Hunger strike urgent call: Campaign to write to the UNESCO

Jaume Bonet has been on hunger strike for 22 days.

He will not be receiving any more visits as his health is deteriorating.

He has lost twenty kilos.

If you think you can help in any way, we ask that you send a letter to the UNESCO's Director-General director to act as intermediary. Her e-mail is: i.bokova@unesco.org

Let's not leave Jaume Bonet alone.

Hunger Strike in Defense of CatalanDear Ms. Irina Bokova,

On March 1st, Mr. Jaume BONET MOLL began a hunger strike in Palma de Mallorca in protest

against the measures announced by the government of the Balearic Islands (Spain), which

would greatly restrict the effective compliance of international instruments adopted by the

government of Spain, such as the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, as

regards the Catalan language, which has been the language spoken in these islands since they were

settled by Catalans in the 13th century.

These measures include changing current legislation so as to retain only one of the two official

languages (Spanish) as a requirement for regional civil service candidates. Speaking Catalan would go from being compulsory to

just being a plus.

Mr. Bonet-Moll is a member of the board of Jubilats per Mallorca.

At the time of this writing, Mr. Bonet's hunger strike is now in its

20th day, and it is reported that his heart condition is giving rise to some concern. Visiting

hours have been restricted. You can find filmed and written interviews with him here and here.

Given the absence of any reaction from the government, we fear that his plight is falling

on deaf ears and that his health will be in great danger unless someone acts as an intermediary.

We humbly but earnestly ask your organisation to intervene.

Yours sincerely,

Hunger Strike to defend the Catalan language: the reasons

Hunger Strike to defend the Catalan language

The first of March of 2012, Jaume Bonet began a hunger strike in Majorca to defend his our language; on March 18th, therefore, his fast has lasted already for eighteen days. The Spanish nationalist party PP arrived to the Balearic government with the pretext of the economic crisis but it has not carried out any measure of economic reflation for the Islands. In fact, the situation is worsening and PP takes advantage of it to rule the Islands with an renewed offensive against the language. According to Bonet, their intention would be to make Catalan disappear or, at least, make it back as much as possible. Some of the recent actions of PP in this direction are the following:

• The creation of the Spanish version of Palma’s literary price which has always been a Catalan price (there are many more literary prices for Spanish than there are for Catalan).
• Cutting out the small help of 300.000€ for the publications in the Balearic Islands' own language.
• The substitution of Catalan toponyms such as Maó or Palma for versions in Spanish using Franco’s dictatorship form.
• Starting the process for the suppression of the Health Service decree by which users have the right to be attended in the language of their election.
• Proposal of derogation of the decree of minima stating that 50% of the education has to be in Catalan too.
• The last blow, the hardest one, has been the cancellation of the requirement to know Catalan for autonomic civil servants. It is not required for State civil or military servants.

As the hunger striker says, he is not the one who is radical but rather "the attack of the government to exterminate the language is radical". In consequence, Jaume Bonet has begun a protest that requires the maximum support. Today in the Balearic Islands, the future of our language is being decided: to return to the Spanish fascist and darkest times or to survive.

Spanish have killed to impose their language. South America is a clear example.

Catalans are decided to die to defend ours

http://youtu.be/v67mu_Go4og