Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said Thursday there would be “no impunity” for ETA’s crimes even though the Basque separatist group has committed to fully disbanding after more than four decades of violence.

“No matter what ETA does, there is no room for impunity for its crimes. ETA can announce its disappearance but its crimes do not disappear nor do the efforts to pursue and punish them,” he said in a televised speech in the northern city of Logrono.

His comments come as ETA is expected to formally announce its dissolution Thursday with a filmed statement, marking the definitive end to western Europe’s last armed insurgency after more than four decades of violence.

Created in 1959 at the height of Francisco Franco’s dictatorship, ETA waged a relentless campaign of killings and kidnappings in its fight for an independent Basque homeland in northern Spain and southwest France, leaving at least 829 dead.

Weakened in recent years by the arrest of its leaders, ETA announced a permanent ceasefire in 2011 and began formally surrendering its arms last year.

In a leaked letter published Wednesday by Spanish online newspaper El Diario, the group went a step further, announcing it was fully disbanding.

“ETA has completely dissolved all of its structures and declared an end to its political initiative,” it said.

The regional leader of Spain’s Basque Country, Inigo Urkullu, said he hoped ETA’s end would be “unilateral, effective and definitive”, in an interview published in newspaper El Pais on Thursday.

The group “owed” this step to “Basque society and humanity as a whole”, he added.

“ETA never should have existed. It puts an end to a dark chapter of 60 years.”

Spanish press have also reported that veteran, high-level ETA member Jose Antonio Urrutikoetxea, better known as Josu Ternera, will be in the video.

The 67-year-old is a wanted fugitive who disappeared in 2002 and is said to be suffering from cancer.

His potential presence in the video has infuriated some of ETA’s victims, who say the separatist group should first and foremost condemn its history of violence and shed light on more than 350 unsolved crimes.

“This is not the end of ETA we deserved,” said Consuelo Ordonez, head of the Covite victims’ association, on Wednesday.

A partial apology by the separatist group last month, in which it acknowledged the harm done and apologised to some of its victims — but not to those it considered legitimate targets such as police — has done little to stem the criticism.

While an overwhelming majority of Basques welcome the end of violence, many still want independence.

The separatist coalition EH Bildu, the second largest grouping in the Basque parliament, won 21 percent of the vote in 2016’s regional elections.

Critics charge that pro-independence parties, which include people once part of or linked to ETA, are trying to impose their version of events.

Separatists argue that Basques have been repressed for decades, even centuries, by Spain and France. This came to a head under Franco, who forbade the use of the Basque language in public.

Victims and historians, though, insist ETA was a terrorist group that went on killing even after Spain transitioned to democracy in the late 1970s. It is recognised as such by the European Union.

“ETA never wanted to bring about any democracy or any freedom, it wanted to end it,” said Basque philosopher Fernando Savater.

But apart from ETA victims, there were also separatists killed by far-right groups and death squads backed by members of Spain’s security forces in what has become known as a “dirty war” campaign.

According to a December report commissioned by the Basque regional government, more than 4,100 complaints of police torture were made between 1960 and 2014.

Those victims are also demanding they be acknowledged.

“If you don’t recognise part of the suffering, it’s very difficult to create conditions for… reconciliation,” said Ane Muguruza, 28.

Her father Josu, a lawmaker for Herri Batasuna, ETA’s political wing, was murdered in 1989 by far-right militants she believes were state-backed.</s>GENEVA/MADRID (Reuters) - Basque separatist group ETA said on Thursday it had completely dismantled and ended all its activity, ending a 50-year campaign of violence across Spain in which it killed about 850 people.

In Madrid, however, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said there would be no impunity for ETA and the government would still track down former militants.

“Whatever they might choose to do over the next few days, nothing will change the unquestionable reality: ETA’s whole project has been a resounding and emphatic failure,” Rajoy said.

In a letter read out at the headquarters of a Geneva-based conflict resolution group, ETA, founded to fight for an independent state in northern Spain and southern France, said its journey had ended.

“We have made this, our last decision, in order to foster a new historical phase,” said the letter, signed Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA - Basque Country and Freedom in English).

