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. 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. "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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.
Basque separatist group ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna), which waged an insurgency against Spain between 1959 and 2011, announces its complete dissolution.