Calls for anti-police violence mark eve of big Basque rally

Press, 11 April 1977, Page 6

Calls for anti-police violence mark eve of big Basque rally

-NZPA-Reuter Vitoria, Spam. Posters in Vitoria. Spam,h urged Basque nationalists toji use violence at the week-end i against riot policemen who. patrolled the streets deter- I mined to enforce a Govern-1i iment han on a planned mass'] rally. Unsigned posters in the| 'red, green. and white) jcolours of the nationalists! said that the people had to) ! use violence to defend them- i selves against the police in), the northern Basque town. Despite roadblocks by! para-military guards to pre-: !vent non-residents from entering the town, thousands of) Basques searching for some-! I where to sleep yesterday mingled with youths nursing, their heads from truncheon) blows, and revellers cele-i; brating the end of Holy): I Week.

The Basques were planning f to stage a national rally | c 1 called by all Basque political )< !forces in defiance of a Gov-1? ernment ban. i< I Some 2000 civil guards and t 15000 riot policemen patrolled|[ I the street, according to esti-l mates by the Christian it Democrat Basque Nationalist it Party (P.N.V.). Identification on riot-it police vans showed that re- 1 inforcements had been drawn (t I from as far as Valladolid i 1235 kilometres away. < Riot policemen guarded all; t ’strategic points of the town,l ? and convoys of police lorries’, flashing blue lights patrolled the streets. In various parts of the * old town, policemen fired t rubber bullets to disperse c what they thought were igroups of would-be demonstrators. I Many of those who carne t

for the demonstration wandered around the town dressed in hiking breeches and walking boots after crossing the surrounding mountains on foot to escape police controls. The P.N.V. issued a statement. condemning what it called the Government’s arbitrary decision to ban the rally. “If there are any incidents, the Spanish Government will be the only one to blame. Only the Basques can maintain order in the Basque provinces,” the statement said. The P.N.V., which led the Basque provinces to autonomy under the Republicans during the 1936-1939 civil war. said that it planned to have 50.000 supporters on the roads for the rally.