Arnaldo Otegi (C), the General Coordinator of the EH Bildu (short for 'Euskal Herria Bildu', or 'Basque Country Gather') far-left, Basque nationalist and pro-independence party, raises his voting card during a rally of the party held in Vitoria, northern Spain, Oct. 07, 2017. EPA-EFE/FILE/David Aguilar

Alleged ex leader of an elite unit of the Basque separatist band ETA Eneko Gogeaskoetxea testifies during his trial at the National Court in Madrid, Spain, on Sept. 26, 2017. EPA-EFE/FILE/Ballesteros /POOL

Basque separatist group ETA is set to announce its dissolution in the first week of May at an event in the French city of Bayonne, sources told EFE.

Details of the event, set to take place on May 5 and expected to be attended by representatives of the Basque government, political parties and trade unions, will be announced at a press conference on Friday.

Sources from the Basque autonomous government had refused to comment on what they called speculations and said that as and when there is a decision by the ETA, they would evaluate it.

Basque public television station ETB had reported on Wednesday that ETA was planning to announce its dissolution on the first weekend of May.

In Bayonne, on April 8 - the first anniversary of the disarmament of ETA - Arnaldo Otegi, leader of the EH Bildu political party, had announced that the militant group would be taking new steps in the coming weeks and months.

jmv/pd/nb</s>The Basque militant group ETA will make the highly anticipated announcement of its dissolution on the first weekend in May, an international mediator told Basque radio Thursday.

Alberto Spektorowski, one of a group of international mediators brokering talks on a definitive end to the conflict in Spain’s northern Basque region, said that “failing a last-minute surprise” ETA would make the announcement 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 (ICG), 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.

ETA waged a nearly four-decade fight for an independent Basque state that killed at least 829 people before it announced a permanent ceasefire in 2011.

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

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.

Spektorowski said the Basque region was entering a new “post-ETA” phase.

“It will be clear that a chapter of the history of the Basque Country and of Spain is closed,” he said.

The language used by ETA in its statement will be scrutinised closely, however, for proof that it is sincere about disbanding.

In a statement announcing a press conference Monday in the French city of Bayonne, one of the groups involved in the peace process, Bake Bidea, avoided talk of “dissolution”, referring instead to ETA’s “demobilisation”.

Bayonne Mayor Jean-Rene Etchegarray insisted on the need for clear language.

“Things must be perfectly clear, words are important. The demobilisation began in 2011 when ETA announced its ceasefire,” he said.

Spektorowski said ETA’s main demand is that jailed Basque nationalists be moved closer to their families.

“France has already done that… but the Spanish state still has some problems with that,” he said.

Reacting to news of the imminent dissolution, he said: “ETA obtained nothing for stopping the killing and will also get nothing for declaring its dissolution.”</s>The Basque militant group ETA will make the highly anticipated announcement of its dissolution on the first weekend in May, an international mediator told Basque radio Thursday.

Alberto Spektorowski, one of a group of international mediators brokering talks on a definitive end to the conflict in Spain's northern Basque region, said that "failing a last-minute surprise" ETA would make the announcement 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 (ICG), 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.

ETA waged a nearly four-decade fight for an independent Basque state that killed at least 829 people before it announced a permanent ceasefire in 2011.

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

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.

Spektorowski said the Basque region was entering a new "post-ETA" phase.

"It will be clear that a chapter of the history of the Basque Country and of Spain is closed," he said.

The language used by ETA in its statement will be scrutinised closely, however, for proof that it is sincere about disbanding.

In a statement announcing a press conference Monday in the French city of Bayonne, one of the groups involved in the peace process, Bake Bidea, avoided talk of "dissolution", referring instead to ETA's "demobilisation".

Bayonne Mayor Jean-Rene Etchegarray insisted on the need for clear language.

"Things must be perfectly clear, words are important. The demobilisation began in 2011 when ETA announced its ceasefire," he said.

Beyond ETA's dissolution, questions remain over how to move forward.

