FUNDACIÓN VÍCTIMAS DEL TERRORISMO 93 - ENGLISH

41 ASSOCIATIONS AND FOUNDATIONS ` Interview/Sources: Agencia Efe Canarias/Regional and National/ La Provincia newspaper/ El Dia newspaper/. Acavite press release/ ` Lucía Jiménez, president of the Canary Islands Association of Victims of Terrorism, ACAVITE, during an interview with a national and regional team from the Canary Islands, the OFFICIAL EFE AGENCY. (Press, radio, television, digital information and networks) the fact that in Canary associations give "economic and political" support to the Polisario Front without it having apolo- gised for its attacks and when many of its victims are still relegated to oblivion. "The Canarian political class has a moral and historical debt that it must settle," explains the president of Acavite, calling on the Canarian Government and the regional Parliament to approve "once and for all" the law on victims of terrorism "without further excuses or pretexts". DEMAND FOR MEMORY AND JUSTICE This group also calls for the reform of na- tional legislation on victims of terrorism, on the grounds that it creates inequali- ties in compensation and leaves some of those affected unprotected . It also requests the inclusion of Acavite in national initiatives such as the Memorial Centre in Vitoria and the future Memorial Centre for Victims of Jihadism in Madrid, as well as in teaching materials that edu- cate schoolchildren about the impact of terrorism on Spanish society . This is already the case with ETA and GRAPO, but the texts do not mention the Polisario Front or the Movement for the Self-Determination and Independence of the Canary Islands (MPAIAC), Jiménez points out. For Acavite, the tragedies they caused are not sufficiently known or rec- ognised in the Spanish collective memory. STORIES THAT MUST NOT BE FORGOTTEN Jiménez cites cases such as that of Meli- tona, a young woman from Lanzarote who lost her father, her husband and her younger brother on the fishing boat Cruz del Mar. "Her losses are a reminder of the devastating impact these trage- dies have had on Canarian families ", he notes. Photographer: Francisco Romero. Copyright.