Basque Country Petition
To the President of the United States, the Secretary of State of the United States, the President of the Basque Autonomous Government, the President of the Autonomous Community of Navarre, the French Prime Minister, the Spanish Prime Minister and the King of Spain:
We, as signers of the petition stated below, do hereby respectfully represent that:
Citizens of the Basque Region are suffering attacks against their language, their civil liberties and their human rights, perpetrated by the governments of Spain and France.
We call upon France to comply with the majority of Basque citizen’s wishes and enter into sincere negotiations for a Basque Department, given the current de-centralization process currently underway in France. We also call upon the French government to recognize the Basque language as an indigenous language that deserves equal status with French, in the Basque region.
We call upon Spain to stop their undemocratic attacks against Basque citizens civil liberties and human rights in the name of the "war on terror". We have legitimate concerns that the Spanish authorities are using the excuse of the "war on terror" to outlaw any Basque organization that they find objectionable, including newspapers, magazines and human rights organizations. They have gone so far as to accuse children’s schools as being ‘hotbeds of terrorism" and have accused Catholic bishops as being terrorists for wearing the Basque beret!
Let it be known that the vast majority of Basques, both in the Basque Country and abroad, in the Diaspora, abhor violence. We do not condone violence by terrorist organizations or violence against citizens by State organizations. We believe in peaceful solutions. The Spanish government recently stated they are eager to assist in a peace process between Israel and the Palestinians. Therefore, we may assume, they should be eager to assist in a peace process within their very own borders.
Therefore, it is the intent of this petition to call for immediate negotiations between the governments of Spain, France, the Basque Autonomous Government, the Autonomous Community of Navarre and any other relevant organizations dedicated to peace, with the U.S. State Department, or other designated body, functioning as advisors in said peace process.
To sign this petition, please go to:
http://www.euskojustice.org 