This file is a mirror of EUSKAL HERRIA JOURNAL by Basque Red Net.

STATE REPRESSION:
FRENCH COLLABORATION

In January 1979 Spain transferred 93 Basque political prisoners to the new security prison in Soria and held them in total isolation and under military regime. ETA retaliated with attacks against members of the Spanish army killing two senior officers.

Spanish politicians and the media blamed the escalation of ETA's actions to police inefficiency. The Spanish media became the government's anti-terrorism spokesman.

A political and information campaign was launched to demand the withdrawal of the status of `political refugee' from Basque refugees in Northen Basque Country, under French administration, and their expulsion back to Spain on grounds that France was a "refuge for the terrorists" and where they planned the attacks on Spain.

On January 12, Spain's minister of Foreign Relations, Marcelino Oreja, provided his counterpart in Paris with a detailed list of 127 Basque refugees residing in the Basque Country in France and the alleged crimes they committed in Spain after Franquism. Spain demanded their expulsion. The list included names of Basques who were granted legal residency status by France since 1977.

On January 13, paramilitary death squads shot Jose Manuel Pagoaga who survived the attack but was left partially blind. The attack against Pagoaga caused many protests in Northern Basque Country all of which were declared illegal by the French government,

Meanwhile in Spain, the media was conducting a campaign against France. On January 30, the French government announced the annulment of the status of political refugee for "all citizens of Spain".

On the eve of the announcement, French police arrested 30 Basque refugees of which seven were handed over to the Spanish police. Thirteen Basque refugees were confined to Valensoles.

In southern Basque Country in Spain, the Basque General Council condemned the the expulsion of Basque refugees to Spain without a judicial process. In the article "France and the right to asylum" published by Euzkadi on February 15, 1979, the historical leader of the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV), Manuel Irujo, wrote: "We see in ETA something more and essentially different than simple terrorism like the German or the Italian. We see in them, what those who today are part of the French government, like the president of the Republic, saw in their French patriots who, against the "legitimate" government of Vichy and their "legitimate" president Petain, violated rights, laws and decrees of every type to fight the Germans... ETA's actions do not authorize the French government, or the Spanish, or the Belgium, to deny the right to asylum" Expulsions of Basques from France stopped temporarily when the French socialist took office in May 1981.

In February 1983, Madrid launched a counter-offensive against Basque activists in Southern Basque Country: `Zona Especial Norte' (ZEN, Special North Zone), a political plan coordinated by the police and political institutions.

`Anti-Terrorist Groups of Liberation' ( GAL, Grupos Anti-terroristas de Liberación) run and financed by Spain's ministry of Interior began its campaign of bombing, kidnapping and murder in 1983 in Northern Basque Country.

In October 1983, GAL kidnapped Joxe Ignacio Zabala and Joxe Antonio Lasa, two young Basque refugees residing in the Basque city of Baiona. They were the first victims of GAL

In March 1995, two corpses were identified as being those of Lasa and Zabala. Both corpses showed signs of extensive beatings and torture, including loss of teeth, finger and toe nails. They were killed by blows to the skull followed by shots in the back of the head. Their bodies were buried in quicklime

France has denied any role in Spain's dirty war but allegations have been made that French police helped GAL death squads wage war on Basque refugees.

Spain stopped cross-border operations in 1986 when the new, conservative government leg by prime minister Jacques Chiran began to expell Basques to Spain.

In October 1987 France conducted the largest police operation ever against the community of Basque refugees in Northern Basque Country. The raid led by police forces from Paris, Bordeaux, Toulouse, and Pau, was witnessed Paris journalists notified in advance by the government.

Close to 120 homes were searched for 92 people wanted by Paris and Madrid; 83 people were arrested.

The police operation extended to other cities and town outside Northern Basque Country. IEleven homes were searched and thirteen people were arrested in Poitiers, Bordeaux, Carcasonne, and Limoux.

The police operation temporarily dismantled the Basque "sheltering" infrastructure but the "logistic" infrastructure remained intact.

Another police raid confiscated several lists from the Committees of Support to Basque Refugees with close to 400 hundred names of people willing to shelter a Basque refugee.

Of the 83 people arrested, 53 were handed over to the Spanish police, three were confined to French cities and towns far from Northern Basque Country; and eleven were deported to Algeria. Three refugees were tried and convicted on charges of being involved in "criminal activities."

Since the late 1980s, hundreds of northern Basques and Bretons have been arrested and prosecuted on charges of providing shelter to Basque refugees suspected ETA members.

The coordinated efforts of French and Spanish security forces has led to massive arrests of alleged ETA activists in France and the dismantling of ETA commandos in Spain. But the armed organization retains its power of reproduction.

France's role in the Basque conflict is not limited to cooperating with Spain in the fight against Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA, Basque Homeland and Freedom). France too has a pending, unresolved matter in Northern Basque Country, the three northern Basque provinces under French administration.

France has consistently turned down Basques's demands for autonomy and even a Basque department.

The Basque armed organization Iparretarrak (Those from the North) campaigns for full autonomy for the three northern Basque provinces.

Youths in Northern Basque Country are in the forefront of the struggle for equality, justice, and independence from France. Several members of the Basque youth organization `Gazteriak' have been arrested and jailed accused of sabotage and attacks against security forces.

Picture: Odile Hiriart and her twins. Protests in Northern Basque Country called on the French government to free Hiriart who was imprisoned for over a year without formal charges. She was freed in 1995. Photograph courtesy of Egin.

Bibliography: Luis Nuñez Astrain, La Razón Vasca, Txalaparta (1995); Jose Luis Cereceda, Euskadi en guerre, Ekin (1987); Francisco Letamendia, Historia del Nacionalismo Vasco y de ETA (R&B Ediciones); Towards the National Liberation of Euskadi, Ekin (1992).