Spanish Police Close Newspaper Basque-language daily shut down due to alleged ties to separatist radicals The Basque community in Spain and France was dealt a decisive blow on February 20 when the Spanish Civil Guard closed down the region's only Basque-language daily, Euskaldunon Egunkaria (The Newspaper of the Basques). Hundreds of police officers in ski masks arrested ten editorial staff members and seized docments after claims that the newspaper had ties to the highly-militant separatist organization ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna). First published on December 6, 1990, Euskaldunon Egunkaria had grown to become the standard newspaper in the Basque region, comprised of the Basque Autonomous Community, Navarre, and the French Basque Country. Six of the ten arrested were jailed indefinitely; one vice-editor, Pello Zubiria, was hospitalized after the arrest due to critically ill health. Nearly unheard of in Western Europe, this is the second Basque newspaper closing since 1998 when Spanish authorities closed Egin and arrested 11 members of that paper's administrative council. No one had been tried for the accusations of ETA connections and this paper did not reopen. Although a makeshift edition, Egunero (Daily), was published in defiance the day after, Egunkaria remains out of print while investigations seem to have fizzled. British newspaper The Guardian reported that, "the closure of Egunkaria sparked outrage from other media in Spain's northern Basque country and from moderate nationalist parties controlling its semi-autonomous government, which had been financing the daily paper." Justice Minister Jose Maria Michavila reported that the investigating magistrate who signed the arrest warrant, Juan Del Olmo, named the newspaper an instrument of ETA and stated that the newspaper "[alerted] the terrorists each time there [was] an operation against a terrorist cell". Neither Michavila nor Del Olmo explained how the newspaper did this. ETA, an organization similar and loosely connected to the Irish Republican Army, formed from separatist splinters in 1958. The group has been blamed for the deaths of nearly 800 people and 46 kidnappings for ransom. Quite small, the group today numbers around 20 hard-core activists. After Spanish General Franco's death in 1976 democracy was restored to Spain, and the Basque region was given its own parliament and was granted control over issues such as education and taxes. This partial autonomy was not generally accepted by ETA, believing instead for full independence, so they intensified the violence against Spanish security forces and politicians, the group's main targets. Ties to ETA are not considered a badge of honor among moderate Basque nationalists and supporters. Aldan White, General Secretary of the world's largest journalist group, the International Federation of Journalists, stated after Egunkaria's closing that, "Egunkaria is seen by many as more independent than other journals which are sympathetic to Basque radicals." As well, White stated, "at the same time there are concerns that this is an all-out assault on the Basque language, one of Europe's oldest." The Basque language, unrelated to other European languages, is assumed to have been one of the native languages present before the expansion of the present-day European tribes; Finnish, Hungarian and the Celtic languages are other examples of the older tongues of Europe. As a testament to the language's persistence after centuries of theoretically hostile Spanish-language influence, the Basque people hold a great deal of pride in euskera (Basque, in Basque). Hizkuntza Politikarako Sailordetza, a cultural arm of the Basque government, states in a 2000 sociolinguistic study that "Basque speakers are extremely faithful to their mother tongue, a fact which is illustrated both by intergenerational family language transmission and in Basque-speakers' readiness to speak Basque whenever the occasion arises." In any situation, the closing of free press by the government raises multiple eyebrows. However, for the Basque people, the closing of the newspaper not only questions the integrity of journalism but the power of the language to be used as a communicative and cohesive social tool. Despite the advocacy of Basque in schools and its use within Basque communities, only one percent of the population is monolingually Basque. Another 30 percent are bilingual in Basque and Spanish or French while the remaining, nearly 70 percent, are not speakers of Basque at all. Improvements have been noted by the Basque government, however, in the five to fourteen year-old age group, where a doubling of the Bascophone population has occurred, to nearly 40 percent. Increasing awareness and education in Basque is not helped when the national government, still stinking of the Franco regime, closes down newspapers and leaves the region with no daily Basque-language press. In addition, the 55th article of the Spanish Constitution states that only when there is an exceptional siege or situation is the judge in question allowed to stop the work of a newspaper business. The judge must also listen to the editor before the simple accusations that Del Olmo had made are to be levied against the newspaper. Largely ignored by the Spanish press, four members of Egunkaria arrested and released reported having been tortured relentlessly in the Soto del Real prison in Madrid. After his February 25 release, on-line press Index On Censorship quoted Egunkaria's editor-in-chief Marcelo Otamendi as stating, "[the police] twice forced a plastic bag over my head…made me crouch naked, and pointed an unloaded pistol against my temple, whilst constantly hurling insults about Basque culture and Basque politicians." Spanish interior minister Angel Acebes rejected the claim as "totally false", after which the Basque region justice minister Joseba Azkarraga demanded a full investigation. "When a newspaper editor denounces ill-treatment, you can't just look the other way; you have to take action," the British daily Independent reported him as saying. Although politically motivated, the closing of Euskaldunon Egunkaria casts a dark shadow over the future of the Bascophone-minority in Spain as well as in France. Consistent wearing away at the stimulus of Basque language does not bode well for its future, as it doesn't for any minority language. We have seen languages forced into endangerment throughout history; Kurdish in Turkey and Iraq, Native American languages and the native tongues of Australia are all examples. Fortunately, the people of the Basque Country are resilient. The existence of the independent newspaper at all proved this to be true. J. Everett R.