States of Terror

This investigation into the involvement of both the French and Spanish governments with the GAL death squad, which kidnapped, killed and assassinated almost 40 Basque activists during the 1980s, reveals the depth and degree to which both governments knew about the killings.

As with collusion between the crown forces and loyalist terror gangs in the North, initial investigations into attacks on Basque refugees living in the French Basque region pointed the finger at anybody but the real culprits.

Studiously ignored was the political dynamic behind the killings, that both governments wanted to end the French sanctuary that existed for Basque exiles.

In the 1980s, Spain was reeling from an ETA military campaign that the government couldn't contain.

The fragile Spanish democracy, which was only managing to take root after almost 50 years of Franco's dictatorship, was threatened in an attempted coup. Those behind the coup, the Spanish military and pro-Franco forces, cited the level and success of ETA operations to justify their actions.

Although the next election brought the Socialist government of Felipe Gonzales to power in Spain, the political scene had already been set for the GAL operations against exiles in the Basque region of France.

The Spanish state was preparing to hit back. GAL, set up under the guidance of the Ministry of the Interior, provided funds and information for mercenaries to strike at targets living abroad.

What McCaig concentrates on, though, is the involvement of the French government in the killings of 37 people, seven of whom were French, in their own country. Over 30 others, including a number of children, were wounded.

Interestingly, the French government in power at the time was that of Francois Mitterand, also a socialist government.

It seems, however that the imperial and colonial pasts of both states, as they joined together to put down the Basque struggle for liberation, counted for more than their socialism.

No one in the French state has been charged in connection with actually providing information to the death squads. It is similar to how the Dublin government ignored the evidence that the British government was involved in the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings rather than confront the issue.

The Spanish Interior Ministry paid 150,000 pesetas to the GAL gangs for killing any refugee and 500,000 pesetas for killing an ETA activist.

Of those eventually convicted in Spain of the GAL killings was José Barrionuevo the Minister of the Interior, Rafael Vere, Secretary of State, Francisco Alvarez Sanchez was Chief of Police Bilbao and Julio Sancristobal was Director of State for Security.

Felipe Gonzales was never questioned but no one seriously believes that with so many of his senior political friends involved in the conspiracy that the former Prime Minister is totally innocent.

On a human level, the film opened and closed with extracts from an interview with the parents of one of the activists who was killed: ``We have no children now, we have no one to give us grandchildren.''