A. OLAECHEA

"A THREAT TO PUBLIC ORDER"

SPEECH FOR THE '2nd PERU HEARING'

IN BELGIUM (26/02/94)

NOTE:

The Belgian government refused to issue a visa to the speaker alleging reasons of 'Public Order'. Because of this he was unable to attend in person. The speech was nevertheless heard and seen on a large TV screen by an audience of several hundred people present at meeting.

INTRODUCTION

On February 26, 1994, the Anti-Imperialist League (AIB) of Belgium, together with Euro-parliamentarians, theologians, lawyers and other distinguished intellectuals, sponsored the 'Second Peru Hearing' with the aim of debating the true situation in that country. Given the great amount of misinformation surrounding the People's War in Peru, this annual event is one of the most important activities of this progressive organisation of the Belgian people.

One of the main speakers was to be the spokesman for the London-based Sol Peru Committee, Adolfo Olaechea. Mr Olaechea is a Peruvian of long-standing residence in the United Kingdom. In 1992 he was condemned to life imprisonment, along with a number of other well-known Peruvian intellectuals abroad, by the same faceless military court proceedings used by the Peruvian dictatorship of Alberto Fujimori against Dr Abimael Guzman (Chairman Gonzalo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Peru -PCP). The charges were 'apology for terrorism'. In other words, he was condemned for the expression of his opinions.

The complicity of the Belgian regime with this illegal and fascistic policy of one of the worst tyrannical regimes of our times is implicit in the denial of freedom of movement for Mr Olaechea to attend the 2nd Peru Hearing organised by the Belgian Anti-Imperialist League. It should be exposed, condemned and fought against in the interest of freedom and democracy. That is why we have published this document under the title of "A Threat To Public Order".

Reproduced in the appendix is the letter of the Belgian Embassy denying Mr Olaechea a visa and the text of his appeal to the Belgian Ministry of Internal Affairs. This appeal is at present still pending and those who want to join in protest against this anti-democratic measure of the Belgian authorities can write expressing their views to:

Ministry of Interior Affairs

Office des Etrangers

Square de Meeuûs Nº8

Boit 5

1040 Bruxelles

BELGIUM

Att: Visa Section - Peru

TO FAX:

from UK 010 322 5144 787 - other countries:(Int Code) 32-2-5144 787

OPENING REMARKS:

I would like to start by apologising that I cannot attend this Peru Hearing here in Belgium. Despite having complied with all the requirements and provided all the necessary documentation, the Belgian Government refused to grant me a visa. I can therefore only assume that the Fujimori regime must have some allies within the Belgian state. I am, therefore sending you a video of this speech through our Belgian friends.

People's War in Peru: Current Situation,

Perspectives and Historical Significance.

In speaking on the People's war in Peru it is important to start with a concrete description of the current situation.

It will shortly be 14 years since the class struggle in Peru arrived at the people's war led by the proletariat and its party, the PCP. As we already know, on 17 May 1980, after intense preparations the PCP led by Chairman Gonzalo opened up the road of liberation of the Peruvian people: the road of the seizure of power by revolutionary violence, the road pointed out by the PCP's founder, Jose Carlos Mariategui and prescribed by the ideology of the proletariat, revolutionary Marxism, which today is Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, concretely applied in Peru as Gonzalo Thought, the driving force and guide of this revolutionary struggle.

These have been years of intense combat, years in which the proletariat and people of Peru, persevering amid all difficulties and overcoming all their problems, have set up revolutionary bases of support. They have fostered the armed rebellion of the wide masses of the peasantry and waged guerilla warfare relying principally upon the poor peasantry. They have incorporated the exploited people from the countryside and the cities in the acute class struggle for political power. They have managed to establish a new power, a new popular state in formation, and achieved strategic equilibrium in their struggle against the old state. They have advanced in the task of setting up the People's Republic of Peru. This is, in brief synthesis, the stage currently achieved by the people's war in Peru.

This stage of strategic equilibrium began with an upswing of the revolutionary forces. The historical events of the armed strikes took place and the military actions reached the very heart of the areas under the strictest control of the reactionaries. It reached the capital of the old state, the city of Lima. It took firm root, principally in the poor neighbourhoods, but also shook districts such as San Isidro and Miraflores, the luxury neighbourhoods of the ruling classes. The intense actions of May, June, July and August 1992 took place. The international bourgeoisie trembled before the forceful push of the revolution in Peru and began a desperate prattle of an imminent seizure of power by the Maoists.

