Ever since I read this heading:
I knew I was going to be posting a lot about the misconceptions that plague the way some in the international community perceive the Basque Conflict based on what the media tell them.
And as usual, I was proven right.
Madrid does not miss a chance to equate anything Basque with the "T" word. Because of that, there is people out there that swap both words as if they were synonims.
Lets get to the heart of this matter, the pony they jumped on is easy to identify, it is the banned Basque political party Batasuna. Before we get into that, lets talk about a couple of legal concepts highly valued among democracies, and lets try to remember, there is people that rejoices when calling Spain by the eufemism "The Young Democracy".
And what are those two concepts?
The first one is called Presumption of Innocence.
Meaning, you are innocent until proven guilty.
Where am I going with this?
Well, is simple, Batasuna has never claimed to be ETA's political arm, it is the different Spanish governments acting as democracies the ones that accuse Batasuna of being part of ETA's entorno (just like elementary schools and newspapers are supposed to be part of ETA's entorno).
It has been more that a year since Aznar banned Batasuna, and until today no one, not Garzón nor del Olmo have produce the evidence to prove them right.
Assumptions, accusations, but no hard evidence.
Which brings us to concept number two, Timely Trial.
In a democracy, when you set the wheels of justice turning, you are supposed to initiate a legal process in a reasonable period of time. You accuse someone of something and unless you catch that person hot handed, you have to present evidence and take the case to court as soon as possible, ensure a fair trial and if proven guilty, secure a sentence.
Non of that has happened so far.
And do you know who would benefit the most from Batasuna being proven either innocent or guilty?
The Basques.
If innocent it demonstrates that Spain is still clinging to its fascist past and a political party was banned to suffocate the political voice of part of the Basque society.
If guilty, they would be removed from the political scene, so in the future when the Basques express their will to their self determination, no moron nor spin meister will link it to terrorism.
And that would still leave the fact that England negotiated with Sinn Fein, who claim to be the IRA's political arm at any chance they got.
.... ... .
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