Spektorowski said ETA's main demand is that jailed Basque nationalists be moved closer to their families.

"France has already done that... but the Spanish state still has some problems with that," he said.

Reacting to news of the imminent dissolution, he said: "ETA obtained nothing for stopping the killing and will also get nothing for declaring its dissolution."</s>MADRID - The Basque militant group ETA will announce its final dissolution early next month, public television station ETB reported, just over a year since it ended its armed separatist campaign by surrendering guns and explosives.

ETA killed more than 850 people during the campaign which lasted almost half a century and was aimed at creating a Basque state in northern Spain and southwest France.

The group declared a ceasefire in 2011 and handed over weapons caches in April 2017, bringing a close to Western Europe’s last major armed insurgency.

A Basque newspaper, Gara, had reported in February that ETA’s leaders would ask its members to vote on whether it should disband completely by the summer.

The group will announce its full dissolution during the first weekend of May, ETB reported. Details of the event are expected to be announced at a news conference on Monday South African lawyer Brian Currin and other members of the International Contact Group mediating body, it said.

ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna - Basque Country and Freedom) was founded in 1959 and arose from anger and frustration among Basques, who have their own language and culture, from political repression under General Francisco Franco.

The campaign, which included political assassinations as well as bombings aimed at the general populace, escalated in the 1960s into violence that was reciprocated by the Franco dictatorship.

By the mid-1980s, years after Franco’s death, attacks including a 1987 car bomb at a Barcelona supermarket which killed a pregnant woman and two children, drew popular revulsion and international outrage.

The Basque campaign and the separatist movement has petered out partly due to a rejection of ETA’s violent tactics but has also lost support after the Basque region was granted a greater fiscal autonomy in 1981.

A current independence drive in Catalonia gained momentum after then regional leader Artur Mas asked Madrid to grant it a similar fiscal status as the Basque Country in 2012, a request roundly rejected by Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.

The Basque fiscal autonomy, among the most generous of any region in Europe, dates back to the 19th century and is enshrined in Spain’s 1978 constitution.

If it were to be extended to Catalonia, an economically more powerful region accounting for a fifth of national output, the Spanish state would lose about €16 billion, according to a study by public research body CSIC.</s>MADRID: The Basque militant group ETA will announce its final dissolution early next month, public television station ETB reported, just over a year since it ended its armed separatist campaign by surrendering guns and explosives.

ETA killed more than 850 people during the campaign which lasted almost half a century and was aimed at creating a Basque state in northern Spain and southwest France.

The group declared a ceasefire in 2011 and handed over weapons caches in April 2017, bringing a close to Western Europe's last major armed insurgency.

A Basque newspaper, Gara, had reported in February that ETA's leaders would ask its members to vote on whether it should disband completely by the summer.

The group will announce its full dissolution during the first weekend of May, ETB reported. Details of the event are expected to be announced at a news conference on Monday South African lawyer Brian Currin and other members of the International Contact Group mediating body, it said.

ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna - Basque Country and Freedom) was founded in 1959 and arose from anger and frustration among Basques, who have their own language and culture, from political repression under General Francisco Franco.

The campaign, which included political assassinations as well as bombings aimed at the general populace, escalated in the 1960s into violence that was reciprocated by the Franco dictatorship.

By the mid-1980s, years after Franco's death, attacks including a 1987 car bonb at a Barcelona supermarket which killed a pregnant woman and two children, drew popular revulsion and international outrage.

The Basque campaign and the separatist movement has petered out partly due to a rejection of ETA's violent tactics but has also lost support after the Basque region was granted a greater fiscal autonomy in 1981.

A current independence drive in Catalonia gained momentum after then regional leader Artur Mas asked Madrid to grant it a similar fiscal status as the Basque Country in 2012, a request roundly rejected by Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.

The Basque fiscal autonomy, among the most generous of any region in Europe, dates back to the 19th century and is enshrined in Spain's 1978 constitution.

