NPR March 23, 2006

ETA Bows to Changed Political

Landscape with Cease-fire
by Jerome Socolovsky – March 23, 2006
To listen to the audio
The Basque separatist group ETA bows to a changing political landscape in
Spain -- where political solutions have become more effective than violent
solutions -- and announces a permanent cease-fire. The announcement
apparently ends a decades-long campaign of violence against the government
in Madrid. Renee Montagne talks to reporter Jerome Socolovsky.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
One of Western Europe's last armed movements could be at an end, with the
announcement by the Basque separatist group ETA that it's calling a
permanent cease-fire. The truce is set to begin hours from now. The Spanish
government is heading into negotiations with ETA on the future of the
northern Basque region. ETA has been fighting for years to make it
independent. Over the past four decades, ETA guerillas have taken the lives
of more than 800 people, among them judges, politicians and journalists.
Reporter Jerome Socolovsky is traveling in the Basque region, and he joins me
now. Hello.
JEROME SOCOLOVSKY reporting:
(00:38) Good morning, Renee.
MONTAGNE: So, is this the beginning of the end of the violence there?
SOCOLOVSKY: Well, we have to keep in mind that ETA has been using violence
as a means to its end for nearly 40 years. They've also declared cease-fires
before, and cancelled them after negotiations with the government broke
down. So, a lot of people here are mistrustful not only of ETA's intentions, but
they're not sure that this will actually lead to a permanent ceasefire. But
there is a lot of optimism, because this is the first time ETA uses the term
permanent.
And ETA is a hierarchical structure. It's not like Islamic terrorist groups, where
the leaders often don't have control of the people beneath them. When I've
been in the Basque country before, talking to young people who may
sympathize with ETA, they all seem to trust what the leadership of the group
says they should be doing.
MONTAGNE: (1:30) Take a step back just for a moment here, Jerome, and
give us a small history of the campaign for self-rule in the Basque region or
independence.
SOCOLOVSKY: Well, the actual campaign for self-rule goes back more than 100
years to the beginnings of Basque nationalism as a movement. ETA actually
started as a group in the 1950s, during the dictatorship of General Francisco
Franco in Spain. And, at first, they were seen as a resistance group. Even
after they resorted to violence. They actually killed the prime minister under
Franco, who was supposed to be his successor as leader of Spain. And some
people even believe that ETA helped move Spain forward to democracy.
But after the return to democracy, ETA continued with its attacks, and some
of them became very bloody, and the group fell out of favor with many
Spaniards, and with many Basques as well.
MONTAGNE: (2:26) And two years ago, the attacks on Madrid's commuter train
that killed 200 people were initially linked by the government to ETA. Did, in
the end, ETA have anything to do with those attacks?
SOCOLOVSKY: Well, indeed, the prime minister at the time, José María Aznar,
in the first few days after the attacks, was squarely blaming ETA. And now,
some people on the far right still suggest that ETA had some sort of role, but
the investigations don't seem to point in that direction. What many
commentators here are saying is that the attacks do have some sort of link to
this, in that it created an even greater wave of revulsion against terrorism
here in Spain, that ETA is now recoiling from using those methods.
But I think what's interesting here is that, at the time, you had a very hard-
lined government clamping down on ETA through every possible means. And
now there's a government that's more open to dialogue. So, it's almost like a
bad cop, good cop situation that has led to this.
MONTAGNE: (3:27) And does this have any implications for other places in
Spain, like Catalonia, that have been seeking autonomy?
SOCOLOVSKY: Well, it's all one package deal, it seems. A lot of people are
saying it's not a coincidence that ETA announced ceasefire a day after an
agreement was reached on a self-rule statute for another region, Catalonia,
which is where Barcelona is. And in that statute, the government agreed to
call Catalonia a nationality. This is something the Basques have wanted for a
long time. They also want a new statute that gives them even more self-rule
than the considerable self-rule they have now. They have their own police
force, their own parliament. They even have their own president.
MONTAGNE: (4:14) And finally, the reaction among the people of Spain?
SOCOLOVSKY: Well, in Spain, there's a mixture of euphoria and skepticism or
mistrust. A lot of people have been waiting for years, if not decades to hear
this news. But, at the same time, they hope it doesn't fail like in previous
times.
MONTAGNE: Reporter Jerome Socolovsky on the road in Spain's northern
Basque region. Thanks very much.
SOCOLOVSKY: You're welcome, Renee. (4:38)
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5296488