"Batasuna would reject armed action by ETA"

When Rufi Etxeberria walked out of jail in September 2009, after two years in preventive detention for being a leader of Batasuna, the political ally of the Basque terrorist group ETA, he meant to retire from his activities and spend time with his family. But other leading figures of Batasuna, chiefly Arnaldo Otegi and Rafael Díez Usabiaga, convinced him to remain at the forefront of the radical separatist abertzale movement.

Etxeberria, who has been a Batasuna frontman since 1988, was angry at the failure of ETA's ceasefires (and ensuing negotiations with the government) of 1998 and 2004. So this time, he accepted to stay on one condition: that Batasuna definitively support an end to violence. A month after that, Otegi himself went to prison on related charges. Since then, Etxeberria has been leading the process of change that Batasuna has been talking about since the Basque elections of March 2009, in which the long-ruling Basque Nationalist Party suffered defeat and the region voted in a Socialist premier for the first time in democratic history.

"Political-military strategy must derive into an exclusively political strategy"

"ETA's calling of a general ceasefire means it must stop all fields of action"

Besides some stock-taking in the aftermath of these results, leaders of Batasuna- which was outlawed by the Political Party Act of 2002 - have been anxious to be allowed to register a new party in time for this year's local elections in May, a move that necessitates a public rejection of violence.

Etxeberria spoke with EL PAÍS last Thursday in San Sebastián about the change underway within his organization.

Question. The abertzale left is proclaiming its rejection of violence. If ETA perpetrates an attack, what will you do?

Answer. We do not contemplate a new outbreak of armed action by ETA. If there was one, the abertzale left has adopted the irrevocable decision that the pro-independence strategy is incompatible with armed struggle. What's more, at the last debate it was decided that the political-military strategy must derive into an exclusively political strategy. The abertzale left would reject armed action by ETA.

Q. Why not condemn it right now?

A. The main issue is the political stand you take, not the words you say. And our political stand is that any strategy that does not stay within the confines of political and democratic methods will be left out of the abertzale left's new strategy, so that an attack would be a reason for rejection. That is the position, regardless of terminological issues.

Q. Why did the abertzale left justify ETA's violence for so long?

A. The abertzale left conducted a historical evaluation and appreciated the existence of multiple violences. There is a conflict of a political nature and [Batasuna] has approached it with a view to a negotiated agreement. We have not developed a policy of justification. And now there are new conditions for that conflict to be overcome forever.

Q. The official statement made by ETA on January 10 did not meet the expectations of the vast majority of parties, since it did not talk about a unilateral, unconditional retreat.

A. To the abertzale left, ETA's decision is a historical one. There is no precedent for it. The statement talks about a permanent, verifiable, general and unilateral ceasefire. "General" is an important new term because it affects all of ETA's fields of action, including the revolutionary tax [extortion racket].

Q. In the last paragraph of the statement, ETA says that it will continue the fight until it reaches its political goals. We may deduce from this that ETA will only cease to exist on condition that it achieves its political objectives.

A. ETA's decision to cease [fire] is unilateral, and it is its own decision. It is not the result of a previous agreement with the government, like in past processes. And I don't see ETA's statement as setting down any conditions. It states the nature of the ceasefire and how it believes a solution to the conflict can be arrived at, but not with the intention of supervising it. It says that the causes of the conflict, as well as its consequences, must be resolved.

Q. The CNI intelligence service says ETA decided to maintain its military strategy at an assembly held in the fall.

A. We are sticking to ETA's resolutions, from September 9 to January 10, in which it adopted a firm commitment to overcome the armed conflict and adapt itself to the abertzale left's resolutions. They are confirming to us that we are in the middle of an irreversible process to definitively overcome the armed fight and the political conflict.