The general coordinator of EH Bildu, Arnaldo Otegi, and the general secretary of Sortu, Arkaitz Rodríguez, have claimed this Monday at the Aiete Palace in San Sebastián for “all the victims”, but they have made “a special mention” to the ” victims of ETA violence ”. “We want to convey to them that we feel their pain and affirm that it should never have occurred. Nobody can satisfy that that happened. It shouldn’t have lasted that long. We should have reached Aiete earlier [en referencia al anuncio del fin de ETA en 2011]. Unfortunately, the past is hopeless. Nothing we say can undo the damage done. But we are convinced that it is possible to alleviate it from respect and memory. We are deeply sorry for their suffering and we are committed to mitigating it, ”said both leaders., first in Basque and then in Spanish.
This is the first time I left nationalist apologizes (although without using that word expressly) specifically to the victims of ETA. Until now, they had always been integrated into the formula “all victims”, without making any distinction between them and the victims of what Bildu calls state violence. This time, Otegi has gone a step further by stating that he feels “from the heart” the “damage caused” by the terrorist gang, which caused 853 deaths in five decades of murders, kidnappings, extortion and sabotage. It is a “sincere” sentiment, said the independence leader, who has not come to condemn, however, the ETA violence.
The recognition of the damage caused by the terrorist gang has been the main claim that the rest of the political groups and leaders had been making, such as the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and the Lehendakari, Iñigo Urkullu, to EH Bildu. This coalition has waited for this moment, 10 years after ETA announced the end of its terrorist activity, to have that gesture with the victims. In an unprecedented public demonstration, Otegi and Rodríguez wanted to make a “specific” mention of them to convey that they lament their pain and convey “respect, consideration and memory.”
The “solemn declaration”, with five points and entitled Declaration of October Eighteenth, has been read first in Basque by Rodríguez and later by Otegi in Spanish. Both have praised the process carried out by ETA for its end – “There was no cheating”, they stressed – and subsequent “total and complete” disarmament; they have ratified the commitment of the pro-independence left to “exclusively democratic and peaceful ways”; they have demanded “a solution to the question of the terrorist prisoners” and, finally, they have demanded the recognition of the Basque people as a nation.
The mention of the victims appears in point number three of the statement. The left nationalist it reaffirms that “a just and lasting peace needs the recognition and reparation of all, absolutely all the victims.” But, next line, he makes a “special and specific” mention to the victims caused by ETA violence: “We want to convey to them our regret and pain for the suffering suffered.” It acknowledges that the damage caused is “beyond remedy”, but undertakes to “try to mitigate it”, without specifying in what way. And he admits that this recognition comes late.
Three years ago, the terrorist gang apologized for their actions to a part of the victims, those whom it defined as “citizens without responsibility in the conflict.” ETA then showed the “respect for the dead and the victims” that it caused, but without clarifying how many and which of them it excluded from its request for forgiveness.
“There was no tactical calculation”
Otegi and Rodríguez have appeared, without admitting questions, in the same scenario in which on October 17, 2011 the Declaration of Aiete (three days later, ETA announced the end of terrorism) in the presence of different authorities, such as the former UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan; the president of the Irish Sinn Féin, Gerry Adams, or the British diplomat Jonathan Powell. No other representative of Eusko Alkartasuna, Aralar or Alternatiba, who are also members of the EH Bildu coalition, has participated in the appearance.
In the first of the sections, Rodríguez and Otegi have assured that 10 years after the end of the violence, “it has been verified that ETA has complied with its decisions.” In the second they remarked: “There was no cheating, there was no tactical calculation. The commitment to exclusive channels, through democratic channels, responded and responds to deep ethical convictions. It is a decision forever ”. In the fourth, they have called for the end of the dispersal of ETA prisoners (a situation that has already been considerably mitigated in the last two years, with the progressive approach of prisoners to prisons near the Basque Country): “A solution is needed to prisoners and prey. It is an inescapable challenge that involves ending the exceptional prison policy. We want to vindicate the decisive role of the collective of prisoners. Without them it would not have been possible ”. And finally, Rodríguez and Otegi have asked for “respect and recognition” because they have said: “We are a people, a nation.”
Next Wednesday it will be 10 years since the terrorist gang announced the definitive cessation of violence. Otegi was then the protagonist, as the leader of Batasuna, in a dialogue with the former president of the Basque Socialist Party, Jesús Eguiguren. This was the one who transmitted to the then President of the Government, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, that Otegi wanted the Government and ETA to open a dialogue. The conversations between the Executive and the gang first, and the consequences within the left nationalist After the breaking of the ETA truce with the attack on the Barajas airport in 2006, together with the police and judicial fight against the gang, they marked the way towards the end of terrorism. Ten years after the end of the violence, Zapatero asked EH Bildu for self-criticism last Sunday in EL PAÍS: “They have to do it. They need time. It must arise from them as they did at the end of ETA. We can all contribute by fostering debate. We will listen to them ”.
Statement of October 18. If you can’t see it, click here.