Navarre sold to Spanish unionists

Sanz, last week's elected unionist Navarrese president, is congratulated by Spanish conservative leader Rajoy.

Barrena denounces the "gifts" of the PSOE to "extreme right" 17/08/07


The Basque pro-independence left abertzale makes the "PSOE-PSN" responsible for letting UPN (right wing Navarrese party) maintain under its control the Navarrese Government one more a legislature. "The reality is that the party of Chivite, Zapatero and Blanco (PSOE/PSN) has given unlimited power to the most retrograde right of all Europe to continue applying the policies defined these past legislatures: economic planning in accordance with the multinationals, continuous backward movement concerning the social cost, privatization of services, granting the education policies to the private sector…".


The member of the national executive of the Basque pro-independence left, Pernando Barrena, also emphasized that it is not only the management of province what is into the hands of UPN: "it evidences that the PSOE also grants Sanz (head of UPN) the capacity to continue boycotting from the institutional scope the possibility of a process that would allow the people of Navarre to recover our right to freely decide our future".

Barrena considers "evident" that the PSOE "not only has sold its Navarrese militants, but also that has sold Nafarroa in order to alleviate the PP pressure until the Spanish elections of 2008".


Pernando Barrena remembered that, even, the direction of the PSOE "has finally admitted that it never contemplated another possibility of government in Navarre than the UPN because "Navarre is a State subject"", which "sides with the argumentation of the Basque pro-independence left, that many occasions has denounce that a change of government was not possible without a real change in the framework". Barrena actually indicated, "that one has been Nafarroa Bai's great error, to think that a change of government was possible not to change anything".

Barrena affirmed that "in the negotiations with the PSN, Nafarroa Bai only contemplated the historical abertzales vindications in order to reduce them until unsuspected limits: neither change of the Law of the Basque language, nor a debate on the institutional status of Navarre, or a commitment towards the peace process".

The Erzaintza arrests Igor Maiora in Gasteiz (Araba) 14/08/07

The autonomous police arrested a youth in Gasteiz after the Ertzaintza (autonomous police) supposedly found his DNA in the scene of a street attack. Askatasuna (organism of legal attendance to the Basque political prisoners) has denounced his arrest as well as the PNV and the Ertzaintza performances.

The autonomic police searched his house for two hours and a half and confiscated acomputer and several CDs, different neighbours declared that the police left the house in a complete mess. When finished the Ertzaintza also searched meticulously the Pub where he works.



Igor Maiora was sent to the Madrilian prison of Soto del Real after declaring before the judge of the Spanish National Hearing Juan del Elmo. According to what indicated Spanish media agencies, Maiora is accused of a crime of "terrorist damage" related to the burning of a cash machine.


100 kilos of cloratita, two limpet mines, pistols and machine guns found in Biarritz (North of the Basque Country) 14/08/07

The material was found, according to French official sources, after the owner of the garage decided to go inside when got no news of the person who had rented it several months ago. This source affirmed that the tenant had paid the money from 1 st February to 30th July.

The French Police assured to have found about 100 kilos of cloratita deposited in can, five kilos to penthrite, a much more powerful explosive that according to the Police ETA has sometimes combined it with cloratita to harness its impact.

The Police also sayed to have found two limped mines, more than 170 detonators, three pistols and several machine guns. It is being investigated if one of the three pistols belonged to the ones stolen in Nimes in October of 2006.

Some sources indicated that a mobile phone and diverse documentation in Basque was also found in the garage, digital tracks are intensely being searched for in order to identify ETA members.


Seven street attacks against cash machines and another one against the Peace Court of Zornotza (Bizkaia) 15/08/07

Seven cash machines of Zornotza were burned and the Peace Court attacked after street rioting. A similar attack caused damages in a PNV office of Donostia, and to a vehicle of the city council of Gasteiz.


Freed the two youth arrested in Donostia (Gipuzkoa) after supposedly attacking a bus 16/08/07


According to what informed the Home Department of the Government of Lakua both youth arrested by the Ertzaintza after the confrontations in Donostia were freed till trial day. Both arrested, a neighbour of Azpeitia (town of gipuzkoa) 20 years old and a 21 years old youth from Barcelona have been accused of "public disorders" and "attack against agents of the authority".


During the incidents registered by second consecutive night in the Guipuzcoan capital, that celebrates the festivities of Aste Nagusia, groups of youth faced the Ertzaintza with pyrotechnic rockets, crossed containers and tried to burn an urban bus. According to the Home department, an agent of the autonomic Police was hurt.


Three devices deactivated, after a warning, in a golf complex in Angelu (North of the Basque Country) 16/08/07


The French Police neutralized three incendiary devices in a golf complex of Angelu. An anonymous caller had previously alerted the emergency services of the positioning of the devices, one of which was a small gas cylinder. One of the devices had been placed in the golf course, another one in a contiguous hotel and the third before a residence of mentioned complex. These attacks are part of an ongoing campaign against housing speculation in the North.


London admits the Euro-order against Albisu, Lopez and Ruiz 18/08/07

The court of London admitted the Euro-order against the three Basques arrested the past April in Sheffield "for not believing Spain will hold them incommunicado". Askatasuna (legal organism in favour of the Basque political prisoners) will challenge this sentence in all the possible judicial scopes.



The sentence believes in the supposed Spanish commitment of not holding the prisoners incommunicado once are handed over to the Spanish authorities; Therefore, and as Askatasuna stressed, "the relation between incommunicado and torture is admited in these declarations"

Askatasuna hardly criticized the decision of handing over the prisoners and once again denounced irregularities committed from the very beginning in the process against the three Basques arrested in Sheffield; the Euro order "is based in lies", it evidences presented were obtained "under torture". They therefore denounced, "The Euro-order is based in torture".


Olano blames the PSOE and the PNV for opening the confrontation route 19/08/07

The spokesman of Askatasuna Juan Mari Olano reprobated the attitude of the PSOE and the PNV, and invited the citizens to participate in the creation of "a social weave, beginning from the work places up to the institutes" for amnesty and self-determination, which he defined as the bases for the resolution of the political conflict.

Around 1,500 people took part in the demo of Donostia to demand amnesty and self-determination, and in defence of the Basque political prisoners' rights.

