ETA ́S “EMBASSIES”

support and has loudspeakers, resources and a long payroll of militant lawyers serving their cause. The organizations of relatives of ETA prisoners and its group against torture Torturaren Aurkado Taldea regularly flood with denunciations the offices of the UN special rapporteurs and any other international forum at their disposal. Such accusations are magnified by Askapena activists and Batasuna delegations in congresses and meetings with foreign parties especially if, as it has just happened, the generalized denunciation of mistreatment and tortures is endorsed by an institution such as the Basque Parliament or an organization such as Amnesty International.

When a group systematically kills within the framework of democracy and its enemy contributes the dead on an exclusive basis, it has to put a great deal of effort into disqualifying the opponents and succeed in its propaganda strategy to try to accredit itself as Basque National Liberation Movement (MLNV) instead of a mere terrorist political organization. ETA understood it in early 2000, after seeing that during its 1998 truce (Lizarra) it had hardly received external support. The comparison with IRA ́s experience proved demolishing for them: not only had it not obtained the backing that the EU and USA provided with determination to the Ulster negotiations, but it also met with the expressed opposition of many European Governments. In the eyes of the international community, the Ulster is not the Basque Country.

As doubts regarding the raison d ́être is not part of the militarized and totalitarian thinking, ETA decided to get down on focussing on the “internationalization of the conflict”. Since then, the presence of its civilian version in international fora has notably increased. The accounting records seized in 2004 from the head of the political office Mikel Antza already showed that the entry of expenses for the “international apparatus” (257,000 euros) was the third most important one and amounted to the 13% of the yearly budget, according to Vasco Press. The number of “liberados” (ETA members who receive a salary) of that apparatus – NASA, in domestic terms -, had risen to 16 to 21 elements. Contrary to what might have been expected, the experience of the last four years seems to demonstrate that, with its limits, ETA-Batasuna had political margin and room to move forward in the “internationalization”. In fact, the mediators of the Henri Dunat Center for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD Center) and the South African lawyers selected at the time, Brian Currin and Roelf Meyer, played a key intermediation role in the last negotiation with the Government.

During this time, they have obtained the support for their self-determination tenets of a dozen of Italian senators, preferably from Communist Refoundation Party and the Green Party and, above all, they have achieved the constitution of the Friendship (known in abertzale circles as Group of Friends), European nationalist or left-wing MPs who support Euskadi ́s self-determination and political negotiation with ETA. They also enjoy the backing of the Red Gernika por la Autodeterminación (Self Determination Gernika Network), made up mostly of Flemish, Scottish, Irish and Italian MPs and elected officials, as well as the support provided by the councellors of the Candidatures d ́Unitat Popular (CUT) de los Països Catalans. Despite the latest defections, due to the breaking of the truce, those ideologically miscellaneous lobbies remain active and apparently convinced that the cause of freedom beats under the lead and blood tenets of ETA-Batasuna.

The first sign of ETA ́s renewed foreign action appeared much earlier than the terrorist organization came in contact with the Northern Irish priest Alec Reid – great advocate of the negotiation in the last few years – and the Batasuna leaders started their pilgrimage to Southafrica advised by their friends from the Irish Sinn Fein. On October 30th 2002, the United Nations ceded its Geneva siege for the Batasuna leader, before and after ETA leader, Josu Ternera, to give a press conference with Arnaldo Otegi and Joseba Alvárez. After the protests received by the then UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, the Spanish Government found out that Batasuna had penetrated the UN Subcommission for the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights. It verified that, a year earlier, Udalbiltza- Batasuna, association of municipalities ruled by this group, had reached an agreement with the International League for the Rights and Liberation of the Peoples (LIDLIP), which has the status of UN consultative body. By virtue of this agreement, Batasuna ensured that one of its members be accredited as member of the LIDLIP delegation in the Human Rights Subcommittee. The committal for trial of Gestoras Pro Amnistía (Management Groups for Amnesty) dictated by judge Baltasar Garzón includes the transcription of meaningful messages which the representative of the LIDLIP Verena Graf and the then Batasuna delegate in that league, the lawyer Julen Arzuaga, tried later for cooperation with ETA, had exchanged via e-mail. “You didn ́t tell me about your arrangements for your coverage; who do you represent, Udalbiltza, the League, the League and Udalbiltza o who?. Who pays and who is in command?”, asked the Swiss Verena Graf.

Put into perspective, the question might be pointless because he and other elements of the international action, such as the lawyer Urko Aizartza, move in different levels and various front organizations, depending on the opportunity and the occasion. They may equally be representatives of Gestoras Pro Amnistía and Askapena —its successor— or the Observatorio Vasco de Derechos Humanos (Basque Observatory of Human Rights) (Behatokia); they may appear either at the United Nations HQ at Geneva presenting their report to the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture or at the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights accusing Spain of criminalizing the euskera after the closure of the newspaper Egunkaria. All the “mass bodies” that belong to the ETABatasuna network —Guk Independentzia (a political party ready to be used), LAB (trade union), Elkartzen (to defend social rights), Lurra (environmentalist), Duina (youth coordination against deprivation), Ikasle Abertzaleak (students), Segi (to select and organize youngsters), Bilgune (feminism) and Etxerat (relatives of prisoners)— have secured abroad close ties with allegedly akin organizations.

