MADRID — A regional public broadcaster says the Basque militant group ETA is ready to announce its final dissolution early next month, putting an end to decades of violent campaign for independence from Spain.

ETA killed more than 800 people including police, politicians and entrepreneurs before giving up its armed campaign for Basque independence in 2011 and getting rid of its arsenal one year ago.

Both France and Spain, where the group committed most of its deadly actions over more than 40 years, have demanded it take a further step and disband.

The Basque regional broadcaster ETB reported late on Wednesday that ETA will announce that step on the first weekend of May.

ETB said that an event to mark the end of ETA will be held in southern France before the final announcement by the group.</s>A regional public broadcaster says the Basque militant group ETA is ready to announce its final dissolution early next month, putting an end to decades of violent campaign for independence from Spain.

ETA killed more than 800 people including police, politicians and entrepreneurs before giving up its armed campaign for Basque independence in 2011 and getting rid of its arsenal one year ago.

Both France and Spain, where the group committed most of its deadly actions over more than 40 years, have demanded it take a further step and disband.

The Basque regional broadcaster ETB reported late on Wednesday that ETA will announce that step on the first weekend of May.

ETB said that an event to mark the end of ETA will be held in southern France before the final announcement by the group.</s>MADRID (AP) — A regional public broadcaster says the Basque militant group ETA is ready to announce its final dissolution early next month, putting an end to decades of violent campaign for independence from Spain.

ETA killed more than 800 people including police, politicians and entrepreneurs before giving up its armed campaign for Basque independence in 2011 and getting rid of its arsenal one year ago.

Both France and Spain, where the group committed most of its deadly actions over more than 40 years, have demanded it take a further step and disband.

The Basque regional broadcaster ETB reported late on Wednesday that ETA will announce that step on the first weekend of May.

ETB said that an event to mark the end of ETA will be held in southern France before the final announcement by the group.</s>MADRID (AP) — A regional public broadcaster says the Basque militant group ETA is ready to announce its final dissolution early next month, putting an end to decades of violent campaign for independence from Spain.

ETA killed more than 800 people including police, politicians and entrepreneurs before giving up its armed campaign for Basque independence in 2011 and getting rid of its arsenal one year ago.

Both France and Spain, where the group committed most of its deadly actions over more than 40 years, have demanded it take a further step and disband.

The Basque regional broadcaster ETB reported late on Wednesday that ETA will announce that step on the first weekend of May.

ETB said that an event to mark the end of ETA will be held in southern France before the final announcement by the group.</s>Image copyright Reuters Image caption The Basque armed organisation Eta is expected to announce its dissolution next month

An apology from the Basque organisation Eta to those killed in its armed independence struggle has been rejected by victims' groups.

The separatists in the Spanish Basque Country asked for "forgiveness" for killing people without "a direct participation in the conflict".

Victims' groups accused Eta of seeking to justify its use of violence and attempting to rewrite history.

Eta is widely expected to announce its dissolution in the coming weeks.

The militants killed more than 800 people and wounded thousands more over 40 years of conflict as they sought to establish an independent Basque state in the area spreading across northern Spain and into south-western France.

"We are aware that during this long period of armed struggle we have created a lot of pain, including many damages for which there is no solution," the group said in a statement published in two Basque newspapers.

"We want to show respect for the dead, those injured and the victims that were caused by the actions of Eta... We truly apologise," it added, admitting its "direct responsibility" in the "disproportionate suffering" in the Basque country.

The Victims of Terrorism Association (AVT) said the statement was another step in Eta's strategy of "diluting its true responsibility" and manipulating history "to whitewash the criminal past".

AVT leader Maria del Mar Blanco told AFP news agency: "I find it shameful and immoral that they should make a distinction between people who deserved a bullet in the back of the head or a bomb in their car and accidental victims who did not deserve it."

Another group, the Collective of Victims of Terrorism (COVITE), also criticised that distinction, and said Eta was maintaining its story of a "non-existent conflict" and aiming to "blur its responsibility over crimes committed".

Spain's government said Eta was defeated politically and operationally and had not achieved any of its goals.

Eta also said it was committed to moving forward with the process of reconciliation in the Basque country.

In September 2010, the group announced that it would not carry out further attacks, and it declared a permanent ceasefire in January 2011.

In April 2017 the militant group revealed the locations of its weapons caches and said it had completely disarmed.

