Internationale Kampagne “FREE ARNALDO OTEGI – FREE THEM ALL”. Webseite: http://freeotegi.com/
Vor fünf Jahren begann die baskische Unabhängigkeitsbewegung eine beispiellose und weitreichende Diskussion. Das Ergebnis war ein eindeutiges Bekenntnis, Selbstbestimmung für das Baskenland mit ausschließlich friedlichen und demokratischen Mitteln zu erreichen. Die Bewegung lehnte Gewalt ab und verpflichtete sich, den langen und gewalttätigen Konflikt durch Dialog zu lösen.
Im Oktober 2011 antwortete ETA auf einen Appell der Internationalen Friedenskonferenz von Aiete durch die Beendigung ihrer 50-jährigen bewaffneten Aktivität und öffnete sich einem Dialogprozess. Der Friedensnobelpreisträger Desmond Tutu nannte Arnaldo Otegi, den ehemaligen Sprecher von Batasuna und aktuellen Generalsekretär der politischen Partei Sortu, „den Initiator des Friedensprozesses“. Otegi war der Erste, der in der Unabhängigkeitsbewegung darum kämpfte, Argumente und die Kraft des Wortes als einzige Methoden zur Überwindung des Konflikts einzusetzen.
Bedauerlicherweise war die Antwort der spanischen Regierung auf Otegis Bemühungen seine Verhaftung im Oktober 2009. Er wurde wegen Mitgliedschaft in der politischen Partei Batasuna, die die spanische Regierung verboten hatte, zu sechseinhalb Jahren Gefängnis verurteilt. Seither fehlt jede positive Antwort des spanischen Staates, trotz des Endes des bewaffneten Kampfes von ETA – inklusive ihrer bereits demonstrierten Bereitschaft zu Entwaffnung, Dialog, Versöhnung und zur Anerkennung des Leides aller Opfer des Konflikts.
Arnaldo Otegi, dessen Fall vor den Europäischen Gerichtshof für Menschenrechte gebracht wurde, ist in einem spanischen Gefängnis weit entfernt von seiner Familie und seinen Freunden inhaftiert. Dasselbe gilt für die fast 500 anderen baskischen konfliktbezogenen Gefangenen.
Diese Inhaftierung in vielen unterschiedlichen, weit vom Baskenland entfernten Gefängnissen, oft in Isolation, ist bewusste Politik. Eine Realität, die die Familien bestraft, die gezwungen sind, lange Wege zum Besuch ihrer Lieben in Kauf zu nehmen.
Wir fordern die unverzügliche Freilassung von Arnaldo Otegi, eines Mannes, der für Frieden und Demokratie viel auf sich nahm und der unermüdlich daran arbeitete, andere davon zu überzeugen, dass die Macht des Wortes die einzige Methode zur Lösung dieses Konfliktes ist. Seine Freilassung und das Ende der Politik der heimatfernen Inhaftierung konfliktbezogener Gefangener als Voraussetzung für einen abgestimmten Prozess der vorzeitigen Entlassung sind notwenige Schritte, um einen gerechten und dauerhaften Frieden in der Region zu erreichen.
Zur Stärkung der Menschenrechte und der Gerechtigkeit. Weil wir von einer Lösung ohne Gewinner und Verlierer überzeugt sind. Weil wir an Frieden glauben. Deshalb fordern wir die Freilassung von Arnaldo Otegi und die Rückkehr der baskischen politischen Gefangenen ins Baskenland.
Unterstützerinnen und Unterstützer
José Pepe Mújica
Montevideo, 1935
Senator and former President of Uruguay. Pepe Mujica is member of MPP and Uruguay´s Frente Amplio, he was a member of the guerrila movement MLN-T and was imprisoned for 13 years in very tough conditions.
Fernando Lugo
San Solano, 1951
Senator and former President of Paraguay. Fernando Lugo is a now laicized catolic bishop. He was destituted through a legal proceding that has been deemed a Coup d’Etat.
José Manuel Zelaya
Catacamas, 1952
President of Honduras from 2006 to 2009 he was ousted in the 2009 Coup d’état. He is currently a member in the Central American Parliament.
Lucía Topolansky
Montevideo, 1944
Senator. Lucía has been acting President on a number of occasions, due to her role as leader of the Senate’s main political force. She is member of MPP and Uruguay´s Frente Amplio, she was a member of the MLN-T and was imprisoned 12 years. She is candidate to become Montevideo´s Mayor in the May 2015 elections.
Desmond Tutu
Klerksdorp, 1931
He encouraged nonviolent resistance to the apartheid regime, and advocated an economic boycott of the country as a result the government twice revoked his passport, and he was jailed briefly in 1980 after a protest march. He was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for his work and was later appointed as Chairman of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission by then President Nelson Mandela, to investigate apartheid-era crimes.
Mairead Maguire
Belfast, 1944
Mairead cofounded the Women for Peace, which later became the Community for Peace People, an organisation dedicated to encouraging a peaceful resolution of the Troubles in Ireland, she was awarded the Peace Nobel for her work, as well as the Norwegian People’s Peace Prize, Carl von Ossietzky Medal and the Pacem in Terris award.