“ETA was born from the people and now it dissolves back into the people,” said the letter, which was read out by David Harland, director of the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue.

The center first facilitated discrete talks between ETA and the former Spanish government of Jose Luis Zapatero in 2004.

ETA announced its decision to end attacks in 2011 and in 2017 it handed over 3.5 tonnes of weapons, bringing Western Europe’s last major militant campaign to a close.

The separatist group had already signaled it had completely dismantled in a letter published by the Spanish online newspaper El Diario on Wednesday.

Calling it a “bitter confrontation,” the center’s Harland also referred to the killing of ETA suspects by death squads linked to government officials.

“A long work of reconciliation now lies ahead. It will require recognition, respect, apology and support to all the victims of violence as well as a commitment to the truth and justice wherever that leads,” Harland said.

However, Prime Minister Rajoy made clear that his government considered ETA as nothing more than criminals.

“ETA won’t find a glimmer of impunity for its crimes. It can announce its disappearance but its crimes will not disappear, nor will the work of justice to track them down and punish them,” he told reporters after a speech to inaugurate a Civil Guard training center in Logrono, northern Spain.

The group is due to formalize its dissolution at an official event in France on Friday. Last month, it apologized to its victims and their relatives. About 850 people, including police, politicians and ordinary citizens, were killed in ETA attacks.

ETA was formed in Madrid in 1959 by students angry at the repressive dictatorship of General Francisco Franco.

Its campaign included political assassinations — most notably of Franco’s chosen successor, Luis Carrero Blanco in 1973 — and bombings.

But as Spain returned to democracy after Franco’s death in 1975 and the Basque Country gained a large measure of autonomy, its attacks on the general populace, including a 1987 car bomb at a Barcelona supermarket which killed a pregnant woman and two children, horrified people and cost it support.

Crackdowns by Spanish and French police also weakened it.

The letter said that although the ETA was now consigned to history, the drive for Basque independence would continue.

Its demise comes as the Spanish government grapples with another separatist movement in the northeastern region of Catalonia. Although that is a non-violent campaign, it has brought on Spain’s most serious constitutional crisis in four decades and a government crackdown on its leaders.</s>GENEVA/MADRID (Reuters) - Basque separatist group ETA said on Thursday it had completely dismantled and ended all its activity, ending a 50-year campaign of violence across Spain in which it killed about 850 people.

In Madrid, however, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said there would be no impunity for ETA and the government would still track down former militants.

“Whatever they might choose to do over the next few days, nothing will change the unquestionable reality: ETA’s whole project has been a resounding and emphatic failure,” Rajoy said.

In a letter read out at the headquarters of a Geneva-based conflict resolution group, ETA, founded to fight for an independent state in northern Spain and southern France, said its journey had ended.

“We have made this, our last decision, in order to foster a new historical phase,” said the letter, signed Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA - Basque Country and Freedom in English).

“ETA was born from the people and now it dissolves back into the people,” said the letter, which was read out by David Harland, director of the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue.

The center first facilitated discrete talks between ETA and the former Spanish government of Jose Luis Zapatero in 2004.

ETA announced its decision to end attacks in 2011 and in 2017 it handed over 3.5 tonnes of weapons, bringing Western Europe’s last major militant campaign to a close.

It signaled it had completely dismantled in a letter published by the Spanish online newspaper El Diario on Wednesday.

Calling it a “bitter confrontation,” the center’s Harland also referred to the killing of ETA suspects by death squads linked to government officials.

“A long work of reconciliation now lies ahead. It will require recognition, respect, apology and support to all the victims of violence as well as a commitment to the truth and justice wherever that leads,” Harland said.

However, Prime Minister Rajoy made clear that his government considered ETA as nothing more than criminals.

“ETA won’t find a glimmer of impunity for its crimes. It can announce its disappearance but its crimes will not disappear, nor will the work of justice to track them down and punish them,” he told reporters after a speech to inaugurate a Civil Guard training center in Logrono, northern Spain.

Regional government head Inigo Urkullu said the organization had inflicted pain and suffering on the people of the Basque Country, adding he doubted it would have more than four or five lines in history books in the future.

