For the Russians, U.S. recognition of Kosovo’s independence was tantamount to an international crime, and the burning of the United States Embassy in Belgrade by angry Serbs could hardly have been avoided. The New York Bureau Chief of Russia’s Novosti News Service, Dmitry Gornostayev writes, ‘It was somewhat ridiculous to hear the appeal by Deputy Secretary of State Nicholas Burns to the Serbs to respect international law. What is he talking about? He and his colleagues violated it themselves last Monday by recognizing Kosovo’s independence!’ In regard to the past two U.S. presidents and the larger issues of Yugoslavia and Iraq, he writes with a burning sarcasm, ‘If reduced to the terms of criminal law, these global actions at least qualify as robbery and murder. According to the laws of Arkansas and Texas - the home states of the past two U.S. Presidents - the crimes of launching illegal wars in Yugoslavia and Iraq would be punishable by the death penalty. But at the homes of these U.S. presidents no one behaves that way - they are decent gentlemen: they play the saxophone, ride bicycles, keep mistresses under the desk and at the very worst, they drop their bagels and ice cream on the couch. All with perfect decency. But once they go outside, you had better get out of the way.’

By Dmitry Gornostayev, Novosti’s New York Bureau Chief

Translated By Igor Medvedev

February 22, 2008

Russia - Novosti - Original Article (Russian)

When the burning of the American Embassy in Belgrade appeared on television along with armored personnel carriers (filled with Serb policemen bereft of any desire to disperse fellow Serbs with Molotov cocktails), I thought to myself: How long will it be until the Americans recall international law and the Vienna Conventions? [which safeguard the immunity of diplomats and embassies] … They remembered very quickly.

It was somewhat ridiculous to hear the appeal by Deputy Secretary of State Nicholas Burns to the Serbs to respect international law. What is he talking about? He and his colleagues violated it themselves last Monday by recognizing Kosovo’s independence!
Read the rest of this entry »

The Basque separatist ETA has called off the cease-fire it announced last year. Details here.

J.M. Guardia aka Barcepundit reports on the latest demonstrations in Spain over the latest controversy swirling around the government’s latest approach to the decades-long problem of homegrown terrorism:

AGAIN, MADRID has taken to the streets in protest against Zapatero’s anti-terror policies…The rally is organized by the conservative Popular Party, now in opposition, and follow 65 smaller demonstrations across the country’s cities yesterday evening. They’re all against Zapatero’s decision to allow one of ETA’s biggest killers, Iñaki de Juana Chaos, to serve his reduced sentence at home after being in a hunger strike for about 100 days demanding his release. Of course the term ‘hunger strike’ is an euphemism: during the last weeks he was in a Madrid hospital with a more than lax regime for visits and his girlfriend staying with him. The police officers custodying him have publicly complained they were ordered not to search her, so who knows how many power-bars or other food she sneaked in. Anyway, Zapatero took the measure for ‘humanitarian reasons’ alleging he was in a very bad physical state, though it didn’t seem an obstacle for him to take long 40-minute showers with her girlfriend (if you know what I mean) until the last day before he was sent home. Or leaving the hospital walking, as he did. Again, it’s the police officers who say it, not me.

Many people, not only from the PP, view this as the last straw, as a measure in favor of a terrorist who just said he doesn’t feel any remorse for killing and who belonged to a terrorist organization that just killed 2 inocent people in the Barajas airport bombing late last year. Even though Zapatero said then that he would stop negotiating with ETA, the truth is that soon after he has declared his intention to keep doing so. That’s probably why today’s protest is probably even bigger than the several million-man marches in recent months. Madrid public regional TV says it’s 2.2 million, but Madrid regional government is PP so they’re probably stretching the figures a little. In any event, it’s another impressive gathering

Read the entire post.

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….