Established 21 years ago under the influence of the Sandinista Revolution, Askapena has gained volume and influence —according to police sources the organization has around fifty members –brigadistas— while the Spanish Justice dismantled the international apparatus of ETA (Xaki) and the international front of Batasuna. During the “solidarity” contacts with the “oppressed peoples”, this curious NGO disseminates a version of the Basque conflict that justifies ETA’s crimes and focuses on discrediting the Spanish State. While its privileged field of action is still Latin America —specially Venezuela, Bolivia, Uruguay, Cuba, Argentina and Mexico— in recent times the group has spread its actions and strengthened contacts with parties and organizations from Palestine, Western Sahara, Iraq, Kurdistan and Belarus. The Palestinian kefia, which has been so successful in certain circles of Basque youngsters; the call for a “Basque Intifada”; and the boycott to Israeli

goods specifically backed by the Zutabes (ETA’s internal bulletins); they all come from the travels of the brigadistas of Askapena. This small world of revolutionary tourists with no real domestic cause would be delighted if only it could disguise itself as a real conflict, where their members would be able to appear as victims instead of murderers.

Besides seeking to merge into the fighting groups in the hottest spots of the planet, denouncing “the situation in Euskadi” and establishing ways of cooperation, Askapena is the platform used to bypass the banning that prevents terrorist organizations and their political wings to be present at the World Social Forum. And Julen Arzuaga, holder of the Golden Visa card seized by the police from Íñigo Elkoro, leader of EKIN, has managed to have an interview with Mactahr Ndoyi, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Is this high official aware of the sarcasm implied in the fact that the representatives of the so- called Observatorio vasco de los Derechos Humanos are actually the friends of ETA?

In September last year, the lawyer Gorka Elejabarrieta, delegate of Batasuna in Brussels, attended a press conference at the London Parliament organized by the Conflict Issues intergroup under the title “Talking to the enemy”. While not every member of this galaxy of front bodies and NGOs established since 2000 (Askapena, Kamaradak -for Segi youngsters-, solidarity committees abroad, Behotokia, Gernika network, etc.) belong to ETA —idealistic puppets, naive individuals and cynical persons trying to take advantage of the situation are particularly welcomed— none of the people in charge of these organizations would pass the test consisting in publicly denouncing the murder of the Socialist councilman Isaías Carrasco or the Civil Guard Juan Manuel Piñuel.

Contrary to what well-meaning politicians or Human Rights activists who support them imagine, the Batasuna members devoted to foreign activity, who are financed with budgetary allocations intended for parliamentary and local groups from PCTV, ANV and Udalbiltza —public money finances ETA propaganda and the discredit of the State— are not seeking another arrangement through dialogue other than securing the political goals of ETA. They, along with ETA, believe that negotiation is a tool that complements murder, a lever that lets them grow, reinforce and legitimize themselves and gain strength. “Before I die, I want to see a rebel turned into President of the Republic of Euskal Herria”, former Flanders Senator Walter Luyken stated last year; Luyken is also honorary chairman of the Red Gernika por la Autodeterminación. Among others, Jasper Kiel, MP of Kopenhagen Folketinget, Jean Guy Talamoni, MP of Corsica Nazione, Alex Maskey, Francie Brolly and Aengus S’Nodaigh, MPs of Sinn Fein, the Flemish Jan Loones, the Scottish Lloyd Quinan and Bill Kidd, the Italian Senators Giuseppe Di Lello, France Rame and Mauro Bulgarelli belong to this network.

Teo Uriarte, a former member of Euskadiko Ezkerra currently linked to the Socialist Party of Euskadi (PSE), believes that providing a terrorist organization with the prospect of negotiations not always makes the end of violence easier. Uriarte states that, despite the apparent goodness of any dialogue process, the distortion and exaggeration of the problem, the resort to mediation professionals who —looking for results— tend to put both parties on a level, and the application of already-tested formulas in conflicts with a serious civil confrontation involves the risk of turning a small boil into a cancer.

After reviewing the newspapers, this belief seems to be backed by the statements of Brian Currin and Roelf Meyer —who were hired first by Batasuna and, after the truce was broken, by the Basque Government—: We believe that the attack [the powerful bomb that destroyed the parking lot in Barajas Airport Terminal T4, killing two people] implies a new opportunity to strengthen the peace process and give way to new negotiations”, said Roelf Meyer. “One has to release prisoners and make political concessions”, proposed Brian Currin.

As members of the Fundación para la Libertad (Foundation for Freedom), an association established in order to dismantle the political alibis of terrorism, Teo Uriarte and his partner Javier Elorrieta were summoned in September last year by the Spanish Embassy in Southafrica to counter the intense propaganda campaign developed in that country by the representatives of Batasuna Bernardo Barrena, Joseba Álvarez and Urko Aiartza. During their meetings with Kgalema Montthlante and Dumisane Sithole, political leaders of the African National Congress (ANC), and with Buti Manamela, national secretary of the Communist Youth, the members of the Fundación para la Libertad discovered in astonishment that their South African interlocutors had a really distorted view of the Basque problem and the Spanish democracy.