The Basque pro-independence left "goes ahead with the liberation process"

13/08/07

Convinced that "only with dialogue and negotiation" the solution "to the political and armed conflict" will be reached, the Basque pro-independence left reiterated before 5,000 people its commitment to retake the negotiating process on the basis of the Basque citizens' capacity of decision.


Joseba Alvarez, member of the national executive of the Basque pro-independence left, analyzed the PNV's (Basque Nationalist Party) behaviour these past months, and mentioned the PNV's slogan "Aurrera doan herria / A country that goes forward". Alvarez commented that "the PNV does not care about anything" not the apartheid against the Basque pro-independence left "nor the 600 Basque political prisoners in the Spanish and French jails, some with fulfilled sentences already or, others seriously ill, others like Gatza that have spent 27 years in prison, and others like Arnaldo Otegi that have been jailed for taking part in the negotiation process".

Joseba Alvarez commented that "the only thing that goes forward are the PNV's businesses, the businesses of imposition, such as the HST (High Speed Train), the Incinerator or the Super port of Pasaia".

Alvarez also dennounced the PNV's performance in the negotiations carried out in the Sanctuary of Loiola between the PNV, the Basque pro-independence left and the PSOE. "the PNV said no to both territoriality and to democracy for the Basque Country", next alluded to recent declarations of the former Spanish president Felipe González, who said that "Imaz is the best thing that has happened to the Basque Country". "The main person in charge at the time of the GAL applauds Josu Jon Imaz (PNV president) and says that he is the most intelligent head of Euskadi. It is shameful - continued Alvarez-, the enemy only plays with the traitors, and that is what Imaz is doing at the moment".

Alvarez insisted that "dialogue and negotiation are the only alternative" and placed the Basque pro-independence left as "the alternative" to build another kind of country, remembering that despite the criminalisation campaign, despite the banning of many Basque pro-independence left candidacies by the Spanish state "we reached 190,000 votes" in the last elections held in the south of the Basque Country.

Great success at West Belfast's Féile an Phobail's Basque Day

Hundreds of people took part at the events organised by the Belfast Basque Committee during the West Belfast's Féile an Phobail's Basque Day. The day started with the unveiling of a solidarity mural on the Falls Road. It was Pat Rice, long live friend of the Basque Country, who had the honnour to do it in front of a 60 people crowd who were displaying flags and banners. The mural was painted by famous muralist Danny Devenny and claims self-determination for the Basque Country.

Afterwards a demonstration walked the Falls Road to Cultúrlann.

There a talk under the title of "Perspectives on the Basque peace process" was launched with a high profile pannel formed by Máirtín Ó Muilleor, Belfast Media Group editor, Eoin Ó Broin political writer and activist and Batasuna's spokesperson Pernando Barrena. 100 people attended the event and did questions about repression, history and future of the Basque Country.

A solidarity picket line was hold afterwards along the Falls Road.

At 5pm was time to fill the stomachs at the Basque food stall in St. Mary's just before taking to the Andytown Leisure Cente were Fermin Muguruza and the Afro-Basque Brigade made dance till late more than 500 people.

The Belfast Basque Committee wants to congratulate everybody for a fantastic day, specially comrades from the Dublin and Cork Basque Committees who attended the events.

There was not an agreement because Madrid lacks maturity -Otegi

07/29/2007

The spokesman for the outlawed Batasuna talked about the so-called "Loiola talks" between PSOE, PNV and Batasuna from the Martutene prison, where he is serving a 15-month sentence.

Spokesman for the outlawed party Batasuna Arnaldo otegi said that the peace process that started after ETA's announcement of a ceasefire has not failed and progress has been made. However, he adds that there has been not an agreement because the Spanish Government "lacked political maturity".

"I am not talking about failure. It can be said that we have made some progress but we have not reached any final agreement because the Spanish Government lacks ambition and political matutity", Otegi said in an interview for the Basque daily Gara from the Martutene prison, in Donostia-San Sebastian where he is now serving a 15-month sentence.

Arnaldo Otegi, the 48-year-old leader of the outlawed Batasuna party, was found guilty by a lower court of defending terrorism - a crime in Spain - through remarks he made in 2003 at a rally in memory of an ETA leader on the 25th anniversary of his death.

The leftist politician said the "process should be taken up again with guarantees and firm foundations" and added that only a "political agreement that places the Basque Country within a democratic framework can solve this conflict".

According to Otegi, the problem that burdened the peace process was the "homogeneous" position of the two majority Spanish parties PSOE and PP.

Two small bombs explode on Tour de France route after ETA warning
07/25/2007

No one was hurt. The blast was preceded by a call to the highway authorities in name of the armed Basque group ETA.

Two small explosive devices detonated Wednesday in the Basque Country along a route used by the Tour de France cycling race after a warning call by the armed Basque group ETA, the Interior Ministry said. No one was injured.

The explosions occurred outside Belagua, a town in the Navarra region, the Interior Ministry office in Navarra said, where the race itinerary took cyclists into on Wednesday.

The devices exploded 40 minutes apart on opposite sides of the road after a caravan of Tour-related publicity vehicles, which precedes the riders, had passed. The race's route was not changed, an official with the Navarra office said on condition of anonymity because of department rules.

The devices were inside plastic food containers and involved "a small amount of explosives,'' this official said. They exploded on bluffs overlooking the road and kicked up some earth but caused no injuries, he said.

Spain and France strengthen fight against ETA
08/01/2007

The French minister highlighted 23 people have been arrested over the last few months.

French Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie met with her Spanish counterpart Alfredo Perez-Rubalcaba in Paris on Tuesday.

The ministers highlighted their strong will to fight against terrorism and organised crime. Alliot-Marie expressed her country's determination to collaborate with Spain in their fight against the Basque armed group ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna) and mentioned the number of arrests obtained since the beginning of this year.

"You were able to see that over the last few months important results were obtained. Since the 1st of January of this year, 23 people were detained, six have been extradited," she said.

Last week, French police detained three suspected members of the ETA .The suspects, two men and a woman, were arrested in the city of Rodez.

They did not immediately release their identities, but Spain's Interior Ministry identified one of them as Juan Cruz Maiza Artola, chief of ETA logistics.

Spanish Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba thanked and congratulated French security forces.

British court to rule in August on Basque political refugees

Three suspected members of the Basque armed group ETA will hear on Aug. 17 whether they are to be extradited to Spain to face terrorism charges, a British court said on Friday.

