Guns, lies and videotape
The government sees ETA’s offer to disarm as propaganda
WHEN ETA, the Basque separatist group, decided to show how it might put its arms out of harm’s way, it produced only a token sample of the weapons used to kill more than 800 people. This consisted of three pistols, a Heckler and Koch G3 rifle, a handful of detonators and some half-kilo bags of explosives, which were shown in a video released on February 21st. The sample was presented by masked ETA members to unofficial mediators who subsequently announced that one of Europe's bloodiest terrorist groups was now ready for full decommissioning. But was this just ETA propaganda, aimed at forcing Spain’s government to negotiate?
This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “Guns, lies and videotape”
From the March 1st 2014 edition
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