The only possible solution is through dialogue, but there has been none with ETA for years. Getting rid of Batasuna just makes dialogue that much harder to attain.

I also think those "anti-ETA" basques should lead this process! If they have the huevos!

The majority of Spaniards have been overwhelming supportive of ousting Batasuna

"Spain" would NEVER try to do anything against, or to harm in any way the Basque Country

It has been a war for many years and the Basque people must fight on the side of SPAIN!

Toddy, are you sure you wouldn't pay ETA the money necessary to release a member of your family if they kidnapped him/her and you were certain that was the only solution?

The Franco era was only possible because the UK and the Americans refused to help the II Republic, both before and after the WWII.

The Terrorist Network by Claire Sterling (1981) details who/what/why international terrorism came about and why it is so effective, etc.

Mr Aznar insisted that no part of the Spanish state would be able to break away and create what he called an "illegal regime".

Toddy: Carrot and stick. Treat the Basques like they were little children. Punish them, then hand them a piece of candy for being good little girls and boys, by doing exactly what the Madrid government tells them to do. Talk about ways to stop violence, not create more terrorism. Any Basque who thinks the carrot & stick is being used would make you eat the stick and shove the carrot --- 'nuff said.

Supporters of outlawing Batasuna: Cut off all avenues of negotiations with the Basques. Deny them the right to protest in the political forum, by outlawing their most vocal advocates because they failed to follow Madrid's specific orders. Then tell the moderate advocates they are next, if they don't do what they are told by the federal government. Tell them, "Behave or else!"

What's wrong with that picture? How does the bloodshed end if you can't talk? How do you call yourself a democracy when you are free to do and say what you want, as long as it isn't against the government holding office?

This "hard-line approach" isn't directed at ETA, it's directed at all Basques. It can't be hidden behind a smoke screen that says it's only against ETA and Batasuna. Too many anti-Basque sentiments crop up in what's said.

I find it hard to believe anyone with a shred of common sense would figure that the present situation will lend itself to eliminating ETA, eliminate the bombings, or get the people of Basque Country to buy into anything that comes out of Madrid.

Brain-washed since childhood indeed. Make the whole thing sound exactly like al-Qaeda and the world will buy the rhetoric. If talking idealism, patriotism, and fundamental human rights at a kitchen table is brain-washing, almost everyone is guilty of doing it. Even teachers.

All you have to do is twist the wording to your own choosing, then apply it. Pick out something heinous to compare with even though there's no real comparison there. Why not? It worked for the Nazis, didn't it?

The only thing that one could learn from all of this is that one should be VERY VERY careful when talking about politics in Spain.

. We have been over this before.

Catalonia echoes Basque call for autonomy

Giles Tremlett in Madrid
Wednesday October 23, 2002
The Guardian

Spain entered a new and potentially critical phase of tension yesterday as Catalonia added its voice to demands from the Basque country for a fresh round of regional referendums over greater autonomy from Madrid.
The demands made in a historic speech by the new leader of Catalonia's ruling nationalists, Artur Mas, added pressure for an extensive rewrite of the rules that have governed Spain since the transition to democracy 25 years ago.

Mr Mas, who succeeds the Catalan regional premier Jordi Pujol as head of the nationalist Convergence and Union coalition, echoed demands from the Basque regional premier, Juan Jose Ibarretxe, when he called for "shared sovereignty" in Catalonia.

His proposals, which will form the backbone of the coalition's manifesto in regional polls next year, were a departure for the dominant party in Catalonia, going far beyond the sort of devolution experienced by Scotland and Wales.

Mr Mas called for a "single administration" in a Catalonia controlled by a regional government that would send its own representatives to the EU and other international bodies and would have the final word on the region's public finances.

Catalonia would also have to be formally recognised by the rest of Spain as "a nation", he said.

The demands were immediately criticised by the centre-right People's party government of prime minister Jose Maria Aznar.

"This is not a priority for Catalonia or for any other part of Spain," the deputy prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, said yesterday.

Mr Aznar's government, which has mounted a vigorous campaign against the Basque proposals for a referendum on self-determination, has suddenly found itself forced to fight on several fronts to maintain its centrist vision of Spain.

Mr Ibarretxe, meanwhile, held a long meeting with Arnaldo Otegi, head of the radical Basque separatist party Batasuna, a political ally of the armed separatist group Eta.

Although Batasuna has had its offices closed and bank accounts frozen while it is investigated for alleged collaboration with Eta - and while Mr Aznar's government prepares a separate court prosecution designed to ban it definitively - Mr Ibarretxe spent three hours discussing his controversial plan with Mr Otegi. These were deemed insufficient by Mr Otegi - once called "the Basque Gerry Adams".

"They are not enough to resolve the conflict," he said after the meeting.

Mr Ibarretxe has said that he would not call a referendum on the future of the Basque country unless Eta first gave up a 30-year campaign of violence - which has claimed 800 lives. Opponents call his proposals anti-constitutional.

Mr Mas' proposals were not quite as radical as those of Mr Ibarretxe and his non-violent Basque Nationalist party.

He called on the People's party and the opposition Socialists to negotiate with him a new statute that would replace the one which gave Catalonia semi-autonomy in 1979.

He held out the promise that, if Catalonia was given far greater autonomy then Convergence would also take up an invitation from Mr Aznar to join his central Spanish government in Madrid. But he also warned that his party would make life difficult for Mr Aznar if he did not play ball.

Catalonia's regional government already controls vast swathes of public administration, including education, health, culture and much policing.

Convergence and Union has won every Catalan election since 1980, allowing Mr Pujol to run the region for the past 22 years.

But Mr Mas faces a difficult battle against Barcelona's former Socialist mayor, Pascual Maragall, in the next regional elections - the first in which Mr Pujol will not stand.

There is not a terrorist band (though two decades ago there was one),