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Spaniards Protest Basque Separatist ETA’s Bullet-Riddled “Ceasefire”
The Basque separatist ETA has been pitchforked into international news again, sparking demonstration in Spain, angry debate among Spaniards about the proper attitude and response to it and one charge that some aspects of news agency accounts of the demonstrations are not quite accurate.
First, for a comprehensive backgrounder on Spain’s long-term problems with ETA, read THIS POST I did titled THE BASQUES, SPAIN AND ETA: RETROSPECTIVE & PERSONAL VIEW.
It gives tons of background about the issue (some readers may have other details to offer or see some things a different way) and also notes my own extensive experience in reporting on Spain’s Basque issue during the 1970s for The Christian Science Monitor. (Rather than copy the info, we’ll just give you the link).This was written amid initial speculation, encouraged by the government, that the March 2004 train bombings were the work of ETA (it turned out they weren’t). But the background info will give you the context.
The AP gives the latest news agency take (echoed by most international news agencies):
Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators marched through Madrid and other cities to denounce a deadly car bombing by the Basque separatist group ETA that shattered a 9-month cease-fire and snuffed out Spain’s best hopes in years to end decades of violence.The rallies on Saturday evening were boycotted by the opposition, conservative Popular Party, illustrating how deeply divided Spain struggles to find common ground even on the issue that polls show is the most worrisome to its citizens.
Nationwide figures were not available but the Interior Ministry said the Madrid rally alone drew an estimated 175,000 people.
“I am angry with ETA. The attack only shows that it is a gang of madmen,” said Alejandro Zarzalejos, a 41-year-old English teacher who attended the Madrid rally with his wife and two children, of the Dec. 30 blast at Madrid airport that killed two and injured 26.
He said he had been optimistic about the peace process until the bombing. “I have no idea what they want to achieve with this,” he said.
Rallies were also held in the Basque city of Bilbao — where police said 80,000 people took part — as well as in Pamplona, Zaragoza and other cities and towns.
In Madrid, the capital’s main north-south artery became a sea of people as entire families turned out on an unseasonably warm winter evening. They waved placards with the symbol of a white dove and wore stickers bearing one word: “Paz,” the Spanish for peace.
The rally was called by labor federations and endorsed by hundreds of other organizations to protest the Dec. 30 attack at Madrid airport claimed by the Basque separatists. The protesters included many from Ecuador, the native country of the two men killed as they slept in cars in the Madrid airport garage targeted in the blast.
Yet, many of ETA’s past attacks seemingly showed a cohesive group. Another AP story suggests it could be an organization in chaos:
The group set off a car bomb in a parking lot at Madrid’s airport on Dec. 30 – killing its first two victims in more than three years – then claimed the attack did not mean the end of a nine-month-old cease-fire.
And, indeed, it’s hard to accept that a cease fire means you can blow two victims to bits. MORE:
ETA’s outlawed political wing, Batasuna, seemed taken by surprise. Some authorities say there is growing evidence of a schism within ETA, leading to concern that a radical strain could be pushing for a return to the days of assassinations, bombings and kidnappings – just when hopes for an end to the conflict were at their highest.
Arrests and problems recruiting have cut the number of ETA militants down so drastically that police believe the group has only about 15-20 “soldiers� left, supported by perhaps 100 more collaborators who give them shelter and other logistical support. More than 500 ETA members are in jail in Spain, and about 100 more are held in France.ETA has been fighting since the 1960s for a separate homeland in the Basque region that straddles the border between Spain and France. Some 800 people have died in the conflict, most of them police, judicial and political figures targeted by the group.
Meanwhile, a Spain-based bloggers questions new accounts of the demonstration. The always-interesting Barcelona-based Barcepundit writes, in part:
NO, TODAY’S DEMONSTRATION in Madrid -taking place as I type this- doesn’t mean that people have finally grown a spine….After After December 30th car bomb in Barajas, the answer is this demonstration taking place right now in Madrid:
Zapatero’s controversial initiative to negotiate with the Basque terrorist group, done in a pure partisan manner with no attempt to reach bipartisan consensus with the opposition;After ignoring ETA’s re-arming while that negotiation was taking place, and paying no attention to any critic who was saying that ETA’s cease-fire was more a hudna than a real truce;After December 30th car bomb in Barajas, the answer is this demonstration taking place right now in Madrid:
And he shows a photo of people with placards calling for Peace.
Demonstrators are calling for peace and against terror; of course, one way to achieve peace and end terror is to fight the terrorists and win. Another way is to surrender.Guess what the crowd is choosing, considering all those white doves printed in the signs people are carrying. And considering the chants of “Dialogue! Dialogue!” that they are singing.
That’s error number two of the media, he writes. He also notes that a Reuters report says the opposition Popular Party not attending the anti-ETA demonstration was a first was wrong.
Read the entire post.
