998. While working for this paper, Pepe Rei was the victim of a malicious propoganda campaign, and suffered imprisonment and even death threats from the police. His present imprisonment should be viewed against this backdrop and as part of the systematic and arbitrary repression taking place in the Basque Country, particularly since the ending of ETA's ceasefire.
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