http://www.freespeech.org/~ehj (updated) http://osis.ucsd.edu/~ehj http://www.contrast.org/mirrors/ehj/

ETA REAFFIRMS TRUCE AND CALLS FOR POLITICAL NEGOTIATIONS. SPANISH GOVERNMENT PARDONS DIRTY WAR FELONS.

B.I. - Euskal Herria, December 23, 1998

In a communique released to media on Monday, the Basque resistance organization ETA said it would continue its indefinite cease-fire but it would not announce a permanent truce until it had reached an agreement with the Spanish government.

Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA, Basque Homeland and Freedom) said it had not yet had any direct contact with the government of the right-wing Popular Party.

"We have not yet had any direct contact with the government," said the ETA communique, the third since the armed organization announced a unilateral truce without conditions on Sept 16.

"We will continue the indefinite truce, but until we reach an agreement with the Spanish government, we will not announce a permanent truce," says the three-page communique issued in the Basque language.

Aznar authorized contacts with ETA six-weeks ago, and last Friday he expressed optimism about solving Spain's conflict with Euskal Herria (Basque Country in the Basque language) in which ETA leads the Basque National Liberation Movement.

Aznar said on Friday that a "definitive end to violence" would be the cornerstone of any efforts to bring "peace" to Euskal Herria. He had proposed a "peace process" without political negotiations and promised to be more "flexible" in its prisoner policy if ETA makes its truce a permanent one.

But his declaration of Friday read in front of the Madrid presidential palace offered dialogue with "all Basque political parties" for a "process of normalization" in Euskal Herria -- a move that would try to prevent a political process in Euskal Herria as proposed by the nationalist agreement known as the Lizarra Declaration. Aznar said that all political parties with a representation in the regional parliament of Bascongadas (the region composed of 3 of the 4 Basque provinces in Spain), including Herri Batasuna (aka Euskal Herritarrok), would join talks.

Although ETA has not yet renounced armed struggle, Aznar said the government believes "there is still the possibility that the current situation of an open-ended cease-fire can be consolidated."

ETA has so far honoured its unilateral cease-fire and taken a cautious stand since the truce went into effect.

Although ETA set no specific conditions for a permanent truce, it reasserted its longstanding call for a Basque referendum on self-determination which the Spanish government says it would never allow.

"The recognition of Euskal Herria, its territoriality and the right to choose its future in freedom, is what the government has to pact and agree with ETA. Nothing more and nothing less," says the ETA communique.

The ETA communique criticizes the Spanish government's "maneuvers to make believe it is pushing for a negotiating process which does not exists" and says ETA is aware of the "rumors" about a "hypothetical negotiation process" which is "a clear [government] maneuver to deviate the process in Euskal Herria" in which a Basque nationalist pact known as the Lizarra Declaration attempts to unite all nationalists in the seven Basque provinces under a national assembly of municipalities.

After the Lizarra Declaration was agreed among Basque nationalists, ETA implemented an indenifite, unilateral truce without conditions on Sept 18 and said it would not give up its arms and retained the right to retaliate against any aggression.

Aznar has ruled out any political debate on Basque self-determination in possible talks with ETA. Madrid said it will only negotiate a solution to its Basque political prisoners and terms for ETA to surrender its weapons, but nothing more. "In the peace process this is all there is to talk about," government spokesman Josep Pique said last month.

But the Basque political prisoners, as well as organizations within the Basque National Liberation Movement, hold that the prisoner issue ought to be resolved by dialogue between the Spanish government and the prisoners themselves.

The pro-independence political party Herri Batasuna (HB) has said only talks from a political basis can lead to a long lasting peace.

HB said on Tuesday it has had contacts with the Spanish government and that it welcomes Aznar's offer for dialogue.

Herri Batasuna spokesman Arnaldo Otegi said that his party "is ready to maintain a process of communication" offered by Aznar as long as it takes place in a political context aiming a resolving a conflict with political roots. HB has rejected a prisoners-for-peace solution.

The last ETA communique came three days after President Jose Maria Aznar authorized the transfer of 21 Basque political prisoners to mainland prisons outside Euskal Herria south.

Basque politicians have said the governmen't decision to transfer 21 prisoners from the Canary Islands, the Balearic Islands and the North African enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla to the mailand, was too little too late.

The 21 prisoners are among more than 600 Basque political prisoners in French and Spanish jails across the states.

The French government has said it is prepared to consider any request from Madrid to further the "peace process" but would not take part in possible talks with ETA thus maintaining the myth that their conflict with Euskal Herria is not an international issue.

While the Spanish government continues to hold hostages its nearly 500 Basque prisoners, on Wednesday it pardoned 10 former government officials and policemen for their role in the mid-1980s "dirty war" against Basque refugees. They were convicted in July of orchestrating the 1983 kidnapping of a Basque businessman who was mistaken for a Basque refugee.

The former Socialist government of Felipe Gonzalez fought a "dirty war" against Basque refugees in Euskal Herria north in France. The Ministry of Interior organized, funded and directed the death squads known as GAL which conducted a campaign of kidnapping, bombing and murder against Basque dissidents.

Two young Basque refugees, Jose Ignacio Zabala and Jose Antonio Lasa, were the first victims of GAL They were kidnapped by the paramilitary group in October 1983. In March 1995, two corpses were identified as being those of Lasa and Zabala. Both corpses showed signs of extensive beatings and torture, including loss of teeth, finger and toe nails. They were killed by blows to the skull followed by shots in the back of the head. Their bodies were buried in quicklime.

During the last twenty years government death squads have killed hundreds of people and wounded many more including children. GAL killed at least 28 people.

Wednesday's pardon affects an ex-minister Jose Barrionuevo and his former chief of state security, Rafael Vera, following a recommendation of the Supreme Court of Justice --- the same court that in December 1997 jailed the entire leadership of Herri Batasuna for a total of 153 years for having disseminated for public debate an ETA video which discussed a peace proposal for a democratic end to the existing conflict.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court recommended the pardon arguing that "although the kidnapping was a serious criminal act, it had taken place 15 years ago" and neither the pardoned felons had been seeking personal gain.

The Euskal Herria Journal (EHJ) was created to provide the Internet community with information about the conflict between Euskal Herria and France/Spain often ignored by the international media, and promote self-determination for the Basque people and the necessity to end the crisis through political negotiations.

On July 18, 1997 (the 61st anniversary of fascist Gen. Franco's coup d'etat against the democratically elected government of the Spanish Second Republic). the Institute for Global Communications (IGC) suspended the EHJ website "for review", after a virulent "e-mail bombing" attack promoted from Spain by political forces who opposed EHJ reports on the Basque resistance movement. To this date, IGC's Executive Director Marci Lockwood, mlockwood@igc.org, has not answered our request to have the website restored.

Here are the mirror sites:

http://www.freespeech.org/ehj (updated)
http://osis.ucsd.edu/~ehj
http://www.contrast.org/mirrors/ehj/

EHJ urges you to learn more about Euskal Herria (Basque Country in the Basque language) and ways to help promote self-determination and other human rights. The EHJ webpage has documented information about the culture, history and politics of Euskal Herria. It also has a news section updated weekly, articles, interviews, video and audio archives.

EHJ is a member of the Basque Congress for Peace (CPEH).

Basque Congress for Peace
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