Militant group responsible for more than 800 deaths says it has ‘dissolved all its structures’

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This article is more than 1 year old

The Basque separatist group Eta, which killed more than 800 people during its 40-year terror campaign, has announced its full dissolution days after apologising to its victims and their families.



In a letter dated 16 April, but published by a Spanish online newspaper on Wednesday, the group informed Basque institutions and civil society groups that it had come to the end of its existence.

“Eta has decided to declare an end to its historical cycle and its role, thereby bringing its path to an end,” said the letter, which was obtained by eldiario.es. “Eta has completely dissolved all its structures and declared an end to its political initiative.”

The group, which abandoned its armed campaign seven years ago, said the move was part of a process intended to “bring about a new political cycle” in the Basque homeland.

“This decision ends Eta’s 60-year historical cycle,” it added. “But it does not bring an end to the conflict between the Basque homeland and Spain and France. The conflict did not begin with Eta and will not end with its dissolution.”

The letter said Basques had a new opportunity to break with the past and build a future together: “Let’s not repeat our mistakes. Let’s not let our problems fester. Doing so will only give rise to new problems.”

Eta will hold a symbolic event marking its disbandment in southern France on Friday.

Its apology last month was dismissed by victims’ groups, but hailed by the Spanish government as proof that Eta had been defeated “with the weapons of democracy and the strength of the rule of law”.

Spain’s interior minister, Juan Ignacio Zoido, reacted to the letter by promising that the police would continue hunting terrorists “wherever they may be”.

He added: “Eta members got nothing when they stopped killing and they won’t get anything by making a statement about dissolution.”

Eta, which stands for “Basque homeland and freedom”, was founded as a cultural organisation in 1959. Its aim was the establishment of an independent Basque state in northern Spain and southern France.

It took up armed struggle the following decade and, between 1968 and 2010, murdered 829 people in bombings and shootings, almost half of them civilians.

The group also targeted state security forces and in 1973 assassinated the Spanish prime minister Luis Carrero Blanco with huge car bomb.

But Eta’s disregard for civilian life left it increasingly marginalised. In 1987, it killed 21 people in a supermarket bombing in Barcelona. Six million people took to the streets in protest a decade later after it murdered Miguel Ángel Blanco, a young local politician. </s> Basque separatist group ETA announced it was fully disbanding, the final step to the definitive end of its deadly decades-long independence campaign, in a letter published Wednesday by a Spanish news site.

"ETA has decided to declare its historical cycle and functions terminated, putting an end to its journey," the group said in a letter published by Spanish online newspaper El Diario.

"ETA has completely dissolved all of its structures and declared an end to its political initiative."

The letter, dated April 16, marked what is expected to be the last of several key steps towards the full break-up of the group.
• As ETA prepares to disband Basque prisoners pine for home
• ETA begs forgiveness for 'pain and harm' it caused victims and families
• ANALYSIS: Why Catalan and Basque separatists are going different ways

A Basque regional government representative told AFP that following the letter, ETA was expected make a further direct declaration of its disbandment on Thursday, probably in a video.

The letter was sent to figures such as former UN secretary general Kofi Annan to reassure them that ETA was firm in its decision to disband, the representative said.

ETA cautioned in its letter that its own dissolution did not end the deeper "conflict" between the Basque Territories and the Spanish and French states.

But its move marks what is expected to be the last of several key steps towards the formal break-up of the once-armed separatist group, blamed for more than 800 deaths.

ETA waged a nearly four-decade campaign of bombings and shootings for an independent Basque state in northern Spain and southern France.

It is classed as a terrorist organisation by the European Union as well as the Spanish and French governments.

Created in 1959 at the height of Francisco Franco's dictatorship, it is blamed for the deaths of at least 829 people.

Attacks by ETA and retaliation by Spanish state death squads traumatised Spain, peaking in the 1980s and 1990s.

Weakened in recent years by the arrests of its senior leaders, it announced a permanent ceasefire in 2011 and began formally surrendering its arms last year.

On April 20th it asked forgiveness from its victims for the first time for the "pain" caused by its decades-long campaign of violence.

Victims' campaigners complained that the call for forgiveness did not extend to those the group considered legitimate targets, such as police officers and politicians.