Ana Isabel Lopez, Zigor Ruiz and Inigo Albisu were arrested under a European warrant in the northern English city of Sheffield in April. Askatasuna, the Basque political prisoners and refugees support group, denounced the arrests and highlighted that three of them were living and working in England for a long while and they were refugees escaping from Spanish repression and torture.

The Spanish arrest warrant accuses them of being part of a "reserve" cell of ETA. The three, who remain in custody, seemed relaxed during their four-hour appearance at Westminster Magistrates' Court in London.

Defence counsel Richard Gordon argued there was no detailed evidence against them and that a confession implicating Ruiz in an attack on a Spanish naval base in February 2006 had been obtained from another ETA suspect under torture.

Prosecutor Melanie Cumberland rejected the allegations, stressing that Spain was a signatory to the European Convention on Human Rights. She also disputed arguments that the three, all Basques, were being prosecuted for their political beliefs. "Spain is a trusted extradition partner," she said.

Both parties said they would appeal if they lost the case.

The Spanish Army marched in Donostia, protected by the Ertzaintza 17/07/07

In the occasion of the Day of Carmen and unlike last year, that marched within the military quartering of Loyola, the three branches of the Spanish Army, as well as important representatives of the Civil Guard and the Spanish Police, along with few political representatives, marched in Donostia among the protests of the neighbours of Alde Zaharra and the pro-amnesty movement.

Although only marched a few meters, the great unfolding of the Ertzaintza (Basque autonomous police) and other bodies of the SSF (Spanish Security Force) mirrored the importance of the military act.



Batasuna sees possible to stop the HST thanks to social struggle 18/07/07

Eusebio Lasa and Joseba Permach, members of the Basque pro-independence left executive, stated in a press conference the reinforcement and strengthen of the Basque social struggle against the HST (High Speed Train). Thanks to it, they believe its paralysation to be possible.

They also underlined that the past 27th May elections were a reflection of what the affected towns feel about it "those political formations that have deceived the citizenship by trying to impose the HST have been punished". And those formations that have played "consequently" have won the elections in the affected localities.

The Basque pro-independence left clearly knows that behind this project there are enormous economic and political interests. Moreover, behind this macro-project it is clearly noticeable the "neo-liberal model" of the PNV (Basque Christian democrat party), UPN (right wing Navarre party) and PSOE (Spanish "socialist" party in government).



2 and 5 years imprisonment sentence to fourteen youth accused of collaborating with ETA 19/07/07

The National Hearing has condemned 14 people to 2 and 5 years imprisonment for "collaboration with armedorganisation". The judges have acquitted Garikoitz Urizar, Gorka Rivadulla, Asier Arriola, Sergio Regueiro and Ibon Perez, five of the youth accused. These 19 people were arrested in 2004, and denounced to have undergone tortures. Haritz Totorika, Amaia Urizar, Iker Arzeluz and Aitziber Sagarminaga have been sentenced to 5 years imprisonment. Nagore Bilbao has been the condemned to 2 years and 7 months, and Immaculada Basabe, Mikel Lizarribar, Gaizka Larrinaga, Janire Couceiro, Iñaki Peña, Sonia Martin, Igor Zearreta, Leire Urrutia and Egoitz Fernandez, to two years.



To impose a false end, to hinder a democratic framework 19/07/07

The opinion article of Josu Jon Imaz published last weekend in diverse newspapers has caused a small earthquake in the Basque political scene. The Basque pro-independence left has criticized the terms which the PNV president li3mits the possibilities of a consultation to the Basque society. This article deepens now on those critics.

Beyond the electoral results, we are staking a new departure point that is not seen like a drama in the Spanish state, a new consensus, thirty years later, without the warding of the Franco regime, aided by a true democratic transition, with the participation and the commitment of the Basque pro-independence left. A new political agreement that will regulate and qualify the mechanisms to grant the word to our town, that starting off from the current reality and being flexible in forms and accounting, will contemplate as a base and limit, the democratically expressed free will and of our country.

The PNV plays dirty once again. Preparing a new fraud to the collective opportunity to give a structural and scrupulously democratic solution to the national negation of this Country, to honestly and negotiatedly untie the knot of the conflict and all its consequences.

The PNV has postulated itself, both in the negotiation table as well as publicly, as a loyal partner for a new historical fraud. A long time ago, it signed a strategic contract: to close the doors to national independence. That is its game. In the short term, to bid for the rejection of the process as a particular interest, and in the long one, as already said Imaz: To captivate Spain as a project.

Its scheme to make of the Spanish legality principle a limit to the freely expressed will of the Basque people, to bid for an agreement with the autonomic branches of the state parties in terms of statutory reform, turning the popular consultation into a mere appendix of entertainment and accompaniment.

The Basque pro-independence left does not want to build a process of democratic solutions against the PNV. And it considers that the sensitivity and political culture of the PNV must commit itself with a decisive agreement of guarantees and vocation of durability.

We believe that the word of the Basque people is the base and the limit of a democratic resolution scene and we take the principle of legality as a guarantee and channel of the democratic expression of the popular will, never as a limit or restriction. To take the process as a statutory reform and the consultation as a legitimation of the scheme is simply not to close the wound that feeds the conflict.

The PNV would better leave the imposition of a false end of the conflict and the prevention of a democratic framework scheme aside to make an honest effort to search and build a democratic resolution from the collective. Effort that means the following exercise: To close well an historical cycle of national negation, territorial division and imposition, to close well a cycle of armed confrontation and general suffering, in order to open, with strength, from the accumulation of majority social energies and political change commitments, a scene of peace and democracy.

The PNV continues in their old scheme. Its bid is a bet for the police route and to set the democratic resolution of the conflict aside. This way it assures the mechanisms of political hegemony and individual economy.

There are two reasons that also underlie in PNV's old and updated bid. On the one hand, it means to agree that the historical bid of resistance and struggle of the Basque pro-independence left was right before the shoddy work of thirty years ago and to live it like a drama. Well, the Basque pro-independence left neither needs the PNV to grant it the historical reason, nor wants medals nor political prices for itself. The positioning of the Basque pro-independence left is and will be the defence of a Country that considers itself a nation and that has the right to its free self-determination. Nothing else and neither nothing less.

