SPAIN: The leader of a banned Basque political party was quoted yesterday as saying he believed separatist guerrilla group ETA was prepared to give up violence and negotiate with the Spanish government.
Batasuna leader Mr Arnaldo Otegi's comments come amid rumours, reported in some Spanish newspapers, that ETA might declare a truce on Easter Sunday, which is also Basque homeland day.
Such a move would be an overture to Spain's new socialist government, expected to take office in the next week following their surprise general election victory on March 14th.
Asked by a Basque newspaper if he believed ETA was willing to abandon violence, Mr Otegi said: "I am convinced of it."
"Their latest statements, taking a clear position towards the new government of Spain to sit down and talk, point in that direction," Mr Otegi was quoted as saying in the interview, published on Deia newspaper's website.
ETA has killed nearly 850 people since 1968 in a bombing and shooting campaign for an independent Basque state in northern Spain and south-western France. Spain, the United States and the European Union consider ETA a terrorist organisation.
Last month it called for dialogue with Spain's incoming socialist government but pledged to maintain its armed campaign, according to a communique carried by the Basque newspaper Gara. The socialists dismissed the offer.
Batasuna, accused by Spanish authorities of being ETA's political wing, was outlawed last year under a new law allowing political parties to be banned for not condemning terrorism. Mr Otegi's comments follow a sustained police crackdown on ETA that has resulted in increasing arrests and decreasing ETA attacks in the past two years, and comes just as incoming Prime Minister Mr José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero is about to take office.
Immediately after the March 11th train bombings that killed 191 people, the outgoing Spanish government erroneously blamed ETA for the atrocity, now believed to be the work of Islamist radicals. Three days after the bombs, voters threw out the ruling party, in part for the way it hastily blamed ETA.
Mr Otegi said the Madrid bombings had imposed on all parties the need for a new approach, not only in the light of those events but of the international situation more generally.
"What's important continues to be understanding that it is possible to change the situation if there is political will," Mr Otegi said. "We have to make the effort here and now, and we have to do it amongst ourselves." ETA, which stands for Basque Country and Freedom, last called a full ceasefire in September 1998. That only lasted until ETA rescinded it in late 1999. The group started killing again in January 2000.
In February, ETA called a partial ceasefire limited to the northeastern region of Catalonia, which like the Basque country has a large current of nationalism. Spain's mainstream political parties rejected the partial truce. Police have arrested 650 suspected ETA members or collaborators since 2000, mostly in Spain and France. The number of ETA killings has fallen from 23 in 2000 to three last year.
French police discovered a major arms cache in south-west France earlier this month and arrested several people. Batasuna, which won 10 per cent of the vote in 2001 Basque parliamentary elections, denies it forms part of ETA.