Some 300 ETA members are imprisoned in Spain, France and Portugal and up to 100 are still on the run, according to prisoners' families' group Forum Social.

The group has demanded that prisoners be moved to prisons closer to their families after the end of ETA.

International mediators are organising a peace conference in southwest France on May 4th. </s> Madrid: Basque separatist group ETA announced it was fully disbanding, the final step to the definitive end of its deadly decades-long independence campaign, in a letter published Wednesday.



 "ETA has decided to declare its historical cycle and functions terminated, putting an end to its journey," the group said in a letter published by Spanish online newspaper El Diario.

"ETA has completely dissolved all of its structures and declared an end to its political initiative."The letter was dated April 16 and addressed to various groups involved in recent peace efforts.A Basque regional government representative told AFP that following the letter, ETA was expected make a further direct declaration of its disbandment on Thursday, probably in a video.The letter was sent to figures such as former UN secretary general Kofi Annan to reassure them that ETA was firm in its decision to disband, the representative said.ETA cautioned in its letter that its own dissolution did not end the deeper "conflict" between the Basque Territories and the Spanish and French states.But its move marks what is expected to be the last of several key steps towards the formal break-up of the once-armed separatist group, blamed for more than 800 deaths.ETA waged a nearly four-decade campaign of bombings and shootings for an independent Basque state in northern Spain and southern France.It is classed as a terrorist organisation by the European Union as well as the Spanish and French governments.Created in 1959 at the height of Francisco Franco's dictatorship, ETA is blamed for the deaths of at least 829 people.Attacks by ETA and retaliation by Spanish state death squads traumatised Spain, peaking in the 1980s and 1990s.Weakened in recent years by the arrests of its senior leaders, ETA announced a permanent ceasefire in 2011 and began formally surrendering its arms last year.On April 20 it asked forgiveness from its victims for the first time for the "pain" caused by its decades-long campaign of violence.Victims' campaigners complained that the call for forgiveness did not extend to those the group considered legitimate targets, such as police officers and politicians.Some 300 ETA members are imprisoned in Spain, France and Portugal and up to 100 are still on the run, according to prisoners' families' group Forum Social.The group has demanded that prisoners be moved to prisons closer to their families after the end of ETA.International mediators are organising a peace conference in southwest France on May 4.(WAH) </s> International negotiators held a peace conference Friday to mark the dissolution of the Basque separatist group Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA), after its 60-year fight for an independent Basque state in northern Spain and southern France.

 

 Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy commended the victims of the Basque separatist group during an address at the conference. 

 

 "Now that ETA has at last announced its disappearance, our first thought must be for the victims, for all of them without exception, without distinctions," Rajoy said. 

 

 ETA released an open letter Thursday to the Basque people, saying it had "completely dismantled all of its structures" and "will no longer express political positions, promote initiatives or interact with other stakeholders."

 

 ETA, whose full name translates to "Basque Homeland and Freedom" in the Basque language, is responsible for around 850 deaths in its decades-long campaign against Spain. Victim groups rejected the dissolution as propaganda and the Spanish government said it would continue to prosecute anyone involved in past violence. 

 

 "Convictions will continue to be executed," Rajoy said. "There will be no impunity" for crimes committed by former ETA members.

 

 One of the mediators of the years-long peace process, South African attorney Brian Currin, told the conference in the southwestern French town of Cambo-les-Baines the decision to disband is "a commitment to take part in the democratic process" which would "require reconciliation." 

 

 Basque militants founded the group in response to Spain's military dictator Francisco Franco, who banned the Basque language in public.

 

 But Basques say they were marginalized and suppressed for decades before Franco seized power in 1939. </s> MADRID, April 18 (Reuters) - The Basque militant group ETA will announce its final dissolution early next month, public television station ETB reported, just over a year since it ended its armed separatist campaign by surrendering guns and explosives.

ETA killed more than 850 people during the campaign which lasted almost half a century and was aimed at creating a Basque state in northern Spain and southwest France.

The group declared a ceasefire in 2011 and handed over weapons caches in April 2017, bringnig a close to Western Europe's last major armed insurgency.

A Basque newspaper, Gara, had reported in February that ETA's leaders would ask its members to vote on whether it should disband completely by the summer.