On the other hand the PNV is scared of a democratic scene because it considers that in that framework the Basque pro-independence left is an option of popular strength, that could dispute the PNV's hegemony, and that building the Basque Country from the transforming left, with policies that will connect with social majorities can take the reins of the country towards national independence. That fear makes the PNV, at times that require great bids and hard decisions, at times of historical ambition and statistical height, to show itself meek, submissive and always by the side of the master of Madrid. Renewing its old bid of feeding the conflict.



Alvarez calls to apply 182.2 article of the Electoral Law 20/07/07

The member of the Basque pro-independence left executive, Joseba Alvarez, brought to collation that all the political parties, with the exception of Aralar, have participated in the management of the Spanish Law of Parties "usurping" , only in Gipuzkoa, to the Basque pro-independence left a total of 95 councils.

It remembered that in Gipuzkoa the Spanish courts "illegalized" 26 candidacies by, and added that as consequence 95 "usurped" seats and town halls of which "65 have already been stolen", 30 are still to be hold.

Alvarez denounced that the PNV is the political party that gains more from this mathematical operation with 23 "stolen" positions, four of them without been occupied yet, followed by EA (Basque social democrats) with "10 completed robberies and three without been completed".

He continued stating that the PSE ("Basque socialist" party) has also taken possession of 12 seats that do not correspond it, waiting to take another one, followed of the PP (spanish right wing party in the opposition) that "has already usurped" the 17 positions for which it was not chosen in the 27th May elections. EB ("Basque" left wing party) has taking 3 "illegitimate" councils.

Alvarez underlined that in Lizartza the PP governs just by 27 votes and by people who "had not even appeared in the list".

Immediately afterwards it exposed the existing difference between Lizartza and Aretxabaleta, since in this last one Aralar (Basque "left" party) has "publicly" announced that will carry out "until the end" the application of article 182,2 of the Electoral Law.

Alvarez ended denouncing that, as a result of the application of the Law of Parties, "the correlation of forces within the city councils has changed". This reality that supposes "a cheated institutional majority", emphasized, opens the way to the consummation of macro projects such as the incinerator plant, the outer port of Pasaia or the High Speed Train.



A police raid in Castelló in search of two presumed members of ETA 20/07/07

The SSF (Spanish Security Forces) are searching for two people consider members ETA in Castelló. The police operative began after one of them left a taxi when detecting a police control. Inside the vehicle, he would have left a bag with material to make bombs.

The taxi driver, surprised by this attitude, went to the Civil Guard control, to give account of what happened.

The search was extended after the taxi driver warned that the man greeted another person in the station where he took the taxi.



London postpones the Euro-order decision after admitting the arguments of the defence 21/07/07

The court of Westminister has delayed the Euro-order decision against Iñigo Albisu, Zigor Ruiz and Ana Lopez to be able to study with precision the arguments presented by the defence among them the possibility of being tortured when arriving to the Spanish state.

The judge who takes the extradition case of these three Basque political prisoners will also consider the new argumentations presented by the defence around the different abuses given within the judicial process. The decision to handing them over to the Spanish state has been therefore postponed until the next 17th August.

Madrid admits that the process "was collapsed" from beginning 22/07/07

The 29th December 2006, a day before ETA exploded a car bomb in the airport of Madrid-Barajas, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero insisted on his messages of optimism towards the dialogue process.

The Spanish Government has taken six months to publicly assume that, as both the political spokesmen of the Basque pro-independence left as well as the own armed organization expressed repeatedly, the so called "peace process" "was collapsed not long after the cease-fire", that began the 24th March 2006. "We could say that never really started; that is the truth: it never really took off", affirms the Spanish home minister. "It had a hesitant beginning and, from then on, things got complicated", added Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba.

SUPpORT THE CAMPAIGN ASKING FOR THE RELEASE OF ARNALDO OTEGI.

YOU CAN SIGN IT AT THIS WEBSIDE: WWW.ARNALDOASKATU.ORG or send a message.

The under-signed raise the necessity to release Arnaldo Otegi for the reasons exposed next:

1 - We understand that the political interlocution is the basic instrument to maintain the necessary communication to forward alternatives, as well as to debate and negotiate them between the parts involved, in order to be able to articulate the political agreements with which the Basque Country will reach a scene of peace and freedom.

2 - For that reason, we believe that Arnaldo Otegi's imprisonment is a very serious incident, since he is one of the main interlocutors of the Basque pro-Independence Left and, as it is publicly known he has carried out very important work in the search of a democratic solution to the political conflict that suffers the Basque Country.

3 - Consequently, those of us who subscribe this document forward to the public opinion our rejection to Arnaldo Otegi's imprisonment for being a political background measure, and at the same time request his release to the pertinent judicial authorities.

New phases will be open and the process will continue

EUSKAL HERRIA Step by Step
ASKAPENA's information service, Nº 186

The previous phase is over. The Spanish government neither wanted to negotiate nor knew how to do it. They put the process under so much strain, and so many times, that they managed to broke it. Two negotiating sides (PSOE and PNV) left the negotiating table letting the third one down. Unilaterally ETA decided to finish the truce unilaterally declared by them. The government get back in the failed path of repression, and they dream about reaching a new Anti-terrorist Pact.

The ones who conspire to block the process see their aim reached. The ones who worked hard to get a solution are already suffering the breaking-off consequences. The ones who dreamt about new times feel disappointed and frustrated. Some essential questions raise in this context: And, now? The opportunity we had is definitively lost? We will go back to the starting point in order to start again?

In the following lines we will try to answer these questions. The path we have walked during these year is not useless. It is not possible to go back to the starting point. Even though the phase ended without reaching an agreement, the process keeps on and will keep on. The solution is still far, but more and more closer. Our aim is not short term, we have not give up hope, and these are the information our conviction is based on.

The Spanish society

It fells more and more less motivated in keeping endlessly the confrontation. Due to the long years of the conflict and the different repressive failure strategies, it become convinced that something must be done. According to opinion tolls, more and more Spanish people agree to try new ways leading to resolution. The ones who supported a total war (PP) did not get during the last elections the good results they expected to get. The ones who supported a combined war (PSOE and their servants) did not get good results either. Nobody won; it was their rotten democracy that lost more as it gets more and more abstention.

The Basque society.

