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The
Basque Blood Feud
By JONATHAN
POWER
May 23, 2001
LONDON - Like its counterpart, the Northern Ireland
conflict, the continuation of Basque nationalist
terrorism seems too polarised, too fuelled by historical
sentimentality and myth on one side and by narrow-minded
authoritarianism on the other, for easy settlement. But
Northern Ireland has found a peace of sorts and the lion
is lying down with the lamb and even sitting side by side
in the same cabinet room in Stormont castle in Belfast.
Yet Basque militancy, in the form of the guerrilla army
of ETA, continues its ferocious policy of assassination
and intimidation, out of step not only with the rest of
western Europe, not just with the majority mood of the
rest of the country, but also with the majority mood of
the Basque country itself.
This is the clear reading of last week's regional
elections in the Basque country. The radical leftist
party, Euskal Herritarrok, widely considered to be the
political wing of ETA and one that is clearly associated
with the necessity for violence in pursuit of the aim of
winning independence from Spain, had its vote share cut
in half. Yet if violence was repudiated, it wasn't
defeated and neither was the common cause of at least
half the citizens of this beleaguered but prosperous
region. The joint efforts of Spain's two predominant
national parties- the Popular Party of Prime Minister
Jose Maria Aznar and the opposition Socialist party -
failed to win a clear mandate against independence,
winning only 41% of the vote between them. The clear
winner was the moderate Basque Nationalist Party (PNV)
with 42% of the vote. While the party eschews violence,
it has adopted the ETA goal of a breakaway from
Spain.
The region is almost the antithesis of Northern
Ireland. Whilst Northern Ireland is depressed
economically and divided by ancient religious hatreds,
the Basque people share the same religion, have already
won a great degree of autonomy, including control of
their own police force, are now in the heart of one of
the more bustling parts of Europe with nothing less than
an art museum, the Guggenheim, triggering the urban
renewal of its largest city, Bilbao and, not least,
confront no paramilitaries on the opposite side prepared
to outgun them and out torture them at every turn. In the
simple light of day there is no contest. Northern Ireland
should be the difficult one and the Basque problem should
have been blown away long ago with the winds of post
Francoist democratic change and the withering away of the
hard edges of European frontiers, as Spain became one of
the more enthusiastic supporters of the Euro currency and
European federalism.
It has not happened, and shows little signs of
happening, despite the repudiation at the poll of the pro
ETA party. ETA will not fade way. Its appeal even to
middle-class young recruits remains strong. This is why
Juan Jose Ibarretxe, the leader of the PNV, says the
central government has to re-engage in dialogue with
Basque nationalism. But the prime minister remains
adamant. "Dialogue to achieve what?" Mr Aznar asked last
week. "I have nothing to say on the question of
self-determination".
Yet it is this absolutism, this arrogance of power,
common to both this government and its predecessor, the
Socialists of Felipe Gonzalez that has helped make ETA
the formidable and dangerous force it has become. It is
not enough to say Spain is now open and democratic. Nor
is it enough to query the historical depth of the Basque
nationalist cause, even though often enough it has
inflated the uniqueness of Basque culture. It is, to use
shorthand, important to remember Guernica. When the Nazi
allies of Franco bombed that town in an act later
immortalised by Picasso they crushed the Basque
nationalist and socialist forces defending the region.
And when elements in the government of Felipe Gonzalez
unleashed their dirty war against ETA it resuscitated
these bad old memories of repression and brutality. What
Aznar does and says today- and under his government human
rights abuses have been less but still do happen- is to
keep alive that sense of being badly done by. Although
the depth of bitterness and grievance among Basques might
appear overdone to non-emotionally involved outsiders, it
is enough to give the parties of independence 53% of the
vote in the year 2001. This has to mean the solution lies
in negotiation.
In September 1998 ETA declared a truce, explicitly
modelled on the IRA's approach to the Irish peace
process. It broke down because of ETA's anger at the
PNV's supposed foot-dragging on the creation of a
parallel Basque administration. It was this setback of
the PNV that gave Aznar his opening for trying to defeat
the PNV with a grand coalition. Now that ploy has failed
it is clear he has no other clever ideas in his
cupboard.
In an interesting new book published this month,
"Dirty War, Clean Hands" an Irish author, Paddy
Woodworth, remarks that the Belfast Easter Agreement of
1998 that brought an end to the IRA's violent campaign
was "unimaginable to almost everyone in Britain and
Ireland less than a decade ago". Ireland reminds us, he
says, that democrats do, sooner or later, talk to
terrorists who have significant political support. While
Mr. Woodworth is clear that ETA have to launch a new
truce he also makes the observant remark that "Madrid
might do well to reflect on the Basque demand for
self-determination in the context of a European Union
that is comfortably forming bonds with new nation-states
from Latvia to Slovenia, and where Scotland may be in the
process of detaching itself from Britain." He concludes:
" In a rather soullessly globalised world, the local and
the particular becomes more and more important, and the
Basque country is clearly a very particular place." It is
time to talk.
I can be reached by phone +44
7785 351172 and e-mail: JonatPower@aol.com
Copyright © 2001 By
JONATHAN POWER
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