ETA declares ceasefire but Spain says insufficient
MADRID: Armed Basque separatists ETA announced Monday a permanent, verifiable ceasefire after more than 40 years of bloodshed but Spain's government rejected it as insufficient.
It was the first unilateral declaration of a permanent ceasefire in ETA's campaign of bombings and shootings for a homeland independent of Spain, which has claimed the lives of 829 people.
"ETA has decided to declare a permanent and general ceasefire which will be verifiable by the international community," the group said in text and video declarations.
"This is ETA's firm commitment towards a process to achieve a lasting resolution and towards and end to the armed confrontation."
A video showed three ETA members in white hoods and black berets, sitting in front of a table and reading the statement aloud in the Basque and Spanish languages.
Behind them on the wall hung the ETA symbol of a snake wrapped around an axe, which represents armed struggle.
Deputy Prime Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba, who is also interior minister, said successive Spanish governments and parties had demanded an irreversible, definitive end to ETA violence.
"It is evident that today, once again, it has not done what democratic parties hoped for," he said.
Rubalcaba said ETA clearly wanted to claim a price for its ceasefire by acting as the guarantor of a supposed negotiation. And the government had repeatedly rejected the idea of an international, rather than Spanish, verification, he said.
But the interior minister, who has flatly rejected previous ETA ceasefire offers, was more positive than he had been in the past. "If you ask me if I am calmer today, honestly I would say 'yes'," he said. "Is this bad news? No it is not."
ETA announced what it described as a permanent ceasefire in March 2006 within the framework of negotiations with Madrid. But in December 2006, ETA set off a bomb in the carpark of Madrid-Barajas airport, killing two men.
! In the l atest statement, ETA called on Spain and France to end "repressive measures" and abandon their attitude of "denial" towards the Basque Country.
The group, which made no mention of disarming or disbanding, called for a democratic process to respond to "key elements" of self-determination and territory.
All Basque parties must agree on how to recognise the Basque Country "ensuring that all political projects, including independence, are possible," the group said.
ETA analyst Gorka Landaburu Illarramendi, director of news weekly Cambio 16 and victim of an ETA parcel bomb in 2001 that blew off several of his fingers, said he did not expect the government publicly to enter negotiations on the basis of the statement.
"I think it is an important step, a new step. It is not the definitive step. And the hope of the great majority of the Basque, even Spanish, people is that this organization dissolves itself and disappears from life."
ETA released a series of declarations in September last year proposing an end to violence and calling for international mediation. But the Spanish government dismissed them, insisting on a definitive, verifiable ceasefire without conditions.
Spanish authorities believe ETA has been severely weakened after its security forces in cooperation with other countries, particularly France, repeatedly decapitated the group in raids on the leadership. There has been no attack on Spanish soil since August 2009.
But ETA has also come under severe pressure from within.
The group's political wing, Batasuna, was ruled illegal in 2003 because of its links with ETA. It has called on ETA to declare a permanent, verifiable ceasefire in an effort to get the ban lifted so it can take part in municipal elections in May.
But Rubalcaba said the latest ETA statement did not go far enough to justify Batasuna's return to politics, demanding either an irreversible abandonment of violence by ETA or a break between Batasuna and ETA. !
ETA was formed on July 31, 1959 during the dictatorship of general Francisco Franco by a group of Basque nationalist students.
On June 7, 1968, ETA shot and killed the police chief of the Basque coastal city of San Sebastian in the first deadly attack for which it claimed responsibility.
ETA assassinated Franco's prime minister and presumed successor admiral Luis Carrero Blanco on December 20, 1973. He was killed instantly when his car drove over explosives planted by ETA in Madrid, sending the vehicle high into the air.
It was the first unilateral declaration of a permanent ceasefire in ETA's campaign of bombings and shootings for a homeland independent of Spain, which has claimed the lives of 829 people.
"ETA has decided to declare a permanent and general ceasefire which will be verifiable by the international community," the group said in text and video declarations.
"This is ETA's firm commitment towards a process to achieve a lasting resolution and towards and end to the armed confrontation."
A video showed three ETA members in white hoods and black berets, sitting in front of a table and reading the statement aloud in the Basque and Spanish languages.
Behind them on the wall hung the ETA symbol of a snake wrapped around an axe, which represents armed struggle.
Deputy Prime Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba, who is also interior minister, said successive Spanish governments and parties had demanded an irreversible, definitive end to ETA violence.
"It is evident that today, once again, it has not done what democratic parties hoped for," he said.
Rubalcaba said ETA clearly wanted to claim a price for its ceasefire by acting as the guarantor of a supposed negotiation. And the government had repeatedly rejected the idea of an international, rather than Spanish, verification, he said.
But the interior minister, who has flatly rejected previous ETA ceasefire offers, was more positive than he had been in the past. "If you ask me if I am calmer today, honestly I would say 'yes'," he said. "Is this bad news? No it is not."
ETA announced what it described as a permanent ceasefire in March 2006 within the framework of negotiations with Madrid. But in December 2006, ETA set off a bomb in the carpark of Madrid-Barajas airport, killing two men.
! In the l atest statement, ETA called on Spain and France to end "repressive measures" and abandon their attitude of "denial" towards the Basque Country.
The group, which made no mention of disarming or disbanding, called for a democratic process to respond to "key elements" of self-determination and territory.
All Basque parties must agree on how to recognise the Basque Country "ensuring that all political projects, including independence, are possible," the group said.
ETA analyst Gorka Landaburu Illarramendi, director of news weekly Cambio 16 and victim of an ETA parcel bomb in 2001 that blew off several of his fingers, said he did not expect the government publicly to enter negotiations on the basis of the statement.
"I think it is an important step, a new step. It is not the definitive step. And the hope of the great majority of the Basque, even Spanish, people is that this organization dissolves itself and disappears from life."
ETA released a series of declarations in September last year proposing an end to violence and calling for international mediation. But the Spanish government dismissed them, insisting on a definitive, verifiable ceasefire without conditions.
Spanish authorities believe ETA has been severely weakened after its security forces in cooperation with other countries, particularly France, repeatedly decapitated the group in raids on the leadership. There has been no attack on Spanish soil since August 2009.
But ETA has also come under severe pressure from within.
The group's political wing, Batasuna, was ruled illegal in 2003 because of its links with ETA. It has called on ETA to declare a permanent, verifiable ceasefire in an effort to get the ban lifted so it can take part in municipal elections in May.
But Rubalcaba said the latest ETA statement did not go far enough to justify Batasuna's return to politics, demanding either an irreversible abandonment of violence by ETA or a break between Batasuna and ETA. !
ETA was formed on July 31, 1959 during the dictatorship of general Francisco Franco by a group of Basque nationalist students.
On June 7, 1968, ETA shot and killed the police chief of the Basque coastal city of San Sebastian in the first deadly attack for which it claimed responsibility.
ETA assassinated Franco's prime minister and presumed successor admiral Luis Carrero Blanco on December 20, 1973. He was killed instantly when his car drove over explosives planted by ETA in Madrid, sending the vehicle high into the air.
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