If it were to be extended to Catalonia, an economically more powerful region accounting for a fifth of national output, the Spanish state would lose about 16 billion euros (£14 billion), according to a study by public research body CSIC.</s>MADRID (Reuters) - The Basque militant group ETA will announce its final dissolution early next month, public television station ETB reported, just over a year since it ended its armed separatist campaign by surrendering guns and explosives.

ETA killed more than 850 people during the campaign which lasted almost half a century and was aimed at creating a Basque state in northern Spain and southwest France.

The group declared a ceasefire in 2011 and handed over weapons caches in April 2017, bringing a close to Western Europe’s last major armed insurgency.

A Basque newspaper, Gara, had reported in February that ETA’s leaders would ask its members to vote on whether it should disband completely by the summer.

The group will announce its full dissolution during the first weekend of May, ETB reported. Details of the event are expected to be announced at a news conference on Monday by South African lawyer Brian Currin and other members of the International Contact Group mediating body, it said.

Spain’s Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido said on Thursday that ETA has been defeated politically and operationally and has not achieved any of its goals.

“ETA has not achieved anything by stopping the killing and will get nothing for its dissolution announcement,” the minister said in the upper house of parliament.

ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna - Basque Country and Freedom) was founded in 1959 and arose from anger and frustration among Basques, who have their own language and culture, from political repression under General Francisco Franco.

The campaign, which included political assassinations as well as bombings aimed at the general populace, escalated in the 1960s into violence that was reciprocated by the Franco dictatorship.

By the mid-1980s, years after Franco’s death, attacks including a 1987 car bomb at a Barcelona supermarket which killed a pregnant woman and two children, drew popular revulsion and international outrage.

The Basque campaign and the separatist movement has petered out partly due to a rejection of ETA’s violent tactics but has also lost support after the Basque region was granted a greater fiscal autonomy in 1981.

A current independence drive in Catalonia gained momentum after then regional leader Artur Mas asked Madrid to grant it a similar fiscal status as the Basque Country in 2012, a request roundly rejected by Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.

The Basque fiscal autonomy, among the most generous of any region in Europe, dates back to the 19th century and is enshrined in Spain’s 1978 constitution.

If it were to be extended to Catalonia, an economically more powerful region accounting for a fifth of national output, the Spanish state would lose about 16 billion euros, according to a study by public research body CSIC.</s>The Basque militant group ETA is ready to announce its final dissolution early next month, putting an end to a decades-long violent campaign for independence from Spain, according to the region's public broadcaster.

ETA will announce the step on the first weekend of May, Basque regional broadcaster ETB reported late Wednesday. The broadcaster has in the past had access to ETA's plans. Also, the Basque newspaper Gara, which often reflects separatist views, had earlier reported that ETA would be dissolving before the summer.

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. Its dissolution will mark the end of one of Europe's last violent nationalist conflicts.

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 Spanish government said ETA, which it classifies as a terrorist organization, had been defeated without achieving any of its goals.

"ETA has stopped its killing without obtaining anything and it won't obtain anything from its declaration that it is disbanding," Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido told reporters. He added that authorities will continue to investigate unresolved ETA-related cases.

ETA has been inactive since 2011, but for 20 years it dominated the news in Spain with its car bomb attacks, shootings and kidnappings.

ETB said that an event to mark the end of ETA — a Basque-language acronym for Euskadi Ta Askatasuna, meaning Basque Homeland and Freedom — will be held in southern France before the final announcement by the group.</s>A woman watches a news program announcing the dissolution of armed Basque separatists ETA due for the first week of May, according to local television station ETB, in Guernica Thomson Reuters MADRID (Reuters) - The Basque militant group ETA will announce its final dissolution early next month, the public television station ETB reported on Wednesday night.

During a campaign that lasted nearly half a century, ETA killed more than 850 people in a vain effort to create a Basque state in northern Spain and southwest France. But it declared a ceasefire in 2011 and handed over its arms a year ago.

A local newspaper, Gara, had reported in February that ETA's leaders would ask its members to vote on whether it should disband completely by the summer.

