Word: batasuna
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Last month, the talk was of peace. Arnaldo Otegi, leader of Batasuna, the banned political party linked to the Basque terrorist group ETA, told a crowd of 15,000 at a velodrome in San Sebastián in the Basque Country: "[We] stand with an olive branch in our hand." Otegi, who has never condemned ETA's violence, was cheered as he declared it was time to "pluck the conflict out of the streets and bring it to the negotiating table." But this month, the news was of terror. ETA claimed responsibility for five small bombs that went...
...notion that negotiations can begin without a renunciation of violence from ETA. Yet Basques who condemn ETA don't believe these bombings were meant to scupper talks. Rather, they were a way of keeping the radical base loyal while inching toward negotiations. "I'm convinced that ETA and Batasuna are in agreement over the proposal made [by Otegi]," says Alberto Surio, a political commentator at El Diario Vasco, a San Sebastián-based daily. "But it's a process that's going to take longer than we want. The boat is moving, but the boat is very heavy." Batasuna...
...PATXI ZABALETA, former Batasuna leader...
...attack would provoke massive outrage and disgust. "An armed action by ETA now would be understood as an attack against the whole society," says Patxi Zabaleta, a lawyer and former leader of the now banned Batasuna party who has defended many ETA members before Spanish courts. Another reason for ETA to stand down is that Spanish and French police have largely broken the organization in a punishing series of more than 650 arrests since 2000. Earlier this month, French police uncovered an eta bombmaking factory in the French village of Saint Michel, a few kilometers from the Spanish border...
...public outrage over the attacks suggests that if ETA was behind them, it may have signed its own death warrant. "Some people think we drink champagne when attacks happen," says Ainhoa Osinalde, spokeswoman for Pagotxeta, a pro-independence group close to Batasuna, the banned party often described as ETA's political wing. "That's not true. We have to do everything we can to stop these things from happening again." Many moderate Basque nationalists share ETA's goal of independence while condemning its terrorist tactics, but even the few people who still support the armed struggle will likely be repulsed...