Europe, Headlines

SPAIN: Leaders Predict ETA’s Demise, Group Is ‘on Its Way to Hell’

Tito Drago

MADRID, Oct 4 2004 (IPS) - The Basque separatist group ETA in Spain is on the verge of disappearing, according to political and social leaders in Spain who commented on the arrests of the organisation’s top leaders in France.

Ombudsman Enrique Múgica told IPS that “the group is on its way to hell,” because unlike other organisations or institutions that disappear for different reasons but leave behind good memories, “those unscrupulous murderers will be remembered as just that, and they are condemned to hell.”

The suspected main leader of the terrorist group, Mikel Albizu “Antza”, his girlfriend Soledad Iparraguirre (who faces charges in connection with 14 murders), and 19 other members of ETA were arrested Sunday in France in an operation in which large quantities of weapons and cash were seized. In addition, six hide-outs were found.

The French police, acting on the basis of information provided by the Spanish police, confiscated around 50 grenade and rocket launchers, assault rifles and submachine guns, 40,000 ammunition rounds, thousands of detonators and 700 kilos of explosives, as well as two bags full of money.

“For ETA to have such a stockpile of weapons, explosives and cash while the number and scope of its attacks have diminished shows that it has been left with very few members,” said Múgica. “And the improvised nature of the few attacks it has committed (lately) shows that the few active terrorists it has left lack experience.”

Euskadi ta Askatasuna (ETA – Basque Fatherland and Liberty, in the Basque language) emerged in the 1960s during the dictatorship of Gen. Francisco Franco (1939-1975) demanding an independent homeland in northern Spain and southwestern France for the Basque people.

But after Franco died and Spain returned to democracy, a portion of the group’s members renounced the use of violence. Since 1968, ETA has killed a total of 800 people in terrorist attacks and assassinations.

Former prime minister Adolfo Suárez, who headed the 1976-1981 government in power during the transition to democracy, also believes ETA is on its last legs.

“Today is a day when we can be pleased with the capture of terrorists who have sown death in our country,” said Suárez, president of the Victims of Terrorism Foundation.

The spokeswoman for the Basque country government, Miren Azcarate, also expressed her satisfaction with the arrests and said ETA now has “an unsurpassable opportunity to lay down their weapons and leave open the route of debate and democracy.”

Patxi Zabaleta, who belonged to ETA under the Franco regime but now heads Aralar, a small Basque nationalist party that does not support violence, agreed that the arrests are an important development. But she warned that “there is no police solution for a problem that is political in origin and nature,” and called for dialogue.

But Maite Pagazaurtundúa, a socialist member of the Basque municipality of Urnieta, told IPS that she was opposed to dialogue because the members of ETA “would take advantage of those meetings to gain time and a new lease on life, and return to the attack shortly, as they have done on other occasions.”

Asked about the position taken by the government of the Basque autonomous community – Spain is divided into 17 autonomous communities – which is run by a nationalist coalition, Pagazaurtundúa said the administration is a team that divvies up the roles of “good guys” and “bad guys”.

Some roundly condemn ETA while others talk about dialogue and negotiations “in an aim to woo the few remaining pro-ETA votes,” she said.

The Herri Batasuna party, sometimes described as ETA’s political arm, was banned last year by the courts for allegedly supporting terrorist activities, and thus will not take part in the next Basque regional elections in May 2005. That would explain the interest in winning pro-ETA votes to which Pagazaurtundúa was referring.

Múgica, who is from the Basque country, also spoke out against dialogue and said terrorism must continue to be fought with the full force of the law. The ombudsman and his brother Fernando, who was killed by ETA, acted as defence lawyers for members of the organisation who were in prison under Franco.

“We will achieve peace, with international cooperation, especially from France, to defeat the terrorists – but always while respecting human rights, the law and democracy,” said Múgica.

Antza, who became ETA chief in 1992 when the group’s leaders were arrested, was born into a nationalist family in 1961 in the Basque city of San Sebastián. His father, one of the first members of ETA, was court-martialled in 1961.

Antza became an active member of the group in 1985, according to police reports. Before that, he wrote articles for nationalist and pro-ETA publications and studied philology.

His first operation with ETA occurred in 1985, when he organised one of the most spectacular prison escapes in the group’s history.

Iparraguirre, better known by her nom de guerre Anboto, was born and raised in a small town in the Basque country, in a home where her parents hid members of ETA and weapons for 10 years.

After the entire family was arrested in 1981, she spent a few months in prison and then joined the group, starting to actively participate in attacks in 1985.

The police reported that in 1997 she went to Cuba, where she gave birth to Antza’s daughter, who was with the couple on Sunday when they were arrested.

Anboto will be extradited to Spain and tried for 14 murders and other attacks. But France is unlikely to hand over Antza, since he is not facing charges in Spain for direct participation in attacks, but as the group’s political leader.