Press Release from BIC

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Dear sympathisers of BIC,

Hereby we sent you our analysis of the peace proposal of Batasuna. On our website we will pay attention to reactions etc in the coming days. Please check also our site for the monthly digital BIC-Newsletter for updates on news from the Basque Country and the left independence movement. Please check our website for our monthly English newsletter about Euskal Herria. You can find it at ‘Read the news in English!’

Greetings

Baskenland Informatie Centrum (BIC)

Now the people! Now the peace!

Sunday 14 November the, by the Spanish authorities banned Basque political party Batasuna, did for an audience of 15.000 people a proposal for the ending of the political and cultural status of Euskal Herria. The proposal was received negatively by Spanish government, media and political parties because the lack of an explicit call to ETA to lay down their weapons. The BIC however sees this proposal as an historical step towards an end of the violence in the region, while at the same time there is a step taken towards a final solution of the political conflict.

History

Shortly after the death of Franco a wide range of organisations within the Basque independence movement proposed the so-called KAS- alternative. This proposal bares some political demands as the recognition of the self-determination, one Autonomy-statute for all Southern Basque provinces (including Naffaroa), withdrawal of the Guardia Civil etc. If these demands were met, ETA would have laid down the arms. In addition to the KAS-alternative it was tried to find the solution of the conflict in direct negotiations between ETA and the Spanish state. After the peace talks between them in Algeria in the end of the eighties failed, the KAS-alternative in this form came to an end.

In 1995 ETA made a new proposal, called the Democratic Alternative. Here ETA distinguishes in things that have to be dealt with inside Basque society and things that had to be negotiated between ETA and the Spanish government. ETA saw it as her main issue to guard, if necessary with violence, that Spain accepted the will of the Basque people, while she stated she didn’t want to be a violent part of the democratic process to come to that will. The emphasis was thus now at the recognition of the right on self-determination of the Basque people. ETA demanded that Spain first would have to recognise this right and then they would lay down their weapons to make way for a process in which the content of the right on self-determination (independence, autonomy, centralism etc) would get a prominent place and would be peaceful an democratically argued. The response of the Spanish authorities to this proposal was to prosecute the board of Batasuna (then Herri Batasuna) for promoting this proposal. The entire board was in prison for one and a half years, before being acquitted in appeal.

With the Lizarra declaration a majority of the Basque parties seemed to make a start for the resolution by dialogue among each other, without Spain of France, of the political conflict. However the Democratic Alternative foresaw in an acceptance of the outcome of such a dialogue by Spain, the developments were for ETA as such that they decided for a cease-fire. ETA ended this 14-month long period because they believed the other Basque parties were not enough serious in participating in this dialogue.

The declaration of Anoeta

Batasuna believes that the struggle they staged for the last 25-year has developed in a state of mind that almost everybody in the Basque Country has the opinion that the current political status has to be changed to reach a definitive settlement. And Batasuna thinks that a final solution only can be reached by consulting the Basque population on the outcome of a dialogue. For this reason Batasuna now puts the peace in the Basque Country forward as most important issue. She wants to move the conflict from the street to the negation table, in her own words. According to Batasuna this is only possible through a process of multilateral dialogue, flexible and without a hurry. This dialogue has to be accompanied by some obligations. Batasuna commits herself to the following deals and asks the other protagonists in the Basque political arena to commit themselves also to these points:

1. The promise to go to the roots of the conflict with the aim to look for a democratic way out.

2. The promise that the decisions of the Basque citizens are respected. All citizens of the Basque citizens have the right to be consulted. This means that the future as well as the current political status has to be ratified by the population.

3. The promise that such a consult can only be held under peaceful and democratic circumstances. Batasuna will do the utmost necessary to achieve that.

4. The promise that a deal recognises the history as well as the current political reality in the Basque Country. A deal has to be supported and respected by different political spheres in the Basque Country.

5. The promise that differences of opinion during the process are to be solved in a peaceful and democratic way.

6. The promise that the use of exclusive political and democratic methods makes it possible for all political projects to be realisable without ant limitation.

7. The promise that in the agreement to be reached the rights as they have been written in the human rights laws of 1966 are to be implemented.

Batasuna thinks that the dialogue has to be on two terrains:

~ On one side between the different parties in the Basque Country. A deal has to be made about the wished political status of the Basque Country, which result has to be ratified by the Basque population and the next step is that the deal has to be negotiated with the Spanish and French states.

~ On the other side between ETA and the Spanish and French state there has to be a deal about demilitarisation, prisoners, deportees and refugees, and the victims of the violence.

Analysis

The declaration of Anoeta differs from some important points of earlier proposals en statements and means a remarkable change in the strategy of the left independent movement.

~ At first strikes that the before mentioned peace proposals were always (partly) done by ETA, while this proposal is done by a political party. For the first time in the independence movement not ETA but Batasuna takes the first ideological step.

~ Also it is remarkable that the proposal is not aimed at a certain result, as the KAS-alternative, but it promotes a procedure to come to a, whatever, result.

~ Batasuna calls for the commitment to a non-violent democratic process and calls on others, also on ETA, to do the same.

~ The negotiation space between ETA and the Spanish and French state is limited to demilitarisation, prisoners, deportees and refugees, and victims of violence. For the ending of the armed struggle are not, on contrary with the KAS-alternative and the Democratic Alternative, put any political demands.

~ And the right on self-determination is included in the demands for recognition of the human right treaties of 1966.

~ Also the declaration says to have respect for all political spheres and that a deal has to be respected by all these spheres.

~ And last but not least, the declaration states that there has to be dealt with the current political reality, a clear reference to the institutional split of the Basque Country in different regions and states. Batasuna always declared this reality as ‘imposed’.

Conclusion

The overall Spanish response to this proposal not being worthwhile because ETA is not called to ‘stop existing’ is not giving credit to the proposal. Organisations like ETA does not stop to exist as simple as that, also not because there are still 700 prisoners in Spanish and French jail suspected of connections with ETA. The current proposal is putting the standards for the ending of the armed conflict so low, that we can speak of a break through. ETA and the state are called upon to end the armed conflict, where they have to deal with logistic points. You can think of an (partial) amnesty, reduce of sentences, social reintegration or at least and end to the dispersion of prisoners and a return to prisons in the Basque Country.

Batasuna points out in her declaration that they wish for the resolution of the conflict in a peaceful and democratic manner. Some weeks ago ETA declared that they would do everything that is necessary for the peaceful solution of the conflict. It wouldn’t surprise us that ETA will announce a cease-fire on short notice. If the Spanish and French states are even then not willing to talk with ETA for a final solution, BIC only can conclude that both states are apparently not willing to end the conflict. The juridical procedure that the Spanish Public Prosecutor started against the organisers of the public meeting where the peace proposal was presented has to be seen as attempts to continue the conflict on the old terms.

Baskenland Informatie Centrum (BIC), 19 November 2004

BIC
PoBox 2884 3500 GW Utrecht
The Netherlands
www.baskinfo.org
info@baskinfo.org

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