Eta declares permanent ceasefire

Eta, the violent Basque separatist group that has killed more than 800 people since it was founded in 1968, has declared a permanent ceasefire, the Financial Times reported.

If it is successful and leads to a lasting peace, the ceasefire would mark the end of the only remaining violent separatist conflict inside the Europe Union.

“Eta has decided to declare a permanent and general ceasefire which will be verifiable by the international community,” said a statement in Basque, Spanish and English published on the website of the Basque newspaper Gara on Monday.

Gara has been the usual channel for Eta’s declarations.

“It is time to act with historical responsibility,” said the statement, which was also read out in a video by one of three anonymous Eta representatives cloaked in black and wearing berets, gloves and white hoods.

“In recent months, from Brussels to Gernika, well known personalities on the world level and many Basque social and political actors have stressed the need to bring a just and democratic solution to the centuries-old conflict,” it said.

Eta, which stands for Euskadi ta Askatasuna (Basque Country and Freedom), wants an independent Basque state in northern Spain and south-west France, but only a minority of Basques have supported the group’s terrorist attacks using bombs and assassinations.

Spanish government ministers, who have yet to respond, had been expecting such a declaration from Eta for several weeks. An earlier ceasefire announcement in September was dismissed by Spain and by the Basque regional authorities as inadequate because it did not promise a definitive end to violence.

Eta has been severely weakened in recent months by French and Spanish police raids leading to the arrest of successive military leaders and the uncovering of arms caches.

Spanish Basques, meanwhile, already enjoy a very high degree of regional autonomy and often dismiss Eta militants as young, leftist ideologues out of touch with the real economic and social issues facing the region and Europe as a whole.