In an interview with El Pais newspaper on Thursday, Urkullu said ETA should never have existed.

“Here we have all lost. There are no winners or losers,” he said.

The group is due to formalize its dissolution at an official event in France on Friday. Last month, it apologized to its victims and their relatives. About 850 people, including police, politicians and ordinary citizens, were killed in ETA attacks.

ETA was formed in Madrid in 1959 by students angry at the repressive dictatorship of General Francisco Franco.

Its campaign included political assassinations — most notably of Franco’s chosen successor, Luis Carrero Blanco in 1973 — and bombings.

But as Spain returned to democracy after Franco’s death in 1975 and the Basque Country gained a large measure of autonomy, its attacks on the general populace, including a 1987 car bomb at a Barcelona supermarket which killed a pregnant woman and two children, horrified people and cost it support.

Crackdowns by Spanish and French police also weakened it.</s>Basque militant group ETA announced on Thursday that it has "completely dismantled all its structures," marking a definitive end to its decades-long struggle for independence from Spain.

In what the group dubbed as a "final" letter, ETA said it "put an end to all its political activity," adding that it "will no longer express political positions, promote initiatives or interact with other actors."

Read more: ETA prisoners recognize pain caused by bloody campaign

"ETA wished to end a cycle of the conflict between the Basque Country and the Spanish and French states; the cycle of the use of political violence," the group said.

Basque separatists formed ETA in 1959 in response to late Spanish dictator Francisco Franco's repression of Basques, but its violent campaign emerged in 1968 with the killing of a police officer.

Since then, the group has been involved in the deaths of more than 850 people, including the assassination of Franco's heir apparent Luis Carrero Blanco in 1973. In Blanco's case, the separatists dug a tunnel under the road he drove down for daily Mass and filled it with explosives, detonating them as he passed by.

By 2011, ETA had faced major setbacks with the arrest of most of its leadership. That year, it announced an indefinite ceasefire. It finalized the disarmament process last year, marking the end of the group's bloody campaign to establish an independent state.

But some remain skeptical of the group's intentions, with Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy describing ETA's latest remarks as "propaganda."

Read more: Is Catalan independence a second coup in democratic Spain?

"No matter what ETA does, there is no room for impunity for its crimes. ETA can announce its disappearance but its crimes do not disappear nor do the efforts to pursue and punish them," Mariano said on Thursday.

"We won't owe them anything and we have nothing to thank them for."</s>GENEVA/MADRID, May 3 (Reuters) - Basque separatist group ETA said on Thursday it had completely dismantled and ended all its activity, ending a 50-year campaign of violence across Spain in which it killed about 850 people.

In Madrid, however, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said there would be no impunity for ETA and the government would still track down former militants.

"Whatever they might choose to do over the next few days, nothing will change the unquestionable reality: ETA's whole project has been a resounding and emphatic failure," Rajoy said.

In a letter read out at the headquarters of a Geneva-based conflict resolution group, ETA, founded to fight for an independent state in northern Spain and southern France, said its journey had ended.

"We have made this, our last decision, in order to foster a new historical phase," said the letter, signed Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA - Basque Country and Freedom in English).

"ETA was born from the people and now it dissolves back into the people," said the letter, which was read out by David Harland, director of the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue.

The centre first facilitated discrete talks between ETA and the former Spanish government of Jose Luis Zapatero in 2004.

ETA announced its decision to end attacks in 2011 and in 2017 it handed over 3.5 tonnes of weapons, bringing Western Europe's last major militant campaign to a close.

The separatist group had already signalled it had completely dismantled in a letter published by the Spanish online newspaper El Diario on Wednesday.

Calling it a "bitter confrontation," the centre's Harland also refered to the killing of ETA suspects by death squads linked to government officials.

"A long work of reconcilation now lies ahead. It will require recognition, respect, apology and support to all the victims of violence as well as a commitment to the truth and justice wherever that leads," Harland said.

However, Prime Minister Rajoy made clear that his government considered ETA as nothing more than criminals.

