The end of ETA

Interior Minister Antonio Camacho has made it clear that there will be no initiatives, no gestures and no concessions toward ETA prisoners held in Spanish jails until the organization announces its own termination. This is the government's response to criticism from the left wing of the Basque nationalist movement that it is stalling the peace process by failing to meet the abertzale's demands.

The government's announcement comes one year after ETA announced that it was to end its campaign of violence, and at a time when the results of a survey carried out by ETA's political wing of prisoners' views on the future of the fight for Basque independence. If the Basque left-wing nationalist parties really want to know what ETA thinks about laying down its arms, then Spain's prisons are the logical place to go: 90 percent of ETA's membership is inside them; some 730 convicted militants, with a further 50 on the outside. It also makes sense that if the nationalist parties want the support of ETA's former activists, then they should seek it via the course of least resistance: the so-called Gernika Declaration, rather than within the context of demands for ETA's dissolution.

The Gernika Declaration was forged a year ago by Aralar, the left-wing, pro-independence, anti-violence party and the outlawed Batasuna, considered ETA's political wing, and which has yet to renounce the use of force in the fight for Basque independence. What made this statement different from previous initiatives was that it called for ETA to "definitively lay down" its arms as a first step. In return, the Spanish state would have to recognize Sortu, a party founded to replace Batasuna, and which has open rejected violence. Nevertheless, it too was later banned. The Gernika Declaration also called on the government to begin procedures that could lead to an amnesty for ETA prisoners, as well as talks "on the causes and consequences of the conflict" in the Basque Country that would include the right of the region to pursue the goal of independence.

Leaving aside the Spanish Constitution's prohibition of amnesties and that the legalization of Sortu is a matter to be decided by the Constitutional Court, and not the government, what most stands out in the declaration is that the end of ETA is seen as part of a process of reciprocal concessions. The organization's leadership looked for excuses to continue playing a role in any talks over the future of the Basque Country. The reality is that only the complete disappearance of ETA could change the full-frontal opposition to any change in the status of prisoners by the associations that represent ETA's victims and their families.

Equally, there is widespread consensus in Spanish society following ETA's decision to return to violence in late 2006 that the organization must disband before there can be any new initiatives regarding prisoners; furthermore, figures like Arnaldo Otegi, the former leader of Batasuna, has accepted that "the very existence of ETA is perceived by some as a threat."

ETA's change in strategy was a direct result of the realization that none of its prisoners (along with some members of Batasuna) would be released until such time as ETA itself ceased to exist. The final stage in that strategy is for ETA's prisoners to call for the organization to be disbanded once and for all.