Interview to Martxelo Otamendi about Torture

From the web: Basque peace process

In February of 2003 the judge of the Spanish National Court Juan del Olmo dictated the closing of the only newspaper that was published entirely in the Basque language, Egunkaria, by considering that it was at the orders of ETA. With the closing, ten of its executives were also arrested, who were accused of being terrorist leaders. Seven years later, on April 12th, 2010, in the first trial for this cause, all of the accused were acquitted. But the damage was already done, Martxelo Otamendi and various others of his companions denounced having been tortured by agents of the Guardia Civil (spanish military police). 
 

Otamendi participated in Madrid in the International Congress against Oppression that was celebrated in the Ateneo cultural association in the capital. In his presentation he related how he, along with the rest of his companions, he was held isolated for five days and three of them were submitted to torture. “I spent three days without sleep. I had to stand looking at a wall and they only let me sit for 20 minutes every five hours. They beat me, they applied the technique of the bag over my head, I had to do physical exercise and I suffered humiliations. They put a gun to my head that went ‘click’ and later they made me touch the pistol.” The journalist continued recounting the mistreatment he suffered in police custody.

The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg condemned Spain for not investigating the reports of torture that he had presented. They ruled that the state had violated Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (the prohibition of inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment) and that the Spanish National Court “remained impassive to the reports”.

How do you view this sentence?

It seems to me to be a very interesting sentence because we needed a legal support from a European authority to say that Spain hadn’t investigated. We would have like it better for them to say that we were tortured and that they would have repeated the trial in an independent court to investigate torture.

After this sentence, do you think there is a possibility for Spain to rectify or reopen the case?

No, Spain won’t do anything. In these cases what they do is act as if nothing has happened. The government doesn’t want any commotion, they’ve changed the subject. They’re not going to fight it or appeal it, they’re not interested in any noise from the media in these questions.

We’ll have to wait for there to political changes in the Basque Country and that there they can investigate cases of torture. If one day we were an independent country we could begin to investigate these cases, but I don’t have much hope.

How do you frame your case in the situation of political violence that has happened in the Basque Country these last decades?

Our case isn’t the first that has gone against the media. The newspaper Egin was closed by order of the Spanish National Court back in July of 1998, violating a fundamental right which is to have our own media. I’d like to mention that the directors of that newspaper are still in prison.

We weren’t submitted to the criminalization that Egin suffered on the part of the Spanish press and public opinion, which in their case made it harder to create a support structure. But the fact that Egunkaria was completely in Basque, and that their directors were people with a great popular exposure in Basque culture caused for there to be great social opposition. In fact, the biggest demonstration in the history of Donosti (Gipuzkoa south basque country) was for the closing of Egunkaria, which caused the whole city to collapse and made the government reflect. It was a test to see if there would be strength in the response, and effectively there was. That same day a temporary newspaper was born and shortly after Berria.

What do you think the objective of the government was when they closed Egunkaria?

It was a warning. A warning to the population that Spain is something very serious and that you don’t mess with things like the right to self-determination, which was then being introduced into the Basque political dictionary as the “Plan Ibarretxe”. And for you to really believe that we are not going to allow this, we’re going to give you a scare, we are going to close Egunkaria, which is the favourite pet of Basque culture, a sensible issue of the cultural feeling of the Basque Country. And we are not just going to close it; we are going to arrest the directors, accuse them of being members of the leadership of ETA and ask for 14 years in prison. Also, we are going to torture them so that they know not to mess around with Spain.

Let’s talk about torture. The cases that have happened have been momentary excesses on the part of police agents?

Torture is structural and it is a work method. And that will be demonstrated when they write the black book on torture, which would be better done by international figures who aren’t contaminated by the situation. This is the great pending book, which covers the cases and the responses from the judges and the Home Secretaries.

