RIGHTS: On Trial – Darkest Blot in Spain’s Democratic History

By Tito Drago Reprint | | Print |

Tito Drago

MADRID, Dec 18 1999 (IPS) - The trial of the blackest stain on Spain’s history as a democratic nation, the 1983-86 dirty war waged against Basque separatists, opened Monday.

During that three-year period under the socialist government of Felipe González (1982-96), four dozen attacks and abductions, which left 28 people dead, were ordered by the interior ministry, according to the legal summaries.

Two of the victims, José Antonio Lasa and José Ignacio Zabala, who belonged to the illegal Basque separatist organisation ETA, were abducted on Oct 15, 1983 in southern France, where they had taken refuge.

They were first taken to the city of San Sebastián, on the Spanish side of the border, where they were submitted to heavy torture in a police station. Later they were taken to the other end of Spain, Alicante, on the Mediterranean sea, shot in the neck at point-blank range, and buried under 50 kilos of quicklime.

Javier Gómez de Liaño, the judge who collected the evidence and specified the charges that led to the start of the trial Monday, said he had never presided over a case like this, and described the incidents involved as “the blackest page in the democratic history of Spain.”

Gómez de Liaño said that although Basque separatists had waged a campaign involving violent attacks and abuses, “there has been nothing similar to shooting people beside their graves at point- blank range, after kidnapping and physically and psychologically torturing them.”

Lasa and Zabala disappeared without a trace. In January 1985, a local resident of the town of Busot, in Alicante, found human bones while out hunting. The remains were deposited in the morgue.

It occurred to a police officer who ran across the still- unidentified remains in the Alicante morgue in 1995 that they could pertain to the two missing members of ETA. Genetic tests indicated that they did indeed belong to Lasa and Zabala, and the case was reopened.

Around 100 witnesses testified in the case, and highly- respected civil guard (militarised police) General Enrique González Galindo, and then civil governor of Guipúzcoa, José Julián Elorriaga, were charged with illegal arrest, murder, and assault and battery.

Then-state secretary of security Rafael Vera – convicted in connection with another incident, and later pardoned – and a former lawyer of the interior ministry Jorge Argote have been charged as abettors.

One of the key witnesses, former civil guard Felipe Bayo, was taken to the courtroom Monday from the military hospital where he was being held in preventive detention, sedated and semi- conscious, and dressed only in underclothes.

The court, over which three judges are presiding, decided to send him to a civilian hospital, where he will remain under the supervision of forensic, rather than military, doctors. They also demanded explanations for the manner in which he was brought to the courtroom.

In 1996, Bayo denied taking part in the murders of Lasa and Zabala. But after changing lawyers, he confessed to torturing the two men and participating in their murders, along with another civil guard, on orders from above.

After his first testimony, in which he denied any involvement, Bayo – although retired from the civil guard – was sent by the interior ministry to take a pilot training course in the United States. The ministry also paid him with money from reserved funds.

Although the prosecutor and judges have provided other depositions and evidence, Bayo’s testimony is considered key. The witness has been sent to a civilian hospital, where he is to pull himself back together before being hauled into court once again.

The trial means a new spattering of the image of the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE) – now the strongest opposition force.

Former state secretary of security Vera said he would have preferred a solemn declaration from Felipe González on his government’s anti-terrorist policy, but lamented that “it is too late now.” He also complained of being abandoned by his party, the PSOE, and said no aspect of human nature – “let alone of political life” – could surprise him anymore.

González responded that he shared the suffering of his former underlings and his fellow party members. But he also said that his only direct responsibility was “having named (ministers of the interior) José Luis Corcuera and José Barrionuevo, who in turn named Rafael Vera”.

PSOE secretary-general and candidate for prime minister Joaquín Almunia also disassociated himself from those implicated in the “dirty war”.

Almunia said the incidents in question filled him with disgust, and urged that the justice system be allowed to act, while warning that the legal process should not be mixed up with the campaign for the March general elections. “That would not be good for anyone,” he warned.

The oral hearings will continue this week and next, and will get underway again on Jan 10, after the holiday recess.