Top Stories Related to the Indefinite Truce by ETA

September 23, 1998

(September 23, 1998) Spain Aznar Insists ETA Must Prove Will Renounce Armed Struggle. Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar on Wednesday reaffirmed that ETA must prove they will give up armed struggle before a peace process can begin. Aznar, increasingly under pressure, said "we democrats have nothing to show, they are the ones who have to prove something." Aznar comments to the Madrid parliament were the first after ETA announced an indefinite ceasefire last Wednesday. He launched a round of talks with leading politicians to forge a united front in response to the truce. The government insists ETA must surrender its arms and disband as a condition to peace talks. Regional Basque political parties and Spain's comunist-led United Left urged the government to make a gesture to encourage ETA to lay down arms. United Left leader Julio Angita said Madrid should begin to move ETA prisoners to jails closer to Euskal Herria, a major ETA demand refused in the past by the government. Socialist leader Jose Borrell urged the prime minister to find a response as "we all have the obligation to help feed this hope." The former government of the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) designed and implemented a dispersion policy that scatters Basque political prisoners across the Iberian peninsula and African enclaves. The government claims dispersion is necessary to prevent prisoners plotting behind bars.

(September 23, 1998) Herri Batasuna Made Another Call For Peace Talks with Spain. In Brussels, representatives of the Basque political party Herri Batasuna (HB) on Wednesday told a news conference they wanted to see peace talks with all political parties. HB Xabier Zubizarreta said the indefinite truce by ETA carried no conditions and that the Spanish government must respond in form. The government of Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, which has consistently refused to negotiate with ETA, demanded on Monday that ETA surrender its arms and disband as a condition for peace talks. HB cited the Lizarra Declaration signed earlier this month by 23 political parties, labor unions and grassroots groups calling for multilateral talks modelled on the Stormont Agreement reached in the north of Ireland earlier this year. According to Zubizarreta, Brussels could be considered a site for peace talks. He declined to answer questions on the significance of regional elections in three of the four Basque provinces in Spain in October. HB analysis of current political situation in Euskal Herria. Spanish.

(September 22, 1998) Jarrai Said There Is No Truce In The Young People's Struggle. The nationalist Basque youth group Jarrai said it welcomes the ETA ceasefire and called on the Basque youth to continue the struggle against French and Spanish oppression. Jarrai spokepersons David Pla, Igor Ortega and Olatz Duqabeitia told a news conference in Iruqea on Monday that "the road is long" and that "still we have everything to win." They called on the youth to continue their work in favor of the Basque language, organizing younth assemblies, occupying abandoned houses, and promoting contientious objection.

A communique read by the Jarrai leaders said that the Basque youth has endured "savage repression, detention, imprisonment, torture and aggression, social margination and criminalization," and that the struggle has been both "hard and rewarding."

Jarrai pointed out to the important role played by the combative Basque youth in arriving to the current situation in Euskal Herria, but warned that the Basque political prisoners are still in jail and that the occupation forces still remain in Euskal Herria. Jarrai said some people are promoting the ETA ceasefire for personal gains and made clear that "we have not achieved peace."

The youth organization said that "in order for our rights to be respected, it is required to end with this model of imposition, and the young people cannot wait because to overcome this difficult situation requires urgent advances."

The Jarrai communique concluded saying that "in this key moment for Euskal Herria, we acquire the level of compromise and responsibility that belongs to the Basque youth. We are willing to even give more. We have the necessity to fight more than ever. There is no truce in the young people's struggle. We still have everything to win."

Jarrai is blamed for waging a war in the streets sabotage and the war in the streets (kale borroka in Basque language) in Euskal Herria, involving sabotage and running battles with police.

(September 22, 1998) PNV Jose Antonio Ardanza Promotes His "Peace Proposal" In Brussels. A leader of the conservative Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) and outgoing president of Bascongadas (three of the four Basque provinces in Spain) told a news conference in Brussels that ETA does not "summon" Madrid but the "nationalist world" to solve the "Basque political problem" and that after regional elections in October, the moment will come to make a reflection about where "we want to go" and how do we want to articulate the mutual agreements between Euskadi[Bascongadas]-Spain."

The "lehendakari" (president in Basque) did not waste any time and promoted his own proposal for talks among political parties. The Ardanza proposal holds that the conflict is among Basques and not between Euskal Herria and Madrid/Paris. His proposal calls for talks among political parties in Bascongadas and in which ETA would be excluded. According to Ardanza, the decision of ETA to call the truce is the result of the "pressure" on the Basque dissidence and that ETA felt "isolated, marginized, and rejected."

The PNV leader backs the Lizarra Declaration (seeks to incorporate the Ardanza proposal) and welcomed with open arms the indefinite truce by ETA.

Ardanza is the major architect of Spain's anti-terrorist pact in Bascongadas known as the Pact of Ajuria Enea, which sought the isolation of the Basque national liberation movement and the annhilation of ETA. Until recently, Ardanza and the PNV backed and promoted Spain's dispersion policy applied to Basque political prisoners. The PNV stopped backing dispersion when Basque demands, specially sabotage and the war in the streets (kale borroka) by hooded youths protesting against dispersion, began to cause the regional government millions of Spanish pesetas in loss and damage.