“We were perplexed once we saw that honourable and respectable persons had blindly swallowed that misinformation”, Teo Uriarte recalls. “They knew nothing about the Spanish political transition process, and ignored that an amnesty was declared after the death of the dictator; they believed that there was no real democracy in Spain, the Basque people was subjugated and their language discriminated against; they did not know the basic data regarding per capita income and economic growth in Euskadi; they thought that Batasuna had a significant electoral weight and were not aware of the fact that ETA kills members of non-nationalist democratic political parties. They were convinced that only the Spanish nationalists opposed the negotiation with ETA. We discovered that they sympathised with Batasuna-ETA because they had been persuaded that the fight of the latter matched the liberation theory of the Third World”.

Uriarte and Elorrieta also confirmed that the trips of the Basque Regional Government’s representatives to South Africa in the recent years have not contributed to undo misunderstandings. “When they insisted on the oppression of the Euskera, we asked them from where they have got the idea that Spain wants to eliminate the Basque language. And to our surprise, Dumisane Sithole, Chairman of the South African Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Commission, answered us that this information came from the Basque Regional Government Minister Miren Azcarate”. Even though we told him that the Basque Regional Government has powers in Euskera matters and nothing prevents it to assign more money to promote the Basque language, the members of the Fundación por la Libertad (Foundation for Freedom) could not convince the ANC members. “Why were they to trust us more than the members of the Basque Regional Government itself?”, says Teo Uriarte. “They believe that the procedures they used to solve their civil war could be applied to any other conflict, even though in South Africa no one is in favour of separatism, because that was a claim made by the white minority’s hardcore”.

Without rejecting the good intention that may urge the South African efforts in the negotiations with ETA, it should not be forgotten that international relations are a game of interests, some times relentless. “Before saying goodbye, one of the South African leaders told us explicitly that they were ready to review their stance in the Basque conflict if the Spanish Government did the same with the Saharan problem”, states Teo Uriarte, who clarifies that this approach was not authorized later on by senior Government officials, who reject Batasuna’s indoctrination.

Even though its influence may be quite low, it should not be forgotten that the terrorist organization has been cultivating for quite a long time contacts with South American organizations and parties and, in some cases, these parties have reached power. In Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela – where some forty ETA activists went to live after leaving Algeria when Felipe Gonzalez was Head of the Spanish Government, ETA-Batasuna organizations have a privileged governmental mediator. The General Director of the Venezuelan President Office, Goizeber Odriozola Lataillade, is married to the former ETA activist, Arturo Cubillos Fontán, who also holds an important position in the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment. Goizeber Odriozola, journalist and daughter of Basque immigrants, usually attends Chavistas demonstrations with the Basque Flag, the Ikurriña. She is not the only supporter of ETA’s cause within the Chavez Administration. The Spanish diplomacy had to fight thoroughly in order to prevent that former ETA activists such as Miguel Angel Aldana Barrena, Ricardo Urtiaga Repollés, José Lorenzo Ayestarán Legorburu or Eugenio Barrutiabengoa Zabarte were granted the Venezuelan citizenship.

For decades, ETA has had relations, of course clandestine, with the Central and South American guerrillas, seeking a benefiting cooperation, in order to get a safe haven for its activists on the run – some of them ended up fighting in Nicaragua or El Salvador – or to cooperate in the purchase of weapons, document forgery or fundraising. The contacts mechanics was the following: in a first stage, lawyers and the political representatives of ETA’s civil branch visit them and only later on, when covers were considered secure, those on hiding travelled there. This was the way followed to collaborate with the Sandinista Front in Nicaragua, the Farabundo Martí Front for the National Liberation of El Salvador or the Colombian FARC. One of the FARC representatives in Europe, known under the false name of Oscar Gualdrón, has participated in the Internationalist Meetings organized by Askapena in Euskadi, also attended by Feliciano Vegamonte, Bolivian MP for the MAS Party and Martin Mac Guiness, current Vice Prime Minister of North Ireland from the Sinn Fein. When ETA announced its last “permanent ceasefire”, the FARC welcomed “the courage of the Spanish Head of Government, Zapatero, and the beginning of a dialogue for a negotiated solution of the conflict”.

Even though the acronym “ETA” is still detested almost worldwide and is not convenient even in revolutionary or more extremist alternative circles, ETA version of what is the real life in Euskadi, its arguments and civil tentacles reach now further, with the dual aim of deteriorating as much as possible the Spanish State’s image and obtaining greater political support for its cause. Since the 1998 truce, what has changed is ETA’s foreign efforts, now more ambitious as it seeks to get roots in the international political spheres, particularly in Europe. The documents seized by the police to the Gestoras Pro Amnistía and its associate Askatasuna, present the project to establish a “Basque diplomatic corps” with