"ETA won´t find a glimmer of impunity for its crimes. It can announce its disappearance but its crimes will not disappear, nor will the work of justice to track them down and punish them," he told reporters after a speech to inaugurate a Civil Guard training center in Logrono, northern Spain.

The group is due to formalise its dissolution at an official event in France on Friday. Last month, it apologised to its victims and their relatives. About 850 people, including police, politcians and ordinairy citizens, were killed in ETA attacks.

ETA was formed in Madrid in 1959 by students angry at the repressive dictatorship of General Francisco Franco.

Its campaign included political assassinations -- most notably of Franco's chosen successor, Luis Carrero Blanco in 1973 -- and bombings.

But as Spain returned to democracy after Franco's death in 1975 and the Basque Country gained a large measure of autonomy, its attacks on the general populace, including a 1987 car bomb at a Barcelona supermarket which killed a pregnant woman and two children, horrified people and cost it support.

Crackdowns by Spanish and French police also weakened it.

The letter said that althought the ETA was now consigned to history, the drive for Basque independence would continue.

Its demise comes as the Spanish government grapples with another separatist movement in the northeastern region of Catalonia. Although that is a non-violent campaign, it has brought on Spain's most serious constitutional crisis in four decades and a government crackdown on its leaders. (Reporting by Cecile Mantovani and Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva and Islan Binnie in Madrid, Editing by Angus MacSwan)</s>Separatist group ETA has said its journey and political activities have ended, a day after the organisation’s intentions were leaked in a letter.

In an open letter to the Basque people published on Thursday by the Basque news website naiz.eus, the group said it has “completely dismantled all of its structures” and “will no longer express political positions, promote initiatives or interact with other actors”, says the new letter.

ETA killed more than 850 people in its six decades of existence.

Former militants will keep seeking a “reunited, independent, socialist, Basque-speaking and non-patriarchal Basque Country” but they will do it outside of ETA, the letter says.

It adds that a key challenge for left-wing Basque separatists “will be to bring into effect the right to decide, in order to achieve recognition of our nationhood”.

Mariano Rajoy said ETA had failed to impose an independent Basque state (Matt Dunham/PA)

Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy earlier called the disbanding of ETA “noise and propaganda”, vowing to carry on prosecuting the militants.

Mr Rajoy said the group had failed to impose an independent Basque state.

“Whatever ETA does or says, it won’t find any loophole for impunity,” Mr Rajoy said. “ETA can announce its disappearance, but its crimes or the action of the judiciary won’t disappear.”</s>Madrid: Basque separatist group ETA announced it was fully disbanding, the final step to the definitive end of its deadly decades-long independence campaign, in a letter published Wednesday.



 "ETA has decided to declare its historical cycle and functions terminated, putting an end to its journey," the group said in a letter published by Spanish online newspaper El Diario.

"ETA has completely dissolved all of its structures and declared an end to its political initiative."The letter was dated April 16 and addressed to various groups involved in recent peace efforts.A Basque regional government representative told AFP that following the letter, ETA was expected make a further direct declaration of its disbandment on Thursday, probably in a video.The letter was sent to figures such as former UN secretary general Kofi Annan to reassure them that ETA was firm in its decision to disband, the representative said.ETA cautioned in its letter that its own dissolution did not end the deeper "conflict" between the Basque Territories and the Spanish and French states.But its move marks what is expected to be the last of several key steps towards the formal break-up of the once-armed separatist group, blamed for more than 800 deaths.ETA waged a nearly four-decade campaign of bombings and shootings for an independent Basque state in northern Spain and southern France.It is classed as a terrorist organisation by the European Union as well as the Spanish and French governments.Created in 1959 at the height of Francisco Franco's dictatorship, ETA is blamed for the deaths of at least 829 people.Attacks by ETA and retaliation by Spanish state death squads traumatised Spain, peaking in the 1980s and 1990s.Weakened in recent years by the arrests of its senior leaders, ETA announced a permanent ceasefire in 2011 and began formally surrendering its arms last year.On April 20 it asked forgiveness from its victims for the first time for the "pain" caused by its decades-long campaign of violence.Victims' campaigners complained that the call for forgiveness did not extend to those the group considered legitimate targets, such as police officers and politicians.Some 300 ETA members are imprisoned in Spain, France and Portugal and up to 100 are still on the run, according to prisoners' families' group Forum Social.The group has demanded that prisoners be moved to prisons closer to their families after the end of ETA.International mediators are organising a peace conference in southwest France on May 4.(WAH)</s>Basque separatist group ETA formally declared its dissolution Thursday, marking the definitive end to western Europe's last armed insurgency after more than four decades of violence.

