s Martxelo Otamendi chief editor of Egunkaria relates how he was tortured in Madrid by the Civil Guard, when he was held incommunicado for five days.

War measures of the most varied sort, generally unreported by the monopoly media, are being introduced in virtually all of the countries composing the Anglo-American "coalition of the willing" which invaded and occupied Iraq in the name of freedom and the "war against terrorism".

In Spain, on February 22, over 100,000 people demonstrated in Donostia, Basque Country to oppose the shutdown by the Spanish government of Aznar of the sole existing Basque-language daily newspaper in the world, Euskaldunon Egunkaria. The newspaper averages 60 pages daily.

The massive demonstration was organized within two days as, on February 20, 300 members of the Spanish Civil Guard closed down Egunkaria and arrested 10 of its current or former staff of 150 employees for "supporting an armed group."

The raids of the paramilitary police were carried out at the newspaper’s headquarters in Andoain and local press offices in Iru–ea, Bilbo and Gasteiz. Documents and computers were also seized from the offices of two Basque magazines, Argia and Jakin. Police also searched the federation of Basque private schools where one of the arrested journalists is a communications coordinator. Many were held incommunicado and tortured.

This is the latest in a series of state attacks against the Basque people.

Batasuna, a Basque political party that was outlawed by the Spanish government for five years in August 2002, points out in a March 7 press release that the shutdown of the newspaper is part of the government’s attempt to destroy the Basque movement for self-determination.

It said that the Spanish government knows "the problem is not ETA and the armed struggle but the power and capacity of the Basque movement which gives a voice to the people, as well as the idea of nation building which unites the aims of the majority of the Basque people."

It said that "The closing of Egunkaria is a new step to destroy the aim for a free Basque Country, a new step that shows the world the real face of the Spanish fascist state which can also be seen in its support for an imperialist attack on Iraq."

Inaki Yuria, managing director, stated from prison, "Egunkaria is a necessary tool to make Basque language a normal language, and to contribute to the identity of the Basque-speaking community. The Basque national project is built on that identity, our culture, our history, the integrity of the Basque country, and so forth. It is no mere proclamation, it is the reality."

The International Federation of Journalists on 21 February condemned the repression: "When the only Basque language paper is closed like this it casts a shadow over press freedom within the Basque language community."

The Council of Social Organizations in Favour of Basque, the meeting place of many social organizations that pursue the full standardization of Basque, "wants to say that this is not an isolated attack. Today the aim was Egunkaria, and the Basque medium schools. Before now many other institutions promoting the Basque language suffered the same fate. It is clear that here there is a strategy at work. All the resources available to the state are being used to interrupt the standardization process. This strategy is not an isolated or temporary campaign. It is much more serious and deeper than that. They have tried to deal a blow to the standardization process that the Basque language has gone through in recent years, and for that purpose they have attacked the only newspaper published in Basque."

Euskera — the Basque language — is spoken by some 600,000 people in the Spanish Basque country and Navarra, and another 80,000 in the PyrŽnŽes Orientales department of south-western France. The language has existed for over 4,000 years.

Euskera’s development was severely stunted during Spain’s 40-year Franco dictatorship after the Basques established their own republic during the Spanish civil war. The Basque people were the most brutally repressed of all sections of the Spanish society. Children were beaten at school if they were caught speaking the language they spoke at home.

Then came a major recovery.

Euskera became a shared literary language, won limited recognition in 1979 as a joint language with Spanish, and has been promoted through teaching.

Shunpiking and Mac-Talla vigorously condemn the Spanish government’s unjust repression of the editors, journalists and technical staff of Euskaldunon Egunkaria. The Canadian media has been full of misleading reports recently about so-called "repression" of "freedom of the press" in Cuba, but it is completely silent when actual repression such as that of Egunkaria occurs amongst the "coalition of the willing". We call on Canadian journalists to break this wall of silence and lift their voices for freedom of conscience and the right of the Basque people to self determination.