The AVT will take to the UN Congress its criticism of the approaches of ETA members and the defense of attention to the victims

The association reiterates its rejection of the agreements with EH Bildu and the celebration of public tributes to those convicted of terrorism

MADRID, 2 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Victims of Terrorism Association (AVT) will finally attend the first congress organized by the UN on victims' rights, which will be inaugurated on September 8 by the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, to defend the legislative advances in Spain in this matter, but also to record his criticism of the approaches of ETA prisoners or the public tributes that continue to be held to terrorists.

Criticism of the prison policy applied to ETA prisoners has returned to the forefront this week after the Ministry of the Interior approved the approach to prisons in the Basque Country of another 13 prisoners, including Francisco Javier García Gaztelu, alias 'Txapote' , Henri Parot or Jon Igor Solana Matarrán.

The AVT accused the Government of Pedro Sánchez of "completing its betrayal" by approaching, without repentance or collaboration with the justice system, these terrorists who have accumulated sentences for their long history of murders such as that of Miguel Ángel Blanco, Gregorio Ordóñez, Fernando Buesa or Luis Portero García, as well as deadly attacks such as the one at the Zaragoza barracks house.

The AVT will travel with its president, Maite Araluce, and councilor Miguel Folguera to the international forum that is being held in New York on September 8 and 9. After criticism of the Interior for not having them, the association has accepted the formula offered by the Ministry to defray the cost of the displacement charged to the aid of one million euros approved by this ministerial department for the current year 2022.

"Our goal is to go and defend the true story and talk about legal, social and psychological care," Miguel Folguera told Europa Press, who stressed that Spain has victim care legislation that is an international benchmark , claiming that the AVT has been working on this matter for 41 years.

Having said this, the representative of the AVT has indicated that they are waiting for the UN to confirm if they will be able to participate in the congress panels, after being formally invited on August 26, after their criticism, to attend the forum of New York. In addition, the association has prepared a dossier that will be delivered to the UN.

"We want to remember that we do not like that terrorists in Spain have a voice in the institutions or that they are honored," he pointed out in reference to both the pacts of the Government of Pedro Sánchez with EH Bildu and those known as 'ongi etorris'. This last aspect is one that they want to influence in order to improve the legislation that prevents them.

Both the AVT and Dignity and Justice (DyJ) made it ugly in the middle of last week --about 15 days before the UN event-- that the Ministry of the Interior had not counted on them to prepare the congress, nor that they were not I would have issued an invitation to attend a conference that will address the rights of this group.

The invitation came hours after his public criticism, on August 26, so, after consultations with the Interior about the formula to subsidize the displacement, from the AVT they decided to book flights and hotels in record time and on their own, regardless of the steps that the Spanish delegation had already carried out.

AVT adviser Miguel Folguera also questions whether the film 'Maixabel' will be screened in New York, since he understands that restorative meetings between ETA members and victims cannot be praised if they are not preceded by sincere repentance that goes through the collaboration with the Justice.

The congress will bring together experts and victims from different countries on September 8 and 9 at the UN headquarters in New York under the title "Advancing the rights and needs of victims of terrorism." The call comes from the Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, resuming an initiative that was suspended in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

In addition to the intervention at the opening session by Minister Marlaska, the panel of the Spanish delegation will be completed with the intervention of the president of the Victims of Terrorism Foundation, Tomás Caballero, and Vera de Benito, a victim of the 11-M attack of the Madrid trains.

The Spanish delegation includes among those attending the General Director of Attention to Victims of Terrorism, of the Ministry of the Interior, Montserrat Torija, and the director of the Memorial Center, Florencio Domínguez.

The global congress, the first to be held on this issue of assistance to victims of terrorism, was discussed in May at a United Nations conference on human rights held in Malaga, where Marlaska called for the "maximum political and social consensus" in this matter that allows, in turn, the "maximum effectiveness of the Rule of Law".