Ireland and Euskal Herria : Political Conflicts

In the article you are about to read you'll be able to understand why the peace process in Northern Ireland continues forward while Spain clamps down on Basque nationalism.

Here you have it is, it was published by CNN:

Similar conflicts, different paths

May 21, 2002 Posted: 9:13 AM EDT (1313 GMT)

By CNN's Alison Daniels

LONDON, England (CNN) -- The conflict in the Basque region bears some resemblance to that in Northern Ireland. In both, divisions are deeply entrenched.

But unlike the situation in Spain, major strides have been made in Northern Ireland towards a peaceful solution.

The Basque separatist group ETA watched closely as the Irish Republican Army declared a cease-fire in 1994 after 25 years of violence, and all sides in the Northern Ireland conflict began peace talks in earnest.

In 1998, ETA declared its own cease-fire. One of the leading figures in the Irish peace process, the republican Sinn Fein party leader Gerry Adams, visited the Basque town of Bilbao in September 1998 advocating peace talks.

"There is bound to be distrust here. People have been hurt, people have been killed. There is bound to be suspicion. There is bound to be hatred. There is bound to be fear," Adams said. "And the way to resolve that is to seize that opportunity and build on that opportunity and widen the space which has been created."

But 14 months after it began, the Basque cease-fire was over.

"When ETA announced the truce in September 1998, it was a response to something called the Irish Forum -- meetings of Basque political parties to come to common conclusions about what was happening in Northern Ireland," said Inigo Gurruchaga, London correspondent for the Spanish daily newspaper El Correo.

"The influence was massive, but with the passing of time it has decreased. ... During the truce the Spanish government behaved without any political convergence," Gurruchaga said.

"And while they maintained clandestine direct dialogue with ETA, they always refused to maintain any type of political dialogue with their political representatives."

However, Spanish historian Anthony Gooch of the London School of Economics says the Basque nationalist party Herri Batasuna, despite its closeness to Sinn Fein, was also reluctant to be influenced by the Northern Ireland peace process.

"The Basques take what they like of the Irish experience ... and they leave what don't like, so they're very selective," Gooch said. "So you can't say Basques have followed the Sinn Fein model or ETA has followed the IRA model."

Dialogue and demographics

British Prime Minister Tony Blair has made it clear that dialogue is the only option in Northern Ireland.

"There is every reason to proceed with it and push it forward, and ... I've satisfied myself clearly that the political will exists to do that," Blair said in January 2001. "We've just got to find a way of getting over these remaining problems."

Blair's counterpart in Spain, Jose Maria Aznar, holds a very different view.

"The only possible position on terrorism is to wipe it out. We will stamp it out wherever we find it," said the Spanish prime minister.

For some, Aznar's stance -- and the equally hard-line position of ETA -- offers little opportunity for Northern Ireland-style negotiations.

"One has the impression that the IRA is more or less getting what it wants along the lines that are being followed, whereas ETA is not getting what it wants and it can't possibly get what it wants," Gooch said.

Another difference between the two situations is that shifting demographics are shaping events in Northern Ireland.

"The inevitability of a future Northern Ireland integrated into the Republic of Ireland is due to demographics, to the growing number of Catholic families," Gurruchaga said.

"This is not happening in the Basque country. ... The political divisions in the Basque remain stable."

It was almost 10 years ago that No. 10 Downing Street, the home of Britain's prime minister, was the target of an IRA mortar attack. But by the end of the decade, after years of exhaustive diplomacy that included visits to Downing Street by Adams, the political landscape was unrecognisable.

It was inevitable that comparisons with Northern Ireland would be made when ETA declared its cease-fire in 1998.

But with the resumption of violence in Spain, it has become clear that the path taken in London and Belfast is a route many in Madrid and San Sebastian do not seem inclined to follow.

Amazingly enough, this so called "Spanish historian" by the name of Anthony Gooch blames Aznar and Madrid's shortcomings on Batasuna. Something tells me Gooch is not to happy that peace is at reach for the Irish.

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