Peace process in Basque in "evident crisis": ETA --from The Philippine Star

Peace process in Basque in "evident crisis": ETA


08/18 12:02:10 PM


MADRID (AFP) - The peace process in the Basque country is "in a situation of evident crisis" due to "the mean attitude of the political parties," Basque separatist organization ETA said Friday in a statement published in the pro-independence daily Gara.

ETA accused the ruling Spanish Workers' Socialist Party (PSOE) and the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV, in power in the Basque country), of "distorting and emptying the process of its contents."

The statement in Gara, normally used to publish claims by the armed Basque group, said that the two parties "are trying to build a process in line with their interests and their needs."

After having observed for nearly five months a permanent ceasefire that it decreed on March 22, the organization considers that the political parties "have not lived up to their responsibility."

"Instead of taking in-depth measures to feed this (peace) process and to build a democratic framework in the Basque country, they have acted blindly to wear down the positions of the Basque radical left," ETA said.

A repressive attitude was "incompatible with the development of a negotiating process," it added, referring to the recent arrests of people said to be close to or members of ETA.

"If the attacks against Euskal Herria (the Basque country) continue, ETA will reply," the group warned.

It claimed that "political, military and economic oppression" against the Basque country was ongoing and that France and Spain "continue to use all their repressive machinery against the pillars that transform us into a people."

ETA, which killed more than 800 people in attacks over a nearly 40-year period, announced a "permanent ceasefire" in March and Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero three months later said discussions would open soon with the separatist organization.




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