End of ETA's ceasefire

international | rights, freedoms and repression | news report Tuesday June 05, 2007 19:28 by Réabhlóid

ETA dennounces there are not conditions for a negotiation process

ETA said in a statement sent to two Basque newspapers that the truce it called in March 2006 will end as of midnight Tuesday. ETA said it will be "active on all fronts to defend the Basque Country."

Talks - never confirmed by the government but widely believed to have taken place - between the pro-independence left wing movement and PSOE (Spanish Labour Party) started back into 2000 but it was when Zapatero took power that they rapidly developed.

ETA and the Spanish government met for 8 months in 2005 and reached agreement on February 2006. Therefore ETA called a ceasefire on March that year.

But by August 2006 ETA already alerted that the Spanish government wasn't fulfilling its commitments. In fact, after 4 months the political parties negotiation table hadn't been set up yet. Soon promises of beginning of talks in Autumn came up but October arrived and the excuses and delays went on.

It was obvious at that stage that the Sanish government didn't have any kind of interest of letting the Basque political parties to negotiate and take decissions on their future. Rather than this they tried to make of the process a technical one (desmilitaritation, prisoners, victims) instead of solving the political roots of the conflict.

In the meantime the show trials against Basque left wing grassroots movements and youth organitations were on, ETA members were arrested and tortured, more than 300 left wing pro-independence political platforms were banned at the council elections, peaceful demonstrations were attacked by police, prisoners were kept at hundreds of miles from home.

Spanish prime minister even proudly admitted at the parliament that his government did less for the peace process than the previous conservative government (end of November 2006; he was criticized by all political parties for this attitude).

ETA: "Minimum democratic conditions for a negotiating process do not exist"

ETA blamed Zapatero for the failure of the peace process, and contended that the Basque leg of local elections on May 27 were illegitimate because most pro-independence politicians that wanted to run were barred by Spanish courts on grounds of links to ETA's outlawed political wing, Batasuna. The pro-independence movement had called these elections a key part of the peace process.

"Zapatero's character has turned into a fascism that left parties and citizens without rights," ETA said.

ETA reiterated assertions that despite its having called the cease-fire, the Spanish judicial system continued to arrest and hold trials of ETA members and suspects. In the past, it has suggested the government committed itself to going easy on the pro-independence movement while negotiations were under way.

Now, "minimum democratic conditions for a negotiating process do not exist," ETA said in the statement sent to the pro-independence newspapers Berria and Gara.

The announcement does not come entirely as a surprise. ETA had warned in a series of communiques in recent months that it was not pleased with how the peace process was going. The heady spirit of optimism that came with the March 2006 cease-fire announcement gradually vanished.

You can read ETA's statement at: