Ibarretxe demands support for the verifiers
The Lehendakari (Basque Autonomous Community President) Juan Jose Ibarretxe (Lehendakari from 1999 to 2009) has protagonized a new event for Sare, the network for the rights of the prisoners. The act took place in Hondarribia, in the act he formulated a proposal for the resolution of the conflict that included the consequences as well as the causes. To advance towards disarmament he sees as necessary support for the verifiers.
A few months ago he intervened in an act of Sare in Gasteiz and on Friday, January 30th, he did so in Hondarribia. Juan Jose Ibarretxe, currently centred on academic labours, emphasized his commitment with the network for the human rights of the prisoners and OTRs (on the runs) with a conference which set out a good number of ideas towards the resolution, from the premise of “it’s not enough to desire peace, you have to work for it”.
The former Lehendakari detests the idea that there is already a finished process. On the contrary, he believes that everything remains to be done and one has to get to work on it as soon as possible. His path has four rails, resumed in this way: “Defence of human rights”, “political dialogue”, “respect for the decisions of Basque society” and “social construction”.
In the first chapter, Ibarretxe introduced some new reflections with respect to those that he presented a few months ago in Gasteiz, derived from what has been happening since then. He pointed out the call to “facilitate the work of the International Verification Commission” to advance towards the “dissolution of ETA and the decommissioning of arms”. He sees it as essential facing the evidence that there are sectors who seek to convert the verifiers “into a laughingstock”. His affirmation had an added interest after the collision between the current government of Lakua and the IVC on December 21st, when the note of the verifiers giving account of the advances was replied by the current Lehendakari and the secretary of Peace and Coexistence with a critical counterproposal.
In this same block, Ibarretxe defended that the prisoners make “a recognition of the damage they have caused as a consequence of their actions” (a question proposed by the Social Forum and that the EPPK, the collective of political prisoners, considers done). He also demanded the release of “those imprisoned for their defence of political ideas” and the “application of regular penitentiary benefits to the prisoners of ETA”.
At the beginning of his speech, he who was the Lehendakari in three legislatures had denounced the last raid against the solidarity with the prisoners, that he sees as proof of the maintaining of a “Penal Code of the Enemy” which must end now. He also spoke out against the resolution of the Supreme Court against the decision of the European framework against the accumulation of sentences, a point in which he emphasized that the Spanish High Court came to confront itself in its criteria hardly a year ago.
“Agree on the implementation, not the right”
Together with the recognition of human rights, Juan Jose Ibarretxe demanded political dialogue because “to deny it is to deny the solution”. He later stressed the necessity of respecting the decision of Basque society, but alerting of the risk of incurring in “conceptual errors. Because what has to be pacted is the practice of the law, not the law; this we have”. He cited that this is what they have already achieved in Scotland, while in the Basque Country everything remains to be done”.
The proposal of Ibarretxe covers, therefore, the consequences of the conflict as well as the causes. All of this he explained in a university style, standing and with the microphone in hand, supporting himself with Powerpoint with historical quotes from different personalities and even getting the auditorium to sing “Zenbat Gera?” A traditional song by Mikel Laboa about the lack of unity among the forces in the Basque Country.
Ibarretxe showed himself incisive against the immobility of the state, understood as beyond he position of the Government of the PP. To them he berated above all their electoral use of the Basque affair, and on this point he recalled the phrase of the former Israeli Prime Ministers Shimon Peres: “When we made war we won the elections but when we made peace they called us traitors”. However he also attacked the Spanish courts that “apply Non-law” or against the media in Madrid who exalt the police raids in the Basque Country and later hardly give an account of the absolutions relative to these same trials.
Original article at Basque Peace Process.
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