Nearly 2,000 people, scrolled, like every month of January, to alert on the fate of ETA members incarcerated for thirty-one years.
Le Monde
Under the word of “the time press”, nearly 2,000 people, according to the organizers, parade on Saturday, January 8 in Bayonne (Pyrénées-Atlantiques), to claim the release of Basque prisoners. The procession, divided into three columns per sanitary precaution, crimped the city in peace, by moments, crossing the manifestation of the opponents to the sanitary pass.
The protesters highlighted the situation of two prisoners, Jakes Esnal and Ion Parot, 71, incarcerated for thirty-one years in France. “They have no perspective of the future,” said Anaiz Funosas, president of the organizing movement “Bake Bidea” (path of peace).
The two men had been arrested and incarcerated in 1990, and sentenced in 1997 to the perpetual criminal imprisonment, with a period of security of eighteen years, alongside other members of a commando of ETA like Frédéric “Xistor” Harramboure. The latter, after thirty years of detention, benefited from a “home detention authorization under electronic bracelet” and was able to return home.
“nor listen neither will in Paris”
“The intelligence would have wanted the other two follow, but no, we repel, we delay,” regretted M me funosas, who also points to the “new steps made” by the government of Madrid, “while there is no listening, no will of Paris”. The demonstrators also scattered for Aai Parrot, 64, the brother of Ian, incarcerated in Spain for thirty-one years.
Every month of January, mobilization for Basque prisoners brings together thousands of people in Bayonne, including elected officials, political organizations, associations or public personalities. A mobilization also stands in parallel in Bilbao. Last year, because of the sanitary situation, a human chain of 2,000 had been privileged to the traditional Bayonnais parade.
Thirty former ETA members, who announced his dissolution in 2018 after sixty years of existence, including four decades of armed struggle in France and Spain, are currently incarcerated in France.