Zapatero calls on Eta to lay down arms forever

MADRID – Spain’s prime minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said yesterday that Eta had to lay down its arms forever, after …

MADRID – Spain’s prime minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said yesterday that Eta had to lay down its arms forever, after the Basque separatist group declared a ceasefire.

Eta’s announcement on Sunday of another truce, without announcing its permanent disarmament, has disappointed all Spain’s democratic political parties, he said at a news conference.

“(Eta’s) announcements are worth nothing, only their decisions – and only one decision . . . to lay down their arms forever,” Mr Zapatero said.

Eta, which has killed more than 850 people in its struggle to carve out an independent Basque state in northern Spain and southwest France, announced a ceasefire on Sunday, but gave no details of its duration or plans to disarm.

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The armed group’s political wing Batasuna will not be legalised and allowed to participate in elections in Spain unless they completely abandon their support for violence, Mr Zapatero said.

“Those who are outside the law because they do not flatly condemn violence are in the same situation today as they were before the announcement,” Mr Zapatero said in response to Batasuna’s call yesterday to be legalised.

Batasuna called on the government to begin steps to legalise the party ahead of municipal elections in 2011.

“It’s our view that we (the party) should be legitimised now. The Spanish government will have to take steps towards this and approve . . . this test of democracy which they must face so that Batasuna can participate in the next elections,” a spokesman for Eta’s political wing said yesterday.

Eta has broken ceasefires in the past, most recently in 2006 when a truce was ended by a bomb attack at Madrid’s airport.

Past ceasefires have been seen by analysts as attempts by the organisation to regroup with a view to launching further attacks. – (Reuters)