Europe Features
Unpredictable ETA smashes peace hopes in Basque region
By Sinikka Tarvainen Jan 3, 2007, 14:16 GMT
Madrid - For months, Spain's Basques had dreamed of a peaceful future - free of car bombings, shootings, burning buses, extortion and kidnappings.
Politicians, judges and other potential terrorist targets had started shedding their bodyguards. Decision-makers were preparing for an upswing in tourism and an influx of investment.
And then, the armed separatist group ETA smashed it all with a single, huge explosion at a Madrid airport parking lot.
Saturday's blast is believed to have killed two people, whose remains were being searched for. More than 25 others were injured.
The unexpected explosion shattered a fragile peace process which Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero had refused to give up despite growing signs that ETA was not respecting the ceasefire it had declared on March 22.
The government finally conceded defeat, with Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba announcing that the peace process was 'beyond saving.'
The Basques clang desperately to hope, with the region's governing moderate Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) and ETA's political wing Batasuna claiming that the peace process could still be rescued.
'There is no clear evidence that the ceasefire has been broken,' Batasuna's Pernando Barrena said Wednesday in a statement that sounded like a joke to many in Madrid.
The government was, after all, already resuming the old strategy of police crackdowns against ETA.
There were calls for the parties to unite against terrorism, and the opposition conservatives triumphantly concluded that they had been right in opposing the peace process all along.
When Zapatero announced peace talks in late June, he deemed the situation more favourable than ever to ending ETA's 38-year violent campaign that has claimed more than 800 lives.
ETA had been decimated by the arrests of hundreds of its members in a few years, the vast majority of Basques opposed its violence and it had not staged fatal attacks for three years.
Almost immediately, however, the fledgling peace process became stuck over the unwillingness of either side to make concessions.
The government did not stop judicial and police action against separatists and Batasuna did not condemn ETA's violence.
Above all, the government remained firm in its rejection of the separatists' key demand which they refused to tone down: that of a referendum on a sovereign Basque state comprising parts of northern Spain and southern France.
Not even Batasuna, however, had expected ETA to break the ceasefire so soon and without a warning, just one day after Zapatero had still described the peace process in promising terms.
After years of intense investigations by ETA experts at the police forces, secret service and interior ministry, how could the prime minister make such a massive miscalculation?
Analysts stressed the unpredictability of a hermetic and irrational organization probably divided into hawks and doves.
Was the Madrid attack carried out by a splinter group, or had ETA concluded that the peace process would not bring any results? Did ETA really mean to end the process or just to give a warning? Nobody knew.
The rupture of the peace process was expected to have a high political cost for Zapatero, whose three-year-old government had suffered a heavy defeat.
The other political victim was Batasuna, which had hoped to nudge radical separatism to a non-violent track in order to become re-legalized and to contest the local elections in May.
The party represents a significant slice of the Basque electorate, taking about 10 per cent of the vote before it was outlawed.
Some 26 per cent of the Basques support independence while 28 per cent are against, according to a poll by the Basque government.
Non-violent Basques favourable to independence will now find it more difficult to get their voices heard, observers said.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-AgenturCOMMENT
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Older Talkback
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I lived with a Basque family a few years ago while learning Spanish in San Sebastian. The people everywhere were wonderful to an old if not ancient American. La Senora was very 'Basque' but her husband, a retired accountant, was more pragmatic about the political situation. It certainly saddens all of us who love the people and the country-Basque and Spain-that this conflict can endure as it has in Ireland until enough people must die. God bless up every one
ETA has been a plague on spanish society for decades now. Their concept of independence will never happen, nor should it. If there is anything to know about Spain, it is that each province is unique. Almost every province has their own language, heritage, and culture. Each one claims to be somewhat superior. But the only real difference between the Basque country and the rest of the provinces is that it has gotten greedy with its own autonomy. No other province in Spain gets the benefits that Bilbao recieves. Do not get me wrong, I love Bilbao, but this bull has gone on too long. Spain can't afford to loose the Basque area. If it did, the domino affect would hit Catalonia next...then Valencia...then Galicia. The only thing Madrid would be able to hold on to would be Real, Castilla, and Aragon.
I say no more sympathy for ETA and more for the PSOE. Unite Spain, do not divide.
Carlos
http://www.myspace.com/mrbaki
Actually It is likely that an early form of the Basque language was already present in Western Europe before the arrival of the Indo-European languages, which means that in a sense the Basque culture can claim one of the longest unbroken traditions on the continent. Most scholars see Basque as a language isolate. Consequently, its prehistory cannot be reconstructed by means of the comparative method, and little is known of its origins.
Latin inscriptions in Aquitania preserve a number of words with cognates in proto-Basque, for instance the personal names Nescato and Cison (neskato and gizon mean 'girl' and 'man' respectively in modern Basque[1]). This proposed language is called 'Aquitanian' and was presumably spoken before the Romans brought Latin to the western Pyrenees. Roman neglect of this hinterland allowed Aquitanian Basque to survive while the Iberian and Tartessian languages died out. Basque did come to acquire some Latin vocabulary, both before and after the Latin of the area developed into Gascon (a branch of Occitan) and Navarrese Romance.
Given that the genetic border between Basque and Gascon country is more diffuse than that of Basque and Castilian country, it is commonly assumed that the Basques' origin was in Aquitaine and that they migrated southward. [citation needed]
In June 2006, archaeologists at the site of Iruña-Veleia discovered an epigraphic set with a series of 270 Basque inscriptions and drawings from the third century. [1] Some of the words and phrases found were 'urdin' (blue), 'zuri' (white), 'gori' (red), 'edan' (drink) 'ian' (eat), 'lo' (sleep), 'Iesus, Iose ata ta Mirian ama' (Jesus, the father Joseph and the mother Mary), and 'Geure ata zutan' (Our father in you). Further analysis of this discovery could show that the Basque language is more stable than previously thought.
Leo I read your post and its good to see you know how to copy and paste. I have heard this nonsense before and I am sure I will read it again soon. I stated earlier that each province in Spain is unique. Just because their language has no influence of Latin doesn’t mean they are not Spanish. For hundreds of years have the Basque been under the rule of Spain. Each province has locals who believe that their province should be sovereign. My argument is that ETA has become a problem that needs to stop. The Basque people already experience more independence than any other province. This is causing hostility and jealously from other provinces. There is no reason to destroy Spain because their language was not affected by Latin. Should Indian people in the USA regain independence because their language was not affected by Anglo-Europeans? What nonsense. The idea of a Basque Country is not only a dangerous idea, it should be considered criminal. This is from someone who has family there. And by the way, being the Bilbao and surrounding cities are heavy industry areas; the population comes largely from other parts of Spain...because it is Spain.
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TxarliJan 3rd, 2007 - 15:30:19
Why nobody points how little the spanish government is doing to help to a peaceful resolution of the conflict?
There is no political way out, all basque political parties that could serve as a presure valve for independentists get banned one after the other, the only way for the spanish is to introduce more police, army, guardia civil. Have they not learnt that that's not the way?, is 38 years not enough?
ETA started a peace time unilaterally, for the politicians in Madrid ETA is too much of a political ball to let it go, so nobody put their weight on it, they'll never support a peace process.
And, the bottom line is, ETA is claiming the right of the Basque people to decide its future and have a referendum where basque people can vote if they want to be with Spain or not, is that a terrorist threat? or just a democratic right?
There is a peaceful way out but Spain doesn't like that option.
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