Death of Jon Anza: 10 years later, they have the hidden truth
- This Wednesday, ten years have passed since the body of Jon Anza, who died in a traffic accident, appeared. The body, which had been missing since April 2009, appeared in a cadaver warehouse in the Occitana town of Toloso. Your family makes it clear: Anza was the victim of the “dirty war.” It's still an unclarified death.
Berria interview Garbiñe Alkiza, Anza's niece. He recalled that on 11 March 2010 his uncle's body was missing for a period of ten months before it appeared. It was last seen on April 18, 2009, when he took the train to go to Toulouse (Occitania), in Baiona. “I myself found out a few days after nothing was known about him. He had a tumor in his head and we thought it was very serious not to come back. Because of the cancer, he had an hour in a hospital in Bordeaux on April 24, but he did not go there either,” explains Alkiza.
From the beginning it was suspected that the cause of his disappearance was the “dirty war”, as they knew many similar cases.
A month after Anza’s disappearance, on 21 May, ETA published a statement stating that he had stayed with Anza in Tolosa. Alkiza explains in Berria that this information “turned around” the case: “Until then it was thought that the French police were looking, but, from the ETA statement, the questions, rather than the disappearance, were about their militancy; they questioned their partner, searched the house, took the things from the house...”
Further information on the case was then published, such as the fact that several civilian guards had escaped from a hostel in France, forgetting some pistols. Anza's passport also appeared in Tolosa, in a police station, which only increased the discomfort of the family. Some media started publishing if it had been kidnapped, questions multiplied.
When the corpse appeared, some of them began to have an official response, but these explanations have never convinced the family of Anza, nor many Basque citizens: “It was said that on April 29 he was found on a Tolosa Avenue, in very poor condition, he was taken to a city hospital, where he died a few days later. But we learned on March 11, 2010 that his body was in a morgue in Tolosa. The police earlier informed the media that the family, which was not normal either,” explains Alkiza in Berria.
The relative of Anza believes that there are two keys in this case: on the one hand, what happened during the eleven days that passed from the disappearance of Anza until its appearance on Tolosa Avenue – where he was, who had him there, what they did…–; and on the other, they did not identify him when he was dying in the hospital, in the absence of documents, even after his death: “But why didn’t they immediately investigate to find out what it was? In April 2010, when a morgue worker asked who the corpse was, they immediately identified him,” explains Alkiza. “It is said that a corpse does not remain for so many months without being identified in a morgue. They had jena.”
Although the case began to be investigated in the French State, this path has not been very fruitful, as family members believe that states have pressured him not to clarify the case. Today the judicial route has been closed, for three years, and we note the disappointment in the words of Alkiza: “I am clear that it will not be clarified, that the truth will not be known,” he told Berria. “We do not have truth, justice or reparation, but we do have memory. Many victims of violence have the truth, but we do not, and many others do not. The victims of one party are excluded, not all are treated in the same way. This is obvious.”
2008an Fernando Grande Marlaska epailearen aginduz atxilotu zutenean Ibai Azkonak pairatu zituen torturak aitortu ditu Nafarroako Gobernuak. Euskalerria Irratian, pauso honek suposatzen duena azaldu du Azkonak.