A SECOND MOMENT WITHIN THE STRATEGIC EQUILIBRIUM

However, on 12 September 1992, the reactionary regime arrested Chairman Gonzalo. It was a lucky stroke for the reactionary regime and it marked the beginning of a second moment within the strategic equilibrium. It presented the revolutionaries with the need to defend the life of the leader of the revolution. Meanwhile, the reactionary regime tried to take maximum advantage by attempting to repair and consolidate its dire situation. The first moment of the strategic equilibrium began in 1990; this period lasted until the capture of Chairman Gonzalo in September 92. Today, amid great to-and-fro tides, the contenders deal each other the most destabilising blows. In this situation the revolution is proving its strategic superiority, learning more, resisting more and overcoming its problems with greater ease. On the other hand the regime is ever more compelled to rely upon increasing dictatorship, more bullets, more fascism and more blatant mass murder.

There is no question that the capture of Chairman Gonzalo was a very heavy blow. Nevertheless, in the historical context of the liberation war of the Peruvian people this is only a secondary factor. No doubt it was a harsh blow and a lucky one for the reactionaries but in essence it does not in the least change the concrete situation of the struggle taking place.

To understand this it is necessary to explain what strategic equilibrium in a popular liberation war means. A popular liberation war always begins within the following framework:

The reactionary oppressor state of the ruling classes and of their imperialist masters is tactically stronger in the political, economic and military fields. Their rule, organised and perfected for centuries, is deeply rooted. They have clear consciousness of their own class interest in keeping the oppressed subjected to their rule and their law. They are well-organised and count on the state apparatus and military forces, both practised in keeping the masses down by force and bloody violence. Moreover, their foreign backers are powerful imperialist powers that supply them with arms and the technical means to supplement every aspect of their own machinery of oppression. In all these areas the people's forces are always disadvantaged. Principally, since they are not fully conscious of the reasons for their subjection and oppression, they do not clearly know their enemies from their friends. Lacking unity and organisation they are like grains of loose sand. Their level of organisation is low and they have no modern weapons or military know-how. Their own class brothers abroad, although an immense mass of proletarians and democratic peoples, are also powerless, remote and disorganised in relation to the imperialist bourgeoisie.

THE PEOPLE'S WAR ORGANISES THE SEIZURE OF POWER

Engels has pointed out: There are but two forces upon this earth, the organised power of the ruling classes and the disperse, disorganised power of the popular masses.

The initiation of a popular war is the manifest organisation of the seizure of power by the popular masses. It marks the beginning of their organisation as a war machine for achieving political, military and economic superiority for the seizure of power. It marks the beginning of their organisation as a force for carrying out the social transformation necessary to satisfy their class interests. But it is only the beginning. This process requires the development of the war for it to reach equilibrium first, and later to overcome and overwhelm the class enemy.

Because the popular masses begin with organisational inferiority in all fields the masses and the revolutionary organisms they generate always suffer tactical inferiority at the onset. Nevertheless, in perspective they enjoy the advantage of being many. In the words of the English poet Percy Shelley, 'Ye are many, they are few! '. That, with their righteous cause to shake off exploitation, decides their strategic superiority. Once organised the oppressed masses can and will go from strategic defensive to strategic equilibrium and eventually achieve superiority. Meanwhile the old state, the old society, which begins its own defence with tactical superiority in all fields, ends by losing it.

Presently in Peru this stage of strategic equilibrium is the moment in which the old and the new state face each other with relatively balanced forces. Note well the use of the word relatively - it should be stressed that this is not to claim a balance of forces, gun by gun, tank by tank, or anything of the sort. The main thing is that, while the old state is incapable of suppressing the new state, the new state is not yet able to eliminate its opponent completely.

DIAMETRICALLY OPPOSED PERSPECTIVES AMIDST GREAT IMBALANCE AND GROWING INESTABILITY

However, both their perspectives are diametrically opposed. The new state has the historical perspective of moving onto the strategic offensive and reaching victory. The old state, on the other hand, manifests its obsolescence and is struggling against the main trend in history. It heads towards its doom. First it will go over to its strategic defensive and then it will be buried by the new state. That is its perspective. And in that perspective it is the masses who tend towards strengthening their unity, their organisational level in the political, military and economic fields. On the other hand, the ruling classes resort to their maximum concentration of power and their politics become increasingly reactionary. This is a process they necessarily undergo in defending their class interests. Precisely because of this they will inevitably lose their political, military and economic capacity to continue to resist.

