07/06/2005
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“Ezdago lekurrik biolentzia rakò, No hay màs espacio para la violencia”, There’s
no more space for violence, this is phrase is repeated to PeaceReporter by intellectuals
and representatives of Basque country NGO’s. After 45 years of fighting and terrorism of the various armed factions of ETA,
factions that have called for the independence of Euskadi (the Basque country), and the representatives of the State of Madrid, it all
seems to be finally over. Last Tuesday, at the inauguration of the 11 councillors
of the recently formed autonomous council, the first steps were taken towards
disarming an organisation that since 1961, from the dictatorship of Francisco
Franco through 30 years of democracy, has killed more than 800 people (21 dead
and 45 wounded by one bomb in Barcelona in July 1987, one of the cruellest attacks).
The governor of the next legislative council is Juan José Ibarretxe, his second
term after four years leading a tripartite council. The council is nationalist-conservative,
Partido nacionalista vasco (PNV), is aligned with the extreme Spanish left wing Izquierda Unida (United Left), and it has promised that during this councils’ term that it wants
to open up una mesa dialogo, talks, at which also representatives of the militia Euskadi ta Askatasuna, (Land and Freedom), will be present, they also gave external support at the
election to the lehendakari
A truce is needed. The only dissident voices are from the populist PPE and socialist PSOE, yet they
are the two national majority political parties. “We have no intention of sitting
down at the same table with those that continue to kill; without a clear gesture
from ETA there is no possibility of negotiations,” declared Patxi Lopez, local
secretary of Prime Minister José Zapatero’s party. In order to move towards political
negotiations with the new government of the popular José Maria Aznar, an appeal
announcing an indefinite truce without conditions is needed, as was previously
done by the terrorists in September 1998. Negotiations carried out since March
1999 in Zurich didn’t come to anything that is until the end of January 2000,
when ETA killed an ertzaintza, a local policeman.
Old times? You may hope so. “One thing you can safely say is that you can’t go back,” explained
Gorka Espiau, to PeaceReporter, co-founder of the association for dialogue and
peace Elkarri’ http://elkarri.org/, that has more than 3,000 members and 100 offices among which in the Basque country,
Navarra, Madrid and Brussels. “As we indicated from our last initiative we are
the end and the beginning of our country’s history. When you finish one page,
there is another one to look forward to,” adds Espiau. The association has more
than 800 volunteers and since 1992 has succeeded in involving political parties
and civilian society in three distinct “Peace Conferences”, at which they met
people that before they had only seen armed.
Closer than ever before. Still the time scale for the pacification of the Basque country has to be established:
in September will all the parties unite around the table for talks? It seems that
the first step would be to define the rules for the peace negotiations: who will
participate, what arguments to discuss, what wont be discussed; then the negotiators
will arrive. “If everything is just-,” clarifies Ibarra, “the parties can sit
down around the table in September, and then in February a meeting about the actual
contents of the agreement will start; before the beginning of next summer, we
can finish.” It seems like a very short timescale. “One moment,” Ibarra refutes,
“the meeting will be called after agreements are made on what will be discussed,
it will be a starting point, the possible solution to problems, but the last word
goes to the Basque Parliament, that will vote on every single question. It’s still
a long wait, but you could say that the start of the process of pacification is
closer now than what you may think. Also all of this depends on the declaration
of a unilateral truce by ETA.”
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After 37 years of killing, the dismantlement of ETA is now closer than it’s ever been
Written for PeaceReporter
by Gianluca Ursini
by Gianluca Ursini
“Ezdago lekurrik biolentzia rakò, No hay màs espacio para la violencia”, There’s
no more space for violence, this is phrase is repeated to PeaceReporter by intellectuals
and representatives of Basque country NGO’s. After 45 years of fighting and terrorism of the various armed factions of ETA,
factions that have called for the independence of Euskadi (the Basque country), and the representatives of the State of Madrid, it all
seems to be finally over. Last Tuesday, at the inauguration of the 11 councillors
of the recently formed autonomous council, the first steps were taken towards
disarming an organisation that since 1961, from the dictatorship of Francisco
Franco through 30 years of democracy, has killed more than 800 people (21 dead
and 45 wounded by one bomb in Barcelona in July 1987, one of the cruellest attacks).
The governor of the next legislative council is Juan José Ibarretxe, his second
term after four years leading a tripartite council. The council is nationalist-conservative,
Partido nacionalista vasco (PNV), is aligned with the extreme Spanish left wing Izquierda Unida (United Left), and it has promised that during this councils’ term that it wants
to open up una mesa dialogo, talks, at which also representatives of the militia Euskadi ta Askatasuna, (Land and Freedom), will be present, they also gave external support at the
election to the lehendakari (Basque for governor).
