The people present before this court are
members of ETA and we humbly but honourably defend our militancy.
Today, carrying out a mission confided by our Organization, we are going
to speak in the name of ETA:
You have brought us here before this
court as people politically kidnapped. You have brought us here to judge
us and to condemn us, as you have done before with many other Basque
citizens.
We fight in
favour of the freedom of our country. We assume the responsibility of
our choice and of our acts. However, we don’t recognize the legitimacy
of this court representing the French state to judge us, a state that
denies the rights of the Basque Country and persists in a repressive
way.
However, we haven’t come here to defend
the war or to add fuel to confrontation. We want to take advantage of
this occasion to bring a message in favour of a resolution of the Basque
conflict to the heart of the apparatus of the French state.
Last December when Manuel Durao Barroso
and Herman Van Rompuy, those responsible from the European Union to
receive the Nobel Peace Prize, manifested the value of negotiation as a
means for the resolution of conflicts. Also, they recalled the words of
Jean Monet who said; “It’s better to fight around a table than on a
battlefield.”
The leaders of Spain and France who were
present seem to have approved those words, in spite of their current
refusal for a negotiation in favour of the resolution of the conflict in
the Basque Country.
For many years we have fought on the
battlefield. Too long, too much suffering. Let’s then give an
opportunity to dialogue. We bring the conflict to the negotiating table.
As Van Rompuy said in Oslo: Let’s finish with the cycle of violence, let’s put aside the logic of political revenge.
ETA acts in this sense and for that has
taken historical decisions for the resolution process to be
irreversible. ETA announced the end of the armed struggle in October of
2011. Our commitment is real, there is no ruse. What is important is
that ETA has followed the desires of the Basque citizens.
Last November, ETA made a precise
proposal to resolve the consequences of the conflict. This proposal was
solid and constructive, revealing the commitment of ETA. We aspire to
have a useful process for a stable and orderly end to the armed
confrontation.
They were proposals directed at the Spanish and French governments about various subjects and a calendar for a peace dialogue.
- The formulas and periods for the return home of all the Basque prisoners and political refugees.
- The formulas and periods for the
disarmament of ETA, of the dismantling of their armed structures and the
demobilization of their members.
- The stages and periods for the
demilitarization of the Basque Country, adapting the armed forces to the
end of the armed confrontation.
Also, ETA has expressed their
disposition to speak of the victims and the people who have suffered
damage as a cause of the confrontation.
We reiterate here and now our call to
the French government to implicate itself in this resolution. That they
contribute their proposals at the negotiating table. That they defend
their postures with the same vigour that they have shown in the
repression of Basque citizens, if they wish it so, but not to shut the
door at this opportunity for peace.
Equally conscious of the difficulties
that can be found in this process, ETA thinks that possibilities exist
to advance if paths of dialogue are opened. And we promise that we will
invest the same courage and determination that we have demonstrated to
confront the enemy to fuel the negotiations and to carry this process to
the end.
We know that solving the consequences of
the conflict does not constitute more than a complementary step of
other necessary spaces of discussion.
For this resolution to be lasting,
beyond the consequences of the conflict, it will have to surpass the
reasons of this political conflict. With actors and citizens of the
Basque Country, in a democratic process, to debate them, to search for
points of agreement and to conclude agreements.
Also, many wounds caused by this
conflict must be closed. They are profound and painful wounds. It is
everyone’s responsibility to try to cure them.
A family from Orio has been implicated
in the acts that (will be) evoked here. We repeat that we do not
recognize the legitimacy of this court to judge us. However, ETA does
not deny their responsibility about these acts. We fight against two
repressive states and at times, with our popular methods, to confront
these states, we have had to adopt decisions that we haven’t liked.
The ETA organization wants to say to
these citizens of Orio that we regret the damage that we may have caused
them. These words can be extended to all of the citizens who, like
them, without any responsibility in the conflict, have suffered damage
because of the activity of ETA.
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