Basque leader criticises government

A leading Basque separatist said today the Spanish government’s carrot and stick approach to the troubled region would not bring peace.

Arnaldo Otegi, leader of the outlawed Batasuna nationalist party, who was released on Friday from a Madrid jail, told a press conference in the Basque seaside resort of San Sebastian that the government’s policy “doesn’t balance with a sincere wish for peace and for the resolution of the conflict.”

Otegi, 47, leader of the Batasuna party, seen as the political wing of the armed Basque separatist group ETA, was jailed in the early hours of Thursday by a Spanish judge who accused him of being a leader of the armed group.

He was then released on Friday bail paid by his lawyer, Jone Goirizelaia, who was at his side in the press conference.

The carrot policy was a reference to peace talks that prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has constantly denied initiating with Basque separatists, despite opposition claims that talks are going on.

ETA is widely believed to have been badly weakened by more than 200 arrests over the past two years.