A truce is needed. The only dissident voices are from the populist PPE and socialist PSOE, yet they
are the two national majority political parties. “We have no intention of sitting
down at the same table with those that continue to kill; without a clear gesture
from ETA there is no possibility of negotiations,” declared Patxi Lopez, local
secretary of Prime Minister José Zapatero’s party. In order to move towards political
negotiations with the new government of the popular José Maria Aznar, an appeal
announcing an indefinite truce without conditions is needed, as was previously
done by the terrorists in September 1998. Negotiations carried out since March
1999 in Zurich didn’t come to anything that is until the end of January 2000,
when ETA killed an ertzaintza, a local policeman.Popular rejection. Since the end of the 1990’s magistrates declared that every party, that could
be proved, by a consensus of the media and citizens, to represent ETA politically
as being illegal. They officially encircled terrorists within Spanish society.
Alongside this, there could be the rejection of terrorist violence after the attacks
in the States of September 11th 2001 and above all those of March 11th 2004 in Madrid. Now the abertzales (nationalists in Basque) inspired Marxist-Leninists want “to overcome the conflict
in a democratic way not a violent one.” Said Arnaldo Otegi, their spokesman, at
conference in San Sebastian in November 2004, proposing talks on themes close
to their heart: the destiny of political prisoners and a new autonomous Statute.
A rejection that started in 1998 with the injunction of Judge Baltasar Garzòn,
(the judge that wanted to prosecute Agosto Pinochet with crimes against humanity),
that caused the closure of the headquarters of Herri Batasuna, founded in 1978 and aligned with ETA and considered a “criminal association that
financed the armed struggle”. Along with this another six points were presented
making the “batasunos” during the election campaign illegal.
Old times? You may hope so. “One thing you can safely say is that you can’t go back,” explained
Gorka Espiau, to PeaceReporter, co-founder of the association for dialogue and
peace Elkarri’ http://elkarri.org/, that has more than 3,000 members and 100 offices among which in the Basque country,
Navarra, Madrid and Brussels. “As we indicated from our last initiative we are
the end and the beginning of our country’s history. When you finish one page,
there is another one to look forward to,” adds Espiau. The association has more
than 800 volunteers and since 1992 has succeeded in involving political parties
and civilian society in three distinct “Peace Conferences”, at which they met
people that before they had only seen armed. Last year Elkarri held a demonstration against the use of violence 10,000 people
were present and it presented to the Basque parliament a petition signed by 120
thousand people, not bad for a region with a population of two million, of which
almost 10% vote for Batasuna-Eta, equal to around 150 thousand voters. A signal
of the disaffection of the Basque people towards violence.
Now Elkarri has launched a communication campaign, which will contain 10 thousand
testimonials of Basque citizens who ask “Porqué necesitas la paz?” (Why do we need peace?), the responses will be presented to the Euskadi Institute.
“Mucho aburrimiento.” Also for Pedro Ibarra Political Science lecturer at the University of the Basque Country the key to
change is in the “aburrimiento” of intolerance of the people of Euskadi towards a problem that hasn’t had any
solution since 1969, the year of ETA’s first killing. Ibarra was a supporter of
“antimilitarism”, but he does not believe that non-violence is the turning point
this time. “I would like it if Basque society could develop this culture of rejection
and an antimilitarist culture, but I don’t think it’s like this,” explains the
professor, a member of Elkarri. “Our society doesn’t have the values of embracing
the culture of pacifism and non-violence. This fatigue is a result of the incapacity
of our politicians. Society is screaming, “resolve the problem once and for all!”
It’s a clear-cut social demand because it is a decisive request.”
So the ineffectiveness of politicians could be the stimulus for pacification?
“Citizens are calling for a move towards clearer questions such as “Who are we?
Who do we want to be?“ According to Ibarra, “they don’t want to waste time talking
about things that don’t take on day to day life issues; there is a great desire
for normality.” But he puts forward another obstacle. “I believe that ETA still
has a confrontational mentality,” says Ibarra, ”they carry on using violence,
but on the other side they make a demands for an agreement on the renouncement
of violence; like this we can’t develop a dialogue. But now they have understood
that the violent times are finished. I believe that at the moment their objective is to make a dignified exit; to demonstrate to their electorate that they have done something for the good
of Euskadi and put down their arms.”
Closer than ever before. Still the time scale for the pacification of the Basque country has to be established:
in September will all the parties unite around the table for talks? It seems that
the first step would be to define the rules for the peace negotiations: who will
participate, what arguments to discuss, what wont be discussed; then the negotiators
will arrive. “If everything is just-,” clarifies Ibarra, “the parties can sit
down around the table in September, and then in February a meeting about the actual
contents of the agreement will start; before the beginning of next summer, we
can finish.” It seems like a very short timescale. “One moment,” Ibarra refutes,
“the meeting will be called after agreements are made on what will be discussed,
it will be a starting point, the possible solution to problems, but the last word
goes to the Basque Parliament, that will vote on every single question. It’s still
a long wait, but you could say that the start of the process of pacification is
closer now than what you may think. Also all of this depends on the declaration
of a unilateral truce by ETA.”A vision of hope, also confirmed by Gorka Espiau: “Every political discussion
comes from the reality that exists; this reality has change a lot in respect to
fifteen years ago. Also ETA have understood that the Euskadi of today is different.”
Let’s hope that we can shout out “Gora Euskadi”, “Long live the Basque country!”
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