SPAIN: Six jailed members of Basque separatist group ETA have urged the guerrillas to abandon their 36-year armed struggle as it is "no longer any use", according to a newspaper in northern Spain.
The prisoners wrote in August to ETA's leaders, advising them to use "institutional and mass struggle" instead of violence to achieve ETA's goal of an independent Basque homeland, the Navarre region's Diario de Noticias said yesterday.
"Our political-military strategy has been overcome by our enemy's repression against us," the jailed guerrillas wrote, according to a copy of the letter quoted by the newspaper. "Never in the history of this organisation have we been in such a poor state," they wrote.
ETA, branded a terrorist group by Spain, the EU and the US, has killed more than 800 people since 1968 in a campaign of bombings and shootings. But in recent months police have made a series of high-profile arrests of suspected ETA members and the group has not killed anyone for nearly 18 months.
Some politicians in the Basque country interpreted the letter as a fresh sign that ETA has become weakened and demoralised.
"There are more and more people in the movement for Basque national liberation who question the use of violence and terrorism," said Mr Javier Madrazo, a member of the Basque regional government. His party opposes the separatists, but is open to dialogue with them.
But Spain's governing Socialists have ruled out negotiations under virtually any circumstances, short of ETA disarming.
Last month, in what was described as the biggest blow against the separatists for over a decade, French police arrested a suspected senior ETA leader, detained 20 others and seized weapons, including surface-to-air missiles.
Another four suspected ETA members were arrested by police in the city of Bilbao on Tuesday, officials said.