It is structural as is demonstrated that Intxaurrondo is the biggest centre for torture in Europe in the last 40 years. We don’t say that, since it’s known that we invent the torture, the Spanish justice system says it, which has accumulated an infinity of torture condemnations there. It’s like this up to the point that the Spanish police, in this case the Guardia Civil, the most honoured for their fight against ETA, to which they attribute the highest number of commandos dismantled, has a sentence of 75 years in prison for the murder of Lasa and Zabala. We are talking about General Galindo.

When they are torturing you and they say to you “This is the Guardia Civil and forget about all your rights”, as they said to me, this is a structure, these aren’t momentary excesses. Torture is efficient for the judges, who tolerate it and out of every 100 cases that they open a great number end up in prison. It’s efficient for the police, because it demonstrates that they are doing their job well. And it is efficient for the Home Secretary because it puts arrests on the table.

Justice that investigates is slower and more expensive. 80% of the sentences that ETA militants are serving are sustained only on the base of declarations made in police stations. And I am not saying that they are innocent of those crimes.

It’s been said that ETA orders its militants to denounce torture when they are arrested. Have there been cases of false denunciations?

They talk about a manual that says that, but no one has ever seen it. We are talking about more than 7,000 Basques tortured since the constitution was approved for political reasons. I don’t put my hand in the fire for all of them, but I will do it for a large percentage of them. It’s easier for someone who has been tortured to be quiet than for someone who hasn’t been tortured to invent it. I know of cases of people who have been tortured because of the fear that they have they don’t talk.

More than half of the agents condemned in the Basque Country for torture have been pardoned.

That is why torture is structural, because it is pardoned. And if later at the last minute they catch you they pardon you. That’s the case of Galindo who had 75 years in prison and he only spent 4 years. Rafael Vera (sentenced for financing the GAL) was set free because he was depressed. Apparently he was the only Spaniard depressed in prison.

The state doesn’t abandon their minions. If they don’t have any other recourse they judge them and condemn them, but later they always can give them a pardon.

Is Spanish society conscious of that?

One part of the out of the parliamentary left is very conscious and very much in solidarity. I have received support from many people and we are very satisfied from the support from many Spaniards.

I understand that the activity of ETA has been able to function as a sleeping pill for many who have said, “They asked for it”, but our work is to try to reach even more people and to convince them that all of this has happened.

Anyway, they torture more non-Basques than Basques. The tortures of social arrests, people without papers or immigrants, have been denounced by Amnesty International and the numbers are scandalous.

This is a political conflict and then it takes precedence over the political positioning about the positioning about human rights. I understand that the people think that “they are killing people and that it what there is”. Many people would vote in favour of soft torture in referendum. If there is a political conflict many people are Spaniards instead of democrats. This has also happened with a great number of the press.

Today do there still occur abuses like you suffered?

It’s more difficult because they aren’t arresting as many people in this new period since ETA finished their armed activity. They still arrest people accused of previous attacks but now they don’t do interrogations as they did before.

How do you evaluate the new time in the Basque Country now that ETA has given up their weapons?

It’s an interesting scenario because in the Parliament we are going to have representatives of all the political forces in this country. Two Basque-Spanish forces the PP and the PSE and two abertzale forces, PNV and EH Bildu. Now we have to see how Catalonia makes their path and what happens with Scotland.

On the other hand we are waiting on the solution of the conflict. And in this sense we have three points on the agenda: the prisoners, the victims and a new agreement that sets out new norms of political coexistence. I am not talking about reconciliation. We need a pact signed by the four biggest forces and the social agents who establish the new pillars of Basque politics and in that they respect all options whenever they are in a democratic majority.

Before confronting a national construction like in Catalonia we have to solve the problems on our agenda. We can’t do that with more than 700 prisoners.

Above political normalization, is reconciliation possible?

Reconciliation is something personal. You have to respect any option and it shouldn’t have a direct influence on the political process. I don’t have to reconcile with those who tortured me.

I think that it is very good that there are people from ETA who try to get close to the victims and try to explain how the attacks took place. I also understand why the victims aren’t willing to listen to them. It is an ethical and personal question. You have to respect what is done and what isn’t done.