Basque terrorists claim to have given up guns

BASQUE terror group eTA is expected finally to end its decadeslong campaign today after claiming it has handed over its arsenal.

However, the separatists warned in a letter yesterday that the peace process could still be derailed.

Despite declaring a ceasefire in 2011, eTA, which killed 829 people during its fight for an independent Basque state in southern France and northern Spain, had refused to relinquish control of its weapons.

But, in the letter, stamped with the militants’ seal and obtained by the BBC, eTA said it had decided to complete its disarmament to allow those in the region to ‘achieve peace and freedom’.

It also described Spain and France’s governments, who refuse to negotiate with eTA, as ‘stubborn’ and said: ‘We want to warn the process can still be attacked by the enemies of peace.’

Its guns are thought to have been given to civilian intermediaries.

Spain’s ruling People’s Party said it will not offer anything in return for the gesture but the move paves the way for reconciliation and eTA’s eventual disbandment.

Government minister Alfonso Alonso described the handover as a ‘surrender’ adding: ‘eTA will accept its defeat after nearly six years in which it said it would make concessions which never materialised.’

eTA – euskadi Ta Askatasuna, meaning Basque Homeland and Freedom – was formed in 1959.