NOBEL Peace and Literature Prize winners, leading diplomats, experts in conflict resolution, stateswomen and statesmen, more than 70 parliamentarians as well as magistrates, intellectuals and artists from all over the world joined forces to call on France for the protection of Josu Urrutikoetxea just a few days before his trial before the Criminal Chamber of the Paris Judicial Court on June 16.

He is accused of “criminal conspiracy with terrorist intent,” even though the acts covered by these proceedings are directly linked to the preparation of the negotiations in Geneva, from 2002 to 2005 and to the negotiation in 2010 of the roadmap for the resolution of the conflict between Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA) and the Spanish government in which he was one of the main players.

International pressure has already contributed to the release of Josu on bail pending his trial but he now faces the possibility of a return to prison. Extraordinarily, it is the French government, not the Spanish, which is pursuing these charges.

This political trial is taking place alongside a significant lurch to the right by the Macron government and in particular an assault on civil liberties, ethnic minorities and immigrants.

Faced with electoral disaster, Macron is trying to steal this ground from a revitalised far right in the form of Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (formerly the National Front).

Despite being a wanted “terrorist,” Urrutikoetxea was a key figure to finding a way out of this conflict in the Basque Country.

From the 1980s onwards, he worked tirelessly to set up the peace talks in Algiers, before being arrested in Bayonne by the French Authorities in the middle of the truce on January 11 1989, just days before the opening of the first talks to resolve the hostilities.

This arrest contrasts sharply with the treatment of Martin McGuinness and other IRA negotiators working to resolve the armed conflict in Northern Ireland and that of ANC negotiators in South Africa. Many of these were wanted “terrorists” but were accorded the necessary protection to help bring about a peaceful settlement.

After 10 years in prison, Urrutikoetxea played a significant legal public role. He was elected twice to the Basque parliament. He prepared and led the Geneva negotiations for the Basque movement from 2005 to 2007 and led the Oslo negotiations from 2011 to 2013.

The armed struggle was declared over on October 20 2011 and arms were handed over on April 8 2017 in Bayonne. Urrutikoetxea announced the self-dissolution of ETA on May 3 2018, ending one of the oldest and bloodiest armed conflicts in Western Europe.

Urrutikoetxea’s current situation is outrageous and intolerable. By criminalising this man who, as early as the 1980s, foresaw a peaceful resolution to this terrible conflict and subsequently negotiate peace, France is implicitly criminalising all negotiators and ultimately calling into question all current and future peace processes in the world.

The international appeal signed by figures from many walks of life ends by stressing that “beyond this particular case, a state that acts in that way more generally undermines the international standards protecting those involved in conflict resolution processes.”

Among the signatories are Lord Peter Hain, former Northern Ireland secretary; Gerry Adams, Sinn Fein peace negotiator; Ronnie Kasrils, ANC peace negotiator; film director Ken Loach and writers and activists Tariq Ali and Noam Chomsky.
 
A general petition in support of Josu is also circulating at www.change.org/-Free-Josu.