“The ETA communiqué announcing the end of the truce is bad news”, declare the bishops of the Basque dioceses of Bilbao, Ricardo Blázquez, President of the Spanish Bishops’ Conference, of San Sebastián, Juan María Uriarte, and of Vitoria, Miguel Asurmendi, in response to the recent news of ETA’s unilateral breaking of the ceasefire, which has been in force since December 2006. The Spanish Bishops’ Conference also issued a press release on 5 June, in which it firmly condemns “the new attack on peaceful co-existence in justice and freedom”. In its communiqué ETA says it wants to “proceed towards an independent state” which would be called “Euskal Herria”. The motivation for the change in ETA policy is – says the ETA communiqué – the “detentions, tortures and persecution of all types” of which the Spanish government is allegedly guilty. Consequently, claims ETA, “the minimum democratic conditions for a process of negotiations do not exist”. The bishops ask ETA to “rescind its decision and announce a definitive suspension of violence. This society has no need for the protection of any group, nor for the threat or use of violence to claim its rights or fulfil its duties”. The Basque bishops point out that “violence is contrary to justice and to peace and bars any way of achieving them. The Spanish Bishops’ Conference, in a press release dated 5 June, for its part declared: “We firmly deplore and condemn the new assault on peaceful co-existence in justice and freedom. Terrorism is intrinsically perverse. No political claim can grant legitimacy to anyone to threaten and assassinate. On the contrary, those who act in this way become criminals whose conduct must be judged by the law with all the necessary severity”. The communiqué ends as follows: “The bishops have asked on various occasions that people pray for the conversion of terrorists and for an end to this scourge of our society. Christian communities, families and all the faithful are doing so with constancy and hope, while the victims of terrorism and their families have a special place in the prayer and support of Catholics”.
