POLITICS-SPAIN: ETA Claims Fifth Victim This Month

By Tito Drago Reprint | | Print |

Tito Drago

MADRID, Aug 29 2000 (IPS) - The illegal Basque separatist group, Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA – Basque Homeland and Freedom) shot to death a Popular Party politician Tuesday in Zumárraga, a small town in Spain’s Basque Country near the French border. He is ETA’s fifth victim this month.

The president of the autonomous Basque government, moderate nationalist Juan José Ibarretxe, called the murder of Manuel Indiano Azaustre “an act of supreme cowardice.”

Non-governmental and human rights groups, as well as municipal governments, political parties and labour unions throughout Spain, convoked immediate street demonstrations to denounce the attacks and express support for peace and human rights.

Indiano, 29, whose wife is seven months pregnant, worked with organisations that provide help to drug addicts, and for the last six months held a city councillor post as a member of the centre- right Popular Party (PP).

The mayor of Zumárraga, Usoa Busca, of the moderate Basque nationalist Eusko Alkartasuna (EA) party, said Tuesday that the victim had worked hard to resolve the town’s problems, and that he had said he felt his life was in danger.

But Indiano turned down offers of police custody last April when he took office because the permanent company of bodyguards “made him uncomfortable,” according to PP sources.

The assassination occurred inside a small candy shop. An unknown assailant entered, fired dozens of rounds at Indiana, and then fled.

ETA actions have been generally directed against unarmed individuals who lack police protection, or the group uses indirect tactics such as radio-detonated explosives.

Since January, four ETA members have been killed. They died earlier this month in Bilbao when the car bomb they were driving to carry out another attack exploded.

So far in August, the illegal organisation has killed José María Korta, president of the business association in the Basque province of Guipúzcoa, army second lieutenant Francisco Casanova, and two Civil Guards, Irene Fernández and José Angel Encinas.

Casanova, who served in the army’s local offices, was shot to death in the garage at his home. The two Civil Guards died when a bomb placed under their patrol car exploded.

ETA broke its unilateral truce in November 1999 after a year and a half of peace. Since then, its members have carried out 27 attacks, killing 12 people. The victims include another PP town councillor, José María Martín Carpena, in the southern city of Málaga, and Juan María Jáuregui, former governor of Guipúzcoa.

Jáuregui, of the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE), had moved to Chile, but was in Spain on vacation. He had played a leading role in the investigations into the “dirty war” perpetrated against the Basque separatists during the first part of fellow socialist Felipe González’s government (1983-1988).

Immediately after the Indiano assassination was announced, non- governmental groups including the Anti-Intolerance Movement, Gesture for Peace, the Ermua Forum, the Salvador Forum and Victims of Terrorism, called for protests to take place Tuesday afternoon in all Basque cities “to condemn this brutal assassination.”

The Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces invited all of the country’s local governments to organise silent marches for Wednesday noon. One of the first to accept was the mayor of Vitoria, capital of the Autonomous Basque Community.

The municipal government of Zumárraga, of which Indiano was a member, held a public demonstration Tuesday in which town leaders denounced the murder.

In addition, the councillors agreed to oust two of its members from the city board. They are members of the Euskal Herritarrok party, considered ETA’s political arm, ejected from their political posts because they did not condemn the murders.

Tuesday’s attack highlights the widespread condemnation of ETA, but differences persist between Spain’s larger parties (the governing PP and the opposition PSOE and United Left), and the moderate Basque nationalist parties.

The PP, PSOE and United Left demand that the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) and Eusko Alkartasuna (which govern in coalition) break all ties with Euskal Herritarrok because it has not condemned ETA attacks and continues to maintain its relationship with the illegal group.

But Euskal Herritarrok has expressly refused to condemn ETA, and its leaders have expressed “understanding” of the terrorist organisation’s “fight for the Basque homeland.”

Two positions on the issue are evident within the PNV itself. The party leadership, headed by Xavier Arzallus, refuses to break with Euskal Herritarrok, while the other side, led by Ibarretxe, is increasingly critical of taking part in a political coalition that involves groups linked to ETA.

Spanish President José María Aznar said Tuesday, upon learning of Indiano’s death, that “there are no halfway points between democracy and ETA.”