ETA declares permanent ceasefire

BASQUE separatist group ETA yesterday declared a permanent ceasefire after almost four decades of bombings and shootings in Spain during its campaign for independence.

ETA said it hoped the truce, due to start tomorrow, would drive forward its desire for Basques to be recognised as a people, while Spain’s socialist government said it hoped the ceasefire would be “the beginning of the end”.

Politicians urged caution about any truce by ETA, which broke two ceasefires in the 1990s and seeks independence on territory in both northern Spain and southwest France.

Three ETA members appeared on state television to announce the truce, dressed in black berets and white hoods covering their faces. They sat at a table in front of ETA’s flag showing a snake twisted around an axe. “ETA has decided to declare a permanent ceasefire from March 24, 2006,” said a woman seated in the middle, reading from a statement.

“The object of this decision is to drive the democratic process in the Basque country in order to construct a new framework in which our rights as a people will be recognised and to ensure the future development of all political options.”

Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern, who has regularly raised the issue of ETA violence with the Spanish government at European Union level, said the ceasefire was very good news. He said yesterday: “While we have yet to study objective information, any decision to permanently abandon violence and pursue an exclusively democratic path is very much to be welcomed.

“Anybody in Ireland who visits Spain or has friends there will be delighted when the ceasefire is confirmed.”

Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams, whose party has been involved in efforts to promote a peace process between the Spanish and the Basques, claimed the ceasefire provided both sides with an historic opportunity to resolve their differences.

“ETA’s announcement provides all sides to the conflict with an opportunity of historic proportions,” he said.

“Today’s announcement gives a considerable boost to the development of a conflict resolution process.”