Image copyright AP Image caption Eta has been weakened by weapons seizures in recent years and may not have many left

The militant group Eta has resolved to disarm fully by 8 April, sources close to talks between the Basque separatists and Spanish government have said.

A pro-Basque independence and environmental group called Bizi has been given responsibility for the disarmament, according to one activist speaking to France's Le Monde.

The interior minister said Eta "won't get anything in exchange".

Eta declared a ceasefire in 2011 but is yet to relinquish its weapons.

The group killed more than 800 people over four decades of violence.

It was set up more than 50 years ago in the era of Spanish dictator General Franco to fight for an independent Basque homeland.

However, in recent years it has been sapped by the arrest of hundreds of members, including leadership figures, and the seizure of weapons caches.

"Eta has handed us responsibility for the disarmament of its arsenal and, as of the evening of 8 April, Eta will have completely handed over its weapons," Txetx Etcheverry, an activist with Bizi, was quoted as saying in Le Monde.

The 8 April date was also given by an unnamed source close to talks quoted by the AFP news agency.

Image copyright Reuters Image caption The government refuses to negotiate with Eta, which announced a unilateral ceasefire in 2011

No formal announcement has yet been made and the Spanish government has so far declined to make any detailed comment.

But in a tweet, Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido said: "What Eta must do is dissolve itself and disappear. It has had time to disarm and it must know that it won't get anything in exchange."

What is Eta?

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In 2014 the International Verification Commission of international inspectors said Eta had taken some of its weapons out of action, but the Spanish government dismissed the move as "theatrical".

Spanish media say recent seizures of arms have been quite small, which they say indicate Eta does not have many weapons left - giving its disarmament a predominantly symbolic character.</s>Activist with ties to Basque community says separatist group ETA will officially hand in its weapons by April 8.

Basque separatist group ETA will fully disarm by April 8, a French environmental activist with ties to the Basque community promised on Friday.

The group announced a permanent cease-fire in 2011, but the governments of Spain and France have so far refused to take part in its disarmament because ETA tied it to the future of its members, both in and out of jail.

The two countries have demanded that ETA lay down its weapons without conditions and disband.

Txetx Etcheverry, a prominent figure in the French Basque community who tried to arrange a disarmament in 2016, told AP news agency that the new initiative was agreed upon with the ETA and will be carried out whether French authorities agree to receive the weapons or not.

"If the French government doesn't take responsibility, the Basque civil society will take a step forward. We can't imagine five more years of inaction," Etcheverry said, pledging that "ETA will be disarmed by midnight on April 8."

READ MORE: Basque group ETA to put weapons 'out of use'

ETA, which in Basque stands for "Basque Country and Freedom," was founded in 1959 during the Spanish dictatorship of General Francisco Franco.

It has killed 829 people in its nearly four-decade campaign to create a Basque homeland in a region straddling northern Spain and southwest France.

The group was most violent in the 1980s, staging hundreds of shootings of police, politicians and businesspeople.

One year after its last deadly attack, the killing of a French police officer near Paris in March 2010, the ETA announced it was renouncing violence.

In recent years, police operations have weakened the ETA. If the disarmament was completed, would primarily be symbolic, given that the group's reduced arsenal is believed to be obsolete.

ETA has linked its total dissolution to allowing imprisoned members to serve their sentences closer to home in northern Spain, among other demands.

But on Friday, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy rejected any concessions.

"ETA has chosen to disarm unilaterally. It should do it and should also disband," Rajoy, who leads Spain's conservative Popular Party, said at a party meeting.

"The government of Spain will do what it has always done - to apply the law, which is the same for everybody."</s>MADRID – Basque civil society groups will fully disarm the separatist group ETA by April 8, a French environmental activist with ties to the Basque community promised Friday.

The militants announced a permanent cease-fire in 2011, but the governments of Spain and France have so far refused to take part in its disarmament because ETA tied it to the future of its militants, both in and out of jail. The two countries have demanded that ETA lay down its weapons without conditions and disband.

Txetx Etcheverry, a prominent figure in the French Basque community who tried to arrange a disarmament in 2016, told The Associated Press that the new initiative was agreed upon with the ETA and will be carried out whether French authorities agree to receive the weapons or not.

“If the French government doesn’t take responsibility, the Basque civil society will take a step forward. We can’t imagine five more years of inaction,” Etcheverry said, pledging that “ETA will be disarmed by midnight on April 8.”

