MADRID: The Basque separatist group ETA apologized Friday for the “pain” and “harm” it caused during its decades-long campaign of violence and appealed to its victims for forgiveness.
“We have caused a lot of pain, and irreparable harm. We want to show our respect to the dead, to the wounded and to the victims of the actions of ETA ... We sincerely regret it,” it said in a statement released in the Basque newspaper Gara.
The statement came just days before ETA is expected to announce its dissolution.
“We know that, forced by the necessities of all types of armed struggle, our actions have harmed citizens who were not responsible. We have also caused serious wrongs which are irreparable. We ask forgiveness to those people and their families,” it said.
The government in Madrid said the apology was the result of “the strength of the rule of law that has defeated ETA with the weapons of democracy.”
“ETA should have asked for forgiveness a long time ago,” it said in a statement.
ETA waged a nearly four-decade campaign of bombings and shootings to establish an independent Basque state in northern Spain and southern France.
At least 829 people were killed before the group announced a permanent ceasefire in 2011.
Last year it went a step further and began laying down its arms.
In its statement to Gara, its traditional mouthpiece, ETA said it was not alone in being responsible for the violence in the Basque Country.
“Suffering existed before the birth of ETA and continued after it ceased its armed struggle,” it said.
Without specifically mentioning the Madrid government, it called for “all to recognize their responsibilities and wrong caused” and to open the way to reconciliation.
“ETA, the national Basque socialist revolutionary liberation organization, wants to acknowledge by this declaration the harm caused by its armed course, and demonstrate its commitment to definitively overcoming the consequences of the conflict and avoiding a repetition.”
The group has been severely weakened in recent years after police arrested hundreds of its members, including its leaders, and seized several of its weapons stashes.
Spain’s 2.2-million-strong Basque region is now gearing up for the dissolution of the group created in 1959 at the height of Francisco Franco’s dictatorship.
On Thursday, an international mediator, Alberto Spektorowski, said that “failing a last-minute surprise” ETA would announce its dissolution on May 5 or 6.
“The declaration that ETA no longer exists will be very clear,” the Israeli academic, a member of the International Contact Group, told Basque radio EITB.
“I cannot say what words they will use but no one will be left in any doubt,” he said, adding that the announcement would be made across the border, in the French Basque region.
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Basque separatist group ETA apologizes for ‘harm’ it caused
Basque separatist group ETA apologizes for ‘harm’ it caused
- At least 829 people were killed before the group announced a permanent ceasefire in 2011
- Spain’s 2.2-million-strong Basque region is now gearing up for the dissolution of the group created in 1959
Philippine President Marcos hit with impeachment complaint
- Rage over so-called ghost infrastructure projects has been building for months in the archipelago country of 116 million
- President accused of systematically bilking taxpayers out of billions of dollars for bogus flood control projects
MANILA: Members of Philippine civil society groups filed an impeachment complaint against President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. on Thursday, accusing him of systematically bilking taxpayers out of billions of dollars for bogus flood control projects.
Rage over so-called ghost infrastructure projects has been building for months in the archipelago country of 116 million, where entire towns were buried in floodwaters driven by powerful typhoons in the past year.
The filing, endorsed by the Makabayan bloc, a coalition of left-wing political parties, accuses Marcos of betraying the public trust by packing the national budget with projects aimed at redirecting funds to allies.
Under the Philippine Constitution, passage of articles of impeachment in the House of Representatives triggers a Senate trial, where a guilty verdict would mean removal from office and disqualification from future public posts.
A copy of the complaint was filed at the House’s Office of the Secretary General “in accordance with House rules,” petitioners said Thursday, though it was not marked as received as the top official was not present.
“The President institutionalized a mechanism to siphon over ?545.6 billion ($9.2 billion) in flood control funds, directing them into the hands of favored cronies and contractors and converting public coffers into a private war chest for the 2025 (mid-term) elections,” a summary of the filing seen by AFP says.
It also accuses the president of directly soliciting kickbacks, a charge that relies heavily on unproven allegations made by a former congressman who fled the country while under investigation.
Presidential spokeswoman Claire Castro, who told reporters on Thursday that Marcos was recovering after spending the night under medical observation for an undisclosed illness, declined to discuss the filing.
