Translated material
Despite the terrorist attack
The Spanish Prime Minister will continue negotiations with the separatists
More than a million Spaniards took part in demonstrations yesterday against the terrorist attacks of the separatist organization Basque Homeland and Freedom (Euskadi ta Askatasuna, ETA). The demonstrations, supported by more than 500 parties, were carried out on the initiative of trade unions in Spain. The event was ignored only by the opposition conservative People's Party and the Batasuna party, the political wing of ETA.In the Basque Country (four provinces in northern Spain), ETA supporters tried to disrupt demonstrations by smashing windows and setting fire to garbage containers. But this only strengthened the resolve of people to take to the streets under the slogan “For peace, life and freedom - against terrorism.” Moreover, just yesterday the investigation announced that in their latest terrorist attack, the militants for the first time used a mixture of hexogen and ammonal to increase the power of the charge.
Let us recall that the terrorist attack at Madrid Barajas Airport took place on December 30, that is, on local Christmastide and New Year's Eve. Two Ecuadorian workers were killed, a five-story car park was destroyed, and material damage exceeded 30 million euros. After the explosion, the Spaniards waited for a long time and with tension for an explanation from ETA itself, because back on March 22, 2006, it declared a truce.
In the past, when ETA declared a truce (and this happened twice in the 80s and 90s) but then decided to break it, it announced this before carrying out a new attack. This time no such message was received. The airport bombing, which followed a nine-month truce unilaterally declared by ETA, came as a surprise to authorities, who had received no information on the matter from intelligence services. Even Batasuna, which is the mediator in the negotiations, made it clear that for it, too, ETA’s return to terrorist attacks was an unpleasant surprise.
Authoritative Spanish analysts explain ETA's long silence by saying that the explosion in Madrid was carried out by some marginal ETA militant group that did not agree with the leadership's line on holding peace negotiations. This version fits well with the fact that the official communiqué of the ETA leadership appeared only a few days ago in the Basque newspaper Gara. Apparently, the leaders of the Basque terrorists these days held consultations with militant groups, which takes time, since they operate in strictly secret conditions and contacts with them are difficult.
The communique left many bewildered. ETA stated that even after the terrorist attack it does not consider the peace process interrupted and is ready to continue it! The explosion was justified by the fact that ETA reserves the right to respond to “aggression” against it by the authorities. ETA considers the arrests of dozens of its activists, despite the truce, and cruel treatment of them (including “torture in prisons”) to be such “aggression.”
ETA leadership stressed that the terrorist attack at the airport was intended to be bloodless. And it cited the incompetence of the police as the reason for the death of two Ecuadorian immigrants: they were warned three times about the bomb site, but failed to evacuate all the people in time.
So what's next? Opponents of a peaceful dialogue with ETA (this is primarily the People's Party) argue that recent events once again confirm that you cannot negotiate with terrorists, you must fight them until victory. Behind this lies a purely pragmatic calculation: conservatives understand that if the Social Democratic government manages to peacefully resolve the Basque problem, then it is unlikely that the right will be able to return to power in the elections in March 2008.
As for the supporters of a peaceful solution to the issue (and such are all the other parties in Spain led by the Social Democrats), they, having fallen into the clutches of radicals on both sides, found themselves in a difficult situation. But Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, whose prestige has suffered a blow, makes it clear that the peace process is not disrupted, but interrupted, and he considers the dead Ecuadorians not direct, but indirect victims of the terrorist attack.
After all, 46-year-old Zapatero is also preparing for the 2008 elections and understands that no matter what important social and economic reforms he carries out, no matter what achievements he presents to voters, failure to solve the problem of Basque terrorism could deprive him of power.
The ETA leadership also cannot fail to understand that the current Prime Minister of Spain is the only politician with whom it can agree on acceptable peace terms. Therefore, both sides are in no hurry to burn bridges. This gives reason to believe that negotiations will continue, although it will be extremely difficult.