Terrorism, human rights and law enforcement in Spain

Terrorism and Political Violence

Volumn 17, Issue 1-2, 2005, Pages 265-278

  Alonso, Rogelio ^a   Reinares, Fernando ^a  

^a UNIVERSIDAD REY JUAN CARLOS   (Spain)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 32144436152     PISSN: 09546553     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/09546550490520727     Document Type: Article

References (34)

1. The web page of the Ministry of Interior provides very useful information and statistics on the terrorist attacks perpetrated in Spain by different organisations for the last thirty years. See for example http://www.mir.es/ polida/linea/ter_prin.htm, http://www.guardiacivil.org/terrorismo/index.jsp and http://www.mir.es/oris/infoeta/index.htm
2. On this issue see for example Francisco Liera, 'La Red Terrorista: Subcultura de la Violencia y Nacionalismo en Euskadi', in Antonio Robles Egea (ed), La Sangre de las Naciones. Identidades Nacionales y Violencia Politica (Granada: Universidad de Granada 2003) pp. 265-96.
3. Percentages of the evolution of the vote in the Basque Country showing how the electorate is evenly divided between nationalists and non-nationalists can be found in Jose Luis Barberia and Patxo Unzueta, Como Hemos Llegado a Esta. La Crisis Vasca (Madrid: Taurus 2003) pp.306-315.
4. The Euskobarometro, as these surveys conducted by a team from the Politics Department at the University of the Basque Country are known, are periodically updated and can be consulted at http://www.ehu.es/cpvweb/ pags_directas/euskobarometroFR.html
5. Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights, Report by Mr. Alvaro Gil Robles, Commissioner for Human Rights, On His Visit to Spain and the Basque Country (Strasbourg: Council of Europe 2001) p.2.
6. Francisco J. Liera, Los Vascos y la Politica. El Proceso Politico Vasco: Elecciones, Partidos, Opinion publica y Legitimation en el Pais Vasco, 1977-1992 (Bilbao: Universidad del Pais Vasco 1994) pp.97-119;
7. Juan J. Linz, Conflicto en Euskadi (Madrid: Espasa Calpe 1986) pp.617-65.
8. University of the Basque Country, Euskobarometro (May 2004) http://www.ehu.es/cpvweb/pags_directas/euskobarometroFR.html
9. Oscar Jaime, Policia, Terrorismo y Gambia Politico en Espana 1976-1996 (Valencia: Tirant lo Blanch 2002) pp.219-62.
10. This thesis was formulated by judge Baltasar Garzon as far back as 1997 in his 'Con Esperanza en el Futuro... ', in Sagrario Moran (ed), ETA entre Espana y Francia (Madrid: Editorial Complutense 1997) pp.XV-LTV.
11. For a thorough analysis of the complex system of organisations linked to ETA, their actions and the nature of their relationships see Jose Manuel Mata, El Nacionalismo Vasco Radical. Discurso, Organizations y Expresiones (Bilbao: Universidad del Pais Vasco 1993).
12. Katherine A. Sawyer, 'Rejection of Weimarian Politics or Betrayal of Democracy?: Spain's Proscription of Batasuna under the European Convention on Human Rights', American University Law Review, 52 (2003) pp.1531-81.
13. The judicial report containing these allegations was fully reproduced in the main Basque newspaper, El Correo, in Oct. 2002: http://servicios. elcorreodigital.com/vizcaya/pg021018/actualidad/politica/200210/17/ RC-auto-garzon.html
14. Florencio Dominguez, Las Raices del Miedo. Euskadi, una Sociedad Atemorizada (Madrid: El Pais Aguilar 2003) pp.260-61. Euskal Herria, the ethno-linguistic unit claimed by Basque separatists as their homeland, is made up of the three Spanish provinces that contain the Basque Country (Guipuzcoa, Alava and Vizcaya), as well as another Spanish province outside the Basque Autonomous Community, Navarre, and the French Departments of Labourd, Soul and the Lower Navarre portions of Pyrenees.
15. 'Gesto por la Paz Estima que 42,000 Personas Sufren la Amenaza Directa de los Etarras', El Pais 9 Nov. 2002.
16. 'El Instituto Internacional de Prensa Denuncia los Ataques de ETA Contra la Libertad de Expresion', El Correo 19 March 2003.
17. Committee on Citizen's Freedoms and Rights, Justice and Home Affairs, Report on the situation as regards fundamental rights in the European Union (2003/2006) (INI), Alima Boumediene-Thiery (European Parliament 2003);
18. and Committee on Citizen's Freedoms and Rights, Justice and Home Affairs, Report on the situation as regards fundamental rights in the European Union (2002/2013) (INI), Fodé Sylla (European Parliament 2002).
19. Basta Ya! Iniciativa Ciudadana, Euskadi, del Sueno a la Verguenza (Barcelona: Ediciones B 2004) pp.363-64.
20. Quoted in El Correo, 9 Jan. 2003.
21. 'De la Ofensiva Electoral a la Guerra Politico Judicial', eaj-pnv.com April 2003. There are plenty of examples of speeches and articles by nationalist politicians comparing Spanish democracy with Franco's dictatorship as a means of attacking the legitimacy of the Statute of Autonomy. Euzkadi Buru Batzarra, 10 April 2003, http://www.eaj-nv.com/documentos/documentos/ Ilegalizacion%20Batasuna030410.doc
22. Koldo San Sebastian, 'Yo Estoy de Acuerdo con Manolo Huertas', Deia 19 Feb. 2003.
23. Quoted in Deia, 24 Feb. 2003.
24. Quoted in Patxo Unzueta, 'No Permitiremos que nos Llamen Ambiguos', El Pais 20 March 2003.
25. The annual assessments compiled by the Spanish Ministry of Interior provide ample evidence of this success in countering ETA's terrorism. See for example http://www.mir.es/oris
26. Oscar Jaime (note 7) pp. 167-217.
27. Florencio Dominguez Iribarren, De la negociacion a la Tregua: El Final de ETA? (Madrid: Taurus 1998) pp.201-21.
28. Civil and Political Rights, Including the Question of Torture and Detention. Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Question of Torture, Theo van Boven. United Nations Economic and Social Council, Commission on Human Rights, (2004) E/CN.4/2004/56/Add.2
29. It should be mention that ETA has often used television footage to identify their targets. Recently police discovered TV footage of a raid in Cahors (France) in which three ETA members were arrested with 500 kilos of explosives. The policemen who were coming in and out of the house raided had been identified as targets by another group of terrorists.
30. On the GAL, see Paddy Woodworth, Clean Hands, Dirty War (Cork: University Press 2001).
31. Fernando Reinares and Oscar Jaime, 'Countering Terrorism in a New Democracy: The Case of Spain', in Fernando Reinares (ed), European Democracies Against Terrorism. Governmental Policies and Intergovernmental Cooperation (Aldershot, Hampshire: Ashgate 2000) pp.119-45.
32. Maria J. Funes, 'Social Responses to Political Violence in the Basque Country: Peace Movements and Their Audience', Journal of Conflict Resolution 42 (1998) pp.493-510.
33. Gara, 30 April 2000.
34. Juan Jose Ibarretxe formalised his proposal in the Basque Parliament in 2002 and 2003. The parliamentary speeches on this initiative can be read in full in El Correo, 28 Sep. 2002, 26 Sep. 2003 and 26 Oct. 2003. At the time of writing Ibarretxe was still pressing for the implementation of his proposal in spite of having been rejected by parties such as the PSOE and PP.