Basque separatists fail to renounce violence
Spanish government rejects new 'peace' proposal from political wing of ETA.
The Spanish government rejected out of hand a new
peace proposal made Sunday by Basque separatists because it did not renounce violence, reports the
Scotsman.
Arnaldo Otegi, leader of Batasuna, seen as the political wing of the terrorist group ETA, announced the proposal at a rally of 15,000 people in the northern city of San Sebasti���n.
The separatist party, banned by the European Union 18 months ago for alleged ties with the Basque terrorist group ETA, included two key policy shifts by the Basque autonomy movement but stopped short of condemning ETA's terror campaign thereby
dashing hopes that it might call on ETA to observe a ceasefire, reports
The Guardian.
Batasuna called for a "dialogue among all parties in [Spain's] northwest region, including those which oppose the idea of Basque independence. Until now Batasuna had limited such dialogue to Basque nationalist parties," reports the
Guardian.
Batasuna also says that it could negotiate an end to the conflict with the Spanish government, dropping its previous insistence that ETA itself would have to negotiate.
Politicians in Spain's ruling Socialist Party and in the opposition conservative, People's Party, said that without Batasuna's calling on ETA to observe a ceasefire, "it would be impossible to negotiate," reports the
Guardian.
ETA (Euskadi Ta Azkatasuna - Basque Homeland and Freedom) has been
branded as a terrorist group by the Spanish government, the European Union and the United States. Europe's one remaining active, homegrown, terrorist movement, it has killed more than 800 people since 1968 in a campaign for an independent Basque state in northern Spain and southwestern France.
Batasuna's announcement followed
Saturday's bombing of a Spanish army post in the Pyrenees, causing serious damage but no injuries in what appeared to be an attack by ETA, reports
Reuters. One of ETA's signature targets have been army bases.
The BBC reports that ETA has "in the past announced a dozen ceasefires,
all of which it has broken. The longest ceasefire was held for 15 months between 1998 and 1999." Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba, a spokesman for the Socialist government is quoted by the
BBC as saying:
'To talk in democracy, only the voices of those who talk can be heard. Not the noise of the guns or the blast of the explosions and not even the whispering of those who make threats. Only the voices of those who talk.' Batasuna's propoals come at a time when a police crackdown in Spain and France has put ETA under intense pressure, reports
Reuters. More than 100 ETA suspects on both sides of the border have been arrested so far this year.
A total of 21 ETA members, including its top leaders Mikel "Antza" Albizu Iriarte and Soledad "Anboto" Iparragirre Genetxea, were arrested on Oct. 3 in a joint French-Spanish raid in southwestern France. "ETA is
weaker now than at any point ever in its history," the
BBC quotes Angel Acebes, the Secretary General of the conservative Popular Party, as saying.
'And since Batasuna and ETA are synonymous, Batasuna too is in terrible shape. After all the recent arrests and confiscation of weapons, they need time to re-group and re-arm. They will say anything at all in order to give themselves enough time to do that.' John Power, a London based columnist writing Saturday in the
Boston Globe,
draws an analogy between the Basque separatists and the Spanish government and the IRA and Britain:
As [Prime Minister Tony] Blair talked to Sinn Fein, [the political arm of the IRA] [Spanish President José Luis Rodr���guez] Zapatero needs to talk to Batasuna and he needs to rescind ...[the] ban on Batasuna's contesting seats in the Basque regional parliament.
...For its part Batasuna, if it is clever, must lean on ETA to declare an indefinite truce.
But the analogy breaks down over one major difference.
The core issue is really that, while London is now prepared to relinquish control of Northern Ireland, Madrid regards the Basque country as an essential element in the Spanish nation.
Also...
•
Basque Region (
EUSKADI)
•
Who are ETA (
BBC)
•
Rumsfeld praises Panama Canal security (
The New York Times)
•
The faces of denial (
The New York Post)
•
Terrorists recruiting in [Spanish] prisons (
The International Herald Tribune)
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