By Paula Ajuria
On July 2, extensive coverage was given by the Spanish media to masses of Spaniards celebrating the release by the Spanish police of a man held hostage by Basque separatist organisation ETA. The hostage, Ortega Lara, was portrayed as a hero; his release was presented as a police triumph, and everybody was moved by the images.
Barely a week later, ETA struck again, taking right-wing politician Miguel Angel Blanco hostage and giving the government 48 hours to respond to its longstanding demand that 600 Basque political prisoners currently held in Spain and France be transferred to prisons in the Basque country.
A statement from the legal, pro-separatist political party, Herri Batasuna, asked the Spanish government to comply with the law and move the prisoners to avoid a fatal outcome.
The government's response, supported by its regional allies, was to organise a rally in the Basque city of Bilbao to protest against and condemn Blanco's kidnapping and demand his unconditional release. The rally, led by Spain's prime minister, José Maria Aznar, made for compelling TV drama.
Blanco was killed and the clamour against ETA intensified, extending to national news programs around the world. ETA was presented as a blood-thirsty organisation whose only aim is to kill. The Spanish state and citizens were presented as powerless victims of ETA.
According to a Spanish daily, the government has sent a communiqué to the media in Germany, England, France, Belgium, Italy and several Latin America countries, and to CNN, insisting that they define ETA as a "terrorist band".
What the media conveniently ignored was the background to these events. Basque liberationists' demands for national rights have never been answered by the Spanish government. In January, the government rejected an offer from Nobel Peace Prize laureate Adolfo Perez Esquivel to mediate between the government and ETA for peace talks.
ETA is asking for what most Basques want. According to the peace group Elkarri, 74% of Basques want the Basque political prisoners transferred to the Basque region, a right to which these prisoners are entitled by law.
There are 533 Basque political prisoners in Spanish jails. Their dispersion and living conditions have been denounced by many international human rights organisations. Torture is these prisoners' daily bread, and more often than not this reaches out to their families as well.
The media have never reported the details of the nearly 100 Basques killed by GAL, the state's deaths squads. Neither have they reported the torture suffered by Basques at the hand of the police: in 1992, the United Nations reported 118 such cases, as well as 600 Basques arrested on suspicion of supporting the movement for Basque national liberation.
Last February, a Basque political prisoner was found hanging dead in his jail cell. He was blindfolded and his hands and feet were tied. The government declared it a suicide.
Basque political prisoner Juan Carlos Hernando was found hanged in his cell in Spain on July 20. He was found suspended from a water pipe by a plastic cord with his hands tied. The autopsy report said the prisoner "killed himself".
For nearly 30 years ETA has fought for independence and self-determination. The Spanish state has used all its might against ETA, yet the conflict is only getting worse.
An end to the violence is in the hands of the Spanish state. It is well aware that ETA's end will come only with negotiation and progress towards meeting the demands of the Basque people, yet it remains unwilling to cooperate.
Unable to get at ETA, Spanish authorities are now targeting the legal political arm of the Basque struggle. The two conservative Basque parties, the Basque Nationalist Party and Eusko Alkartasuna, together with the Spanish Socialist Party, have backed the interior minister's call to cease all contact with the party and cooperate in ousting its members from mayoral positions on town councils.
On July 23, two major private television networks, Antena 3 and Telecinco, joined the Madrid newspaper Ya and a small public television station in pledging not to give any coverage to Herri Batasuna or its supporters.
Herri Batasuna has renewed its call for talks between the Spanish government and ETA, stating:
"This lynching strategy and man-hunt of left-wing nationalists, militants or sympathisers, encouraged by political forces and the media, will not help the resolution of the confrontation. On the contrary, it will aggravate its already serious condition.
"Herri Batasuna reiterates once again its call on the whole community to look for a real and effective solution to the conflict, overcoming the strategy of confrontation, from the respect to the democratic rights to which the Basque country is entitled, laying a special emphasis on those of the Basque political prisoners".