ETA declares end to “permanent” ceasefire

ETA declares end to “permanent” ceasefire

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero immediately labeled the move a "mistake" and asked the outfit to definitively eschew violence.

ETA said in a statement it will as of midnight Tuesday "act on all fronts" to campaign for an independent Basque state.

"The Spanish government has responded to the permanent suspension of armed activities offered by ETA with arrests, torture and all sorts of hounding," it said in the statement sent to the pro-independence Basque Berria and Gara newspapers.

"The minimum democratic conditions are not met to continue with the process of negotiations," it said.

ETA, whose four-decade campaign to achieve independence for the Basque region of Spain and southwestern France has claimed over 800 lives, announced the ceasefire in March 2006 and Zapatero indicated in June he would begin peace talks.

But the Socialist government considered the ceasefire broken after ETA staged a bombing at a Madrid airport carpark on December 30 that killed two men. It was the first deadly attack by ETA since 2003.

ETA has insisted that the ceasefire was still in place and stressed it did not intend to cause any deaths with the attack.

Reacting to the announcement, Zapatero, who faces a general election next year, said ETA was "making a mistake again" and reiterated his demand for the armed group to abandon violence.

"ETA's decision goes in radically the opposite direction to the path desired by the Spanish and Basque society, the path of peace," he said in a televised address.

The prime minister, who had made resolving the Basque conflict a priority since coming to power in 2004, said his government would take steps to protect citizens.

Spanish police have continued to carry out arrests of suspected ETA members despite the ceasefireast.

ETA's political wing, Batasuna, has been prohibited as a party since 2003 and the exclusion from local elections last month of hundreds of candidates sympathetic to the armed group further increased tensions.

Spain's El País newspaper, which has close ties to the government, reported Monday that ETA is planning an "imminent" attack, quoting police sources.

"It is most likely that ETA will commit a spectacular but victimless attack to show off its operational capacity and increase its capacity of intimidation and blackmail," the newspaper wrote.

A massive security deployment during a military ceremony attended by King Juan Carlos on Sunday reflected the authorities' fears, it said.

ETA has also stepped up attempts at extorting money from Basque businesses, sending them letters demanding "economic help" of up to EUR 150,000 for the cause of "Basque liberation," the El Mundo daily reported on Sunday.

ETA's move may boost Spain's opposition People's Party, which has sharply criticised Zapatero's government for pursuing talks with the group.

The conservative PP and associations of ETA victims earlier this year organised large demonstrations against negotiating with the group.

Several Spanish governments have failed in the past in seeking an end to the conflict.

ETA had declared ceasefires in 1989 and then in 1999 which it then subsequently called off.