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News, August 2007News theme: Basque politics and ETATo be updated in due course On 22nd March ('06), ETA, the Basque separatist terrorist group, announced a permanent ceasefire. One would have expected that after many years of living with terrorism in the Basque Country and across Spain, all Spaniards would have welcomed the announcement. However, a brief glance at newspaper headlines since that date would suggest that the announcement had been the spark for an all-out fight between the major parties. Several very different reactions have come to light and hopes of true 'peace' are as far as ever. Indeed, six months on, ETA has almost gone as far as to cancel the ceasefire, saying it will not hand in arms until its political aims are achieved. To sum up the perspectives, the government and most regional and left wing parties are willing to do anything reasonable to secure the end to the violence, including reinstatement of the banned Basque party, Batasuna, which would represent the new peaceful political aspirations of those in ETA. On the other hand, the conservative Partido Popular is adamant that 'victory' over the terrorists must allow them no voice in negotiations beyond 'we surrender'. The thought that some proven murderors might be allowed out of prison is abhorrent to the PP and to many of thse who lost loved ones in the terror of the past 30 years. Some 1000 people lost their lives due to ETA action. Until 2003, terrorism in Spain meant ETA. Bombs, or bomb threats, assassinations and extortion were a regular part of life, affecting few directly, but leaving no one completely sure that it could not hit him or her. Evidently, the events of 11th March, 2004 changed the whole way Spaniards look at terrorism, as ETA lost its monopoly with the arrival of islamic terror. At the same time, over the past 18 months many accused of key ETA roles have been arrested. Yet, while terrorism is now regarded in a different way, the Basque 'problem' continues to be a major theme in the news and the political agenda. On 11th March 2004, Spain's perception of terrorism as primarily an internal problem was in a few minutes replaced by the international terror of Al Quaeda. A good number of significant ETA terrorists and collaborators have continued to be arrested since that time -including its leader, but little activity has come to anything. Indeed it came to the point where it seemed that it would be a question of time before ETA ceased to have the manpower or support to do anything. Enter the 2006 ceasefire and the only question at present is whether this is really permanent, as announced, or whether it has been a breathing space before a return to violence. time will tell. BBC ask Who are ETA? |