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Basque solidarity fast declared a success

21/02/07

A number of éirígí activists took part in a 24 hour fast in Dublin city over the weekend.  The fast was held in solidarity with the Basque political prisoner, Iñaki de Juana Chaos, whose hunger strike crossed the 100 day barrier on Thursday last.  The Dublin fast started at 2pm on Saturday outside of the Bank of Ireland building on College Green before moving to the gates of the Spanish Embassy in Ballsbridge at 8pm that evening.  The protest concluded outside of the Embassy at 2pm on Sunday.

A total of seven people took part inthe full twenty-four hour action while many others joined the protest for shorter periods of time.  The public reaction at both locations was hugely positive with large numbers of passers-by engaging with those taking part in the fast.  While the case of Iñaki de Juana Chaos may not yet be widely known in Ireland this didn’t stop hundreds of people from signing a petition calling for his release once they were informed of the facts of his case.

Iñaki de Juana Chaos was due for release from jail in late 2003 after serving a sentence of almost twenty years.  Instead of release he was sentenced to a further twelve years after the Spanish government deemed articles written by him while in jail to be seditious.  Iñaki’s embarked on a hunger strike to secure his freedom on November the 7th 2006.  He has been force-fed by the Spanish authorities since his condition worsened in early February.

Speaking after the 24 hour fast éirígí spokesperson Dáithi Mac An Mhaistir asked people to do whatever they could to raise the profile of Inaki’s case, ‘Taking part in a symbolic fast was the least that we could do to help bring attention to the desperate plight of Iñaki de Juana Chaos.  We in Ireland have far too much experience of hunger strikes and can empathise fully with what the Basque people are going through.  We also know from that experience how important international support is to a hunger striker, their families and their communities.  We in Ireland need to do what we can to raise Inaki’s profile and to pressurise the Spanish government into doing the right thing.  The simplest thing that people can do is contact the Spanish embassy in Dublin and demand that he be released without delay.’

Dáithi concluded that ‘we in éirigi are committed to supporting the cause of Iñaki de Juana Chaos as he continues to battle against the injustices of the Spanish state through the only means at his disposal’.