ETArras no - Why Zapatero should give up negotiations with ETA for good

Early in the morning on the 30th of December, 2006, a dream died. As smoke billowed from the blast crater left behind by a car bomb at Madrid's Barajas International Airport, Prime Minister Zapatero's hope for a permanent end to the fighting between the separatist group ETA and the government went up with it. Or should have.

But the fact is, Zapatero seems to retain his dream for peace with the violent Basque separatists. Though peace talks with ETA were cut off in the aftermath of the car bombing, the first violent incident since a ceasefire was called on the 22nd of March earlier that year, police response was uncharacteristically sluggish. Zapatero distinctly expressed a desire to maintain a chance of negotiations with ETA by ordering the talks put "on hold" instead of fully cut off. The truth of the matter is that there should never have been any negotiations with ETA, and there should certainly be no doubt that resuming them is out of the question.

Though frequent protests demonstrate that Spaniards, Basques and non-Basques alike, desire peace and an end to the protracted war of attrition between ETA and the government. But negotiating with terrorists doesn't bring peace. The moment you begin to negotiate with terrorists and acknowledge their demands is the moment that their cause is affirmed. If they see that their methods bring results, then what is to stop them from demanding everything and anything they want on the threat of continued violence? If governments give in to terrorists, then every dissatisfied member of society will begin to set up their own terrorist group to get what they want. Negotiations don't bring peace: they just sow more terrorism, and the 30th of December was merely a reminder of this fact.

So what should be the government's response? As in any case involving terrorism, a lack of mercy for all who would take others' lives in pursuit of their mindless goal. Members of ETA should continue to be rounded up and arrested without exception, put behind bars where they can't work on gathering funds or wiring car bombs and put to trial to decide a just punishment for their offenses. Let the courts decide what their fate may be; it will certainly be fairer than ETA's way of doing business, which is merely to kill, almost blindly.

If there is anyone that the government should show love to, it is the Basque people, most of whom do not advocate separatism and should not be lumped under the category of etarras but instead given the benefit of the doubt. But never again should the government bow down to the separatists, because it is overwhelmingly clear what results "negotiation" brings.