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The ceasefire announced by ETA (the armed Basque separatist movement), which has killed eight hundred people in Spain over the last ten years, is good news. ETA (Euskadi ta Askatasuna or Basque Country and Liberty) announced a permanent truce on 22 March, or rather a “ceasefire”, and this in itself is considered very positive. No death at the hands of ETA has in fact been recorded for almost one thousand days. The weakening of the terrorist organization, besides, was well known. But the announcement that from 24 March it will lay down its arms should nonetheless be taken with a grain of salt. First of all, because it’s not the first time that ETA has made an announcement of this kind. In the second place, because 24 March is considered a key date due to the sentence of Arnaldo Otegi, leader of the illegal party Herri Batasuna, by the Supreme Court: the communiqué may therefore be a “captatio benevolentia”. A number of problems moreover still remain to be solved: the liberation of ETA members in detention, and especially the political price being asked as a quid pro quo. The laying down of arms, the abandonment of the armed struggle, should not be automatically “rewarded” with a blank cheque to honour the organization’s demands. The ways in which ETA has issued its message appear very similar to those used by the Irish terrorist organization IRA, which last summer announced that it was laying down its weapons. The Basque and Catalan bishops were among the first to express appreciation for the gesture. Archbishop Jaume Pujol of Tarragona, President of the Tarragonese Bishops’ Conference (ten Catalan dioceses), has declared that the news of the ceasefire is “very positive” and expressed the hope that it is “the first step towards a solution of the conflict”. The Archbishop commemorates and prays for “all the victims of terrorism”. The spokesman of the Spanish bishops, Father Martínez Camino, has also referred more guardedly to the ceasefire, suggesting “the real good news would be the dissolution of ETA”. The Spanish bishops maintain in fact that what’s needed now is “the end” of the organization. The Basque bishops (Bilbao, San Sebastian and Vittoria), in a joint statement, express the hope that “this announcement may presuppose a final renunciation of violence”. The ETA communiqué explains that “the objective of this decision is to encourage a democratic process in Euskal Herria (Basque Country) in order to build a new framework in which the rights that belong to us as a people can be recognized”. Moreover, the communiqué asks that “the possibility to develop all political options” be assured. Though only implicit, the reference here is to the political wing of ETA, the banned Herri Batasuna. “At the end of this process Basque citizens must have the right to decide on their own future”. ETA says it wishes “a peace based on justice” and declares that “the overcoming of the conflict, here and now, is possible”. The unwritten desire is a referendum that may lead to separation from Spain. A second communiqué put out by ETA asks for “dialogue, negotiation and agreement”. Now, without recourse to violence, we will see if these claims by ETA have any foundation. The organization, which has not asked forgiveness for the deaths and the terror it has sowed over the last thirty years, has changed its strategy, but its objective remains an independent Basque Country.
