Basque militants reject call to disarm
Gun-toting Basque militants claiming to speak for ETA said the Basque separatist group will “keep taking up arms” until the region achieves independence, a newspaper said today – the starkest sign yet that a fledgling peace process seems to be struggling.
The warning came in a statement read last night – exactly six months after ETA declared what it called a permanent ceasefire – by one of three masked pro-ETA militants who appeared on a stage at a pro-independence rally in the village of Aritxulegi near San Sebastian, said the nationalist newspaper Gara, which often serves as a mouthpiece for ETA.
“Until we achieve independence and socialism in the Basque country, we reaffirm our commitment to keep taking up arms firmly,” the statement said, according to Gara. “The fight is not a thing of the past. It is the present and the future.”
The statement made no mention of the ceasefire ETA declared on March 22, Gara said. After the statement was read, the militants fired a few rounds into the air with submachine guns.
When it declared the truce in March, ETA said it wanted a negotiated end to a nearly 40-year conflict in which it has killed more than 800 people and become Europe’s last active, armed political militancy. Cautious optimism spread throughout Spain.
Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero concluded in June that the ceasefire was sincere and told Parliament he would negotiate with ETA, but only to work toward its dissolution and decide the fate of hundreds of ETA prisoners in Spanish jails – not make concessions toward Basque independence.
The conservative opposition has accused Zapatero of caving in to what it calls an active terrorist group because ETA has neither disarmed, renounced violence nor shown repentance.
But the government-ETA talks have yet to begin and ETA’s outlawed political wing, Batasuna, is calling the peace process all but stillborn.
Batasuna is clamouring to be legalised again and take part in proposed, separate talks among political parties in the Basque region – both pro-independence and those favouring the status quo of being part of Spain – on the future of the wealthy northern region. The government rules this out until Batasuna renounces ETA.
And relatively low-level street violence such as Molotov cocktail attacks on banks, buses and political party offices – a staple when ETA was active and missing in the months right after the truce was declared – is back in force. Hooded youths believed to support ETA have committed dozens of these attacks since June. No one has been hurt.
The government had said it would not negotiate with ETA unless it ended all forms of violence – not just bombs and shootings but also the street attacks. It regularly condemns these, but has not said they are enough to halt plans to negotiate with ETA.
The attacks intensified in late August after ETA issued a statement saying the peace process was at a crisis stage. It accused the government of foot-dragging and not living up to its own promise of a “ceasefire,” apparently meaning a promise to stop arresting ETA members. In this statement ETA also made a vague threat to retaliate if the government continued what ETA called harassment of pro-independence militants.
On Friday night assailants attacked a radio station in Pamplona, a courthouse in the village of Marquina and set trash bins ablaze in Bilbao. Three automated bank teller machines were burned Saturday night in Durango and San Sebastian.