The group will announce its full dissolution during the first weekend of May, ETB reported. Details of the event are expected to be announced at a news conference on Monday South African lawyer Brian Currin and other members of the International Contact Group mediating body, it said.

ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna - Basque Country and Freedom) was founded in 1959 and arose from anger and frustration among Basques, who have their own language and culture, from political repression under General Francisco Franco.

The campaign, which included political assassinations as well as bombings aimed at the general populace, escalated in the 1960s into violence that was reciprocated by the Franco dictatorship.

By the mid-1980s, years after Franco's death, attacks including a 1987 car bonb at a Barcelona supermarket which killed a pregnant woman and two children, drew popular revulsion and international outrage.

The Basque campaign and the separatist movement has petered out partly due to a rejection of ETA's violent tactics but has also lost support after the Basque region was granted a greater fiscal autonomy in 1981.

A current independence drive in Catalonia gained momentum after then regional leader Artur Mas asked Madrid to grant it a similar fiscal status as the Basque Country in 2012, a request roundly rejected by Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.

The Basque fiscal autonomy, among the most generous of any region in Europe, dates back to the 19th century and is enshrined in Spain's 1978 constitution.

If it were to be extended to Catalonia, an economically more powerful region accounting for a fifth of national output, the Spanish state would lose about 16 billion euros, according to a study by public research body CSIC. (Reporting By Jesús Aguado and Paul Day Editing by Julien Toyer and Angus MacSwan) </s> Basque separatist group ETA formally declared its dissolution Thursday, marking the definitive end to western Europe's last armed insurgency after more than four decades of violence.

Created in 1959 at the height of Francisco Franco's dictatorship, ETA was blamed for hundreds of killings and kidnappings in its fight for an independent Basque homeland in northern Spain and southwest France.

The group said in a "final" statement it has "completely dismantled all its structures" and "has put an end to all its political activity".

"ETA wishes to end a cycle of the conflict between the Basque Country and the Spanish and French states; the cycle of the use of political violence," it added in the statement, dated May 3 and presented in Switzerland and Spain.

ETA was blamed for the deaths of 829 people during its armed campaign.

The group's highest-profile killing was that of Franco's prime minister and heir apparent, Luis Carrero Blanco, in a Madrid car bombing in 1973.

ETA also kidnapped dozens of business leaders to finance its activities, leading many people to leave the wealthy northern Basque region.

Weakened in recent years by the arrest of its leaders, ETA announced a permanent ceasefire in 2011 and began formally surrendering its arms last year.

ETA had already announced that it would be fully disbanding in a leaked letter addressed to various groups and figures involved in recent peace efforts and published Wednesday by Spanish online newspaper El Diario.

International mediators will hold a peace conference in southwest France on Friday. Irish former Sinn Fein party leader Gerry Adams and representatives of several Spanish political parties are expected to attend.

But Spain's conservative Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy earlier on Thursday dismissed the planned announcement of ETA's disbanding as "noise and propaganda" and vowed there would be "no impunity" for the group's crimes.

"ETA can announce its disappearance but its crimes do not disappear, nor do the efforts to pursue and punish them," he said in the northern city of Logrono.

"We don't owe them anything and we have nothing to thank them for."

While an overwhelming majority of Basques welcome the end of violence, many still want independence.

The separatist coalition EH Bildu, the second largest grouping in the regional parliament, won 21 percent of the votes in the 2016 regional elections.

The party has long called for the roughly 300 ETA prisoners held across Spain and France to be transferred to jails closer to the Basque region and their families.

The regional leader of Spain's Basque Country, Inigo Urkullu of the nationalist PNV party, said he hoped Madrid would soon bring ETA prisoners closer to the Basque region.

"It responds to a demand of the majority of Basque society," he said in an interview published earlier on Thursday in Spanish newspaper El Pais.

"ETA never should have existed. It puts an end to a dark chapter of 60 years," he added.

Apart from ETA victims, there were also separatists killed by far-right groups and death squads backed by members of Spain's security forces in what has become known as a "dirty war" campaign.

According to a December report commissioned by the Basque regional government, more than 4,100 complaints of police torture were made between 1960 and 2014.

