ETA declares ceasefire to launch "democratic process" (2nd Lead)

Sep 5, 2010, 12:54 GMT

Madrid - The militant Basque separatist group ETA on Sunday declared a ceasefire in order to launch a 'democratic process' for the Basques to 'freely' decide their future.

ETA decided several months ago not to 'carry out offensive armed actions,' the group said in a communique read out by three masked ETA members on a video quoted by the BBC and the Basque newspaper Gara.

ETA did not say whether the ceasefire was permanent or temporary.

The government wants ETA to lay down arms in a 'unilateral, definitive, unconditional and verifiable' manner, government sources said. The Interior Ministry was analyzing the announcement.

ETA's announcement was preceded by the publication Friday of a document in which ETA's political wing, Batasuna, encouraged the group to call a 'permanent' ceasefire under international supervision.

Decimated by police crackdowns, ETA had not carried out significant attacks for over a year, and police experts had expected the group to call a ceasefire this month.

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's government, however, has expressed scepticism over the eventual ceasefire, fearing ETA could use it to rearm as it has done in the past.

On the video, ETA said that its armed struggle had created 'new political conditions.'

The Basque region's current autonomy system having become outdated, the time had come to 'build for the Basque Country a democratic framework,' according to the communique.

If Spain was willing, ETA was prepared, 'today as yesterday, to agree on minimum democratic conditions to launch the democratic process,' ETA said, calling on the international community to participate.

Accusing Spain of a 'fascist' campaign to eradicate separatism, ETA called for a 'democratic solution' involving 'dialogue and negotiation' so that the Basques could freely decide their future.

The Spanish government, however, refuses to discuss the subject of Basque Independence.

ETA's violence is opposed by the vast majority of Basques, and the group had come under increasing pressure - even from groups sympathetic to it - to switch from a military to a purely political strategy in the quest for independence.

The only announcement that Spaniards wanted from ETA was that it was definitively laying down arms, the government said in anticipation of the ceasefire announcement.

Spanish governments have made several failed attempts to negotiate with ETA, which has declared about 10 ceasefires in the past.

The most recent one, which was described as 'permanent,' was broken with a car bombing that killed two immigrants at Madrid airport in December 2006.

ETA has killed more than 820 people since 1968 in its campaign for a sovereign Basque state created out of northern Spain and southern France.

ETA is listed as a terrorist organization by the European Union and the United States.