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.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
RSS