Those victims are also demanding they be acknowledged.

"If you don't recognise part of the suffering, it's very difficult to create conditions for... reconciliation," said Ane Muguruza, 28.

Her father Josu, a lawmaker for Herri Batasuna, ETA's political wing, was murdered in 1989 by far-right militants she believes were state-backed.

"It's very difficult when there are open wounds," she said.

"To close them, you have to clean and cure them. And for that to happen, there must be acknowledgment, it's crucial." </s> A woman walks past a graffiti against torture in the Spanish Basque village of Agurain on May 3. Photo: Ander Gillenea / AFP

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said Thursday there would be "no impunity" for ETA's crimes even though the Basque separatist group has committed to fully disbanding after more than four decades of violence.

"No matter what ETA does, there is no room for impunity for its crimes. ETA can announce its disappearance but its crimes do not disappear nor do the efforts to pursue and punish them," he said in a televised speech in the northern city of Logrono.

"We don't owe them anything and we have nothing to thank them for," Rajoy added.

His comments come as ETA is expected to formally announce its dissolution Thursday with a filmed statement, marking the definitive end to western Europe's last armed insurgency after more than four decades of violence.
• ETA begs forgiveness for 'pain and harm' it caused victims and families
• ANALYSIS: Why Catalan and Basque separatists are going different ways

Created in 1959 at the height of Francisco Franco's dictatorship, ETA waged a relentless campaign of killings and kidnappings in its fight for an independent Basque homeland in northern Spain and southwest France, leaving at least 829 dead.

Weakened in recent years by the arrest of its leaders, ETA announced a permanent ceasefire in 2011 and began formally surrendering its arms last year.

In a leaked letter published Wednesday by Spanish online newspaper El Diario, the group went a step further, announcing it was fully disbanding.

"ETA has completely dissolved all of its structures and declared an end to its political initiative," it said.

The regional leader of Spain's Basque Country, Inigo Urkullu, said he hoped ETA's end would be "unilateral, effective and definitive", in an interview published in newspaper El Pais on Thursday.

The group "owed" this step to "Basque society and humanity as a whole", he added.

"ETA never should have existed. It puts an end to a dark chapter of 60 years."

Spanish press have also reported that veteran, high-level ETA member Jose Antonio Urrutikoetxea, better known as Josu Ternera, will be in the video.

The 67-year-old is a wanted fugitive who disappeared in 2002 and is said to be suffering from cancer.

His potential presence in the video has infuriated some of ETA's victims, who say the separatist group should first and foremost condemn its history of violence and shed light on more than 350 unsolved crimes.

"This is not the end of ETA we deserved," said Consuelo Ordonez, head of the Covite victims' association, on Wednesday.

A partial apology by the separatist group last month, in which it acknowledged the harm done and apologised to some of its victims -- but not to those it considered legitimate targets such as police -- has done little to stem the criticism.

While an overwhelming majority of Basques welcome the end of violence, many still want independence.

The separatist coalition EH Bildu, the second largest grouping in the Basque parliament, won 21 percent of the vote in 2016's regional elections.

Critics charge that pro-independence parties, which include people once part of or linked to ETA, are trying to impose their version of events.

Separatists argue that Basques have been repressed for decades, even centuries, by Spain and France. This came to a head under Franco, who forbade the use of the Basque language in public.

Victims and historians, though, insist ETA was a terrorist group that went on killing even after Spain transitioned to democracy in the late 1970s. It is recognised as such by the European Union.

"ETA never wanted to bring about any democracy or any freedom, it wanted to end it," said Basque philosopher Fernando Savater.

"And that's what we want to remind people."

But apart from ETA victims, there were also separatists killed by far-right groups and death squads backed by members of Spain's security forces in what has become known as a "dirty war" campaign.

According to a December report commissioned by the Basque regional government, more than 4,100 complaints of police torture were made between 1960 and 2014.

Those victims are also demanding they be acknowledged.

"If you don't recognise part of the suffering, it's very difficult to create conditions for... reconciliation," said Ane Muguruza, 28.

"It's very difficult when there are open wounds."