“Let’s wait (to see) its contents, we cannot address that as of now if we don’t have the details of their complaints,” she said.
Marcos has consistently noted that he was the one who put the issue of ghost projects center stage and taken credit for pushing investigations that have seen scores of construction firm owners, government officials and lawmakers implicated.
But complainant Liza Maza told reporters on Thursday she believed the moves were only intended to deflect blame.
“We think the investigation he initiated is just a cover-up,” she said. “Because the truth is, he is the head of this corruption.”
Hours later, a group with ties to former president Rodrigo Duterte showed up at the House of Representatives with their own corruption-based impeachment complaint against the president, only to depart without leaving a copy.
‘Slim chance’
Thursday’s complaint was not the first filed against Marcos this week.
Under the constitution, any citizen can file an impeachment complaint provided it is endorsed by one of the more than 300 members of Congress.
On Monday, a local lawyer brought a case citing Rodrigo Duterte’s arrest and transfer to the International Criminal Court, as well as unproven allegations of drug abuse.
Dennis Coronacion, chair of the political science department at Manila’s University of Santo Tomas, said at the time that the document relied largely on “rehashed or recycled allegations” and lacked “sufficient evidence.”
On Thursday, Coronacion said the new complaint was also unlikely to go far in a Congress packed with Marcos allies.
“(It) has a very slim chance of getting the approval of the House Committee on Justice and (even less) so, in the plenary, because the president still enjoys the support of the members of the House of Representatives,” Coronacion said.
Rage over so-called ghost infrastructure projects has been building for months in the archipelago country of 116 million, where entire towns were buried in floodwaters driven by powerful typhoons in the past year.
The filing, endorsed by the Makabayan bloc, a coalition of left-wing political parties, accuses Marcos of betraying the public trust by packing the national budget with projects aimed at redirecting funds to allies.
Under the Philippine Constitution, passage of articles of impeachment in the House of Representatives triggers a Senate trial, where a guilty verdict would mean removal from office and disqualification from future public posts.
A copy of the complaint was filed at the House’s Office of the Secretary General “in accordance with House rules,” petitioners said Thursday, though it was not marked as received as the top official was not present.
“The President institutionalized a mechanism to siphon over ?545.6 billion ($9.2 billion) in flood control funds, directing them into the hands of favored cronies and contractors and converting public coffers into a private war chest for the 2025 (mid-term) elections,” a summary of the filing seen by AFP says.
It also accuses the president of directly soliciting kickbacks, a charge that relies heavily on unproven allegations made by a former congressman who fled the country while under investigation.
Presidential spokeswoman Claire Castro, who told reporters on Thursday that Marcos was recovering after spending the night under medical observation for an undisclosed illness, declined to discuss the filing.
“Let’s wait (to see) its contents, we cannot address that as of now if we don’t have the details of their complaints,” she said.
Marcos has consistently noted that he was the one who put the issue of ghost projects center stage and taken credit for pushing investigations that have seen scores of construction firm owners, government officials and lawmakers implicated.
But complainant Liza Maza told reporters on Thursday she believed the moves were only intended to deflect blame.
“We think the investigation he initiated is just a cover-up,” she said. “Because the truth is, he is the head of this corruption.”
Hours later, a group with ties to former president Rodrigo Duterte showed up at the House of Representatives with their own corruption-based impeachment complaint against the president, only to depart without leaving a copy.
‘Slim chance’
Thursday’s complaint was not the first filed against Marcos this week.
Under the constitution, any citizen can file an impeachment complaint provided it is endorsed by one of the more than 300 members of Congress.
On Monday, a local lawyer brought a case citing Rodrigo Duterte’s arrest and transfer to the International Criminal Court, as well as unproven allegations of drug abuse.
Dennis Coronacion, chair of the political science department at Manila’s University of Santo Tomas, said at the time that the document relied largely on “rehashed or recycled allegations” and lacked “sufficient evidence.”
On Thursday, Coronacion said the new complaint was also unlikely to go far in a Congress packed with Marcos allies.
“(It) has a very slim chance of getting the approval of the House Committee on Justice and (even less) so, in the plenary, because the president still enjoys the support of the members of the House of Representatives,” Coronacion said.
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