Adams confident Eta cease-fire will last
Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams said today he was confident the cease-fire by the armed Basque group Eta would be permanent, but warned that the breaking of ties by Spain’s main opposition party with the government over the peace process did not augur well.
“I believe the Eta statement,” Adams said at a news conference in Madrid. “I don’t see any sense in them making such a statement about a permanent cessation unless they were sincere about it.”
Sinn Féin has strong ties with pro-Basque independence supporters in Spain, particularly the outlawed Batasuna party, which is viewed as the political branch of Eta.
Blamed for more than 800 killings since 1968, Eta announced what it termed as a permanent cease-fire on March 22.
Adams arrived in the northern Basque city of Bilbao yesterday for a three-day visit to support the Basque peace process.
He met with political party leaders in the Basque region, and was to address a meeting of political and business leaders later today in Madrid.
Tomorrow he travels to Barcelona.
He said he had no plans to meet Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero, and said Sinn Fein would not have a role in the Basque process unless it was asked.
