Date: Thu, 11 Dec 1997 08:44:01
Subject: M-NEWS: Basque Country: latest crisis


Basque Congress for Peace - December 12, 1997

We don't know yet if EHJ is under attack again.  However, several people have
written to us asking whether the  EHJ mirror site and forum at Internet
Freedom have been shut down. We tried to access them and got the message:
"easynet web server.. error 404...  File not Found (Doh!).. Either the file
does not exist, or ... You do not have permission to access it. "  But so far
Internet Freedom has not told us they have taken down the EHJ mirror site.
 Also, since today (12/12) we're being email-bombed at this account with
repetitive messages all showing the same email address, <htu-AT-hotmail.com>,
with the emails being addressed to <greenleft-AT-peg.apc.org>.   We also received
some mails from our readers asking why the EHJ mirror site at ucsd is not
being updated.  This we don't know as we can't contact them.

We don't know what's going on but  we will continue sending news from here
while we can. 
In solidarity,
Olatz Arkauz
Basque Congress for Peace

Euskal Herria Journal --  December 12, 1997

Spanish councillor in Basque town shot and killed
===================================
A town councillor for the ruling Popular Party, Jose Luis Caso Corientes, 64,
was shot and killed in a bar in the Basque town of Irun on Thursday night.
Caso Corrientes was shot at close range by a young male, the police said.   

There was no claim of responsibility Friday, but the Spanish government,
political parties and the media blamed the resistance organization ETA, the
Basque-language initials for Basque Homeland and Freedom.

The killing of Caso Corrientes came after intense speculations about a
presumed plan of Spain's ruling Popular Party and the opposition Socialist
party to pardon former government officials and police implicated in the GAL
death-squads and those sentenced in the Filesa corruption case by way of
granting a general pardon or "indulto" that would also include ETA prisoners
who "reject armed struggle."  

Last week the president of the Socialist party Joaquin Almunia met with
Spain's Prime Minister and president of the Popular Party, Jose Maria Aznar,
for support for a tougher stance in fighting ETA.  More than 14 police and
senior government officials of the former Socialist government, and a Civil
Guard general, have been formally charged for their involvement in the
creation, funding, and activities of the GAL death squads that killed at least
28 Basques in the mid 1980s.

The president of the Popular Party in Bascongadas (3 of the 4 Basque provinces
under Spanish administration) Carlos Iturgaiz said the government is
considering to pardon a former ETA member, Juan Manuel Soares Gamboa. Soares
Gamboa who was deported to the Dominican Republic was allowed to return to
Spain.  He began cooperating with the National Court (Diplock court--Franco's
Tribunal of Public Order renamed) in cases against people accused of
activities related to ETA. Soares Gamboa is being held in a Madrid jail where
he often gives press conferences and interviews for radio and television. 

Spain's regional government in Bascongadas called for a demonstration tomorrow
in Donostia to condemn the slaying of the Spanish politician.  ELA and LAB
suspended a demonstration that was scheduled for tomorrow in the same city in
opposition to the jailing of the Herri Batasuna's leadership sentenced to a
total of 161 years in prison for disseminating ETA's peace proposal.

Spain wants to provoke and prolong violence:
The Spanish government began talks with ETA in 1989 in Algeria but broke off
talks after just one month.  Although ETA's goals ultimately  point toward
independence for the Basque Country, its maximum political demand for a cease-
fire is not Basque national independence but the right to self-determination.
In 1995 the two leading trade unions in Bascongadas, ELA and LAB, signed a
joint  declaration demanding peace talks between the government and ETA and
Basque self-determination.
In the same year,  ETA offered  the Democratic Alternative for the Basque
Country, a peace proposal for a cease-fire in return of a process of self-
determination.   In 1997,  the Spanish government turned down offers from
Nobel Peace laureate 
Adolfo Perez Esquivel and Basque bishop Jose Maria Setien to mediate between
the government and ETA for peace dialogue.  In November 1997,   after the
Spanish government protested  the broadcasting of  a program about the trial
in Madrid against Herri Batasuna by a TV station in Rome,  Italy's Nobel prize
in literature (1997) Dario Fo issued a public statement asking the Spanish
government to engage in peace talks.
On December 5, 1997, the Spanish government imprisoned 23 members of the
National Board of the Basque political party Herri Batasuna (HB, People's
Unity) for a 7 year jail sentence. Their alleged crime was to disseminate for
public debate a video which discussed ETA's peace proposal for a democratic
end to the existing conflict.

The only possible interpretation is that the Spanish government wants to
provoke and prolong violence.

ENDS.====================================================