Bilbao (EFE).- The PNV and the PSE-EE have presented a parliamentary initiative in which they urge the mayor of Galdakao (Bizkaia), from EH Bildu, to remove the names of ETA members such as “from the list of victims on the municipal website Txapote”, “Thierry” or Jon Bienzobas.
For its part, the Basque Government has rejected mixing victims and perpetrators.
The controversy surrounding this matter has been increasing after yesterday the PSE-EE of the town denounced that the City Council quotes ETA militants from the municipality on the website “Galdakao Oroimena” (Memory of Galdakao), dedicated to the recovery of historical memory.
In the list, prepared by the Aranzadi science society at the behest of the Consistory, the criminal history of these terrorists does not appear.
In addition, they are shown as “victims of police persecution, exile for fear of torture or application of an exceptional prison policy.”
The Collective of Victims of Terrorism (Covite) has reported that six other Gipuzkoan town halls have historical memory websites identical to Galdakao’s.
They include records of ETA members as affected by human rights violations.
humiliation of the victims
In their non-legal proposal registered in the Basque Parliament, the PNV and PSE-EE, parties that support the Basque Government, denounce the “humiliation” to which the Galdakao City Council subjects the victims of terrorism.
Without expressly citing this case, the Basque Government has rejected “the mixture and confusion of violent acts or of victims and perpetrators” in the preparation of municipal reports on memory and human rights.
For counselor Nerea Melgosa, “the violation of the right to life cannot have a similar treatment with cases of people affected by events that in the light of international law cannot be considered violations of human rights.”
The spokesperson for Elkarrekin Podemos-IU in the Basque Parliament, Miren Gorrotxategi, also stressed that “victims cannot be equated with perpetrators in any way” and that doing so is “a humiliation for the victims of terrorism”, as she pointed out in social networks.
Before their reaction, representatives of Podemos, which is part of the government team of the Galdakao City Council, had defended, in statements to Efe, the inclusion of the aforementioned ETA militants on the municipal website, considering them victims of “violence derived from the political situation”.
Subsequently, these same sources from Podemos have qualified that they have always “outright” rejected possible comparisons between victims and perpetrators.
They have requested that a division be established in any list of victims, between those who have suffered human rights violations and, on the other hand, suffering from politically motivated violence.
From the PP, the president of the party in the Basque Country, Carlos Iturgaiz, who was in Pamplona this Wednesday, denounced the “scorn of the victims” of terrorism that the actions of the Galdakao City Council entail.
The PP asks for a “sanitary cordon” to Bildu
He has described the parliamentary proposal of the PNV and PSE-EE to reverse this situation as a “toast to the sun” and has called for a “political sanitary cordon” from EH Bildu.
The Fernando Buesa Foundation has requested a rectification from both the Galdakao City Council and the Aranzadi society: “It is outrageous and inadmissible to pass off as victims those who exercised terror in the name of ETA and are now in jail serving time for it”, has writing the organization in social networks.
At the focus of the controversy, the Galdakao City Council has expressed in a note its absolute respect for all the victims of the municipality “without exception and totally rejecting its political use.”
The Mayor’s Office of this municipality has said it understands “the pain felt by the victims and their environment” and has expressed its willingness to “continue working to alleviate it.”
In addition, he has praised the scientific work of the Aranzadi science society and has stressed that he contracted it to prepare the report because “the City Council is not an expert in classifying this type of documentation.”
Identical websites in another 6 town halls
Galdakao is not the only Basque municipality that includes ETA members in its lists of victims, as denounced this Wednesday by the Covite organization.
This collective of victims of terrorism has explained that the Guipuzcoan town councils of Villabona, Oiarzun, Hernani, Azpeitia, Tolosa and Orio, all governed by EH Bildu except Tolosa (PNV), have memory webs identical to that of Galdakao, integrated into the “Oroimena” project of Aranzadi.
They include records of ETA members as affected by human rights violations “derived from political violence.”
Covite has regretted that EH Bildu and the Aranzadi Science Society have “orchestrated a strategy to launder ETA terrorism” by presenting terrorists as victims of human rights violations “simply for having been detained, tried and convicted”.
“There is nothing more offensive and humiliating for the victims of ETA than the fact that they are equated with their murderers,” he added. EFE