MEXCAN
10th January 2003, 22:33
http://chiapas.indymedia.org/display.php3?...ticle_id=104119 (http://chiapas.indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=104119)
From Eta (Euskadi ta Askatasuna - Patria Vasca y Libertad) to the EZLN (Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional).
Dignity, Respect, Solidarity
We write these lines in response to those which you made to us by public means in the Mexican newspaper La Jornada on the 9th December.
To the children of the EZLN.
A language can be a means of communicating. It can also be a means for damage and humiliation. There are blows that hurt and there are words that hurt more. There are blows that injure and there are words that kill. Our language (which isnt the one that we use to communicate with you, in which you are now reading this communiqué) is Euskara, the Basque language, la lingua navarrorum. It is a language old and young. When latin and greek, now dead languages, were the most powerful languages, as English and Spanish are now, our language Euskara already served from time immemorial to say 'mountain' and 'river' - mendia, ibaia.
For water one says ur, for earth one says lur, for snow one says elur. And when we meet someone we say kaixo o agur - and paradojas, this last word equally serves to say goodbye.
Certainly, you can put in your Zapatista dictionary that dignity is translated as duintasuna in Basque. And Euskal Herria are the Basque People. We, who fight with all the arms that we have to hand for the liberty of our people, prefer to say that Euskal Herria are the People of Euskara, our langauge. Our langauge is our land. Free. And our children come and fight with us. Often without seeing us - in the Spanish and French dungeons, in secrecy, in the normal life of our consumer socieites. But they understand it all without words. Certainly, we are you, the children of the EZLN.
To the elders of the EZLN.
Our people are an old people. We lived in an open land, only protected by mountains and valleys, and by their habitants that refused to live subjugated, that they wanted to decide for themselves without anyone ordering them. Our people have their roots sunk deeply in history. So deep that almost we are certain that in the interior of the earth our roots caress the roots of the Chiapanecan people. And from there it is born the respect for their people that you have maintained alive. Because in our rough hands, in our tired eyes, in our greying hair, we only see the hands, eyes and skin of of our fathers and grandfathers, and of our predecessors. We know that they did not always get it right, that there were difficult moments when the decision taken was the wrong one, that they fought with all their will including aginast their own fears. And that they were defeated more than once. But above all, we know that -
Izan zirelako dira eta garelako izango dira. That we come to say something like -
Because they were, we are, and because we are, they will be. And this leads us to respect them.
We are from here, so from here that whoever comes to our land, if they desire, is one of us. It is not the colour of your skin that makes us Basque. We would be able to say with a certain irony that is the tendency in the struggle for liberty that keeps us Basque.
To the men and women of the EZLN
The dignity of the people in the struggle provokes in us sentiments of respect. Hundreds and thoudands of men and women from all over the world have supported our organisation in the form of solidarity and armed struggle. Men and women that should have to jump, the majority of the time, the trenches of disinfomration and insults to arrive at an understanding of our struggle for freedom, our methods, our objectives of justice and liberty. Its true that at times we may seem selfish. “In the middle of Europe and fighting with arms in our hands!” But what more do they want?, one could ask in light of the quality of life that is enjoyed in Europe thanks to the exploitation of the peoples of the world.
We want freedom. Simply and plainly. Freedom to decide for ourselves as a people. How we organise, how we live, how to solve the terrible injustices that European states commit. Our solidarity with the struggle of the people of Chiapas is unconditional. Never will we say how or what they have to do (unless they were to ask us). Always we will do everything that is in our hands to help them in their struggle. And for ‘solidarity’ one says ‘elkartasuna’.
To the children. Elders, men and women of the EZLN
Concretely, Subcommandante Marcos, he wrote us a communiqué (its certain that he was able to write a lot, but he sent to us a story that he addressed in his name), and as we are not party to military hierarchies, we are going to respond directly to the SubCommandante in the lines that follow:
After studying in detail the letter which he sent to our organisation, like the rest of the letters published in the same newspaper, ETA communiqués the following:
We have serious doubts of the true intention of the proposed dialogue on the Canary Island of Lanzarote. It seems likely to us that this is a desperate manoeuvre in order to attract international attention for them, through the echo of all that is associated with the Basque conflict, especially within the Spanish state.
