Tribute to Iñaki Kijera on the 44th anniversary of her murder
- On 1 September, 44 years have passed since the Spanish Police murdered young Donostia Iñaki Kijera. Like every year, they have been honored in the Old, in their memory in the gardens of Miramar, and several people have gathered together to offer them a floral offering. “Memory is also a tool for building the future,” they stress in the tribute.
“To demand the truth, recognition and guarantee of non-repetition”, “because in this country there will not be a situation of peace and coexistence as long as the victims of a part of the conflict are biased and disadvantaged and the whole truth is denied to this country”. They also recalled that Kijera was murdered in the context of a mobilisation for political refugees and that “there are still dozens of political reprisals in this country.” “Retaliation is a sign of what we have suffered and what we suffer, but also a symbol of a fighting people.”
Tribute to Iñaki Kijera in his monolith of Miramar at the age of 44. (Photo: Joseba Parron San Sebastián)
They stressed that “the freedom of Basque political prisoners, refugees and deportees is a priority”, but also that “they are the political hostages of this conflict with the aim of obstructing, slowing down and eliminating the process of liberation”. In this sense, they have claimed that “deepening and advancing the process of liberation of the Basque Country” is the “most effective political work” that can be done.
In addition to paying tribute to Kijera, they recall two recently deceased Antigua neighbours: “David Aranburu Tximist and Iñaki Irazusta”. “For all those who are not among us, let us continue working on the construction of the socialist, feminist and Basque Republic,” they add.
Tribute to Iñaki Kijera in his monolith of Miramar at the age of 44. (Photo: Joseba Parron San Sebastián)
Died in 1979
On 31 August 1979, various political actors closed the right to protection of refugees in Iparralde at the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa, and the following day, 1 September, the Amnesty Commissions organized demonstrations in the four capitals of the South. The civil governor of Gipuzkoa, Joaquín Argote, banned the demonstration in San Sebastian, but the protesters finally left the Boulevard, so the Spanish police violently beat the participants.
Tribute to Iñaki Kijera in his monolith of Miramar at the age of 44. (Photo: Joseba Parron San Sebastián)
Kijera participated in this demonstration with some friends and, when the hostilities began, immersed himself in the streets of the Old Party. When the police entered the Old Party, along with a girl, he left for Alderdi Eder, where a police officer shot him from 10 meters with a rifle. Kijera spent about fifteen minutes on the ground and the police imposed on anyone trying to approach him to blows and pelotazos approaching and to the Red Cross. In the end, his friends managed to get Kijera into a car and take him to an ambulance, but he died when he arrived at the hospital.
Tribute to Iñaki Kijera in his monolith of Miramar at the age of 44. (Photo: Joseba Parron San Sebastián)
