Now up to 25 leading international figures say "let Catalans vote"

BarcelonaLast week ten international figures signed a manifesto titled "Let Catalans Vote" in support of the demand for a referendum on Catalan independence. Now a further 15 have joined them.

Nobel Prize laureates Desmond Tutu and Adolfo Pérez Esquivel top the list that was published last Saturday on the website Let Catalans Vote where the statement is available in Catalan, Spanish, English and French.

Some of the new names include people renowned for their commitment to the defence of human rights and free speech in China, Pakistan and South Africa, as well as western personalities from culture, such as Italian Nobel Prize winner Dario Fo and linguist Noam Chomsky.

The manifesto's main idea is that "the best way to solve legitimate internal disputes is to employ the tools of democracy". That's why the signatories point out that, only two days before the 9N vote and amid repeated attempts to block the participatory process, "to prevent the Catalans from voting seems to contradict the principles that inspire democratic societies".

The 15 new names who support the manifesto are: Italian playwright and Nobel Prize in Literature Dario Fo; American MIT linguist Noam Chomsky; Holland's Johan Cruyff, chosen best European footballer ever by FIFA; Chinese dissident Wu'erkaixi, who led the Tiananmen protests; South African writer Ronald Kasrils, former minister and anti-apartheid activist; Pakistani writer Tariq Alí, human rights activist; blogger and Chinese dissident Hu Jia, who received the European Parliament's Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought; Italian writer and theatre director Andrea Camilleri; Irish writer Colm Tóibín; Czech architect Bořek Šípek, who rebuilt the Prague Castle; Latvian composer Mārtiņš Brauns, who wrote the anthem of the Baltic Way; "New Age" composer Pēteris Vasks, also from Latvia; Peter Sís, American writer; Saúl Hernández, Mexican rock musician; and Ignacio Ramonet, former director of 'Le Monde Diplomatique'.

The signatories call on "the Spanish government and institutions and their Catalan counterparts to work together to allow the citizens of Catalonia to vote on their political future and then negotiate in good faith based on the result".

These further 15 international personalities join the initial ten names who showed their support last Saturday: Nober Prize laureates Desmond Tutu and Adolfo Pérez Esquivel; movie director Ken Loach; sociologist Saskia Sassen; thinker Richard Sennett; writer António Lobo Antunes; literary critic Harold Bloom; Bill Shipsey, the founder of Art for Amnesty International; Hispanist scholar Paul Preston, and American diplomat Ambler Moss.