Tue, Mar 21, 2006 page6

• Spain's ETA set to announce ceasefire before summer

  NEGOTIATIONS The Basque separatist group is ready to announce a `cessation of hostilities' before the summer, but the window of opportunity is small, observers say

  • THE OBSERVER
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  A funeral procession makes its way across the cemetery in the rain, saluted by hundreds of mourners with raised fists.

  "Igor, Igor, herriak ez du barkatuko," they yell in Basque to the coffin (the people won't forgive).

  The graveyard of this grey, working-class suburb of Santurtzi is surrounded by riot police. The suicide of Igor Angulo, one of two members of the separatist group ETA to die recently in Spanish prisons, has ignited a wave of unrest not seen for years, which culminated in last week's general strike called by Batasuna, the outlawed political wing of ETA.

  Last month ETA issued a communique calling for dialogue and negotiation with the government in Madrid, saying this was the only way forward. Now ETA -- responsible for more than 800 deaths in a four-decade struggle to create an independent Basque state -- is ready to announce a historic "cessation of hostilities" before the summer, paving the way for a peace process that some believe could lead to the independence of the Basque region and the break-up of Spain.

  ETA has not carried out any killings for more than 1,000 days, and it appears to be waiting for Madrid's clarification of the political process that would follow a ceasefire announcement. Sources say progress is well advanced toward setting up a forum in which regional parties, including Batasuna, would thrash out a new political framework for the Basque region, which already enjoys substantial autonomy.

  Yet the window of opportunity is small. Batasuna needs to take part legally in next year's municipal elections to maximize its leverage in future peace talks. By then the Spanish government would have to have verified that the violence really has ended. Also, the entire process could be derailed following a recent spate of ETA bombings designed, according to most observers, to demonstrate its strength ahead of talks, and the possible jailing of Batasuna's leader, Arnaldo Otegi, for allegedly inciting violence during the Basque general strike.

  A key figure in the attempts to prevent the peace process from collapsing is an Irish Catholic priest, Alec Reid, who played a crucial role in the negotiations ahead of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) ceasefire and the Good Friday Agreement about Northern Ireland.

  "We're witnessing the equivalent of plane turbulence, almost inevitable when you're moving toward a resolution," said Reid, sipping coffee in a Bilbao hotel near the Guggenheim Museum.

  "We cannot miss this historic opportunity to achieve peace, but ETA won't buy a pig in a poke. It needs to know how the political negotiating table will look, who'll participate, how will voting take place, will the Spanish government accept the outcome -- then they need to know when it will happen. Once all this is made public, ETA will stop," he said.

  Critics are unconvinced that ETA-Batasuna will reach a compromise, despite Batasuna's commitment in November 2004 to "exclusively use political and democratic means to search for a democratic solution," which was backed by ETA.
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