The Basque soceity is also very tired seeing that the years pass, and the conflict is unsolved. ETA's violence is strongly criticized by the Basque society, and more and more, State violence too. The ones who support State violence (PNV) were punished by the electorate. The Basque society increasingly think that the so-call transition was a deception and that the autonomic model was a trap; they feel that it is necessary to advance towards a new frame, that our lives and our future is being decided in Madrid regardless of the choice of our people, they feel that there is not separation of powers in Spain, that Euskal Herria is not able to choose.

The number of people who agree to talk with ETA in order to reach an agreement is growing, and so the number of people thinking that it is a political problem that needs political solutions; many people think that the Parties Law means coming back to Franco times and the illegalization process is absolutely unfair. There are also people who hope to recover the Anti-terrorist Pacts against the Basque left, but they are fewer and fewer, and less convinced: previous experience confirmed that these pacts are useless.


The Basque left

They have showed themselves to have an unimaginable capacity to survive. Their leaders are in prison, their headquarter are closed down, their funding are cut, their party is illegalised, their demonstrations are repressed, their activists are marked people? Their predictions and wills are not fulfilled. It is not a majority force, but it is not unimportant either. This force has shown capacity to survive, to regenerate, to renew its leadership, to have a bearing on the political life, to adapt to new situations, to offer political alternatives...

The reason for its strength is clear: the people belonging to it are coherent, and its proposals agree with the will of the people. Anoeta's Proposal (two negotiating tables as a resolution method) any the Anaitasuna Proposal (a self-government for the four territories [within the Spanish State], where the will of the citizens is respected and the pro-independence possibility is not rejected) are ratified. The Basque Left repeat that dialogue and acceptance of the majority's will is the only alternative.

Internationalisation of the conflict

Important steps have been taken in this field, and this conflict has more and more space in the international agendas: the Vatican, the European Union, UN General Secretary mentioned the situation we are living. Many important international voices established guidelines: "It is necessary to pass from the dialogue phase to substantial negotiations" (Nelson Mandela); "Only if all the sides, in equal conditions, are present at the negotiation table, fruitful negotiations are possible" (Gerry Adams); "Dialogue and negotiation are the only tool able to resolve political problems and to build a real peace" (Statement made by six personalities who supported the process); "Conditions must be created so that all the sides take part in the process...It is necessary to deal with the roots of the conflict in order to reach a lasting solution" (Roelf Meyer, South Africa Ministry of Defence during the years when apartheid was overcome); "Try to end up a conflict by repression means to make it even harder" (Matteo Zuppi, San Egidio Community, specializing in mediation).

The meetings that marked the end of negotiations took place at the end of May, and at the same table where ETA and the Spanish government were seated, a large international representation was also present.

Conclusion


In this crucial moment, sad and tense moments too, there are some facts that become more and more clear for the Basque society: The only alternative to process is more process. We are in one point where the dialogue process relies on a more and more solid social base. These months of intense political dialogue have been extremely important for all the ones who take part in it. The agreement has not been reached, but the work shared with the adversary has not been useless.

Even though PSOE had a negative attitude, they know that there is not another way to solve the conflict but to initiate it again. If in a time they though that superficial solutions would work to solve the conflict, now they know that it is useless. The ones committed to the process we need perseverance and courage to keep on persisting with it despite all the opposition and aggressions. The present breaking-off is neither an irreversible end nor a back to the starting point.

WHAT HAPPENED IN THE WINGS?

On March 22, 2006, the armed Basque organization ETA announced an indefinite cease-fire that would start on March 24. Fourteen months later, on June 5, 2007, ETA announced the end of the cease-fire and the reopening of the armed struggle at all the fronts, starting at midnight of June 5.

Today, our aim is to inform about what happened in the wings during the months when the miscarried normalization process was open.

Chronology of a new failed attempt

Preliminary.

Since 2000, there have been non official talks between the Basque left and the Spanish PSOE (Socialist Party). In these talks both of them agreed that the point was dealing with a political conflict that needed a political approach.

The indefinite cease-fire.

As a result of these talks, and aiming to facilitate them, ETA announced an indefinite cease-fire. The logic next step would have been an honest dialogue between both sides. Unfortunately what happened was just the opposite. Once deactivated the armed confrontation, PSOE as well PNV put a strategy previously plotted into practice: denature the process by transmitting the public opinion that the process was just a technical one (disarmament of ETA-resolution of the Basque political prisoners issue), at the same time that they intensified the judicial and police harassment against the Basque left. By doing, so equality of conditions was denied to the other side by the one formed by PSOE-PNV, in other words, a shameful manipulation of the good will of the other side in order to erode it, to have it on the ropes, and if possible, to eliminate it.

The first crisis.

As a result of this change by PSOE and the PNV after the truce declaration by ETA the process reached a deadlock within two months. Before May 2006, the talks underwent their first and grave crisis. In order to unblock it, the Basque left tried to reactivate the encounters with the political parties. In that context we have to locate a very closely followed by the mass media meeting maintained by PSOE and Batasuna in a Bilbao hotel. The PSOE leaves the way free so that the phase of negotiation would advance. Nevertheless, the public projection by the media as for the reached agreement was fatal. In the press conference after the encounter - that happened to be positive - the representatives from the PSOE deceived the citizenship. They said that they had attend the talks not to the solve a crisis, but to remember Batasuna "that it had homework to be done". Despite this rude disinformation, the aim was fulfilled since the crisis was surpassed.

The second crisis.

This crisis took place on August 2006. In the 6 July meeting, so widely announced by the media, PSOE as well as Batasuna committed themselves to reach a pre-agreement before the 31st of July. The dates previously agreed were exceeded without reaching the aim. In a press conference Batasuna's spokesmen tlak about the crisis and the blockade. A little later, PSOE and PNV executives gave green light to reach a pre-agreement which should be debated later by all the Basque agents. The crisis is solved with this decision which means a qualitative jump: for the firs time a true political negotiating table among the three interlocutors is formed with the same aim: to give a definitive and political solution to an old political conflict.

Time of intense dialogue and the two rough drafts.

As it was previously agreed, on September 2006 the dialogue among the three sides becomes more intense. Three meetings were held in September, six more in October, and three more in November. It was an intense experience due to the three interlocutors analysis level: Batasuna, PSOE and PNV. The talks were based on two main points: the necessary political bases for a future agreement, and the establishment of a general scheme for the development of the process.