Publius Pundit’s Robert Mayer, writing from Madrid (my home and journalistic base from May 1975-December 1978), has a long account that should be read in full. A small part of it:
From where I am at an internet cafe, it looks like there must be hundreds of thousands of people out on Paseo de Castellana and Plaza Colon. People are everywhere, armed with posters and slogans rather than bombs and semiautomatics. It’s being organized by labor unions and dozens of other organizations. That means that Socialist Prime Minister Zapatero’s base is out there protesting against the terrorist organization that he was negotiating with just half a month ago. So let me put it this way: I don’t see any way that Zapatero will ever be able to resume his failed policies of negotiations.The only people abstaining from the march officially are the opposition Popular Party and the victims of ETA terrorism groups – because they say that the slogans used are not hardline enough against ETA. Put another way, there’s another constituency out there that makes up a large portion of the population that wants even more actions taken against the perpetrators of December’s heinous act. Now that’s food for thought. All of Spain against ETA.
He notes Barcepundit’s criticism about Madrilenos not really have found their full backbone and adds:
I agree and disagree. It seems that many, in the long run, just don’t care and have overall become accustomed to such acts. They are outraged when it happens but don’t have the follow through. While admittedly the signs with doves and “Paz� printed all over them look terribly weak and pacifistic, the overall attitude is one of outrage. Maybe they don’t have as much backbone as Barcepundit and I do, but its there. There are a lot of people talking on the individual level about their anger, not their desire to shake hands and kiss on the cheek. We’ll have to see what manifests from it all, but I would be extremely disappointed to see Zapatero continue with his failed policies in the face of such public opposition.
The bottom line is that to many Spaniards of many political persuasions ETA — and the Zapatero government — have a long way to go before many of them will accept that the ceasefire is more than yet another hiccup in the wave of violence and sea of blood that has marked ETA’s history in Spain. During the Franco era, even though many repudiated its tactics and violence, some privately considered it a kind of folk hero organization, battling the dictatorship.
But now Spain is most assuredly a democracy. Some Spaniards have lived all their lives being given assurances that some day a ceasefire would be put in place with ETA that would endure.
They’ve heard it all before.
Been there. Done that. Buried them….
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11 Responses to “Spaniards Protest Basque Separatist ETA’s Bullet-Riddled “Ceasefire””
OK, here goes, and I can’t promise it’ll be short:
I’ll start with a small recap of the situation as it stands today:
There have thus far been two major protests against ETA, one right after the attacks, called for by the AVT (Terrorism Victims Association) and heavily influenced by the opposition party (PP) and the one just yesterday, officially called by labor unions and other but with the not-at-all subtle backing of the government. The second protest was boicotted by the opposition. Presumably they wanted the theme changed from “For peace” to “For freedom”. The organizers changed it to “For peace and for freedom” to convince the PP to join. They declined. Sound like almost child-like bickering? That’s because it is. The PP spokesman said they didn’t go because it wasn’t a protest against ETA but against the PP. That, my friends, is absolute buls%&@t.
I went to both protests, the one backed by the opposition and the one backed by the government, and I can safely say that the most politically exploitative one was the opposition rally. I was surprised in both cases, for different reasons. The first protest I expected to be an outraged protest against ETA, that’s why I went. Instead it was a hate-fest against the president. I heard dozens of cries of “Zapatero dimisión!” (a call to the president to step down) and not a single cry against the damn terrorists! The impresion (I’m hoping mistaken) is that they hated the government more than the terrorists. I went to the rally yesterday to bear witness. I truly expected to see much the same thing, a huge hate-fest against the PP while ignoring the actual badguys. I was then entirely surprised to find that, with a few exceptional chants against the PP, that never spread for very long, the basic theme was very much for peace, against ETA, and the need for unity.
Mind you, I’m very much against the negotiations. ETA has done this before. They feel the noose tightening, so they call a cease-fire, call negotiations in order to regroup and rearm. Both parties have done this, both have shown humiliating weakness in the face of the enemy. I could go on and on about the special privileges heaped upon the Basque region in an attempt to bribe the terrorists into peace, and the special treatment of their prisoners. It boggles the mind.
As for Barcepundit saying that we at the protest haven’t a spine….well I’ll reserve the kind of retort that occurred to me at that point. I’m guessing that the “dialog” chants he speaks of was from the rally in Bilbao (capital of the Basque region, where many people want independence though most through peaceful means), because I can assure him that in the two in a half hours I was in the protest in Madrid, dialog didn’t cross anyones lips. He should as well as any of us; the Spanish people WANT their government (PP AND PSOE) to fight the terrorists, they HATE the softness and they wish that the parties could stop their bickering for just a bloody minute and get their act together. What many Spaniards feel is despair, as Robert Mayer notes. This has been going on for 40 years, many of us see no good solution. I think negotiations won’t work. I don’t think vicious repression of the terrorists will entirely work either, but I’d rather do that than pamper them and hope they play nice.
