From Idaho, Basque Hope

Here you have a note about the reaction in Idaho after ETA's call for a cease fire.

It appeared at the Idaho's Statesman:

Article published Apr 6, 2006

Idaho lawmakers commend ETA announcement

A memorial commending Basque separatist group ETA for announcing a cease-fire in Spain is scheduled for consideration today on the House floor.

A House committee Wednesday unanimously supported the measure, which congratulates the governments of the Basque Autonomous Region, France and Spain for their efforts to end violence in the region.

"We in this community would like to show the Spanish government and the Basque government that we're in full support of the peace treaty," said GOP Rep. Carlos Bilbao of Emmett, a descendent of Basques.

"We want to make sure things are safe and secure for our family members who are left over there."

On March 23, representatives of ETA announced a permanent cease-fire on all violent activities.

The 15,000 Basque descendants in the Boise area make up the third-largest Basque population in the world — after an enclave in Argentina and the people who live in the coastal and mountainous region the Basques call Euskal Herria, part of Spain and France.

Bilbao said the peace treaty should create a safer, more stable climate for companies and industries to invest in the Basque region.

ETA formed in 1959 to preserve the Basque language and heritage and create a Basque country. But it later began to wage a bloody street war with the Spanish government and the Guardia Civil, Spain's national police.

Human rights watchdog Amnesty International says the group is responsible for about 800 deaths since 1968, making it one of the deadliest organizations in the world.

The Idaho Legislature has gotten involved in Basque politics before. A 2003 memorial calling for a peace treaty in the region sparked an international controversy after Spanish Ambassador Javier Ruperez took offense at the statement, prompting a deputy of then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice to contact Idaho's Legislature.

The ambassador's reaction "gave this nonbinding memorial from a small Western state more importance than it ever would have had," said Dave Bieter, Boise's Basque mayor and who was a legislator in 2003 when he co-wrote the memorial with then-Secretary of State Pete Cenarrusa. "It was the single biggest e-mail flood in the Legislature."

Bieter said Bilbao's memorial shouldn't have the same effect.

"Noting such an important event and praising the efforts of all three governments, of the Basque region, of France and of Spain, that's a great sentiment to express now," Bieter said. "I think it's a very appropriate to follow up on our earlier memorial."

Bilbao said the new memorial was crafted carefully.

"The speaker said to make sure I wasn't declaring war on the Spanish and it would be all right," Bilbao said.

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