The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Basque separatists in pledge to totally disarm
Militants have killed 829 in campaign for homeland
The separatist group Eta, which has killed over 800 people in its campaign for a Basque homeland, will complete its disarmament by April 8.
Txetx Etcheverry, a prominent figure in the French Basque community who tried to manage a disarmament effort in 2016, said a collective of civil-society groups had received Eta’s mandate.
“Eta gave us the responsibility of disarming its arsenal and, the evening of April 8, Eta will be totally disarmed,” he said.
The militant group announced a permanent ceasefire in 2011. Disarmament, if completed, would primarily be symbolic, given the reduced arsenal in the hands of the militants is believed to be obsolete.
The governments of Spain and France have demanded that Eta lay down its weapons without conditions, and disband.
Eta, founded in 1959 during the Spanish dictatorship of Francisco Franco, killed 829 people in its nearly four-decade campaign to create a Basque homeland in a region straddling northern Spain and south-west France.
It was most violent in the 1980s, staging hundreds of shootings of police, politicians and businesspeople.
One year after its last deadly attack – killing a French police officer near Paris in March 2010 – the group announced it was renouncing violence.
TheSpanishgovernment was saying little about Eta yesterday until an actual announcement is made. Inigo Mendez de Vigo, the cabinet’s spokesman, said the government of prime minister Mariano Rajoy has “not moved even one millimetre in its position for six years”.
Mr Etcheverry, a member of the Basque environmental organisation Bizi, was among five Basque activists arrested in December in the French town of Louhossoa after police said they had discovered a suspected Eta weapons stash.
They were charged with possession of explosives and weapons, released on bail and are awaiting trial.
The activists said the arrests by French and Spanish police were targeting peace activists managing the bands’ disarmament.
Basque regional leader Inigo Urkullu said its governmentwasready to assist in the disarmament process and asked the governments of Spain and France to show a statesmanlike attitude to reach a permanent solution.
The economically powerful Basque region, where there is a strong cultural identity and the Basque language is spoken along Spanish, is one of 17 semiautonomous regions in Spain.
“Eta gave us the responsibility of disarming its arsenal”