CLAP HANDS! HERE COMES ETA!

In the days since Luis Conde de la Cruz was murdered by ETA various photographs from town halls of the brief ceremonies held in his memory have arrived in my in-box.

The Spanish habit of silence coupled with clapping at such solemn occasions or funerals sounds odd to the British ear but the sentiments we understand only too fully.

I am not sure how many victims have fallen to the terrorists with the brigadiers death, it certainly many hundreds, I am sure that ETA are keeping count.

ETA will claim that their victims are largely members of the security services or politicians. I am sorry that cuts no ice with me. They are people just like us, son and daughters, mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters.

I must admit that photographs I have seen of convicted ETA terrorist José Ignacio de Juana Chaos makes him look like somebody who would bite your kittens head off. But both the two ETA – Batasuna members arrested in France on Tuesday, who stole the vehicles to be used in terror attacks, look just like the boy and girl next door. I find that even more depressing.

As far as I am aware the vast number of people living in the Basque region want no part of ETA and Batasuna’s independent state. Even if they did it would not excuse the murderous campaign pursued by the terrorists.

I would certainly not want to be a member of any such nation – but then ETA probably wouldn’t want me as a citizen either.

(Clap Hands! Here Comes Charley! is a popular song, first published in 1925 and written by Billy Rose, Ballard MacDonald and Joseph Meyer, and recorded by several popular singers of the era. A version was recorded by Billy Murray in 1925, whose version has apparently entered the public domain. As with many other popular songs of the 20's, It's largely forgotten today.)

CAN YOU REMEMBER WHEN?

There must have been a time when Britain had a Foreign Secretary. Was it back in the days of the last Tory government?

During the reign of Tony Blair he largely decided foreign policy and had bag carriers such as the ‘Startled Rabbit’ and ‘Caravanning Margaret’ to do his bidding. Today we have the Gap Year student. I find it laughable that he should have ambitions to succeed Gordon Brown when he is one of the problems in this lamentable administration.

So who decides policy and makes statements at the Foreign Office?

I ask because the recent statement by the FO alerting Britons to the ETA campaign in Spain has caused widespread anger both in government and media circles here.

A provincial paper that I read each day has on the back page a ‘Palmas’ (palm) and ‘Pitos’ (whistles) caption. Yesterday’s whistle was for Foreign Secretary David Miliband:

“Su comunicado alertando a los británicos sobre la campaña de atentados de ETA en zonas turísticas españolas es un ejemplo impropio de un país de UE, que debe ser más mesurado en temas tan sensibles.”

You can see Madrid’s point. The bomblets have neither caused damage nor injured or killed people and certainly haven’t deterred Britons from living in or holidaying in Spain. However by its statement the Foreign Office has given ETA the success it craved. Well done the Gap Year kid!

SIZE DOESN'T MATTER

It was the sound of two small bombs that greeted me as I returned from my break to penning my blog. Three artefacts were placed on a Málaga beach, in Benalmádena Port and on the A-7, the latter of which was deactivated by police.

Although the devices have not been fully studied by the police the delegate of the government in Andalucía, Juan José López Garzon, stated today (Monday morning) that he believed no more than a kilo of explosive had been used between them.

ETA are the presumed authors of these attacks but the government is still not convinced that there is an active unit of the terror group in Andalucía. After the arrests of members of the Vizcaya commando they claimed that Andalucía had been a target and a meeting had been scheduled for August 16 in Granada to give the go-ahead for attacks on commercial and leisure centres. That date is significant because it is the peak of the tourist season and also coincides with the Spanish long holiday weekend that ran from Friday through to Sunday.

These two bangs may have been a reminder that despite the set backs of the detention of the Vizcaya group, the most active of the ETA gangs; the terror group was still around and could set off bombs if it wished to.

Much has been made of the small size of these bombs, the recent one in Torremolinos and also those set off in the Basque region on the Sunday before the Vizcaya arrests.