I have already said that, although it may seem paradoxical, the stage of strategic equilibrium is characterised precisely by great imbalances. We have seen how the contenders deal each other harsh destabilising blows while simultaneously accumulating forces to prepare for the final battle. The PCP had the regime against the ropes in August 1992, while the regime dealt a harsh blow to the leadership of the PCP in September. Today the campaign for the defense of the life of Chairman Gonzalo and against the mass murderers dictatorship is taking place. It is precisely the political and military expression of a second stage within this strategic equilibrium. With the arrest of Chairman Gonzalo the regime is attempting to extract the maximum from its temporary advantage. Conversely, the PCP struggles to neutralise the damage to its system of leadership.

Principally, the regime seeks to make inroads in undermining the unity of the PCP. It aims to create divisions and drag the party and the people along the road leading to the swamp of negotiations. That is the rationale for the fraudulent 'peace' plot peddled by Fujimori: The forged letters, videos and photographs that featured in a campaign taken by the tyrant to the United Nations with his speech of October 1, 1993. From there he went on to use, fraudulently and without success, the image of Chairman Gonzalo in his attempt to buttress his referendum and new constitution.

INDISPUTABLE FACTS EXPOSE REACTIONARY LIES

On the other hand the imprisonment of Chairman Gonzalo has served to prove beyond any doubt the capacity of the PCP to continue to lead the people's war. It has displayed its ability to follow and carry out the plans and teachings of its leader. Paradoxically, the imprisonment of Chairman Gonzalo has supplied the most indisputable proof of the existence of this strategic equilibrium, the very strategic equilibrium that the bourgeoisie and their intellectual mouthpieces at home and abroad have so ardently ridiculed and sought to deny. 1993 was marked by the unforgettable epic of the 17th, 18th and 19th of May, when for the first time a national 3-day armed strike took place. Moreover, the war has continued to expand in great waves across the whole country, resulting in the reactionary regime losing control of large areas. The state of emergency has been deepened and extended to many areas of the country previously exempted from this and violations of the rights of the masses have subsequently increased.

All these developments have taken place while the leader of the revolution is in prison and while the regime and its propagandists at home and abroad are making special efforts to silence the war by suppressing news and twisting facts. The regime is trying hopelessly to present an image of increasing normality with the aim of relieving their growing and insurmountable economical and political problems. Chairman Gonzalo's imprisonment has also served to give the lie to those who hold that the PCP is an organisation depending on a single charismatic leader, that the PCP is dedicated to the cult of Gonzalo's personality, regarding him as some sort of godlike figure.

The phoney communists, revisionists and opportunists of the bogus left spend their energies as well as vast quantities of paper and ink on loud proclamations that the PCP is 'messianic'. To their chagrin this slander has now been totally buried, not only in Peru but all over the world.

With the help of the most advanced psychological warfare techniques, montage and black propaganda, the Fujimori regime tried to present Chairman Gonzalo as an old-style political swindler, someone ready to order his party to end the people's war and come to terms with the dictatorship for purely personal motives. The bogus left and opportunists of all colours, along with the cynical imperialist media, have played the roles of willing assistants in this charade. They all believed their own lies about the PCP being a messianic movement dedicated to the cult of Gonzalo's personality. They thought that it would be enough for him to appear in a 'convincing' video supporting Fujimori and his bureaucratic road to have the people give up their own class interests and abandon the road of the people's war. Reality has now shown that this plot failed miserably.

GONZALO: AUTHENTIC LEADER OF A REAL REVOLUTION

Far from being followers of a movement dedicated to the cult of personality, people cherish, love and follow a leader such as Chairman Gonzalo because of their own experience. He has always stood for their true interests. They have seen this during more than a decade of people's war. They have seen this during all the previous decades of his political life and revolutionary action. That is why they cherish, love and follow him. The Peruvian people and their communist party have clearly shown that they are not dedicated to the cult of a politician's personality. They have shown to have a clear understanding of, and a commitment to a proven ideology of real value in their liberation struggle. They have not shown recognition and have assumed a commitment to personalities, especially cardboard montages such as Fujimori's. They recognise and are committed to the revolutionary ideals of the proletariat, the ideas of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin and Chairman Mao Tse- tung. Their respect for Chairman Gonzalo, their love and admiration for him, have nothing to do with just his personality. It has everything to do with his ideological commitment and his track record as a faithful and dedicated Marxist, a communist and a revolutionary. They also know this very well and from their own experience: Fujimori and all the politicians of the Peruvian bourgeoisie and imperialism they know of, irrespective of political colour, have always consistently lied, deceived, exploited and repressed them. That Fujimori is a wanton liar is now common currency even for those who defend his regime. He came to power by lying, staged a coup d'etat violating his very oath to uphold the constitution, and continues to lie day after day from both sides of his mouth.