ETA, which in Basque stands for “Basque Country and Freedom,” was founded in 1959 during the Spanish dictatorship of Gen. Francisco Franco. It has killed 829 people in its nearly four-decade campaign to create a Basque homeland in a region straddling northern Spain and southwest France.

The group was most violent in the 1980s, staging hundreds of shootings of police, politicians and businesspeople.

One year after its last deadly attack, the killing of a French police officer near Paris in March 2010, the ETA announced it was renouncing violence.

In recent years, police operations have weakened the ETA. If the disarmament was completed, would primarily be symbolic, given that the group’s reduced arsenal is believed to be obsolete.

ETA has linked its total dissolution to allowing imprisoned members to serve their sentences closer to home in northern Spain, among other demands.

But on Friday, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy rejected any concessions.

“ETA has chosen to disarm unilaterally. It should do it and should also disband,” Rajoy, who leads Spain’s conservative Popular Party, said at a party meeting. “The government of Spain will do what it has always done – to apply the law, which is the same for everybody.”

Etcheverry, member of the Basque environmental organization Bizi, was among five Basque activists arrested in December in the southern French town of Louhossoa after police said they had discovered a suspected ETA weapons trove. They were charged with possession of explosives and weapons, released on bail and are awaiting trial.

The activists said the arrests by French and Spanish police targeted peace activists who were managing ETA’s disarmament.

Etcheverry said the group would disclose details of the disarmament on Saturday in the southern French town of Biarritz.

He said the group was aiming to “unblock other important issues in the Basque peace process,” such as the future of imprisoned ETA members and the reconciliation in the Basque society. He didn’t mention the ETA disbanding.

Basque regional leader Inigo Urkullu said its government is ready to assist in the disarmament process and asked the governments of Spain and France to work to reach a permanent solution.

Groups representing ETA victims in Spain urged the government not to make any concessions.

Mari Mar Blanco, who represents the victims’ group FTV and whose brother was kidnapped and murdered by ETA in 1997, said the ETA should cooperate with the judicial system in shedding light on the more than 300 unresolved killings.

“It’s time for the relatives to close their mourning by identifying the assassins of their loved ones,” Blanco said.

The economically powerful Basque region, which has a strong cultural identity and its own Basque language, is one of 17 semi-autonomous regions in Spain.</s>Founded in 1959, ETA has been blamed for the deaths of more than 800 people in its violent campaign for an independent Basque homeland in northern Spain and southwestern France (AFP Photo/RAFA RIVAS)

Madrid (AFP) - The Basque separatist group ETA, which has waged a decades-long campaign for independence, plans to fully lay down its weapons by April 8, the head of the regional Basque government, Inigo Urkullu, said Friday.

He asked French and Spanish governments to help facilitate talks with the group, which has said it will give up its arms for amnesties or improved jail terms for imprisoned members.

But the central government in Madrid, a fierce opponent of ETA, reacted with scorn, demanding that the group simply "dissolve" and never reappear.

Urkullu confirmed the possibility that ETA was ready to give up its arms after decades of conflict in Spain and France, and said he hoped it would be "definitive, unilateral, irrevocable, complete and legal".

"The Basque government judges credible the potential for a final disarmament in the short term," Urkullu said.

"It asks... the Spanish and French governments to show ambitious vision and open direct lines of communication" in order to reach "a goal with historic importance for our society."

ETA, founded in 1959 and considered a terrorist group by the European Union, has been seeking to negotiate its dissolution in exchange for amnesties or improved prison conditions for its roughly 350 members held in Spain and France.

The group is blamed for the deaths of 829 people in a four-decade campaign of bombings and shootings for an independent Basque homeland, which straddles northern Spain and southwestern France.

But Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy bluntly said disarmament should be unilateral, and ETA should then consign itself to oblivion.

Speaking at a regional conference of his conservative party in Madrid, Rajoy said: "ETA has decided to unilaterally disarm. May it do so, and while it's about it, may it dissolve itself."

Ruling out any special treatment for ETA, he said: "The Spanish government will apply the law equally to everyone."

"What ETA must do is dissolve itself and disappear," he wrote on Twitter.

"It has had time to disarm and it must know that it won't get anything in exchange."

Earlier Friday, an activist in Bizi, a Basque association, told French daily Le Monde that the group's disarmament should be completed if possible before France's upcoming presidential election, whose first round of voting is set for April 23.

