Sir, - According to Mr Paddy Woodworth, your correspondent in the Basque region, "ambiguities abound" (The Irish Times, October 28th). In fact they abound not only in relation to the politics of the Basque country, but in Mr Woodworth's article as well.
He claims: "The issue currently most likely to provoke a pro-ETA backlash is an unprecedented court case now taking place in Madrid. The entire central committee of Herri Batasuna is facing years of imprisonment on charges of `collaboration with terrorism' because it tried to broadcast a video expounding so-called ETA's `Democratic Alternative.' "
As a Spaniard of Basque extraction myself, I am going to dispel a few "ambiguities" in this sentence.
Herri Batasuna did not try to show the video: it showed it on national television, and its contents were as follows: a clip from an old Nazi war film depicting Nazi soldiers committing atrocities with the help of Doberman dogs, in which the faces of the Nazi soldiers blurred to give way to the faces of Spanish Democratic politicians, especially the face of the Prime Minister of Spain, Mr Jose Maria Aznar.
This video was shown during the last general election campaign. By no stretch of imagination could this kind of subliminal propaganda, illegal in every civilised country, be qualified as a "Democratic Alternative".
I just wonder what could happen if the same methods were used in Ireland by any party. - Yours, etc.,
Dr Carmen Oroz De Kelly,
Stillorgan, Co Dublin.