PICKING A STONE AND DROPPING IT ON THEIR OWN FEET

Therefore, it was not really that difficult for the Peruvian people to see through the fraud of the letters and videos prepared by this inveterate liar. Neither Chairman Gonzalo, nor the Communist Party, nor the revolutionary combatants are in the least divorced from their true interests. Their historical experience had already proven this to them beyond doubt. Nevertheless, some petty bourgeois intellectuals, principally a handful of exiles, have given credit to this charade. They have been speculating with hair-brained theoretical explanations about a simple desperate plot of a desperate regime.

Nevertheless this negative wind has only had minor consequences. Moreover, it has revealed certain opportunists tendencies better unmasked now than allowed to undermine the movement from within when the struggle enters its next and final stage. It can therefore be said that the imprisonment of Chairman Gonzalo has also contributed to expose weak links and dubious elements within the revolutionary ranks. This is a necessary precondition for a successful development of the next stage of the revolution, the strategic offensive.

Each time the regime and its accomplices, the capitulators, have tried to promote their phoney peace ploy, the revolutionaries and people of Peru have responded with devastating actions. These actions have often left the regime with egg all over its face. The capacity to cause damage and obtain certain temporary benefits afforded to the regime by this plot has come to a dead end. In the immediate period ahead this will come ever more into evidence. Thus it will signal the start of the strategic offensive of the Peruvian revolution. Strategic offensive that has the perspective of total victory, of the seizure of power in the whole country and, soon, with the establishment of the People's Republic of Peru.

This is the current situation and the perspectives of the people's war in Peru. Now we should deal with some ideas on its historical significance for the proletariat and the peoples of the world.

THREE STAGES IN THE PROLETARIAN REVOLUTION

If we look at the history of the world proletarian revolution we can in this last process also observe three distinct moments or stages: strategic defensive, strategic equilibrium and strategic offensive.

The period of strategic defensive culminated with the defeat of fascist aggression and with its extremely important victory in China the revolution entered fully into strategic equilibrium. This historical development was aptly summed up by Chairman Mao Tse-tung's famous phrase:'The East wind prevails over the West wind'.

Although progress prevailed in strategic terms and in historical perspective in this era there were still no conditions for the proletarian forces to obliterate the bourgeois imperialist world order. But simultaneously, the old imperialist bourgeoisie was also unable to smash the revolution.

Joseph Stalin wrote Economic Problems of Socialism in 1952. In it he gave a crisp synthesis of the economic and political background upon which the new moment continued to develop and intensify:

"The basic economic law of modern capitalism - meaning the capitalism of the monopolies and trusts, imperialism - can be formulated roughly in this way: The securing of the maximum capitalist profit through the exploitation, ruin and impoverishment of most of the population of the given country, through the enslavement and systematic robbery of the peoples of other countries, especially backward countries, and, lastly through wars and militarisation of the national economy, which are used for the obtaining of the highest profits".

In this framework we can observe advances for the world's people, but also retrenchment of the bourgeoisie within the imperialists countries. The appearance of modern revisionism in the Soviet Union was the greatest feather in their cap. Nevertheless, blow for blow, the class forces of the proletariat disputed the bourgeoisie in every arena within an strategic equilibrium. In this context the Cultural Revolution in China was the greatest blow dealt by the proletariat against the whole basis of the bourgeois order. This historical event spanned more than 10 years and involved hundreds of millions of people in China and all over the world. The Cultural Revolution thus initiated an assault along the whole front upon the "capitalist heaven": the bourgeois superstructure, the roots of the division of labour and the kernel of the bourgeois ideological outlook.

The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution did not take place in a vacuum and was inscribed in the decade of the sixties and seventies, a time when all the prevailing ideological roots of the old order came under unprecedented attack the world over. Moreover, it was the most powerful response of the proletariat to the modern revisionism of Khrushchev, Liu Shao-shi and Deng Xiao Ping. Thus, after Chairman Mao's death and when the enemies of the proletariat usurped state power in China, a new moment within the strategic equilibrium developed. On the one hand, the proletariat and the peoples of the world continued their struggles in various ways. On the other hand, the bourgeoisie usurped state power over the former socialist world.

