ETA calls ceasefire
The armed Basque separatist group ETA has declared "the definitive cessation of its armed activity" after four decades of bombing and shooting for a homeland independent of Spain.
The statement was issued this evening on the website of a Basque newspaper in which the group committed to peace.
ETA is blamed for the deaths of 829 people during its campaign for independence in an area of northern Spain and southwestern France.
Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams - who attended an event in the region on Monday calling for peace - is welcoming what he hopes is a decisive and very positive move.
Mr Adams said: "I welcome the decisive and positive terms of ETA’s response to Monday’s ‘Declaration’ in Donostia-San Sebastian by the International Conference group.
"Following our deliberations the International Group expressed the opinion that ‘it is possible to end, the last armed confrontation in Europe’.
"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.
"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.
"These next steps should be about promoting reconciliation, addressing the issue of victims and recognising that a serious effort has to be made to heal personal and social wounds.
"There are other issues which will need to be addressed and which can act as confidence-building measures within the process.
"For example, among these are the issue of prisoners and of demilitarising the environment and of respecting and acknowledging the democratic rights of all political parties and treating them as equals.
"At a time when Batasuna is banned and leaders like Arnaldo Otegi, who is totally committed in my view to peace, are imprisoned, the use of confidence-building measures by the Spanish state is very important."
