Post date: Sep 05, 2010 12:22:53 PM
The Basque separatist group ETA has decided to stop carrying out armed attacks, Basque-language newspaper Gara said on its website on Sunday (Sep. 5).
ETA HANDOUT - The Basque separatist group ETA has decided to stop carrying out armed attacks, Basque-language newspaper Gara said on its website on Sunday (September 5).
Gara did not make clear whether the ceasefire was permanent or temporary.
In a video posted on the Gara website, three figures were shown dressed in black, their faces covered with gold cloths with holes cut out for their eyes.
They were seated at a table under the emblem of the separatist group and next to the Basque flag, and the central
figure made a statement in the Basque language.
"ETA announces that it took the decision several months ago not to carry out armed actions," an ETA spokeswoman said in a statement.
"ETA wishes to reiterate to Basque political, social and trade union activists its call to act responsibly; that it is necessary to take firm steps as a people in order to reach a scenario for a democratic process; to establish a way to give the people a voice. Because the door to a real solution of the conflict will be opened when the rights of the Basque country are recognised and ratified. To conclude: We call on all Basque citizens to continue in the struggle, each in their own field, with whatever degree of commitment they have, so that we can all cast down the wall of denial and make irreversible moves forward on the road to freedom," she added.
Interior ministry officials declined to comment on the statement by ETA, which has been responsible for around 850
deaths in a four-decade fight to carve out an independent Basque state in northern Spain and southern France.
ETA has been crippled by the arrest of leading members in recent years. The group's leader was caught in February in
northern France along with two senior ETA members.
ETA declared a permanent ceasefire in March 2006, but Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero called off the peace process later that year after the group detonated a car bomb at Madrid airport that killed two Ecuadorians.