Catalonia brutality ‘saddening’
Palmerston North woman Josephine Serrallach has emerged unhurt but traumatised after her efforts to protect the rights of citizens in Catalonia to vote in the referendum for independence from Spain.
She said she was deeply saddened by reports and images of police violence against voters taking part in a referendum the Spanish government declared unconstitutional.
Serrallach, a former Massey University staffer and current director of the anti-corruption organisation Transparency International New Zealand, returned to her native Catalonia for the ballot held on October 1.
She stood with a group of volunteers who guarded ballot boxes and voting papers on the day of the vote, expecting there could be attempts to interfere with the process. She was able to cast her own vote early, as a Catalan living abroad, before she left New Zealand. She posted it to the representative of the Catalan government in London to avoid problems with the mail in Spain.
On the day of the vote, she joined a team of other citizens from 5am, prepared to protect the ballot boxes. They remained at their posts all day despite receiving images and information about what she described as police brutality against innocent people.
‘‘We were expecting that the same would happen to our group, but nobody abandoned the site. There was a tremendous sense of solidarity.
‘‘Later in the day, when the count of the votes started, we were told that the national police entered an electoral site next to us, where the police exercised indiscriminate violence against old people and against all the people queuing to vote. The Catalan people met the brutality of the police raising their hands signalling peace.’’
Serrallach said despite the growing tension, ‘‘nobody left, nobody moved. It was really emotional.’’ She said she and her friends felt traumatised to know others had been subjected to attacks with rubber balls and plastic bullets, and sad about the human rights violations.
‘‘This deep feeling of sadness is counteracted by the positive attitude and resilience shown at all moments by the Catalan people. There were no violent reactions against the brutality exercised by the police. We continued being people of peace, protecting democratic values with dignity and courage. It was admirable.’’
Serrallach said it was hard to understand why Spain’s European neighbours were prepared to tolerate the democratic state’s use of the Civil Guard against its own people.
There were reports that 90 per cent of the 2.3 million people who voted in the referendum backed independence, with turnout at 43 per cent. There have also been huge rallies protesting against moves to break away from Spain.