GIGANTIC ANTI-MARXIST CAMPAIGN

An era of negation of proletarian leadership was ushered in with the aim of obliterating the very idea of continuing the revolution under the leadership of the proletariat and even the final goal, communism. A general and unprecedented anti-Marxist offensive spearheaded by imperialism and social- imperialism was unleashed upon the achievements of the proletariat and the peoples. A counter-revolutionary offensive aimed primarily against revolutionary Marxism which they proclaimed, in all their forums and by every means at their disposal, to be dead and buried. This reactionary offensive was again predicated upon the old reformist tune: first, it was claimed that the road of the proletariat was no longer to overthrow the old imperialist order by means of revolutionary violence. It was now to achieve a peaceful transition. Eventually the question of transition itself was glossed over and the aim, communism, given up as a hopeless ideal. The traitors unmasked themselves and began promoting another form of transition: their own transition to unbridled capitalism.

However, Stalin had already in 1952 referred to these theories:

"It is said that the average profit might nevertheless be regarded as quite sufficient for capitalist development under modern conditions. That is not true. The average profit is the lowest point of profitability, below which capitalist production becomes impossible. But it would be absurd to think that, in seizing colonies, subjugating peoples and engineering wars, the magnates of modern monopoly capitalism are striving to secure only the average profit. No, it is not the average profit, nor yet superprofit - which as a rule, represents only a slight addition to the average profit - but precisely the maximum profit that is the motor of monopoly capitalism. It is precisely the necessity of securing the maximum profits that drives monopoly capitalism to such risky undertakings as the enslavement and systematic plunder of colonies and other backward countries, the conversion of some independent countries into dependent countries, the organisation of new wars - which to the magnates of modern capitalism is the "business" best adapted to the extraction of the maximum profit - and, lastly, attempts to win world economic domination".

Every defender of accommodation with the order of exploitation has always advocated this thesis of a moderate and reasonable capitalism so well disposed of by Stalin. If today Gorbachev and Yeltsin can show even a dubious merit, it is that they have finally demonstrated, in a way that can no longer be covered up with empty phrases and May Day parades, what this actually means in practise for the proletariat and the people.

Red flags have come down from the top of parliaments and the Kremlin, from ministries and buildings, and the international bourgeoisie has loudly proclaimed that communism is dead. Does this mean that the proletarian revolution has regressed and has been forced back into the strategic defensive by capitalism, as predicated today by the reactionary intellectuals? Have we gone back into strategic defensive? Not at all. We have, in fact, entered the era of strategic offensive of the world proletarian revolution.

SOCIALISM LIVES IN THE PROLETARIAT AND THE PEOPLE

To those who believe that the overt revelation of the restoration of capitalism in the former socialist world is a defeat for the proletariat, we say: You are hiding the fact that capitalism was restored from the moment the bourgeoisie usurped power from the proletariat and overturned its dictatorship. It should be sufficient to consider how Lenin defined socialism to realise that the fundamental question in socialism is the dictatorship of the proletariat. That for the class, besides power, everything else is an illusion.

Using the form of a mathematical formula, Lenin once expressed: "State Capitalism + Dictatorship of the Proletariat = Socialism". Those who, calling themselves Marxists, lament that the states controlled by social-imperialism have revealed their true character, forget that without the dictatorship of the proletariat there is no socialism. That without this dictatorship all that remains of Lenin's formula is but state capitalism. These people do not even know the meaning of the phrase, "cast away illusions, prepare for struggle".

The truth is that the bourgeoisie has only managed to transfer the red flags from atop bureaucratic buildings to the hands of the masses. What can be wrong with that?. Were not the masses the ones who with their own blood had put them there in the first place? Cannot they, if they so want, place them back wherever they like and do whatever it takes for it to be so? The truth is that the bourgeoisie is constructing an immense bonfire with the dried tinder of their misdeeds against people all over the world.

The imperialist order can neither extricate itself from crisis nor can it achieve the slightest degree of stability and their problems are mounting daily. It can still deal heavy blows but it cannot justify its misrule in the slightest. When class forces are reckoned the imperialists and the bourgeois reactionaries of the world are but a tiny minority pitted against the interests of the millions upon millions of the masses. And amid these countless millions there is a class with a rich experience of political power and of constructing a new order, more just and more humane in every way. A class that has gained a new outlook and is continuing to fight this tiny minority at every turn and on a world scale. This class is the proletariat, the legitimate leader of the democratic forces of the world. Its true strength lays there where it has always been, in its consciousness, its organisation and its active mobilisation to achieve its goals. For this class state power, even within the most revolutionary state, has value only as a tool to advance its aim, communism. In truth, does not this aim precisely imply the abolition of all forms of the state?.