Image copyright AFP Image caption Eta carried out many attacks including the one which killed Spanish Prime Minister Luis Carrero Blanco in 1973

Eta first emerged in the 1960s as a student resistance movement bitterly opposed to Gen Francisco Franco's repressive military dictatorship.

Under Franco the Basque language was banned, the region's distinctive culture was suppressed and intellectuals were imprisoned and tortured for their political and cultural beliefs.

Franco's death in 1975 and the transition to democracy brought the region of two million people home rule.

Many of those who were killed were members of Spain's national police force, the Guardia Civil, and both local and national politicians who opposed to Eta's separatist demands.</s>MADRID (AP) - A regional public broadcaster says the Basque militant group ETA is ready to announce its final dissolution early next month, putting an end to decades of violent campaign for independence from Spain.

ETA killed more than 800 people including police, politicians and entrepreneurs before giving up its armed campaign for Basque independence in 2011 and getting rid of its arsenal one year ago.

Both France and Spain, where the group committed most of its deadly actions over more than 40 years, have demanded it take a further step and disband.

The Basque regional broadcaster ETB reported late on Wednesday that ETA will announce that step on the first weekend of May.

ETB said that an event to mark the end of ETA will be held in southern France before the final announcement by the group.</s>Madrid (AFP) - Spain's Supreme Court confirmed 535-year prison sentences for two ETA militants, it said Wednesday, just weeks before the Basque separatist group is expected to announce its dissolution after decades of violence.

Liher Aretxabaleta Rodriguez, 38, and Alaitz Aramendi Jaunarena, 40, were handed the sentence last year by Spain's National Court, which deals with terror cases, but they appealed it.

They were sentenced for 45 "terrorist murder attempts," according to a ruling by the Supreme Court, which rejected their appeal.

They are also accused of having placed a car bomb in the San Blas district of Madrid in May 2005 "with the intention of causing as much damage as possible, accepting the potential death or injuries of people there or nearby".

On May 25, a call was made at 8.45 am to Gara, a Basque daily that has traditionally been ETA's mouthpiece, warning that a van was going to explode three quarters of an hour later in a specified road in Madrid.

The explosion went ahead and caused injuries -- most of them involving people's hearing -- as well as damage to vehicles and buildings.

Aramendi is currently serving an 18-year jail sentence in France for belonging to an illegal organisation with the intention of preparing a terror act.

Aretxabaleta was handed over to Spain by France in 2011.

The jail sentences come as ETA is thought to be preparing its final dissolution, which sources close to the case say will happen "before the summer" and even as early as May.

The group announced a permanent ceasefire in 2011 and last year laid down its arms after waging a violent decades-long fight for independence responsible for the death of at least 829 people.

The northern Basque Country is now gearing up for the dissolution of a group created in 1959 at the height of Francisco Franco's dictatorship, though question marks remain over how to move forward.

Nationalists and peace negotiators want former ETA prisoners to be reintegrated into society as a necessary step for cementing lasting peace, while some victims are first demanding the separatist group apologise for its past deeds.</s>A regional public broadcaster says the Basque militant group ETA is ready to announce its final dissolution early next month, putting an end to decades of violent campaign for independence from Spain.

ETA killed more than 800 people including police, politicians and entrepreneurs before giving up its armed campaign for Basque independence in 2011 and getting rid of its arsenal one year ago.

Both France and Spain, where the group committed most of its deadly actions over more than 40 years, have demanded it take a further step and disband.

The Basque regional broadcaster ETB reported late on Wednesday that ETA will announce that step on the first weekend of May.

ETB said that an event to mark the end of ETA will be held in southern France before the final announcement by the group.</s>Madrid (AFP) - Key dates in the history of the armed Basque separatist movement ETA, which for the first time on Friday asked for "forgiveness" from its victims, ahead of its expected dissolution.

- July 31, 1959: ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna) is formed during the dictatorship of General Francisco Franco by a group of Basque nationalist students.

- June 7, 1968: ETA shoots dead the police chief of the Basque city of San Sebastian -- the first deadly attack for which it claimed responsibility.

Over four decades ETA will be blamed for at least 829 deaths.

- December 20, 1973: Luis Carrero Blanco, Franco's prime minister and presumed successor, is blown up in his car in Madrid -- one of ETA's most notorious attacks.