"ETA has given us the responsibility of disarming its arsenal and, on the evening of April 8, ETA will be completely disarmed," said the activist, Txetx Etcheverry.

Arnaldo Otegi, spokesman for the pro-independence party Sortu, which counts old ETA members among its elected leaders, echoed Urkullu's statements.

"We hope that, this time, the process for disarming will be absolute and that this time it will be complete, that it will go all the way and to its ultimate consequences," he said.

Its last deadly attack was in 2010, when a policeman was killed during a shootout with ETA militants in a Paris suburb.

It declared a ceasefire in October 2011 but has refused to give up its weapons.

But a source later confirmed to AFP that "ETA will take steps to make this happen" before April 8.

Both France and Spain have long refused direct negotiations with the group, demanding its complete dissolution with nothing in return.

The separatist group has been severely weakened in recent years after hundreds of its members were arrested and some of its weapons were seized.

In November, the most senior ETA leader still at large, Mikel Irastorza, was arrested after a raid on a home in southwest France.

Earlier this month, Spain's Guardia Civil police force discovered seven drums of explosives in a rural area near the town of Irun on the border with France, which they suspect belonged to ETA.</s>MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The government of Spain's Basque Autonomous Community believes in the reported plans of the Basque terrorist group ETA to disarm, Inigo Urkullu, the head of the Basque government, said Friday.

"The Basque Government provides credibility to this possibility of final disarmament… I ask all the concerned institutions, especially the governments of Spain and France for broadmindedness and direct communication channels, oriented at achieving the historic objective," Urkullu said, as quoted by the Cadena SER broadcaster, speaking about the ETA's announcement.

ETA, or Euzkadi Ta Askatasuna (Basque Country and Freedom) is an armed group founded on July 31, 1959. Since then the activities of the group have claimed lives of 860 people. In 2011 ETA announced a "definitive cessation of its armed activity."

Spanish authorities have already responded to the group's plans to disarm, for example Education Minister Inigo Mendez de Vigo said that Madrid would consider the situation concerning the disarmament plans with care.</s>BASQUE TERRORISTS SAY THEY WILL DISARM: ETA says it will “handover” its weapons on April 8. At one time ETA demanded secession from Spain and the formation of an independent Basque state. The Spanish government says ETA must dissolve as well as disarm.</s>Spanish media are reporting that Basque separatist group ETA is set to announce Friday that it is prepared to disarm within weeks.

Citing sources close to the disarmament initiative, Europa Press news agency reported that ETA's declaration is aimed at speeding the stalled process. The agency said disarmament would be complete by April 8.

ETA announced in 2011 it was renouncing violence in its campaign for independence for the Basque regions of northern Spain and southwest France. It has yet to disarm or disband. It is blamed for over 800 deaths from 1968 to 2010.</s>Basque separatist organisation Eta has announced plans to disarm fully, more than five years after formally ending its campaign of violence.

“Eta has given us the responsibility of decommissioning its weapons and, on the afternoon of April 8, Eta will be completely disarmed,” Jean Noël Etcheverry, a member of the Bizi pro-independence environmentalist group, told Le Monde newspaper. Mr Etcheverry is one of several intermediaries involved in the process.

The news was confirmed on Friday by Arnaldo Otegi, leader of EH Bildu, the Basque separatist coalition which is seen as the successor to Eta’s political wing. The announcement was “totally genuine and credible”, Mr Otegi said in a press conference.

“We believe this is what [the Basque Country] is asking for, we believe that from a moral standpoint we can make a call for everybody to rise to this historic moment, this challenge before us, the great window of opportunity that this country is being offered so that disarmament takes place in a short period of time,” Mr Otegi said.

Eta killed more than 800 Spaniards during a four-decade terrorist campaign for an independent Basque state. However, police intelligence and increased anti-terror co-operation between Spanish and French authorities severely weakened the group, which has not killed in Spain since 2009.

In 2011, Eta announced a definitive ceasefire, but while the ensuing peace has ushered in a new era in the Basque region, it has not been consolidated by any kind of follow-up process or state-sponsored reconciliation.

Eta’s disarmament, meanwhile, has long been anticipated.

In February 2014, Eta attempted to instigate a decommissioning process, handing over a small cache of weapons to a group of international verifiers. However, the Spanish government dismissed the move as “a theatrical exercise” and refused to participate.