The group will announce its dissolution during the first weekend of May, ETB reported.</s>MADRID, April 18 (Reuters) - The Basque militant group ETA will announce its final dissolution early next month, public television station ETB reported, just over a year since it ended its armed separatist campaign by surrendering guns and explosives.

ETA killed more than 850 people during the campaign which lasted almost half a century and was aimed at creating a Basque state in northern Spain and southwest France.

The group declared a ceasefire in 2011 and handed over weapons caches in April 2017, bringnig a close to Western Europe's last major armed insurgency.

A Basque newspaper, Gara, had reported in February that ETA's leaders would ask its members to vote on whether it should disband completely by the summer.

The group will announce its full dissolution during the first weekend of May, ETB reported. Details of the event are expected to be announced at a news conference on Monday South African lawyer Brian Currin and other members of the International Contact Group mediating body, it said.

ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna - Basque Country and Freedom) was founded in 1959 and arose from anger and frustration among Basques, who have their own language and culture, from political repression under General Francisco Franco.

The campaign, which included political assassinations as well as bombings aimed at the general populace, escalated in the 1960s into violence that was reciprocated by the Franco dictatorship.

By the mid-1980s, years after Franco's death, attacks including a 1987 car bonb at a Barcelona supermarket which killed a pregnant woman and two children, drew popular revulsion and international outrage.

The Basque campaign and the separatist movement has petered out partly due to a rejection of ETA's violent tactics but has also lost support after the Basque region was granted a greater fiscal autonomy in 1981.

A current independence drive in Catalonia gained momentum after then regional leader Artur Mas asked Madrid to grant it a similar fiscal status as the Basque Country in 2012, a request roundly rejected by Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.

The Basque fiscal autonomy, among the most generous of any region in Europe, dates back to the 19th century and is enshrined in Spain's 1978 constitution.

If it were to be extended to Catalonia, an economically more powerful region accounting for a fifth of national output, the Spanish state would lose about 16 billion euros, according to a study by public research body CSIC. (Reporting By Jesús Aguado and Paul Day Editing by Julien Toyer and Angus MacSwan)</s>MADRID: The Basque militant group ETA will announce its final dissolution early next month, public television station ETB reported, just over a year since it ended its armed separatist campaign by surrendering guns and explosives.

ETA killed more than 850 people during the campaign which lasted almost half a century and was aimed at creating a Basque state in northern Spain and southwest France.

The group declared a ceasefire in 2011 and handed over weapons caches in April 2017, bringing a close to Western Europe's last major armed insurgency.

A Basque newspaper, Gara, had reported in February that ETA's leaders would ask its members to vote on whether it should disband completely by the summer.

The group will announce its full dissolution during the first weekend of May, ETB reported. Details of the event are expected to be announced at a news conference on Monday South African lawyer Brian Currin and other members of the International Contact Group mediating body, it said.

ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna - Basque Country and Freedom) was founded in 1959 and arose from anger and frustration among Basques, who have their own language and culture, from political repression under General Francisco Franco.

The campaign, which included political assassinations as well as bombings aimed at the general populace, escalated in the 1960s into violence that was reciprocated by the Franco dictatorship.

By the mid-1980s, years after Franco's death, attacks including a 1987 car bonb at a Barcelona supermarket which killed a pregnant woman and two children, drew popular revulsion and international outrage.

The Basque campaign and the separatist movement has petered out partly due to a rejection of ETA's violent tactics but has also lost support after the Basque region was granted a greater fiscal autonomy in 1981.

A current independence drive in Catalonia gained momentum after then regional leader Artur Mas asked Madrid to grant it a similar fiscal status as the Basque Country in 2012, a request roundly rejected by Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.

The Basque fiscal autonomy, among the most generous of any region in Europe, dates back to the 19th century and is enshrined in Spain's 1978 constitution.

If it were to be extended to Catalonia, an economically more powerful region accounting for a fifth of national output, the Spanish state would lose about 16 billion euros (£14 billion), according to a study by public research body CSIC.
Basque separatist group ETA announces its dissolution in May.