- October 15, 1977: Two years after Franco's death, a general amnesty for political prisoners, including from ETA, is declared by the first democratic government.

- 1980: ETA's most deadly year, with at least 92 people killed in attacks.

- December 1983: Emergence of GAL, a paramilitary group which kills 28 Basque militants through 1987.

- July 12, 1997: ETA shoots a conservative town councillor in the Basque country who dies of his wounds the next day. Millions take to the streets in protest.

- September 16, 1998: ETA announces a unilateral and unlimited ceasefire, which it goes back on in late 1999 after the failure of talks with the government.

- March 22, 2006: ETA declares a "permanent ceasefire" in return for talks with the government.

- December 30, 2006: ETA claims responsibility for a bombing at Madrid airport that kills two people, breaking the ceasefire. ETA goes on to carry out seven attacks by the summer 2009.

- November 17, 2008: ETA's military chief Garikoitz Aspiazu Rubina is arrested in France. His five successors are in turn arrested.

- August 9, 2009: ETA carries out its last attacks on Spanish soil. In March 2010 its last victim is a French policeman killed during a chase in the Paris region.

- October 20, 2011: ETA announces "the definitive end to its armed activity", but declines to formally disband or disarm. A month later the leftist separatist coalition Amaiur, an offshoot of Batasuna, enters the Spanish parliament.

- November 24, 2012: ETA says it may discuss disbanding if jailed members are moved to prisons nearer home. Spain refuses to negotiate.

- April 8, 2017: ETA announces its "total disarmament". It provides France with a list of locations for its arms caches, a move hailed by France but said to be insufficient by Madrid. Several weeks later ETA says it has started an internal discussion on its future.

- February 22, 2018: ETA starts to vote on its dissolution, the Basque daily Gara reports.

- April 20, 2018 - ETA apologises for the "pain" and "harm" it caused during its armed campaign and appeals to some of its victims - those "not involved in the conflict" - for forgiveness.

It is expected to formally announce its dissolution on May 5 or 6 in the French Basque country, according to various sources.</s>, Madrid, Spain, Apr 20 – The Basque separatist group ETA apologised Friday for the “pain” and “harm” it caused during its decades-long campaign of violence, and appealed to its victims for forgiveness.

“We have caused a lot of pain, and irreparable harm. We want to show our respect to the dead, to the wounded and to the victims of the actions of ETA… We sincerely regret it,” it said in a statement released in the Basque newspaper Gara.

The statement came just days before ETA is expected to announce its dissolution.

“We know that, forced by the necessities of all types of armed struggle, our actions have harmed citizens who were not responsible. We have also caused serious wrongs which are irreparable. We ask forgiveness to those people and their families”, it said.

The government in Madrid said the apology was the result of “the strength of the rule of law that has defeated ETA with the weapons of democracy”.

“ETA should have asked for forgiveness a long time ago”, it said in a statement.

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

At least 829 people were killed before the group announced a permanent ceasefire in 2011.

Last year it went a step further and began laying down its arms.

In its statement to Gara, its traditional mouthpiece, ETA said it was not alone in being responsible for the violence in the Basque Country.

“Suffering existed before the birth of ETA and continued after it ceased its armed struggle,” it said.

Without specifically mentioning the Madrid government, it called for “all to recognise their responsibilities and wrong caused” and to open the way to reconciliation.

“ETA, the national Basque socialist revolutionary liberation organisation, wants to acknowledge by this declaration the harm caused by its armed course, and demonstrate its commitment to definitively overcoming the consequences of the conflict and avoiding a repetition.”

The group has been severely weakened in recent years after police arrested hundreds of its members, including its leaders, and seized several of its weapons stashes.

Spain’s 2.2-million-strong Basque region is now gearing up for the dissolution of the group created in 1959 at the height of Francisco Franco’s dictatorship.

On Thursday, an international mediator, Alberto Spektorowski, said that “failing a last-minute surprise” ETA would announce its dissolution on May 5 or 6.

“The declaration that ETA no longer exists will be very clear,” the Israeli academic, a member of the International Contact Group, told Basque radio EITB.

“I cannot say what words they will use but no one will be left in any doubt,” he said, adding that the announcement would be made across the border, in the French Basque region.
The Basque separatist terrorist group ETA apologises to "every victim" of its actions. The ETA killed more than 800 people in its 40-year history, committing terrorists attacks throughout Spain.