今日新闻：ETA宣布永久停火

Basque Separatists Declare Ceasefire

By REUTERS
Published: March 22, 2006

Filed at 7:23 a.m. ET

MADRID (Reuters) - Basque separatist group ETA on Wednesday declared a permanent ceasefire in its struggle for independence from Spain with effect from Friday, Basque newspaper Gara said on its Web site.

Gara is the group's usual vehicle for statements.

``ETA has decided to declare a ceasefire which will come into effect on Friday and will be permanent,'' Gara said in a special edition posted on its Web site www.gara.net.

A ceasefire would be the first step in a long-awaited peace process with ETA, which has killed 850 people since 1968 in its fight to carve an independent state out of northern Spain and southwestern France.

ETA, which is classed as a terrorist group by the United States and the European Union, previously declared a full ceasefire in September 1998. The group rescinded the ceasefire in December 1999.

Gara quoted a message from ETA saying its aim was ``to move the democratic process forward in Euskal Herria (the Basque Country).''

It added it aimed to build a new framework in which the rights of Basques as a people would be recognized.

Recently, ETA has set off only small bombs which have caused slight damage and no deaths have occurred since 2003.