(September 22, 1998) Spanish Political Parties Demand ETA To Surrender Arms. Spain's ruling Popular Party (founded by Gen. Franco's Minister of Interior) and the main opposition party, the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) demanded on Monday that Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA, Basque Homeland and Freedom) agree to surrender its arms and disband as a condition for beginning talks. Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar on Monday launched a round of talks with leading politicians at forging a united front in response to the ETA truce. He met first with the secretary-general of the PSOE, Joaquin Almunia, in a closed-door session at the presidential palace. Aznar and Almunia had agreed on working together to pressure ETA to surrender arms and disband for "the starting point for an authentic peace process." The ETA communique announcing the truce and published by the Basque daily Euskadi Informacion on Thursday, states that the armed organization is waiting for reactions to decide whether to make the truce a permanent one, which would entail a laying down of arms. But Aznar has called for "actions and not declarations" and said "we cannot give ETA the benefit of the doubt." Aznar claims that ETA has failed to listen to "the citizenship's clamour for peace."

(September 22, 1998) Navarrese Regional Government To Debate ETA Ceasefire. The lehendakari of the Autonomous Community of Navarre , Miguel Sanz (UPN-PP) said on Monday that he will request that the ETA truce be debated in parliament. The Spanish daily El Pais reported on Tuesday that the document being prepared by the Navarrese executive includes an "open" text with an analysis of the ETA truce, and the definition of Navarre as a different community with its own political voice. Sanz will also launch a round of talks with leading politicians in Navarre aiming at calling the Peace Board, a political forum that has done more for mainting the current status quo in Euskal Herria and less with finding a political solution. He met first with fellow ally, secretary-general of the Socialist branch (PSN-PSOE) in Navarre, Juan Jose Lizarbe.

President Sanz has said his government would continue supporting the present political and institutional framework. Navarre is autonomous due to a decision adopted by Madrid and the Navarrese's Right and Left to prevent the four Basque provinces in Spain (Araba, Bizkaia and Navarre aka Bascongadas and Navarre) to be united under one political entity. The statute of autonomy for Navarre was decided in Madrid and rubber-stamped by the Navarrese parliament in 1982 -- but it was not approved in referendum by the Navarrese citizens. Herri Batasuna was banned from the Parliament Commission that negotiated the statute.

On the other hand, the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) already in 1979 had negotiated with Madrid a statute of autonomy for Bascongadas that excluded Navarre. The acceptance of the Madrid statute for Bascongadas enabled the Basque bourgeoisie to occupy the autonomous space that offered them the possibility for political and economic hegemony, especially at the level of the provincial governments, traditionally controlled by the Basque bourgeoisie. Spain's political reform after the death of Gen. Franco, succeeded in drawing to its side a large sector of the Basque bourgeoisie that controlled the leadership of the conservative PNV. With this maneuver, Madrid was able to exploit the division among the Basque opposition that rejected the Madrid statute and the sectors of the petite bourgeoisie, the middle classes, and some of the traditional popular strata loyal to the PNV that backed the statute.

Many people in Navarre (the largest Basque province) and in the three Basque provinces in France have long resented the PNV's burocratic monopoly over Basque politics. The PNV has little or no political representation in Navarre and the north of Euskal Herria. But since the PNV is the leading party in Bascongadas, the three Basque provinces with the highest population (about 2.128 inhabitants in Bascongadas; 529,000 in Navarre; and 250,000 in the northern provinces), a hypothetical global settlement would give the PNV a majority say, leaving all the other local Basque political parties out in the cold. For example, the PNV would be willing to give up its majority in Bascongadas and settle for a smaller majority over the entire combined Basque territory in France and Spain. The president of the PNV Xabier Arzalluz has already admitted he would prefer an accord similar to Northern Ireland's Stormont Agreement to the Bascongadas statute of autonomy.

(September 22, 1998) Spain's Comunists Back Inclusive Talks And Self-determination. The Spanish comunist party (PCE, Spanish Comunist Party) welcomed the ETA truce as a positive step and demanded inclusive talks and the recognition of self-determination, reported the daily Euskadi Informacion, produced by the Basque dissidents when the newspaper Egin was shut down by the Spanish government in June. The PCE issued a communique on Sunday stating that the Lizarra Declaration and the ETA truce have created a new dynamic which bring hope to a political solution of the conflict through dialogue. The PCE document calls for the recognition and exercise of the right of self-determination, and proposes a federal Spanish state. PCE also calls for the repatriation of the Basque political prisoners, and the current Spanish legislation to be applied to them. After the death of Gen. Franco in November 1975, Juan Carlos de Borbon suceeded the dictator and a parliamentary monarchy was established. A pact between the Left (including the Comunist Party) and the Right allowed Franco's army, his security forces and most of his judiciary remain intact.

(September 22, 1998). Attack to Herri Batasuna (HB) social quarters condemned by Spanish and Basque parties. Spanish and Basque political parties condemned the attack to an HB local tavern (a social place) in Getxo, a town in the province of Bizkaia. Overnight on Friday, hooded youths set fire to the doorway of the HB tavern, Spain's regional Interior sources in Bascongadas said. Damage was minor and no arrests were immediately reported. The president of the ruling Popular Party branch in Bizkaia, Leopoldo Barreda, called for an investigation of the attack. Socialist deputy Rosa Diez called the attack "fascist" and said that "in the long road to peace we will have to endure many provocations of every kind." The conservative Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) and Spain's Comunist-led United Left (IU) coalition connected the fire to a rejection of the "peace process" that followed the ETA truce. PNV Iqigo Urkullu said that his party is not going to allow that "anyone, in light of the illusion generated in society, would attempt to provoke confusion." IU Antton Karrera said that the attack is the result of "the hate accumulated for years." However, HB made the state and its "apparatus" responsible for the attack, which the political party considered a "direct attack" against the peace process.

Note: France remains in silent mode.

Euskal Herria Journal is published by the Basque Congress for Peace (CPEH), a New York-based group working to raise public awareness in support of Basque self-determination

Basque Congress for Peace, POB 20252 Dag Hammarskjold PC United Nations Plaza, New York, NY 10017.

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http://www.freespeech.org/ehj (available soon)