ETA agrees to international mediation to end conflict

Published on Sunday 19 September 2010 19:01

The armed Basque separatist group ETA has announced it is willing to accept international mediation to help solve its long-running conflict with Spain's government.

Two weeks after it announced a cease-fire, the group said in a statement published yesterday by Basque newspaper Gara that it is willing to "jointly explore" with overseas mediators the steps required for a democratic process, "including commitments to be taken by ETA".

Since launching its violent campaign for an independent Basque homeland in the late 1960s, ETA has killed more than 825 people. The group previously announced what it called a permanent cease-fire in 2006, but ended it with a car bombing at Madrid's main airport that killed two people and destroyed a parking garage later that year.

Spain's government has repeatedly said progress can only be made when ETA renounces violence for good.

ETA said it is prepared to consider proposals put forward in March by 19 people, including four Nobel peace laureates, in a document called the Brussels Declaration.

It called on ETA to announce a permanent, unilateral, unconditional and internationally verifiable cease-fire. Among its signatories were former South African president FW De Klerk, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former Irish leaders Mary Robinson and John Hume.

ETA's statement in Gara, a pro-independence daily that often serves as ETA's mouthpiece, did not mention a permanent or verifiable cease-fire.

The statement comes a day after the Spanish newspaper El Pais released a video on its website believed to have been filmed by ETA this year which shows a hooded gunman practising assassination techniques.