Jailed members of Basque ETA renounce violence

[September 24, 2011]  MADRID (AP) -- Hundreds of jailed members of the militant Basque separatist group ETA called for an end to violence as a tool for achieving Basque independence, boosting pressure for ETA to disband and prompting the government Saturday to call the appeal significant but insufficient.

A group representing the 700 ETA prisoners in Spain and France made the appeal in a statement Friday night, adding that they themselves should be granted amnesty.

The call endorsed a groundbreaking agreement reached late last year by pro-independence Basque political parties -- chiefly the remnants of ETA's banned political wing, Batasuna -- and civic groups that said Basque independence should be achieved through peaceful means, not by shooting people or setting off car bombs.

However, the prisoners stopped short of calling on ETA to dissolve, as demanded by Spain, and reiterated traditional demands that the government also rejects, such as letting the Basque people decide whether to break away or remain part of Spain.

ETA declared a cease-fire in September 2010 and went further in January by calling the truce permanent and saying it was prepared to let international observers verify it.

ETA has killed a total of 829 people since the late 1960s in a campaign of bombings and shootings aimed at forcing the government to allow creation of an independent Basque homeland straddling the Basque provinces of northern Spain and southwest France.

But the group has been decimated in recent years by arrests of its leaders and members, and has not killed anyone in Spain in more than two years.

Government spokesman Jose Blanco on Saturday said the prisoners' appeal was unprecedented.

"It is an important step, a significant one. But it is not the one that society in general and the government wanted because it is not definitive, nor is it the one that announces the end of ETA," Blanco said.

Debate among ETA prisoners -- seen as holding much sway in the organization -- on whether to renounce violence has been under way for months.

The appeal comes now with a general election due in November. The ruling Socialists, who negotiated with ETA in 2006, are expected to lose badly to the opposition conservatives, in large part because of the dismal state of Spain's economy.

While many in Spain see Europe's last major armed militancy as being on its last legs, one big question mark is whether ETA will make some kind of big announcement before the voting on Nov. 20.

Some in Spain say ETA's demise -- the golden ring that successive Spanish governments have grasped for in vain for decades -- might conceivably be enough to save the Socialists by letting them claim credit for what would be a historic event.

[Associated Press; By DANIEL WOOLLS]

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