Neither the Spanish government nor the ETA terrorists were there, but a conference in the northern Spanish city of San Sebastian last weekend will probably lead to the end of ETA's long and violent campaign for Basque independence. "We believe it is time to end, and it is possible to end, the last armed confrontation in Europe," said former Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern after the conference.
Among the other guests was Gerry Adams, once the spokesman of Sinn Fein, the political wing of the Provisional Irish Republican Army, which fought its own 28-year war for the separation of Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom. Former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan was also there, together with a number of other luminaries. The aim was to give ETA an excuse to come in from the cold.
When ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna — Basque Homeland and Liberty) began its campaign in 1959, Spain was ruled by a dictator, Francisco Franco, and the Basques were an oppressed people. Half a century and 850 killings later, Spain is a democracy and the Basques are free and prosperous. That wasn't ETA's doing at all, but it's hard for ETA's militants to admit that all the killings and all their sacrifices were unnecessary and irrelevant.