The public manner, without prior consultation, in which you made this proposal reflects a deep lack of respect for the Basque people and towards all those whom within their organisations are fighting for one or another form of freedom.
ETA is always available to listen, talk and negotiate, respecting the will of the Basque people and their organisations. Examples of this are the diverse initiatives that we have embarked upon throughout these years of struggle. Without going too far: negotiations of Argel in 89, proposal of alternative democracy in 95, political initiative with the suspension of armed action in 98-99…
We don’t renounce starting more initiatives in the future. Our will for a just and full resolution of the conflict is still in place. But they have to be serious proposals, based upon wide consensus and legitimate social support.
Also we want to make it clear that it isn’t in our objectives to form any part of a ‘pantomime’ or ‘opera’ to be able to gain the favour of the front pages of the international press, internet pages, or to be the cause of the next fashionable t shirt on the main street in Madrid.
On our part, we are available to do all that is possible in order that the EZLN is informed better about the conflict that confronts the Basque people against the Spanish and French state.
If there is anything to globalise in this world, it is justice and respect. It is something that we should start our own organisations, revolutionary or rebellious. ETA has always avoided meddling in the decisions taken by other revolutionary organisations, or rebellions outside our own frontiers. Always we have limited our acts to complete solidarity with their struggle, at the same time as enriching us with their experience. Always we have looked with sympathy and we have demonstrated our solidarity with organisations and people as much in Mexico as in the Spanish state or in other parts of the world that fight for a fairer world and for freedom for all people.
Without more we say farewell to you. You receive a revolutionary and rebellious greeting from the indigenous of Europe. Agur.
Long live Free Chiapas.
¡Gore Euskal Herria Askatuta!
The Basque Country, 1st January 2003.
(nothing is accidental)
Euskadi ta Askatasuna.
E.T.A.
From Eta (Euskadi ta Askatasuna - Patria Vasca y Libertad) to the EZLN (Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional).
Dignity, Respect, Solidarity
We write these lines in response to those which you made to us by public means in the Mexican newspaper La Jornada on the 9th December.
To the children of the EZLN.
A language can be a means of communicating. It can also be a means for damage and humiliation. There are blows that hurt and there are words that hurt more. There are blows that injure and there are words that kill. Our language (which isnt the one that we use to communicate with you, in which you are now reading this communiqué) is Euskara, the Basque language, la lingua navarrorum. It is a language old and young. When latin and greek, now dead languages, were the most powerful languages, as English and Spanish are now, our language Euskara already served from time immemorial to say 'mountain' and 'river' - mendia, ibaia.
For water one says ur, for earth one says lur, for snow one says elur. And when we meet someone we say kaixo o agur - and paradojas, this last word equally serves to say goodbye.
Certainly, you can put in your Zapatista dictionary that dignity is translated as duintasuna in Basque. And Euskal Herria are the Basque People. We, who fight with all the arms that we have to hand for the liberty of our people, prefer to say that Euskal Herria are the People of Euskara, our langauge. Our langauge is our land. Free. And our children come and fight with us. Often without seeing us - in the Spanish and French dungeons, in secrecy, in the normal life of our consumer socieites. But they understand it all without words. Certainly, we are you, the children of the EZLN.
To the elders of the EZLN.
Our people are an old people. We lived in an open land, only protected by mountains and valleys, and by their habitants that refused to live subjugated, that they wanted to decide for themselves without anyone ordering them. Our people have their roots sunk deeply in history. So deep that almost we are certain that in the interior of the earth our roots caress the roots of the Chiapanecan people. And from there it is born the respect for their people that you have maintained alive. Because in our rough hands, in our tired eyes, in our greying hair, we only see the hands, eyes and skin of of our fathers and grandfathers, and of our predecessors. We know that they did not always get it right, that there were difficult moments when the decision taken was the wrong one, that they fought with all their will including aginast their own fears. And that they were defeated more than once. But above all, we know that -
Izan zirelako dira eta garelako izango dira. That we come to say something like -
Because they were, we are, and because we are, they will be. And this leads us to respect them.
