⬛️⬜️🇪🇺 23 members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (@coe / Strasbourg) have signed a Written declaration demanding to ‘safeguard the democratic rights of Catalan parliamentarians’.
http://assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/XRef/Xref-XML2HTML-en.asp?fileid=28072&lang=en
“75 years ago the Normandy landings turned the tide of World War II thanks to the efforts of a Barcelona-born spy who the British knew as ‘Garbo’ ”
‘In fact, the reason Pujol was in Normandy 35 years ago, four years before his death, was part of the recognition the British authorities finally awarded him for his spying work as a double agent deceiving Nazi Germany about the Allies’ true intentions in 1944.
Pujol is better known by his codename “Garbo,” after the famous Hollywood starlet of the time Greta Garbo (he was “Alaric” to his German handlers), but when he first offered his spying services to British military intelligence he was turned down, three times.’
‘So successful was Garbo’s manipulation of both fake and real information that the Germans ended up financing a network of 27 fictitious agents, and even stopped recruiting spies in the UK. In fact, Pujol was awarded the Iron Cross for his “services” to the German war effort.’
‘For his effectiveness and loyalty, the British made Garbo a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE), and when the Allies began preparing for D-Day, which would see an invasion force of 160,000 landing in Normandy, they turned to Pujol for help.’
‘While the Germans had got wind of the plans for Operation Overlord being commemorated this week, Garbo distracted them with Operation Fortitude, a deception campaign in which the Catalan spy convinced the Nazis that the main attack would be at Pas de Calais.
Garbo got to work, sending the Germans over 500 radio messages between January 1944 and D-Day. That split the German forces and prevented them from reinforcing their defences in Normandy where the actual invasion was set to take place.’
‘After the war, Garbo avoided Nazi reprisals by faking his death and moving to Venezuela, where he ran a small business. It was only thanks to detective work done by a former British politician and writer, Rupert Allason, that the world was reacquainted with this unlikely hero.’
‘Pujol’s legend lived on and his story was told in a 2009 film called Garbo: The Spy. As the world commemorates the efforts of thousands of soldiers on Thursday, one hopes a thought will be spared for a Barcelona poultry farmer who was key in bringing down Hitler’s regime.’
Extracts from article: http://www.catalannews.com/culture/item/the-catalan-who-made-d-day-possible
The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has called for the immediate release of three imprisoned pro-independence leaders: activists Jordi Sànchez and Jordi Cuixart, and former Catalan vice president Oriol Junqueras.
A report by the group, published by the ‘Nació Digital’ and ‘El País’ newspapers, asks for compensation for all three and considers their detention and imprisonment to be a violation of fundamental rights, especially freedom of speech.
Among the conclusions, they argue that the imprisonment of Junqueras, Sànchez and Cuixart is arbitrary, and that Spain must adopt the necessary measures to repair the situation without delay. It also requires that they be granted the right to obtain compensation in accordance with international law.
The verdict issued by the UN is not binding, but it will be very important to build the future lawsuit in the Strasbourg Court if Spain disobeys it.
The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detenctions depends on the High Commissioner for Human Rights, which is part of the Secretariat of the organization and has been entrusted by the General Assembly to uphold human rights in the world.
Their defense in this international cause is led by lawyer Ben Emmerson, specializing in human rights and international criminal law. Throughout his career, he has appeared before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, the International Criminal Court in the Hague and the UN’s International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
We’d like to celebrate Sant Jordi with you, so we’ve created an Instagram account where we want to share your photos of how Catalans celebrate Sant Jordi in different parts of the US.
Are you a Catalan living in the US? Do you live in Catalonia and want to show to people in the US how you celebrate Sant Jordi? Do you want to send a message to Catalans living in the US to wish them a Happy Saint George’s Day?
Share your pictures with us at santjordi@ancusa.org along with the message you want to share and your Instagram user (if you have one) so we can tag you. We will pick the best ones and publish them in our Instagram account from April 23rd to April 28th, when we will celebrate Sant Jordi at the Kensington Day of the Book Festival.
And make sure you follow us on Instagram so you don’t miss any of the photos!
@ancusaorg
You don’t know what Sant Jordi is? You can find information on this beautiful Catalan tradition on these sites:
International Trial Watch (ITW), a platform composed of organisations working to defend human rights and liberties, is closely monitoring the Catalan referendum trial. Different international scholars, human rights activists and members of parliament are being invited by ITW to monitor the development of the trial and assess if the rights of the defence parties are upheld.
The website of ITW contains a lot of information on the trials, the profiles of the defendants and the accusers, and a lot more. It offers this information mainly in Spanish and in English, but they also offer their weekly reports in French (semaine 1, semaine 2, semaine 3, semaine 4, semaine 5). We consider this information to be valuable and worth disseminating. This week, you will find on its website its newest assessment of the trial, of the 5th week.
Catalonia is living in a police state, with Catalan police following orders from Spanish prosecutor’s office and the Spanish Electoral Board (with several of its members being also part of the Spanish Supreme Court, which is currently in charge of the trial against Catalan leaders). They are now conducting searches in public schools, during teaching hours, searching for yellow ribbons inside teacher’s drawers and criticizing the amount of yellow color on students’ crafts, covering murals and removing purple loops of support for International Women’s Day.
As reported:
‘The Mossos d’Esquadra (Catalan police) have this Friday entered various public schools around Catalonia to remove any yellow loops or other political symbols. The force has told El Nacional it’s acting on orders from public prosecutors, after the Central Electoral Board denounced the presence of such symbols on public buildings.’
‘In the case of a school in Badalona, where there were no loops, the officers reportedly criticised the presence of the colour yellow in kids’ crafts displayed in the corridors. They also searched the teachers’ room, classrooms and bathrooms. A rural school in Perafita reports they’ve had to remove even the lilac loops of support for International Women’s Day.’
Source: https://www.elnacional.cat/en/news/catalan-police-mossos-yellow-loops-schools_367390_102.html
Composer and pianist Marc Migó is studying for his Master’s Degree in Composition at the Juilliard School of Music in New York. The concert will showcase music by Catalan composers such as Joan Manén, Jordi Cervelló, Isaac Albéniz, Marc Migó, Narcís Bonet, and Salvador Brotons.
🗓️ April 2nd, 8pm
🗺️ 155 W 65th St., New York, NY 10023
More information:
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#FreeCatalanPoliticalPrisonersAndExiles 🎗
An interview with professor Alfred De Zayas, Professor of International Law, writer, historian and a leading expert in the field of human rights and international law. Formerly UN Special Rapporteur on the Promotion of a Democratic and Equitable International Order. Produced in connection with the Conference on the Right of Self-Determination, “The Catalan Question and International Law”, an International Symposium organised by ANC Nederland and held in The Hague, The Netherlands, on November 9th, 2018.