Four questions were approached, the four of which required consensus: the conception of Euskal Herria as a nation, the right to decide, the respect for all the rights and the institutional organization. Formal aspects were also debated: the method and schedule of the multilateral dialogue (previously, Batasuna and PSOE decided to start up the multy-party table before October 2006).

The intense work during these months gave as a result two rough drafts. The first of them saw the light in September; after reaching this rough draft, October was the most positive month, since it was possible to remarkably advance. At the end of this month a second rough draft saw the light; the bases of a possible agreement that would bring the resolution for the conflict appeared in this rough draft.

The hour of the commitments.

The sixth and last meeting of October was decisive. In that meeting, each one of the interlocutors had to define its position. Batasuna alerted that the rough draft contained gaps and ambiguities that could make it very dangerous at the time of being applied. The first two sections about the recognition of Euskal Herria as a nation and the respect for the rights reached the general agreement. The ones related to the right to decide and the territorial organisation caused discords; Batasuna demand that they have to be more precise so that a fraud could not happen at the time of carrying out a change of the status of Euskal Herria, a point that in private talks the three sides considered absolutely necessary.

Important political proposal of the Basque left.

In order to solve the new blockade, Batasuna put on the table a very important political proposal, which means a big effort done by this political party: an autonomy statute for the four territories in the south of Euskal Herria envisaging the right of the citizens to decide for themselves, and not excluding the option of independence if the Basque citizens decide so. The proposal is close to PNV's ideology and agrees with PSOE's proposals made not many years ago.


The contributions that never materialised since the interlocutors left the table.

The blockade.

After knowing Batasuna's proposal, at the end of October the interlocutors committed themselves to write up their own contributions. They never fulfilled their task. During the three meetings held in November, PNV reiterated that it would change not even one a single comma of the second rough draft; and as for the PSOE, it made important reductions relative to the previous compromises. Regarding Batasuna's new proposal, both PSOE and PNV refused to take it into consideration. As a result, Batasuna reduced its exigency level and it proposed an action line shared with them in order to get closer to a situation of autonomy that did not exclude independence. Not even this readjustment of the proposal was taken into account. PSOE and PNV answered with a second refusal that totally blocked the process. Batasuna keep on waiting for the promised contributions that never arrived. The interlocutors left the table and they have not returned.

Reactions to ETA's press release

ETA announced on the 5th of June that at 12 am on the 6th of June the indefinite cease-fire came to an end. We will not mention the official notice since its content has had an ample echo in the international press. The armed Basque organization justified its decision on the grounds that the conditions to take ahead a peace process did not happen. ETA blamed the Spanish Government not to have fulfilled the previously agreed commitments, in the same way ETA accused the Basque PNV of behaving like a mere PSOE's servant.

After the official notice, the post-electoral pacts went to a second place. The ETA's press release, although everybody had supposed to happen so, provoked an avalanche of reactions with few new elements, and many of them very opportunists. Many political and social agents had scandalously and irresponsibly behaved during the months of the truce. They had been blind, deaf and dumb with the demolishing attitude of the PSOE and the PNV; they did never denounce the non stop aggressions that both parties made in all the fronts to the third interlocutor. It is only now, when ETA is the one to open all the fronts, that they have raised a cry of horror and alarm. We have witnessed another new expression of thought and unique speech: ETA and its accomplices, the Basque patriotic left wing, are the only responsible agents for the failure of the peace process. ETA's enemies have brought to light all the speeches and strategies that they had beforehand prepared. We summarize in this bulletin some reactions that deserve to be taken into account.


The Government of Madrid bets on the repression

President Zapatero made an official appearance on June 5 directing his reflection in four directions: he warned that ETA is wrong again; he also addressed to the Spanish citizenship to keep calm since the situation is under control, according to Mr Zapatero; he also spoke to to the Basque citizenship to explain that he had done everything that was in his hand to obtain Peace; finally, he did asked to the rest of the political forces to be united against terrorism. These explanations are not able to clarify a very serious doubt: a Government who had carried out a great activity before the cease-fire by ETA; why did it change its attitude once ETA interrupted its armed activity?

Zapatero himself gave the answer to this question in an interview on television: he did not try at any moment to solve the political conflict, the only thing that he tried was the end of ETA without making any substantial modification within politics; ETA had to surrender to seductions Zapatero's ways; at the same time, the Spanish Government added that it was going to undertake the strategy of repression against the Basque patriotic left wing (but the question is: has the Spanish government ever interrupted that violent strategy?). What Zapatero had meant was that he was to harden the repressive measures and, saying so he said the truth: Iñaki de Juana, who continued in the Hospital of Donosti, was transferred to the jail of Aranjuez to complete the one year sentence that he has still to serve; the Spanish judge Garzón prohibited to two leaders of Batasuna to travel to South Africa to attend a Congress where they were invited; the spokesman of Batasuna, Arnaldo Otegi was imprisoned once again, new arrests in France, a refugee was transfered from Mexico... In the week from the 11th to the 18th, Zapatero met all the political forces to try to incorporate them to the Antiterrorist Pact that he is reactivating.


The PP bets on repression

Nothing new. The president of the PP accepts the invitation that Zapatero had made to him in order to meet and to approximate strategies in the fight against the Basque fight for independence. In spite of it, he takes advantage of the new situation to continue striking Zapatero. According to the PP, the facts have given the reason to this political party: the only effective strategy to exterminate "the terrorism" consists in closing any route of dialogue and in fighting that claim for independence with all the possible arms; they asked to Zapatero to rectify his antiterrorism policy by going into action. As usual, Rajoy considered that the first measures taken by Government were insufficient: they demand the illegalization of ANV and prevent their candidates to take up the of their post of city council the citizens have granted to them; it did also asked Zapatero to harden the prison sentences... After the meeting on June 11th , Zapatero and Rajoy projected an image of greater antiterrorism consensus.



The Basque Government, rejection to other people's violence and a bet on dialogue

This institution waited several days before making an assessment of the new situation. In order to do so, it reunited the Political Council conformed by three people: the President and a member of each one of the partners of the Tripartite. Its answer consists merely in retaking the Plan for Peace that agreed a few months before, and that was forgotten. The grounds of their positioning were these: a complete rejection of violence, a bet on political dialogue, to reactivate the peace and coexistence plan, and to have total confidence in Basque society.