Created in 1959 at the height of Francisco Franco's dictatorship, ETA was blamed for hundreds of killings and kidnappings in its fight for an independent Basque homeland in northern Spain and southwest France.

The group said in a "final" statement it has "completely dismantled all its structures" and "has put an end to all its political activity".

"ETA wishes to end a cycle of the conflict between the Basque Country and the Spanish and French states; the cycle of the use of political violence," it added in the statement, dated May 3 and presented in Switzerland and Spain.

ETA was blamed for the deaths of 829 people during its armed campaign.

The group's highest-profile killing was that of Franco's prime minister and heir apparent, Luis Carrero Blanco, in a Madrid car bombing in 1973.

ETA also kidnapped dozens of business leaders to finance its activities, leading many people to leave the wealthy northern Basque region.

Weakened in recent years by the arrest of its leaders, ETA announced a permanent ceasefire in 2011 and began formally surrendering its arms last year.

ETA had already announced that it would be fully disbanding in a leaked letter addressed to various groups and figures involved in recent peace efforts and published Wednesday by Spanish online newspaper El Diario.

International mediators will hold a peace conference in southwest France on Friday. Irish former Sinn Fein party leader Gerry Adams and representatives of several Spanish political parties are expected to attend.

But Spain's conservative Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy earlier on Thursday dismissed the planned announcement of ETA's disbanding as "noise and propaganda" and vowed there would be "no impunity" for the group's crimes.

"ETA can announce its disappearance but its crimes do not disappear, nor do the efforts to pursue and punish them," he said in the northern city of Logrono.

"We don't owe them anything and we have nothing to thank them for."

While an overwhelming majority of Basques welcome the end of violence, many still want independence.

The separatist coalition EH Bildu, the second largest grouping in the regional parliament, won 21 percent of the votes in the 2016 regional elections.

The party has long called for the roughly 300 ETA prisoners held across Spain and France to be transferred to jails closer to the Basque region and their families.

The regional leader of Spain's Basque Country, Inigo Urkullu of the nationalist PNV party, said he hoped Madrid would soon bring ETA prisoners closer to the Basque region.

"It responds to a demand of the majority of Basque society," he said in an interview published earlier on Thursday in Spanish newspaper El Pais.

"ETA never should have existed. It puts an end to a dark chapter of 60 years," he added.

Apart from ETA victims, there were also separatists killed by far-right groups and death squads backed by members of Spain's security forces in what has become known as a "dirty war" campaign.

According to a December report commissioned by the Basque regional government, more than 4,100 complaints of police torture were made between 1960 and 2014.

Those victims are also demanding they be acknowledged.

"If you don't recognise part of the suffering, it's very difficult to create conditions for... reconciliation," said Ane Muguruza, 28.

Her father Josu, a lawmaker for Herri Batasuna, ETA's political wing, was murdered in 1989 by far-right militants she believes were state-backed.

"It's very difficult when there are open wounds," she said.

"To close them, you have to clean and cure them. And for that to happen, there must be acknowledgment, it's crucial."</s>Basque separatist group ETA announced it was fully disbanding, the final step to the definitive end of its deadly decades-long independence campaign, in a letter published Wednesday by a Spanish news site.

"ETA has decided to declare its historical cycle and functions terminated, putting an end to its journey," the group said in a letter published by Spanish online newspaper El Diario.

"ETA has completely dissolved all of its structures and declared an end to its political initiative."

