ceasefire

Catalan parties and Government believe ETA’s announcement is “the beginning of the end”

October 21, 2011 12:39 PM | CNA / Gaspar Pericay Coll

The President of the Catalan Government, from the Centre-Right Catalan Nationalist coalition CiU considered the statement “an important step” and stressed that they “are hoping for the terrorist group's total break up and the total abandonment of its weapons”. The Left-Wing Catalan Independence Party, ERC, asked the Spanish Government to quit its “ivory tower”, “as the United Kingdom did”, and “let the Basque and the Catalan peoples decide their future”. However, the Catalan Association of Terrorist Victims has criticised ETA’s announcement and said that it only hopes for ETA’s disappearance, but other individual victims have celebrated the news. ETA has killed more than 800 people, 50 of them in Catalonia.

ETA’s statement sent to the BBC

October 20, 2011 10:10 PM | CNA

The Basque terrorist group ETA announced this afternoon, minutes before 19h (CET), the “clear, firm and definitive purpose” to end “its armed activity” by sending a declaration to the Basque newspapers Gara and Berria, and to the BBC. Here we attached ETA’s statement sent to the BBC.

ETA declares a “permanent” ceasefire, in “general terms” and internationally “verifiable”

January 10, 2011 11:01 PM | CNA / P. Francesch / G. Pericay Coll

The Spanish Government states “it’s good news but not THE news” it was waiting for. The Socialist Party, the People’s Party and most of the Spanish opinion leaders insist that ETA’s only way out is through its own total disarmament and dissolution. The President of the Basque Government affirmed that he “would not allow ETA to dictate Basque Country’s future”. However, he underlined that ETA’s statement means that the terrorist group acknowledges the inevitability of its demise. CiU and other Catalan parties are optimistic but prudent.