In a statement sent to two Basque newspapers, the Basque
separatist group ETA Tuesday announced it would end its cease-fire
truce at midnight Tuesday.
ETA attributed its move to the Spanish government persistently
detaining, torturing and persecuting its members. ETA also sought
to blame the government for derailing the peace process, adding
that the group would be "active on all fronts to defend the Basque
homeland."
ETA continued to say that "the minimum conditions have not been
met to continue the process of negotiations" with the
government.
In a brief televised address, Spanish Prime Minister Zapatero
said, "ETA's decision goes against the desired path for Basque and
Spanish society -- the path of peace." He vowed to take tough
measures to counter the separatist group.
Formed in 1959, ETA's mission statement is to secure an
independent Basque state in the Basque region straddling the
Spanish-French border. Over the past four decades, their repeated
assassinations, kidnappings and bombings have claimed close to a
1,000 lives.
ETA declared a permanent truce on March 22, 2006 and within
three months, the Spanish government had agreed to open talks.
However, an ETA bomb at Madrid airport last December that killed
two people pushed Zapatero's government to call off the peace
process.
(Xinhua News Agency June 6, 2007)