The letter, dated April 16, marked what is expected to be the last of several key steps towards the full break-up of the group.
• As ETA prepares to disband Basque prisoners pine for home
• ETA begs forgiveness for 'pain and harm' it caused victims and families
• ANALYSIS: Why Catalan and Basque separatists are going different ways

A Basque regional government representative told AFP that following the letter, ETA was expected make a further direct declaration of its disbandment on Thursday, probably in a video.

The letter was sent to figures such as former UN secretary general Kofi Annan to reassure them that ETA was firm in its decision to disband, the representative said.

ETA cautioned in its letter that its own dissolution did not end the deeper "conflict" between the Basque Territories and the Spanish and French states.

But its move marks what is expected to be the last of several key steps towards the formal break-up of the once-armed separatist group, blamed for more than 800 deaths.

ETA waged a nearly four-decade campaign of bombings and shootings for an independent Basque state in northern Spain and southern France.

It is classed as a terrorist organisation by the European Union as well as the Spanish and French governments.

Created in 1959 at the height of Francisco Franco's dictatorship, it is blamed for the deaths of at least 829 people.

Attacks by ETA and retaliation by Spanish state death squads traumatised Spain, peaking in the 1980s and 1990s.

Weakened in recent years by the arrests of its senior leaders, it announced a permanent ceasefire in 2011 and began formally surrendering its arms last year.

On April 20th it asked forgiveness from its victims for the first time for the "pain" caused by its decades-long campaign of violence.

Victims' campaigners complained that the call for forgiveness did not extend to those the group considered legitimate targets, such as police officers and politicians.

Some 300 ETA members are imprisoned in Spain, France and Portugal and up to 100 are still on the run, according to prisoners' families' group Forum Social.

The group has demanded that prisoners be moved to prisons closer to their families after the end of ETA.

International mediators are organising a peace conference in southwest France on May 4th.</s>Militant group responsible for more than 800 deaths says it has ‘dissolved all its structures’

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The Basque separatist group Eta, which killed more than 800 people during its 40-year terror campaign, has announced its full dissolution days after apologising to its victims and their families.



In a letter dated 16 April, but published by a Spanish online newspaper on Wednesday, the group informed Basque institutions and civil society groups that it had come to the end of its existence.

“Eta has decided to declare an end to its historical cycle and its role, thereby bringing its path to an end,” said the letter, which was obtained by eldiario.es. “Eta has completely dissolved all its structures and declared an end to its political initiative.”

The group, which abandoned its armed campaign seven years ago, said the move was part of a process intended to “bring about a new political cycle” in the Basque homeland.

“This decision ends Eta’s 60-year historical cycle,” it added. “But it does not bring an end to the conflict between the Basque homeland and Spain and France. The conflict did not begin with Eta and will not end with its dissolution.”

The letter said Basques had a new opportunity to break with the past and build a future together: “Let’s not repeat our mistakes. Let’s not let our problems fester. Doing so will only give rise to new problems.”

Eta will hold a symbolic event marking its disbandment in southern France on Friday.

Its apology last month was dismissed by victims’ groups, but hailed by the Spanish government as proof that Eta had been defeated “with the weapons of democracy and the strength of the rule of law”.

Spain’s interior minister, Juan Ignacio Zoido, reacted to the letter by promising that the police would continue hunting terrorists “wherever they may be”.

He added: “Eta members got nothing when they stopped killing and they won’t get anything by making a statement about dissolution.”

Eta, which stands for “Basque homeland and freedom”, was founded as a cultural organisation in 1959. Its aim was the establishment of an independent Basque state in northern Spain and southern France.

It took up armed struggle the following decade and, between 1968 and 2010, murdered 829 people in bombings and shootings, almost half of them civilians.

The group also targeted state security forces and in 1973 assassinated the Spanish prime minister Luis Carrero Blanco with huge car bomb.

But Eta’s disregard for civilian life left it increasingly marginalised. In 1987, it killed 21 people in a supermarket bombing in Barcelona. Six million people took to the streets in protest a decade later after it murdered Miguel Ángel Blanco, a young local politician.
Basque separatist group ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna), which waged an insurgency against Spain between 1959 and 2011, announces its complete dissolution.