SPAIN: Peace Talks with ETA Forge Quietly Ahead

By Tito Drago Reprint | | Print |

Analysis by Tito Drago

MADRID, Sep 16 2005 (IPS) - Spain’s socialist government is moving cautiously ahead in peace talks with the Basque separatist group ETA, as each of its predecessors has done since 1976, although all of the negotiations have been marked by far more frustration than success.

The current talks, which have been carried out with great discretion, are directly under the control of Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, who meets every week in private with the head of the National Intelligence Centre, Alberto Saiz, sources who wished to remain anonymous confirmed to IPS.

This week, Attorney General Cándido Conde-Pumpido noted that ETA has not killed anyone for 27 months, which gave grounds for hoping for an end to the group’s terrorist actions “in the near future.”

The nationalist media in the Basque Country – one of the 17 autonomous provinces into which Spain is divided – consider the absence of mortal attacks a de facto ceasefire. But other sectors attribute it to effective police and judicial action.

“The Spanish government will act in the general interest, keeping democratic principles in mind, in the context of a state of law,” said Zapatero, when asked about the talks with ETA at a press briefing in the wake of his address at the United Nations summit in New York Thursday.

He had earlier noted that a majority of people in Spain would like to see an end to ETA. Referring to the negotiations, he said “it is an ongoing process that will be long and difficult,” and added that “the government is working in tune with the wishes of Spanish society.”

He warned, however, that “we must keep our expectations in check.” A week earlier, Zapatero had stated that “There is only one fate for ETA: to be dissolved and to lay down its arms.”

“Violence has no political price, but politics can work to put an end to violence,” he stated.

He also promised, “if it comes to that,” to explain to parliament the steps to be taken and “to seek the support of all political groups for the achievement of the longed-for end to terrorism in Spain.”

On May 17, the Spanish parliament gave the government permission to enter into negotiations with ETA. Only the opposition Popular Party (PP) opposed the motion, which clarified that talks with ETA would be dependent on it showing a “clear will” to give up violence.

ETA (which stands for Euskadi ta Askatasuna, or Basque Fatherland and Liberty in the Basque language) emerged towards the end of the dictatorship of Francisco Franco (1939-1975).

The first negotiations for an end to the group’s armed struggle took place with the first post-dictatorial democratic government, in 1976 and 1977 in Geneva.

This process led, in 1981, to the disbanding of the organisation known at the time as the ETA Political-Military Front (ETA-PM), the release of ETA-PM prisoners, and the integration of its former members in legal political activities. One of them, Mario Onaindía, was elected senator years later as a candidate for the currently governing Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE).

A minority faction that opposed the dismantling of the organisation joined in what was originally known as the ETA Military Front (ETA-M). The term “military” was later dropped from the group’s name, since it no longer had to differentiate itself from the ETA-PM, which had ceased to exist.

Two meetings took place between ETA leaders and representatives of the 1982-1996 socialist government led by Felipe González – one in Andorra in 1984, and the other in Algiers in 1989. Both were attended by ministers of the interior – José María Barrionuevo in the first case and José Luis Corcuera in the second – and both failed to yield results.

The last failed attempt to reach an agreement took place in Zurich on May 19, 1999. Then Prime Minister José María Aznar (1996-2004) of the centre-right PP sent personal aide Pedro Arriola, cabinet chief Javier Zarzalejos, and Security Secretary Ricardo Martí Fluxá. The meeting was moderated by the Roman Catholic bishop of Bilbao at the time, José María Uriarte.

Despite having sent some of his closest advisors to the negotiations, Aznar now denies that they ever happened, thus placing himself in a better position from which to criticise Zapatero’s efforts to reach a peace agreement.

“My administration never gave anyone instructions to negotiate,” he maintained.

Zapatero’s hopes of the ETA laying down its weapons were initially kindled by a meeting he had shortly after taking office in May 2004 with Irish Catholic priest Alex Reid.

Reid, who helped broker the peace talks in Northern Ireland, told Zapatero that after a heated internal debate within ETA, the side that eventually won out was the one led by Mikel Albizu, alias “Mikel Antza”, and José Antonio Urruticoetxea Bengoetxea, alias “Josu Ternera”, who were in favour of declaring a ceasefire and pursuing negotiations.

There has in fact been a de facto ceasefire on ETA’s part, although it has not been publicly declared.

This time, no mediator has been designated as of yet, due to the fact that the Spanish government has clearly stated that it will not officially engage in talks until ETA has first announced that it is laying down its arms.

In the meantime, Batasuna, the Basque party that was banned because it is considered the political arm of ETA, informed its members in an internal document obtained by IPS that it is planning a round table discussion with other nationalist groups, and that “the political offensive we have put into effect to reach a democratic solution to the conflict” is moving in the right direction.

For its part, the PP, Spain’s main opposition party, has stated its opposition to this process, while the Association of Victims of Terrorism, a group with close ties to the centre-right party, announced that it is organising “a series of mobilisations without precedent in Spanish history against the capitulation (by the government) that we are now observing.”