The Basque terrorist group Eta yesterday announced that it was calling a "permanent ceasefire" which will come into operation tomorrow. This is the first time that Eta (Euskadi Ta Askatuta - Basque Homeland and Liberty) has undertaken to end violence on a permanent basis, though it has called several truces, the most recent in 1998-99.
The statement said that Eta had taken this decision "to foster a democratic process in the Basque country, in order to build a new structure in which all our rights as a people are recognised".
It called on the Spanish and French states - there are three small Basque provinces in France - not to put any limits on such a process and to accept its outcome.
However, Eta did not set any conditions on its ceasefire. This, coupled with the use of the word "permanent", has raised hopes that the group's violent campaign for Basque independence, which has cost more than 900 lives since 1968, may be at an end. The group called for a "positive response to this new situation" and an end to "repression".
Spanish prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero said he would respond with "prudence and caution" and warned that a peace process would be "long and difficult". He asked for the support of all democratic parties, "united in hope".
However, the Spanish parties are far from united. Mr Zapatero, who leads the centre-left Socialist Party (PSOE), initiated the process which led to yesterday's announcement last May. He offered talks to Eta on the strict condition that the group first abandoned violence permanently.
He was bitterly denounced for this proposal by the conservative opposition leader, Mariano Rajoy, who accused him of reviving an organisation already virtually defeated by police operations.
Mr Rajoy's Partido Popular (PP) then supported huge demonstrations against any talks with Eta by the Association of Victims of Terrorism (AVT). This organisation represents many, but not all, of Eta's victims and their relatives.
Many thousands marched in Madrid on the most recent protest at the end of last month, where Mr Zapatero was branded as a "traitor to Spain".
Meanwhile, Eta's failure, over a nine-month period, to accept Mr Zapatero's offer undermined the prime minister's credibility among his own supporters.
However he repeatedly insisted that the "beginning of the end" of Basque violence was in sight. Eta's statement now appears to substantiate that claim.
Mr Rajoy used a more temperate tone than usual in responding to the ceasefire, but said that he believed the ceasefire was "a pause, not a renunciation of criminal activity" by Eta. He offered his support to the government, for the first time in many months, "as long as no political price is paid for peace".
The AVT issued a statement claiming the ceasefire was the product of "trickery and blackmail".
However, Barbara Durkh of MEP, whose husband, PSOE leader Enrique Casas was assassinated by Basque radicals, said that the "permanent ceasefire is enormously hopeful news for all Spanish and European citizens".
Fr Alec Reid of Belfast, who was a key figure in the Irish peace process and who was a witness to IRA decommissioning, confirmed yesterday to the BBC that he had assisted in discussions leading to Eta's statement.
The Government welcomed the ceasefire yesterday.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern said in a statement that any decision to permanently abandon violence and pursue an exclusively democratic path was to be welcomed.
Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams told a press conference in Belfast yesterday afternoon that "Eta's announcement provides all sides to the conflict with an opportunity of historic proportions.
"Today's announcement gives a considerable boost to the development of a conflict resolution process."