The Basque Minister of Justice and Human Rights, María Jesús San José, has underlined, when referring to the "cruel" attacks by the GAL (Anti-Terrorist Liberation Groups) and in particular to the attack against the Hôtel Monbar in Bayonne (France), in which four people died and another was injured, that "no violence can ever justify the use of another in the opposite direction", also insisting that "nothing can justify, minimize or relativize the violation of human rights".
The Department of Justice and Human Rights, together with the Institute of Memory, Coexistence and Human Rights-Gogora, has opened this Monday in the La Bolsa building in Bilbao an exhibition dedicated to the Hôtel Monbar attack, perpetrated on September 25, 1985, in Bayonne.
The exhibition brings together more than a dozen explanatory panels in Basque and Spanish, as well as a nine-minute video with testimonies from relatives of the victims. The tour reviews what the GAL were, their trajectory, the context in which they operated, the list of their fatal victims and, centrally, the shooting at the Hôtel Monbar, defined in the exhibition itself as "the biggest attack ever committed by the GAL", in which Agustín Irazustabarrena, Sabin Etxaide, Ignacio Asteazunzarra and José María Etxaniz were murdered.
After its premiere in San Sebastián, this is the second city to host the exhibition. It will remain in Bilbao for 15 days before moving to another municipality yet to be determined, although the department has acknowledged the "interest" of several Basque towns, including Bergara and Zestoa, in receiving it.
During the opening ceremony, San José alluded to the "cruel" attack on the Hotel Monbar as one of "so many others that should never have happened".
As she detailed, the exhibition pursues three main goals. The first, "to recognize its victims", because, although "the Basque Government did so in its day", it considers "necessary that we be able to convey to society the cruelty and injustice of those murders, to recognize that no one had or has the right to unilaterally decide on the lives of others".
Secondly, it aims to "alleviate the pain of so many victims", after 40 years that "have only served to deepen" that accumulated suffering. And, thirdly, it seeks to promote "a reflection on the limits of the Rule of Law".
The counselor explained that the initiative "wants to be a denunciation and firm condemnation of those who, having the citizen mandate to protect and defend democratic values, decided to act outside the law using the mechanisms of the State to finance and maintain a terrorist organization that caused so much harm to our society".
In her words, "no violence can ever justify the use of another in the opposite direction, and nothing can justify, minimize, or relativize the violation of human rights".
San José concluded by reaffirming the involvement of the Basque Government and, in particular, of her department and Gogora, with the "path" that "puts all victims at the center of politics, listening to them, collecting their testimony so that it becomes part of the Basque intangible historical heritage" and "building the pillars of a solid coexistence committed to the defense of Human Rights".
Presence of victims and relatives at the tribute
In addition to the counselor, various institutional representatives from the Bilbao City Council participated in the ceremony, such as councilors Amaia Arregi, María del Río, Esteban Goti, and Ana Viñals, as well as victims of the GAL and their relatives. On behalf of the latter, their spokesperson, Ixone Fernández, intervened, stating that the exhibition "is not limited" to recounting the events at the Hôtel Monbar, but "also reflects the human consequences that, under the GAL acronym, state terrorism had, the little progress that judicial investigations had, and the shameful impunity that still persists".
The families, through Fernández, have highlighted the "current moment," which they perceive as "an important stage of rebuilding that trust." "In this regard, we consider it a step forward that today we have the opportunity to converge on very serious events from our past that undoubtedly eroded the democratic system itself and its credibility, because there is no state reason that allows transgressing legality to violate human rights," they assured.
Likewise, they wanted to emphasize two messages. On the one hand, that "to move forward, it is essential to remove the issue of victims from partisan battles," since Human Rights "belong to the pre-political sphere." "We are pleased with the tone and respect that has been given to this issue since last autumn; it is progress and also a symptom. Let's protect it," they demanded.
On the other hand, they have emphasized an "essential" aspect: "the need for the official recognition that many victims receive in private and personal spaces to also find their corresponding political projection," understanding that "the public and the private do not constitute separate realities, but rather form part of the same inseparable process, a process that must aspire not only to preserve memory and defend human rights, but also to repair, to mitigate suffering, and to establish itself as an instrument of healing for those who have suffered such serious violations."
The GAL and the Hôtel Monbar attack
In one of its sections, the exhibition includes Gogora's definition of the GAL as a terrorist organization active between 1983 and 1987, to which 27 murders and at least 24 injuries are attributed.
The tour also recalls that "between 1979 and 1982, at least 279 deaths were recorded as a result of political violence: 213 attributable to ETA (m); 13 to ETA (pm); 15 to the Autonomous Anti-capitalist Commandos; 30 to far-right terrorism; and eight deaths from illicit police violence recognized by the Basque Government."
Regarding what happened on Wednesday, September 25, 1985, detailed in a large section, it is explained that "around 9:15 p.m., a car with four GAL terrorists stopped in front of number 24 Rue Pannecau in Bayonne, in its historic center, better known as Baiona Ttipia. Two gunmen got out of the car, approached the entrance of the Hotel Monbar, located at that place, and fired. As a result of that action, four people died and a fifth was injured."
The exhibition also dedicates a specific space to the four victims of the shooting and to the other people murdered attributed to the GAL, another panel to "investigations, convictions, and impunity," and concludes with a general reflection.
In this final part, it is stated that "it is necessary to make it clear that this type of violence, exercised from power and with impunity, undermines democratic legitimacy and turns the State into a reflection of what it should combat. Replacing justice with revenge is breaking the democratic pact. A democratic society that heals must recognize all its victims, without distinction, placing truth, justice, and reparation at the center of its policies," it indicates.
In the same way, it is pointed out that "any society that aspires to be just and dignified must know how to face its past, however painful periods it may find when looking at it. It must be capable of avoiding the temptation to try to sideline those dirty episodes of its history, to want to forget them." "Only in this way can a memory be built that truly serves to build a citizenry firmly committed to Human Rights and coexistence," it concludes.