“It is this city that should be able to decide how and when the prisoners return to their homes”

Euskaraz irakurri: Sare: “Herri honi dagokio euskal presoak noiz eta nola itzuliko diren etxera, nola gizarteratuko diren”

Thousands of people have seconded this Saturday afternoon in Bilbao (Bizkaia) the demonstration which, under the motto Etxera bidea gertu, is organized annually to defend the rights of ETA prisoners. After 5:00 PM, the march began in La Casilla, arriving at Bilbao City Hall shortly before 6:30 PM.

Between calls to continue and cries of support for the prisoners and for their return “home” and “amnesty”, the organizers have stressed that the last throes of spread.

The protest also has the intervention of the bertsolaris Maialen Lujanbio and Amets Arzallus, and when the march reached Plaza Zabalburu, they performed ‘Txoria txori’ by Mikel Laboa.

Empathy for all victims

At the end of the march, representatives of Sare Herritarra (Joseba Azkarraga) and Bake Bidea (Anais Funosas) They read the communiqué from the steps of the town hall. Both have emphasized that their main claim is the sovereigntythat is, this people decides “how and when” the prisoners “return to their homes and rejoin society”.

In the words of both groups, “all victims of all the violence in Euskal Herria deserve our respect in their pain and equal treatment by the governments.” Without solving both the issue of the victims and the situation of the ETA prisoners, “we won’t be able to talk about coexistence.” In this sense, they have wanted to show their solidarity with the prisoners and their families, and their solidarity and empathy with the victims of all forms of violence.

As they have underlined, Basque society longs for “living spacesafter decades of confrontation and violence. We are trying to close the cycle of violence and repression, to enter the cycle of pacification, coexistence and resolution.” Both have reiterated that they “active part in the resolution”.

At this point they have talked about the “obstaclesof those who “try to prevent this country from moving forward toward true peace and coexistence.” Among them are the “exceptional courts and the persecution” from Spain and France. Agents defending the rights of ETA prisoners have the “revengeof this strand of justice, and remember that no one is in prison for torture or committing crimes of the state.

These courts decide, “hundreds of miles away, on the freedom or not of people about whom he knows little and who do not interest him. They do, ignoring the decisions of those in prisons who know the positive evolution of these underprivileged. ” of liberty for long years of punishment,” they denounce.

Sare and Bake Bidea believe that “the human rights agenda can no longer be subordinated to partisan expediency and state reasons. Human rights are not divisible. They form a whole, including empathy for those who have been victims of various forms of violence in our city.”

Finally, after 34 years of the policy of distancing and dispersal “against Basque prisoners and their families”, “we can say that it cost us, but that we have won this stage between all of us”. Sare and Bake Bidea expressed gratitude to Basque society for “their generosity and commitment to rights violations”, and also to those who, “on the road with Mirentxin or in the streets with their support, have managed to keep the flame alive love of justification and solidarity, for more than three decades”. They also thought of the deceased when they went to visit their relatives or friends who were in prison, or when they returned from the visit.

Attendees

Representatives from EH Bildu, Podemos, ERC, Junts, CUP and BNG, as well as the trade unions ELA, LAB, UGT, Steilas, ESK, EHNE, Etxalde, Hiru, CNT and CGT participated in the mobilization. For their part, PNV and CCOO have joined the claim, although they have declined to participate in the march.

In this way it was possible to see the general coordinator of EH Bildu, Arnaldo Otegi; the Navarrese parliamentarian Bakartxo Ruiz; among others, the deputy Oskar Matute, the candidate for deputy general of Gipuzkoa, Maddalen Iriarte, or the leader of Sortu, Arkaitz Rodríguez.

The Secretaries General of ELA and LAB, Mitxel Lakuntza and Garbiñe Aranburu, as well as former ERC deputy Joan Tarda, or former President of the Parliament of Catalonia, Carme Forcadell, also participated in the mobilization.