FILE - This video frame, seen in this March 22, 2006 file photo, which was released by the Basque separatist group ETA, shows three unidentified people with their faces covered, wearing Basque berets and seated at a table in front of an ETA flag with a Basque Country symbol in foreground. The Basque daily Gara says the armed group ETA has issued a statement Thursday Oct. 20, 2011 saying it is ending its armed campaign and calls on Spain and France to open talks. (AP Photo/Basque Television, File)
FILE - This video frame, seen in this March 22, 2006 file photo, which was released by the Basque separatist group ETA, shows three unidentified people with their faces covered, wearing Basque berets and seated at a table in front of an ETA flag with a Basque Country symbol in foreground. The Basque daily Gara says the armed group ETA has issued a statement Thursday Oct. 20, 2011 saying it is ending its armed campaign and calls on Spain and France to open talks. (AP Photo/Basque Television, File)
FILE - In this photo Sept 26, 2010 file photo released by the Basque newspaper Gara, an unidentified and masked ETA member is seen at a table in an undisclosed place. The Basque daily Gara says the armed group ETA has issued a statement Thursday Oct. 20, 2011 saying it is ending its armed campaign and calls on Spain and France to open talks. (AP Photo/Gara, File)
MADRID (AP) ? Basque militant group ETA called an end to a 43-year armed campaign for independence Thursday and now wants to open talks with Spain and France ? a groundbreaking move that could pave the way for ending Europe's last armed militancy.
The group made the announcement to Basque daily Gara, which it regularly uses as a mouthpiece. ETA declared had already declared a cease-fire, but up to now had not renounced armed struggle as a tool for achieving an independent Basque state ? a key demand by the Spanish government.
"ETA has decided the definitive cease of its armed activity," the group said in the statement. "ETA calls upon the Spanish and French governments to open a process of a direct dialogue with the aim of addressing the resolution of the consequences of the conflict."
The statement made no mention of what it intended to do with its weapons.
ETA has been seriously weakened in recent years by wave after wave of arrest of members and even five of its leaders. It has not killed anyone in Spain in two years, and many reports said it was down to as few as 50 members with the capacity to carry out attacks.
Some kind of announcement from ETA has been expected as part of what seemed to be a carefully choreographed process. It began a year ago when its political supporters renounced violence, ETA called a cease-fire and international figures like former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan this week attended a conference that called on ETA to lay down its weapons.
However, ETA in its statement made no mention of dissolving outright and unconditionally as the government has demanded, and asserted what it says is the right of the Basque people to decide their own future ? the status quo as part of Spain or independence.
Still, Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero hailed the news as a victory for Spanish democracy. In a brief appearance before reporters, however, he made no mention of prospects for dialogue with ETA. Talks in 2006 went nowhere and ETA ended a cease-fire after just a few months.
Zapatero's Socialist party is expected to lose general elections scheduled for Nov. 20. So it would be up to the conservative Popular Party to decide how to proceed now.
The ETA statement said the talks with Spain and France ? the independent homeland the group has fought to create includes part of southwest France ? should address "the resolution of the consequences of the conflict." This language usually refers to the around 1,000 ETA prisoners held in Spanish and French jails and ETA weapons.
ETA has killed 829 people in bombings and shootings since the late 1960s. It is classified as a terrorist organization by Spain, the European Union and the U.S.
The announcement came just three days after several international figures, including Annan and Ireland's Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, attended a conference on ETA in the Basque city of San Sebastian and called on the group to end the violence.
Adams welcomed ETA's statement Thursday.
"We called upon ETA to make a public declaration of the definitive cessation of all armed action and to request talks with the governments of Spain and France to address exclusively the consequences of the conflict," Adams said.
"I believe that their statement today meets that requirement and I would urge the governments of Spain and France to welcome it and agree to talks exclusively to deal with the consequences of the conflict," he said.
___
Daniel Woolls and Alan Clendenning contributed to this report.
Associated Presskerry collins kerry collins jermichael finley amy schumer amy schumer diana nyad diana nyad
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.