ICIP, in collaboration with Clack Video Productions, has organized the second dialogue in the series The Basque Country: Five Years Without ETA Violence. The event will take place at the Association of Journalists of Catalonia on Tuesday 15 November. Entitled Reconciliation, this second dialogue features journalist and writer Sabino Ormazabal, and the Bishop Emeritus of San Sebasti\u00e1n, Juan Mar\u00eda Uriarte.
\nChaired by the lawyer and ICIP Governing Board member Magda Oranich, the dialogue addressed the state of reconciliation between the opposing parties in the Basque Country in a situation without violence. The two speakers, albeit with different views on the theoretical concept of reconciliation, noted progress in Basque society but also the need to continue working, especially in schools and with young people. \u201cThere are people who do not know who Miguel \u00c1ngel Blanco was [PP councilor kidnapped and assassinated by ETA in 1997] and here there is a lot of work to do for future generations,\u201d stated Sabino Ormazabal. In this respect, Bishop Juan Mar\u00eda Uriarte also noted that there is a lot of \u201cindifference\u201d among young people regarding the ongoing peace process in the Basque Country.
\nIn the dialogue, focusing especially on reconciliation at a social level, rather than at a personal level, it was pointed out that the reconciliation process is not closed, that it will be a slow process and that there is no going back: \u201cThe Abertzale Left is interested in affirming that the Basque Country is reconciled. ETA and the Abertzale Left have many accounts to settle, and to heal and pacify the country these accounts cannot be ignored,\u201d said Uriarte. And he added: \u201cIn the Basque Country people want to forgive, but there are groups of people that do not want to or cannot do so.\u201d Uriarte also pointed out that memory is an integral element of genuine reconciliation: \u201cTo forgive is not to forget, but to remember differently, without resentment.\u201d Ormazabal, for his part, related reconciliation with \u201cpositive peace\u201d and a commitment to deal with conflicts without violence. A point that Bishop Uriarte clarifies, however: \u201cPeaceful coexistence as nonviolent coexistence, without arms, does not satisfy me; it is not true reconciliation. Reconciliation repairs the past and reveals the truth.\u201d
\nDuring the session, the speakers also brought up the lack of political will to modify prison policy or the law of victims, and to address outstanding issues such as historical memory.
\nThe next dialogue in this series, The Construction of Historical Memory, will take place on Tuesday 22 November at 6:30 pm, with the journalists Martxelo Otamendi, of the newspaper Berria, and Gorka Landaburu, of Cambio16.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
With journalist and writer Sabino Ormazabal and Bishop Juan Mar\u00eda Uriarte, as part of the series \u201cBasque Country: Five Years Without ETA Violence\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sense-categoria"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n