I am sorry to say that for me the size of the bomb matters little. If you were standing on or close to it then you would have been killed or injured. If you were nearby you could have suffered shock and died from a heart attack. If you were amongst the hundreds that fled the scene on the Costa del Sol and the thousands in the Basque region you could have been injured, suffered a heart attack and died at the scene or days later. If a person or persons plant a bomb, be it a kilo, a car bomb, a train bomb, they intend to maim or kill and hence they are as equally as guilty in my book.

See “Just As We Would At Home” Friday August 8

JUST AS WE WOULD AT HOME

The sand has long settled in Torremolinos after last week’s small explosion that did little more than create a load bang just after midnight on Tuesday under a bridge beneath the prom.

However Spain is still on high alert as it is feared that despite the recent arrests of its ‘Vizcaya’ commando the Basque terror group ETA may still be planning an outrage for this summer. Andalucía is a possible target but strong warnings have been issued in the Basque region itself.

Last Tuesday’s mini-bomb, which is presumed to be the work of ETA, is the latest in a 30-year campaign against the Costa del Sol. ETA first made its presence felt in 1979 with two bombs. The first was in Marbella and the second at a hotel in Fuengirola with resulting injuries to tourists.

The 80s saw a series of attacks largely aimed at hotels. Targets included the Don Pepe and Don Carlos in Marbella, the Málaga Palacio and the Cervantes in Torremolinos. However the first major ETA outrage in that decade was in Málaga at the old provincial prison where a car bomb injured seven people.

A period of peace then ensued till the summer of 1996 when small bombs went off at the Malagueta beach, the ‘Baños del Carmen’ and La Rosaleda. The following year ETA attempted to strike with deadly precision by assassinating the former mayor of Rincón de la Victoria, José María Gómez, and the councillor Francisco Robles, by placing bombs beneath their respective vehicles. Mercifully a neighbour alerted the police after spotting the objects below their cars. In the same year there was a failed attempt to donate a car bomb with the target being Málaga’s then mayor, Celia Villalobos.

The campaign against politicians had been largely aimed at members of the Partido Popular which was then the party of the national government. The terrorist finally succeeded on June 15 2000 when PP councillor José María Martín Carpena was shot in the presence of his wife and daughter in the entrance to his home in Málaga. Four days later socialist José Asenjo escaped but a bomb burnt out his car.

In July 2001 a car bomb with 50 kilos of explosive was discovered at Málaga’s airport. The following year there were further bombs at the Hotel Las Pirámedes in Fuengirola, Sultán in Marbella and Tamisa Golf in Mijas. Prior to the small bomb last week in Torremolinos there was another explosion of low intensity in Malaga’s Paseo del Parque in December 2004.

The bombs on the coast have largely been aimed at scaring tourists away rather than causing death and destruction. As I write this it seems that ETA is exporting its scare campaign as French police have today dismantled three bombs in the tourist area of its own Basque region. The problem with this tactic is that terrorism and the world has moved on. British tourists for example are not going to abandon going to France or Spain because of the bombs or threats as they face similar outrages at home. They know the security forces are on alert to prevent any attacks. The message from visitors is very simple – we’ll come, we’ll relax but we´ll keep an eye open for suspicious activity just as we would at home.

A MASS KILLER GOES FREE

At 7.26 on Saturday De Juan Chaos was released from jail in Aranjuez in Madrid.

He is a mass murderer convicted of killing 25 people and was sentenced to 3,000 years in jail. He has spent 21 years behind bars.

Whilst in jail in Algeciras several years ago he went on hunger strike and was treated at the nearby Punta Europa hospital in a private room. I have known several people who have been seriously ill in that hospital and sadly never received the level of care that he did.

His release in a controversial subject and is bound to result in street protests. The government has stated that should he intimidate anybody or commit other murders then he will go straight back inside.

By the way De Juan Chaos is also a member of ETA.