Perhaps Spain should agree to a two-state solution and end the occupation of Basque territory. After all it is desperation that is driving the basques to commit acts of terrorism. I’m obviously being fasicious, but Spain is a country whos citizens and current government are very anti-Israel. I’d just thought I’d make a point about yet another example of hypocrisy from Israel’s critics.
Aw Laura, I thought you were being normal, if mistaken, there for a minute. And then you had to let the crazy out again, how disappointing.
Just because it’s you I’m going to answer your absolutely ridiculous comment. The Basque country, as I’ve mentioned previously, gets a great many privileges; more than any other Spanish province. They get a disproportionate amount of taxpayer money. They have autonomous police, health care, schools, you name it, all courtesy of the Spanish taxpayer. The Israeli treatment of Palestinians and the Spanish treatment of Basques is basically night and day. Also add to that that it’s calculated that Basque independence is supported by only 30% of Basques themselves. And I’m betting that would go down further if the possibility of real independence solidified and instead of being a hazy dream Basques realized that the men with the guns were going to get the government. I don’t fully agree with my countrymen on Israeli matters, but comparing the two situations is silly, at best.
But by all means don’t let mere facts get in the way of your opinions.
THANKS Lynx for your great first hand update. I know how hard it is for Spaniards have been living under the ETA threat for many many years. I knew many people there of all political persuasions (including…and yes they exist…Basque centrists and moderates) who felt ETA was a dangling sword over everyone’s head for years. During Franco’s “last hurrah” when his government executed some people the government said were ETA militants, some people saw ETA as at least an armed challenge to the Franco dictatorship. And I know that they always assumed that once Spain became Democratic, if Spain JUST got a Socialist or non-Franco linked government that could offer some autonomy after years of super-federal rule under Franco, and offer to negotiate, ETA would put down its arms. It’s clearly that a)it hasn’t worked out that way or b)there are splits within the group and some are pressing to force the issue. As you note, no on enjoys living under the threat of terrorism and Spaniards have now seen that ETA does not keep its word (again…there have been stories over the years about how it seemed like ETA was changing). I’m not up enough on Spain these days to see how the ruling party is doing in administering other aspects of that great country (I wept each time I left Madrid, I loved it so much and I’m not joking). But it’s going to be a fascinating ongoing story that we really should do more about here.
Joe,
Pretty good job, quoting a prominent Basque-phobe like Barcepundit but shying away from a blog that presents the Basque side. Moderate, indeed.
Now, this ideal you have of the perfect country called Spain is mystifying. How can a country that clings to its colonialist past, drowning the dream of entire nations (Navarre, Catalunya, Galiza, the Canaries) to their self determination, can be called a democracy, is beyond me.
Tonight I have to catch some sleep, but I can promise your little piece of Francoist propaganda will get an answer tomorrow.
Aleksu, you must have slept by now! C’mon friend, I’m on the edge of my seat, waiting to see how you slander my nation. I really can’t wait to see how you justify the slaughter of around 800 people. Oh and the Canary Islands wanting to be an independent nation? That’s really cute LOL. As we say “no te cortes” (don’t be shy) I can’t wait to hear it!
Lynx,
Let me start by saying that your nation commited the largest genocide in documented history.
In the process, your nation wiped out entire cultures and civilizations.
If that was not enough, your nation played sidekick to the must publicized genocide of last century.
You cry for your 800?
Is that all you got?
If I wanted to lower my speach to match yours all I would have to say would be one simple sentence: Gernika 1937.
Spaniards are so infatuated with death that they obsessively quote the 800. The day you come to terms with all the death and destruction you have caused in this planet you will begin to build a country with a real democracy. And you will understand that to be free you need to let others go free.
In case anybody is reading this yet I’ll translate the comment into sanity. I suppose by genocide you mean the violent colonization of America. Not quite genocide, since that involves the systematic wiping out of a people. Still doesn’t excuse the brutality of it, though I’d love to see data that proves it was the worst killing in history. It was also a good 500 years ago. The US attempted genocide 200 years ago, is it not a democracy? Germany committed genocide less than 100 years ago, so they’re not a democracy either? Absurd, utterly ridiculous.
Gernika, for anyone that doesn’t know, was a brutal slaughter of an entire village during the Civil War. Oh, and BTW, it was GERMANS that did that, with the support of Franco. You can hardly call Spaniards “in denial” of the matter, as one of THE most famous paintings of Picasso is on the subject and one of the most reviled people in Spain is Franco himself. The fact that we take things like bombings of supermarkets and casas-cuartel (apartments that house Civil Guards and their families) as bad is not because we don’t appreciate the bravery of men who blow the legs of little girls in their desperate struggle for independence, it’s because They. Are. Murderers. Look it up, you’ll find most Basques don’t like them either. Many (not necessarily a majority) support independence, but not by violent means. I understand them too, ETA has killed more Basques than anybody else. Way to show your love for your people, huh?