Today the proletariat's qualitative and quantitative strength is greater than ever in its history. The proletariat is ready to accomplish its role as gravedigger of the dying imperialist system and to build a new world. This is the era of the strategic offensive of which Chairman Mao spoke: The next 50 to 100 years in which, amid the greatest epic of the class struggle, bourgeois exploitation will be smashed and golden communism, the undying goal of humanity, will arise. An era in which "nations want independence and people want liberation".

THE REVOLUTION IN STRATEGIC OFFENSIVE

Then in 1980 the People's War in Peru broke out, marking the onset of this era of strategic offensive of the world revolution. Again, and in the advanced conditions described above, the communists, proletarians and true democrats of the world can clearly see that their class continues to aim for the seizure of power under its own flags. Also a third, new and superior stage, more intense and more combat ready, of the ideology that has historically impelled the proletariat towards victory, arises as Maoism. Moreover, this ideology is validated by the concrete experience of the revolutionary advance in Peru. That is the central achievement to date of the Peruvian revolution and, in particular, of Chairman Gonzalo.

This means that the class that is fighting against the old rotting order of imperialism has again the necessary leadership for smashing the imperialist chain in a part of the world, the necessary leadership for achieving victory and projecting its power and influence upon the world arena. It means that by adopting revolutionary Marxism as its indispensable outlook and guide and with the active participation of all true communists, revolutionaries and democrats, the world revolution may again defeat the fascist offensive and renew its final assault upon the ramparts of exploitation. That such a beacon of hope for democratic peoples all over the world summons us to final battle against an unjust and intolerable order, that all this is happening at a time when the whole world cries out for solutions while the old society, unable to offer alternatives collapses, that, more than anything else, is the profoundest historical significance of the People's War in Peru.

APPENDIX I & II

Ministry of Interior Affairs

Office des Etrangers

Square de Meeuûs nº 8

Boit 5 1040

BRUXELLES - BELGIUM

Attention: Visa Section - Peru

Via fax: 010 322 5144 787

London March 15, 1994

Your Ref: CO4.98/2757

Dear Sirs,

I would like to appeal your refusal of an entry visa and ask you to reconsider your decision. This refusal was communicated to me on 09/03/94 by letter from your embassy in London. I would like you to detail and explain the reasons for refusal of visa, since I am protected against such anti- democratic abuses both by Convention law and Community law.

Your action against my freedom of movement, rendering of services, (in this case the delivery of a lecture at the invitation of a lawful Belgian Organisation), freedom of thought, freedom of expression, freedom of association are clear violations of the European Convention of Human Rights (Articles 9 and 10). The use of the 'Public Order' concept in order to deny me the exercise of these rights is not compatible in law with Rutili vs Minister of Interior (36/75 [1975] ECR 1219) where it was concluded that the concept of 'public policy' must be interpreted restrictively where it is used as a justification for derogating from the principles of free movement of workers and free movement of those providing services. I consider that the use of the term public order as a reason for refusing me a visa constitutes a violation of ECHR 9,10,11, Article 59 EC and Directive 73/148.

In Article 6, Directive 64/221 there is a requirement for reasons to be given for refusal of entry on grounds of public order. In this Article it is stated that 'public order' as a reason is insufficient. Therefore, measures restricting movement taken on the grounds of public policy have to be based exclusively on the personal conduct of the individual concerned. Moreover, and although this does not arise in my case, you should note that even previous convictions of the applicant should not 'in themselves' constitute grounds for refusal of the right to free movement of workers and services. The Directive is extremely clear and stringent on the above.

You will note that as a spouse of a member state national, and since I intended to travel to Belgium with my wife who is herself a Dutch national - Community Directive of 21 May 1973 on the abolition of restrictions of movement and residency within the community with regard to establishment and provision of services (73/148/EEC, Art. 1(c) - I am protected by the various freedoms enshrined in European law.

You will also refer to Directives 64/221 and 73/148 for Community and Convention rights stipulating that justifiable and explained reasons must be given for refusing me a visa, and thus denying me my right of free movement of workers and services.

Sincerely yours,

Adolfo Olaechea

10 b Homestead Road

London SW6 7DB.

Copies to:	M. De Coninck, Attache Belgian Embassy

Jonathan Cooper, The Aire Centre, London