Her father Josu, a lawmaker for Herri Batasuna, ETA's political wing, was murdered in 1989 by far-right militants she believes were state-backed. </s> MADRID (Reuters) - The Basque militant group ETA will announce its final dissolution early next month, public television station ETB reported, just over a year since it ended its armed separatist campaign by surrendering guns and explosives.

ETA killed more than 850 people during the campaign which lasted almost half a century and was aimed at creating a Basque state in northern Spain and southwest France.

The group declared a ceasefire in 2011 and handed over weapons caches in April 2017, bringing a close to Western Europe’s last major armed insurgency.

A Basque newspaper, Gara, had reported in February that ETA’s leaders would ask its members to vote on whether it should disband completely by the summer.

The group will announce its full dissolution during the first weekend of May, ETB reported. Details of the event are expected to be announced at a news conference on Monday by South African lawyer Brian Currin and other members of the International Contact Group mediating body, it said.

Spain’s Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido said on Thursday that ETA has been defeated politically and operationally and has not achieved any of its goals.

“ETA has not achieved anything by stopping the killing and will get nothing for its dissolution announcement,” the minister said in the upper house of parliament.

ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna - Basque Country and Freedom) was founded in 1959 and arose from anger and frustration among Basques, who have their own language and culture, from political repression under General Francisco Franco.

The campaign, which included political assassinations as well as bombings aimed at the general populace, escalated in the 1960s into violence that was reciprocated by the Franco dictatorship.

By the mid-1980s, years after Franco’s death, attacks including a 1987 car bomb at a Barcelona supermarket which killed a pregnant woman and two children, drew popular revulsion and international outrage.

The Basque campaign and the separatist movement has petered out partly due to a rejection of ETA’s violent tactics but has also lost support after the Basque region was granted a greater fiscal autonomy in 1981.

A current independence drive in Catalonia gained momentum after then regional leader Artur Mas asked Madrid to grant it a similar fiscal status as the Basque Country in 2012, a request roundly rejected by Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.

The Basque fiscal autonomy, among the most generous of any region in Europe, dates back to the 19th century and is enshrined in Spain’s 1978 constitution.

If it were to be extended to Catalonia, an economically more powerful region accounting for a fifth of national output, the Spanish state would lose about 16 billion euros, according to a study by public research body CSIC. </s> MADRID - The Basque militant group ETA will announce its final dissolution early next month, public television station ETB reported, just over a year since it ended its armed separatist campaign by surrendering guns and explosives.

ETA killed more than 850 people during the campaign which lasted almost half a century and was aimed at creating a Basque state in northern Spain and southwest France.

The group declared a ceasefire in 2011 and handed over weapons caches in April 2017, bringing a close to Western Europe’s last major armed insurgency.

A Basque newspaper, Gara, had reported in February that ETA’s leaders would ask its members to vote on whether it should disband completely by the summer.

The group will announce its full dissolution during the first weekend of May, ETB reported. Details of the event are expected to be announced at a news conference on Monday South African lawyer Brian Currin and other members of the International Contact Group mediating body, it said.

ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna - Basque Country and Freedom) was founded in 1959 and arose from anger and frustration among Basques, who have their own language and culture, from political repression under General Francisco Franco.

The campaign, which included political assassinations as well as bombings aimed at the general populace, escalated in the 1960s into violence that was reciprocated by the Franco dictatorship.

By the mid-1980s, years after Franco’s death, attacks including a 1987 car bomb at a Barcelona supermarket which killed a pregnant woman and two children, drew popular revulsion and international outrage.

The Basque campaign and the separatist movement has petered out partly due to a rejection of ETA’s violent tactics but has also lost support after the Basque region was granted a greater fiscal autonomy in 1981.

A current independence drive in Catalonia gained momentum after then regional leader Artur Mas asked Madrid to grant it a similar fiscal status as the Basque Country in 2012, a request roundly rejected by Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.

The Basque fiscal autonomy, among the most generous of any region in Europe, dates back to the 19th century and is enshrined in Spain’s 1978 constitution.

If it were to be extended to Catalonia, an economically more powerful region accounting for a fifth of national output, the Spanish state would lose about €16 billion, according to a study by public research body CSIC.
Basque separatist group ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna), which waged an insurgency against Spain between 1959 and 2011, announces its complete dissolution.