In December 2016, French police seized 46 guns and two grenades belonging to the group. Five people who had apparently been planning to help Eta put the weapons out of use were arrested in the raid.

One of those held was Mr Etcheverry, who made Friday’s announcement.

With security forces having seized much of Eta’s arsenal already, its remaining weapons cache is believed to be relatively small and it has few members at large. High court judge Javier Zaragoza said last year that no more than 20 active members of the organisation are in hiding.

While the conservative Spanish government of Mariano Rajoy has long called on Eta to disarm and disband, it is likely to reject Mr Otegi’s call for international involvement in the process.

On Friday, government spokesman Íñigo Méndez de Vigo reacted coolly to the news, saying that “Eta has to do two things: disarm and disband”.

Eta and its political supporters have long believed the Basque situation should be handled in a similar way to the Irish peace process. However, the government refuses to accept such comparisons, insisting that the Basque region has not suffered an armed conflict, but rather a one-sided terrorist campaign.</s>A representative of civil society groups says the Basque separatist group ETA will complete its disarmament by April 8.

Txetx Etcheverry, a prominent figure in the French Basque community who tried to manage a disarmament effort in 2016, told Le Monde newspaper that a collective of civil society groups had received ETA's mandate.

"ETA gave us the responsibility of disarming its arsenal, and the evening of April 8, ETA will be totally disarmed," he said.

Etcheverry confirmed to The Associated Press that an announcement would be made by ETA later on Friday, but he declined to give details of its content.

ETA announced in 2011 it was renouncing violence in its campaign for independence for the Basque regions of northern Spain and southwest France. It is blamed for over 800 deaths from 1968 to 2010.

The Spanish government declined to comment in detail until an actual announcement is made. "ETA needs to do two things — to disarm and disband," said Inigo Mendez de Vigo, the cabinet's spokesman.</s>Six years after renouncing violence in its long and bloody pursuit of a Basque homeland, the militant separatist group Eta has announced it will lay down all arms by early next month.



On Friday, Le Monde reported that Eta was ready to give up its weapons once and for all and intended to reveal the locations of its hidden stockpiles very soon.

Txetx Etcheverry, an activist with environmental campaign group Bizi – which favours Basque independence – told the newspaper: “Eta has handed us responsibility for the disarmament of its arsenal and, as of the evening of April 8, Eta will have completely handed over its weapons.”

Etcheverry said the disarmament should, if possible, be completed before France’s presidential election, the first round of which is set for 23 April.



Iñigo Urkullu, the head of the Basque regional government, said the authorities had been informed of the possible disarmament, adding that he hoped it would be “definitive, unilateral, irrevocable, complete and legal”.

He called on the Spanish and French governments to help facilitate talks to achieve “a goal with historic importance for our society”.

The Spanish government reacted guardedly to the news.

“Eta has to do two things: disarm and dissolve itself,” government spokesman Iñigo Méndez de Vigo told a news conference on Friday.

He said the government would not speculate on any potential disarmament. 



Other politicians welcomed signs that a handover was nearing.

“The Basque government will do everything in its power to make sure this goes according to plan, even if not everything is in our hands,” said Urkullu. 



Arnaldo Otegi, who joined Eta as a teenager and is now the leader of the far-left Basque separatist party Sortu, called the prospect of disarmament an “exciting historical moment”.

Otegi was released from prison last year after a six-year sentence for trying to resurrect Batasuna, the banned political party that was seen as Eta’s political wing,

“Let’s hope that this time the weapons handover will be final,” he told a news conference.



A disarmament would mark one of the last chapters in the drawn-out demise of Eta, which formed in the 1950s during the dictatorship of Francisco Franco with the aim of establishing an independent Basque state in northern Spain and southern France.

The group, which murdered 829 people in bombings and shootings, renounced its armed struggle in 2011 but has yet to hand over its entire arsenal.

Its last deadly attack was in 2010, when a policeman was killed during a shootout with Eta militants in a Paris suburb.

It has been severely weakened in recent years after hundreds of its members, including its leader, were arrested and police seized several of its weapons stashes.

Eta seeking to negotiate its dissolution in exchange for amnesties or improved prison conditions for its approximately 350 members held in Spain and France.
In Spain, the Basque separatist group ETA announces that it will fully disarm by April 8, 2017.