We are from here, so from here that whoever comes to our land, if they desire, is one of us. It is not the colour of your skin that makes us Basque. We would be able to say with a certain irony that is the tendency in the struggle for liberty that keeps us Basque.
To the men and women of the EZLN
The dignity of the people in the struggle provokes in us sentiments of respect. Hundreds and thoudands of men and women from all over the world have supported our organisation in the form of solidarity and armed struggle. Men and women that should have to jump, the majority of the time, the trenches of disinfomration and insults to arrive at an understanding of our struggle for freedom, our methods, our objectives of justice and liberty. Its true that at times we may seem selfish. “In the middle of Europe and fighting with arms in our hands!” But what more do they want?, one could ask in light of the quality of life that is enjoyed in Europe thanks to the exploitation of the peoples of the world.
We want freedom. Simply and plainly. Freedom to decide for ourselves as a people. How we organise, how we live, how to solve the terrible injustices that European states commit. Our solidarity with the struggle of the people of Chiapas is unconditional. Never will we say how or what they have to do (unless they were to ask us). Always we will do everything that is in our hands to help them in their struggle. And for ‘solidarity’ one says ‘elkartasuna’.
To the children. Elders, men and women of the EZLN
Concretely, Subcommandante Marcos, he wrote us a communiqué (its certain that he was able to write a lot, but he sent to us a story that he addressed in his name), and as we are not party to military hierarchies, we are going to respond directly to the SubCommandante in the lines that follow:
After studying in detail the letter which he sent to our organisation, like the rest of the letters published in the same newspaper, ETA communiqués the following:
We have serious doubts of the true intention of the proposed dialogue on the Canary Island of Lanzarote. It seems likely to us that this is a desperate manoeuvre in order to attract international attention for them, through the echo of all that is associated with the Basque conflict, especially within the Spanish state.
The public manner, without prior consultation, in which you made this proposal reflects a deep lack of respect for the Basque people and towards all those whom within their organisations are fighting for one or another form of freedom.
ETA is always available to listen, talk and negotiate, respecting the will of the Basque people and their organisations. Examples of this are the diverse initiatives that we have embarked upon throughout these years of struggle. Without going too far: negotiations of Argel in 89, proposal of alternative democracy in 95, political initiative with the suspension of armed action in 98-99…
We don’t renounce starting more initiatives in the future. Our will for a just and full resolution of the conflict is still in place. But they have to be serious proposals, based upon wide consensus and legitimate social support.
Also we want to make it clear that it isn’t in our objectives to form any part of a ‘pantomime’ or ‘opera’ to be able to gain the favour of the front pages of the international press, internet pages, or to be the cause of the next fashionable t shirt on the main street in Madrid.
On our part, we are available to do all that is possible in order that the EZLN is informed better about the conflict that confronts the Basque people against the Spanish and French state.
If there is anything to globalise in this world, it is justice and respect. It is something that we should start our own organisations, revolutionary or rebellious. ETA has always avoided meddling in the decisions taken by other revolutionary organisations, or rebellions outside our own frontiers. Always we have limited our acts to complete solidarity with their struggle, at the same time as enriching us with their experience. Always we have looked with sympathy and we have demonstrated our solidarity with organisations and people as much in Mexico as in the Spanish state or in other parts of the world that fight for a fairer world and for freedom for all people.
Without more we say farewell to you. You receive a revolutionary and rebellious greeting from the indigenous of Europe. Agur.
Long live Free Chiapas.
¡Gore Euskal Herria Askatuta!
The Basque Country, 1st January 2003.
(nothing is accidental)
Euskadi ta Askatasuna.
E.T.A.