The association of family and friends of Basque political prisoners has mobilised on Memorial Day, before the institutional act of the Gasteiz Parliament. “Unfortunately, in building the collective memory closest to the history of our people, everything that concerns the victims of exceptional prison policy remains empty,” the spokesmen of the association said. They have reminded the 35 prisoners and relatives who have died on the road in forced travel by dispersion and “more than three decades” as a result of these policies.
Etxerat denounces that until now they have only known the “forgetfulness” of the institutions and that they have felt “alone”. The association hopes, however, that Law 12/2016 will be complied with and that steps will be taken in “recognition and reparation for all victims”. “We continue to pose a serene debate on an inclusive memory in which we can all see ourselves reflected.”
Equality for State victims
On Wednesday, Eneko Calle and Agus Hernán, members of the Social Forum, presented in the Gasteiz Parliament the report "Victims of the State: from asymmetry to equality". The President of Parliament first met Bakartxo Tejeria and then the political groups in the Committee on Human Rights, Equality and Justice. In October the same report was presented to the Parliament of Navarra. The work is the result of two meetings held in Madrid and San Sebastian, in which the Forum demands to end the discrimination that the victims of the State receive at public level, in accordance with the principle of “the violation itself, the recognition”.