The PNV, faithful squire of the PSOE, bets on repression

During the talks, the PNV has behaved like an unconditional servant of the PSOE. After the decision of ETA, its servility has become serious: its speech is full of insults and disqualifications against Batasuna, the Basque patriotic left wing; the PNV exculpates itself and the Spanish Government of the failure of the negotiations, holding just Batasuna responsible of what happened. As the PNV has done throughout the peace process, it is preparing the context so that Madrid should act with total impunity against Euskal Herria; on this particular case, it is preparing the Basque society so that it could assume the repressive big wave that the Spanish Government, with the complicity of the PNV, is going to untie against the Basque patriotic left wing.




The opportunism of other social agents

The Basque political parties betting on a policy of reform have followed the path marked by their ship standard, the PNV. They do not use the same degree of belligerence in their speeches, but they all agree in repudiating the only violence that according to them does not exist: the one of ETA. It is curious fast answer by ELA, the trade union, in rejecting ETA's decision: on the very same day, June 6th, it organized a concentration against the armed organization.

From the beginning of the cease-fire, ELA knew the continuous aggressions that the Basque patriotic left wing was undergoing and how risky these aggressions were for the good result of the process. In that case it never summoned a similar concentration; it has only demonstrated initiative to condition the weakest negotiating partners.

Groups sympathizers to the Spanish constitution, like Gesture of Peace initiated their mobilizations against ETA; although, in this case, they could not be the first ones: ELA and Nafarroa Bai were first. Very quickly the Basque Church as well as the Spanish one has taken position against ETA. They are not worry at all about torture and the steps taken to make illegal legitimate political parties. In the case of the Spanish church, they has been actively sabotaging the process.



The Basque left demands the continuity of the process

On June 5, Arnaldo Otegi, spokesman of Batasuna and nowadays in prison, made the first assessment. He pointed out that only ETA is responsible for the breaking-off of the truce. But PSOE and PNV are responsible for the collapse of the process. He did not just look the past, Arnaldo was also confident that a solution will be find. He reasserted what he said on October 2004 regarding the efforts to find a solution to the conflict. He committed himself to redouble the efforts to recreate, with other agents, the necessary conditions that they should allow to reactivate a democratic process. The popular claim to keep on the process to get a negotiated solution is not only possible but also very necessary; there is no another alternative. It is extremely necessary to keep a huge calm and tranquillity in these delicate moments. Some days later the very person passing on this message of serenity was imprisoned.

Thousands of people reiterate in Bilbao their compromise towards a democratic resolution

23/06/07
Thousands of people responded yesterday in the streets of Bilbo to the national demonstration call EAE-ANV (Basque Nationalist Action) in favour of a democratic process that will bring the Basque Country to a scene of peace and democracy for all its citizenship, without the exclusion of an important sector of the population.

Apart from the president of the convoking party, Kepa Bereziartua, could also be seen the members of the Basque pro-independence left's executive Joseba Permach, Joseba Alvarez or Juan Joxe Petrikorena, the General Secretary of LAB (Basque pro-independence left trade union), Rafa Diez, or the of Ezker Abertzalea parliamentarian Nekane Erauskin, not forgetting historical members of the pro-independence left such as Txomin Ziluaga.

Also took part a numerous representation of the Friends of the Basque Country in favour of a democratic process, making clear in the streets of the Bizkaia's capital that the resolution to the Basque political conflict is day by day more reflected in the international agenda and successfully obtains the support of more political and social agents.

The Catalan Jordi Villanueva and the David Kennedy from the Irish Basque Committees showed, for example, the solidarity arrived from Catalunya, Portugal, Holland, Ireland, Corsica, Palestine, Britain and the Spanish and French states.

Villanueva emphasized the importance of dialogue, as "it is more necessary that ever", not forgetting that is essential to recognised the Basque Country's right to decide their future.

Kennedy underlined that the necessity to find a solution to the Basque political conflict is more and more present in the worldwide context, remembering that the Irish peoples solidarity with this process will always be there.

The Spanish civil guard finds a car with explosives

22/06/07
The Civil Guard found a vehicle, in the border between Portugal and the Spanish State, in whose interior was stored explosive material. The military institute attributes its property to ETA and assures to have found detonators, timers, a manual in Basque language for making bombs, and about 115 kilos of material to make explosives, like aluminium dust and ammonic nitrate, as well as documentation.

Police sources assured that the products found in the boot of the vehicle were in separated bags and without any type of activated initiation device, reason why discarded that the car "was destined to commit an attack". These sources shuffled the possibility that it was "a supplying mission".

Repression: The Canadian police arrests a Basque citizen in Quebec

21/06/07
The neighbour of Beasain Iban Apaolaza has been arrested in Quebec by the Mounted Police of Canada, according to the information given by the Spanish Home Ministry that remembered that there was a search and arrest order for a "crime of terrorism". The announcement on his arrest was facilitated, at least, with three days of delay.

They are already three the Basque citizens arrested outside the borders of the States Spanish and French since ETA ended the permanent cease-fire.

The first prisoner was Bittor Tejedor, was arrested 1st June in Vancouver, also in a Canadian police operation.

The second was Andoni Aspiazu, arrested the past 12th June in Mexico and handed over to the Spanish authorities the following day.

Batasuna has gathered 40 international organisations' support

20/06/07
Joseba Alvarez member of the Basque pro-independence left's executive, has gathered the support of more than forty political organizations who, among other issues, have denounced the imprisonment of Arnaldo Otegi.

The reason for those trips, a part from forwarding first hand the present political situation of the Basque Country and to learn in greater depth the experiences of those countries, has also been "to ask, the international community, for the necessary supports", "for the renewal of a dialogue, agreement and resolution of the conflict process" for the Basque Country.

The Basque pro-independence left situates the trips carried out by Alvarez to countries like South Africa or Ireland "places with an expanded experience in the resolution of the conflict", in that effort to take initiatives. As well as to other Countries such as Chile, Bolivia, Argentina or different countries of Europe.

The member of the national executive also talked about other initiatives as the internationalist solidarity day to "try to articulate in the future an Basque solidarity answer towards other towns instruggle". In this sense, mentioned, "now that the Basque pro-independence left returns to the institutions there will be more opportunities to do so".