Adolfo Pérez Esquivel
Buenos Aires, 1931
He was secretary-general of Servicio Paz y Justicia (Peace and Justice Service or SERPAJ) a group that coordinates nonviolent movements in the region. In 1977, he himself was “disappeared” and was imprisoned and tortured by the Argentinean military for 14 months. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1980 for his leadership for human rights and true democracy for the people of Latin America.
Ahmed Kathrada
Schweizer-Reneke, 1929
Ahmed Mohamed Kathrada was one of the leaders of the non-racial, anti-apartheid struggle. Alongside Walter Sisulu, Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo, he spent almost three decades in prison, most of them on Robben Island. He launched the Release Mandela Campaign. He is a retired Member of Parliament, and served as President Mandela’s Parliamentary Counsellor during Mandela’s term of office.
Angela Davis
Birmingham, Alabama, 1944
Angela Davis is a retired professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She was a leader of the Communist Party USA, and had close relations with the Black Panther Party. Her party membership led to Ronald Reagan’s request in 1969 to have her barred from teaching at any university in the State of California. The “Free Angela Davis, Free all political prisoners” campaign was launched after she was imprisoned for the Marin County courthouse incident.
Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas
Mexico City, 1934
He is the former Head of Government of the Federal District (He was the first to be democratically elected), founder of the Party of the Democratic Revolution he has stood three times as presidential candidate and is an Honorary President of the Socialist International.
Gerry Adams
Belfast, 1948
President of Sinn Féin and TD for Louth. Gerry Adams was part of the Sinn Féin negotiation team for the Good Friday Agreement. He is a former republican prisoner, he was interned in 1972 and imprisoned again in 1973 in Long Kesh.
Leyla Zana
Silvan, Diyarbakır Province, 1961
She was the first Kurdish woman to become Member of the Turkish Parliament. She was imprisoned for 10 years, she was awarded the Rafto Prize, and was awarded the Sakharov Prize by the European parliament. She also won the Bruno Kreisky Award.
Leila Khaled
Haifa, 1944
Leila Khaled is Member of the Palestinian National Council and the PFLP. Part of the Palestine Liberation Organization she is a well known Palestinian activist. She lives in Amman.
Ken Livingstone
Lambeth, London, 1945
He is a former Member of Parliament and has held twice the leading political role in London local government (as the Leader of the Greater London Council 1981-1986 and as 1st Mayor of London 2000-2008) He was a vocal opponent of the Conservative Party government of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Livingstone has strongly supported republicanism, LGBT rights and a United Ireland as well as being clearly opposed to war.
Nora Morales de Cortiñas
Buenos Aires, 1930
Nora is a cofounder of Madres de la Plaza de Mayo, she is the president of Madres de la Plaza de Mayo linea fundadora and a recognised activist for Human Rights, as such she has received several honoris causa degrees.
Reverend Harold Good
Derry, 1937
President of the Methodist Church in Ireland, he was one of two independent witnesses, the other being Father Alec Reid, who oversaw the decommissioning of arms, a vital part of the peace process in the north of Ireland.
Helmuth Markov
Leipzig, 1952
Former MEP, Helmuth Markov is Minister of Justice and Europe and Consumer Protection, as well as Deputy Prime Minister in the state of Brandenburg.
Slavoj Žižek
Ljubljana,1949
Slavoj is a senior researcher at the Institute for Sociology and Philosophy, University of Ljubljana, Global Distinguished Professor of German at New York University, and international director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities.
Tariq Ali
Lahore, 1943
Ali is a writer and filmmaker. He has written more than two dozen books on world history and politics, and seven novels, as well as scripts for the stage and screen. He is an editor of New Left Review, and activist from a young age, he was elected president of the Oxford Union in 1965 and became publicly known for his opposition to the Vietnam war.
Pierre Galand
Uccle, Brussels, 1940
Defender of human rights and a fierce opponent to political imprisonment and torture as well as former Senator, Mr Galand is the president of the World Organisation against torture OMCT-Europe, the Belgian, Palestinian and Sahraouian solidarity associations and the Forum Nord Sud and member of other associations and grass root organisations.
Gershon Baskin, גרשון בסקין
New York, 1956
Gershon is the founder and Co-Chairman of IPCRI (Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information) dedicated to the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He is also a member of Israeli Palestinian Peace NGO Forum, and of the Israeli Board of One Voice Movement. He has been awarded the Histadrut Prize for Peace, and the Tribute of Honor and Courage from the World Movement for Democracy.
João Pedro Stédile
Lagoa Vermelha, 1953
National coordinator of the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST), He is firm defender of the agrarian reform in Brasil.
Carmen Lira
Mexico City, 1942
Carmen is the editor of La Jornada, the Mexican Newspaper and Professor in UNAM. Carmen Lira was a war correspondent in Nicaragua and foreign correspondent in Washington DC and China.
Fermin Muguruza
Irun, 1963
Fermin is a Basque musician, singer, songwriter, producer and documentary filmmaker. Fermin Muguruza has been involved in different cultural and musical projects.