Aleksu. I don’t usually answer comments like yours. But I did have the pleasure of reading what you said about me in your blog post. At first I wasn’t going to answer, but I can see I need to or else this will go on and on.
Your post had lots of errors and I simply can’t put aside posts here to answer them.I also do NOT do blogwars. I just move on to other blogs to read. But you post was less an exposition of the issue of the Basque issue and demonstrations, and more just an angry personal attack on me. Which is your right. My mother does the same thing.
To start with, you are upset about my old Command Post editorial which WAS written when all news agency speculation centered on ETA being behind the train bombings. No, I didn’t make it up and I was not paid by the government in Madrid to write it. I wrote it within the context of what Reuters, the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the San Diego Union, AFP, ABC, CBS, NBC, Time, Newsweek, Novosti News Agency, Fox News, AP, EFE and a zillion other news agencies reported in the early aftermath of the bomgings.
And — if you bothered — you could have probably researched my later TMV posts, which followed the story as it was clear that was NOT ETA and noted as such. You would have read my posts about the fall of the PP government.
This is what blogs usually do:we (unfortunately) report and comment on the news agency and newspaper reports. Blogs have the potential of doing original reporting, but few do. We’re often more like extended op-ed pages, commenting on quotes we give readers, giving them links to more stories — relying on the reporting, perceptions and conclusions of those who are DOING original reporting. So you picked the ONE POST written at that time to label me a Francoist sympathizer.
Also, in no matter what context, I’ve had very few people over the years respond to my posts by noting on their blog that I am a Jew. Yes, I understand you were likening the Basque Country to Israel. But I was never called a so-called or alleged Jew before. Except by the frustrated Cantor who was trying to teach me for my bar mitzvah. I have to be a good Jew: I love Chinese food.
I did laugh out loud at being called a “Basque phobe.” You are not aware of the many stories I did over for the Chicago Daily News, the Christian Science Monitor etc. My journalistic mentor in Spain was the late Ricardo Utrilla who helped found Cambio 16 and met with me in his office several times a week and even arranged to have dinner with me and my parents when they visited Madrid. I never heard him called anti-Basque or a Francoist before. Another tidbit: The Christian Science Monitor paid much of my expenses for me to travel to the Basque Country to do two very long (double-page, centerfold) special features on the post-Franco Basques and I also did shorter stories on things such as Basque language schools. I had great contacts up in Bilbao and Santender. When I cabled the Monitor’s then-Foreign Editor David Anable to tell him I was leaving Spain, he cabled back a short message: “The Basques have lost their friend.” But I don’t think you’re interested in that.
So, yes, I have seen your post which is the kind of post we really avoid posting or linking to here – an attack on someone who writes an opinion versus a detailed explanation of why someone may disagree with ideas or analysis ON AN ISSUE.
In any event, I read it completely. And everyone who dealt with me as a journalist and as a blogger knows I don’t go after and demonize people who write opinions with which I disagree. So I’ll respectfully pass on a response, just as I’ll pass on reading your site.
But if you send me your address, I’ll be sure to send you a Chanuka card.
Joe,
Regarding your post at the Command Post, it was you who used it as a reference for this post. You had the choice to link to one of your own posts with a wider view of what happened on March 11th. It was you the one that chose the post that resembles Aznar’s campaign of lies and deceptions the most, not me.
I could take you to task for what you wrote on that post that highlights your Basque-phobe nature, but actually, you did it again on this present post. Here is what I am talking about. The only time when you talk about the Basques is when there is an ETA attack, in doing such you become a resonance box for the ill intentioned campaign in the main stream media that insists in likening the Basques with terrorism. In your posts you consistently avoid to issue any criticism of Spain and its more that faulty democracy. You have never talked about the hundreds of thousands killed by Franco and the strong ties between the PP and the Franco regime.
And that is why I am making such an issue of you being a Jew, you seem to like the PP and Franco, and since Franco was an ally of Hitler, well, your infatuation with the Spanish political class is startling to say the least.
And yes, I liken Euskal Herria to Israel, you know why? Because the same basic human right protected in the UN Charter that allowed for a Jewish state is the one that calls for a Basque state, wether the Spaniards and the French like it or not.
You reject that idea, of a Basque state. How does people call those who reject the idea of a Jewish state?
You say you will not read my blog again? Nothing new there, if you had read it you would have a better insight of the Basque struggle for self determination by now, not the tainted one given by your friend Barcepundit who dedicates his blog to attack both Basques and Catalonian nationalists.
But if you give me your address, I will send you an Olentzero gift.
Lynx,
Do you have a blog?
I would like to move our conversation out of Joe’s blog.