Spanish government rejects ETA talks offer
The Spanish government has rejected a new proposal from Basque militants for dialogue to end the region’s long-running conflict, saying today it lacked an explicit renunciation of violence.
At a rally in San Sebastian yesterday, former members of the banned party Batasuna – the political wing of the terror group ETA – unveiled a seven-point plan for a new peace process before a crowd of 15,000 people chanting slogans in support of ETA.
The blueprint contained two key policy shifts: dialogue among all parties in the north-west region, including those which oppose the idea of Basque independence. Until now Batasuna had limited such dialogue to Basque nationalist parties.
Batasuna also says now that it could negotiate an end to the conflict with the Spanish government, dropping its previous insistence that ETA itself would have to negotiate.
But the plan outlined by former Batasuna leader Arnaldo Otegi did not call on ETA to halt violence.
ETA has been blamed for more than 800 deaths since the late 1960s.
Justice Minister Juan Fernando Lopez Aguilar rejected the idea of negotiations with a group that has not renounced violence.
“We don’t want a single word with ETA or anything in its entourage,” he said. Of Batasuna, Lopez Aguilar said: “I don’t see how a party that has never condemned violence can act in any sphere of public life.”
