MADRID, (Reuters) – Basque separatist group ETA called a permanent ceasefire today, Basque regional newspaper Gara said on its website, three months after the weakened group announced a halt to armed attacks.
The group, which has killed more than 850 people in half a century of armed struggle for an independent state in northern Spain and southwest France, has been crippled by arrests and a rise in support among Basques for legal politics.
“ETA has decided to declare a permanent and general cease-fire which will be verifiable by the international community,” the group said in an English-language statement on www.gara.net.
“This is ETA’s firm commitment toward a process to achieve a lasting resolution and towards an end to the armed confrontation,” the statement said.
A spokeswoman for Spain’s interior ministry said the government would comment later in the day.
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