European elected representatives ratify their support to a democratic resolution

19/06/07
The Gernika Network for the Self-determination, conformed by elect representatives of all Europe in defence of the free-determination right for the Basque Country, made a public declaration remembering the political character of the conflict that confronts the Basque Country with the Spanish and French states and, renew their commitment to work towards a democratic resolution. They, also, denounce the imprisonment of Arnaldo Otegi as an element that "hinders dialogue". "The Spanish State should, once and for all, end all repressive measures and to act with responsibility in a dialogue that will resolve the existing conflict".

They, also, believe that the end of ETA's cease-fire "demonstrates that, unfortunately, from 22nd March 2006 there has been no dialogue process to resolve the roots of the conflict: territoriality and the right of self-determination".

"The creation of a peace process is not possible when these fundamental rights, that are the roots of the conflict, are denied".

As a conclusion, they summoned "our colleagues, parliamentarians and elect representatives of all Europe, to add to our network in order to promote a democratic process of peace that resolves the existing conflict in the Basque Country". And, as emphasize in their manifesto, "we are convinced that by building peace in the Basque Country we also contributed in the creation of peace in Europe".

Otegi insists that dialogue is the way forward and ANV calls to mobilize.

In the picture ANV supporters protest at council meeting in Ortuella (Bizkaia) as other hundreds did in many towns were ANV was declared illegal during the recent elections. They were asking the rest of parties to respect the results and give their seats back to ANV councillors.

Six elect representatives of the historical pro-independence left formation, among which they were the General council representative for Araba Aitor Bezares, and the head of list of Pasaia, Maider Ziganda, as well as Mayors of Bergara, Leitza, Goizueta, Ondarroa and Oiartzun described the present situation as of "maximum gravity".

In ANV's (Basque Nationalist Action, a seventy year old pro-independence party) opinion "they have not learned in all these years that the imprisonments and the repression cannot close the path that thousands and thousands of citizens are opening, we are opening, in this country". "They do not want to learn that democracy and peace are the two faces of the same cuoin, that solution and justice go hand by hand, and that the Basque Country and self-determination are the name and the surname of the solution". "The Basque pro-independence left's 719 elected representatives' main priority is and will be to boost the democratic process in all the institutions as well as to make sure those institutions are democratic and have a democratic funtioning, respecting the popular will".

Arnaldo Otegi made the same call to the dialogue from behind the walls of Martutene prison. Jone Goirizelaia, lawyer of Otegi, has insisted that "despite everything, the only way that exists is the Anoeta proposal".

Otegi wanted share with the Basque society that "it is time to take it easy and to do things not as the PSOE has done them, in the short term and with revenge in mind, but taking into account how we want the Basque Country to be in the future". It also mentioned that "it is necessary to continue bidding for daily work, dialogue, an agreement and so that in the end we can freely decide our future and that our decision is respected".

Jone Goirizelaia, lawyer of Arnaldo Otegi and member of the Basque pro-independence left, remembered that the processes against Otegi and other pro-independence militants "are against the freedom of expression right".

Government-ETA and Batasuna-PSOE negotiations in the middle of the electoral campaign.

Important delegations of Spanish Government and ETA, on the one hand, and of Batasuna and PSOE, on the other, met practically simultaneously in an European city the past 14 th, 15th and 16th. Encounter that, in all the cases, counted with presence of qualified international observers, in the last attempt to unblock the negotiation process, clogged months back, according to absolute reliable sources consulted by GARA.

These sources confirm that Batasuna's delegation was headed by Arnaldo Otegi, that was later suddenly jailed the end of the cease-fire.

The PSOE's position limited to raise the option of statutory reforms in the Basque Autonomous Community and the Leasehold Community of Navarre, with the maximum position in the possibility of being able to constitute an intergovernmental common organ between both.

The Basque delegations, on the other hand, insisted on the necessity to reach a commitment to overcome the conflict, and to stop its perpetuation. The permanent infringement of the guarantees and the principles of the process were also upon the table, especially in the ETA and the Government board. The armed organization, that was committed to dismantle its military structures if the process was culminated, insisted that the repressive mechanisms had to be deactivated to create a bilateral truce.

As Gara's information reveals, the Government fixed its priority on demanding that ETA explicitly resigned to the "response" right that the armed organization had incorporated to its permanent cease-fire. And refused to deactivate the judicial mechanisms, not even the euro-order or other arrest mechanisms, although it could take to as serious situations as the one that derived in the arrest of Jon Iurrebaso (who was accompanied of another Basque citizen in charge of his security) member of ETA's delegation.

After the contacts and meetings held in March and April between both parts did not go forward, ETA proposed to have a substantial international representation to guarantee the democratic process.

The 21 of May a new and last meeting took place between the PSOE and Batasuna, the Spanish representation did not move with respect to the political agreement, which ended the negotiations initiated after the truce declaration of 2006.

Few days later, ETA forwarded its decision to end the cease-fire, as had previously informed in the mentioned meetings.

Gara's information point out that ETA forwarded an initiative to have European states involved in the negotiations, later the armed organization proposed the constitution, in case the process was politically unblocked, of an international commission composed by those same instances to verify the development of the negotiation between ETA and the Spanish Government.

The two meetings proposal excluded the PNV for considering that the representatives of that party had become an obstacle in all the previous attempts.

The PSOE admitted that the PNV did not want to approach the proposal of four territories because it implied to lose economic power.

Repression: Since the cease-fire began the three main police forces of the south of the Basque Country –Ertzaintza, Spanish police and the Civil Guard

The French police have also arrested numerous Basque citizens both in the North of the Basque Country (under French occupation) as well as in France.

The Mexican authorities extradited the Basque citizen Andoni Aspiazu to the Spanish State and then he was imprisoned.

Bittor Tejedor was arrested the 1st of June in Vancouver. They impute him problems with its migratory documents and presumed relation with ETA.

The judge of the Spanish National Court Balthasar Garzón requested the French Gendarmerie to arrest Xabier Irastorza, Iñaki Telletxea and Markos Sagarzazu, residents in Hendaia and Donibane Lohizune, once the Court of Appeal of Pau informed the accused about the European order to be extradited, the three neighbours of Irun were jailed in the prison of Toulouse and will be soon sent to Spain's jails.