CNN.com - ETA truce draws cautious response

ETA graffiti on a wall in the northern Spanish city of Vitoria.

Interactive: ETA and Basque separatism

• ETA: Long campaign of violence

• Text of ETA cease-fire statement

• Timeline: Decades of violence

• Bomb blasts follow ETA warning

• Thousands in anti-ETA march

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MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- Basque separatist group ETA said Friday would mark the end of an era in Spain after it announced a "permanent" cease-fire.

But the group's announcement drew a cautious reaction from Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who last year offered talks if ETA gave up violence.

"After so many years of horror and terror it will be a long and difficult process," Zapatero, who has put devolving more power to Spain's regions high on his agenda, told parliament, according to a report from Reuters. Zapatero did not say if or when his socialist government might talk to ETA, according to Reuters.

ETA on Wednesday declared a "permanent cease-fire" that will begin Friday, raising hopes for an end to 37 years of violence in which the group has been blamed for more than 800 deaths.

On Thursday, ETA issued a second statement reaffirming the group's willingness to lay down arms.

In a statement given to the Basque newspaper Gara, ETA said the cease-fire would begin at 12 a.m. Friday (6 p.m. ET Thursday) .

The leader of Spain's Socialist government reacted to Wednesday's announcement by saying any dealings with ETA should be "cautious and prudent."

The ETA statement was released to Basque broadcast and print media in the form of a printed statement and a videotape showing three hooded ETA operatives, one of them reading the declaration, sitting in front of the ETA flag.

On the videotape, a woman ETA operative reads the statement, which begins, "Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA) has decided to declare a permanent cease-fire as of March 24, 2006. The aim of this decision is to promote a democratic process" in the Basque country.

The printed statement, released to the Basque newspaper Gara, where ETA has typically posted its statements in recent years, added that ETA aims to keep open "all the political options."

The group called on France and Spain to respect a democratic decision of the Basque people about their future with "no type of limitations."

The Basques live in a mountainous area along both sides of the border of Spain and France.

Last year, Spain's Socialist government won backing in Parliament to hold talks with ETA if the group would first renounce violence and lay down its arms.

Recent statements by ETA -- which is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union -- fell short of that mark, which is why the latest statement is seen as crucial.

The conservative opposition Popular Party has sharply criticized the government's position, saying it plays into ETA's hands.

The party leader, Mariano Rajoy, said the ETA statement fell short because it did not announce the "dissolution" of ETA and an end to "its criminal activity."

Rajoy pledged that his party, often at odds with the government, was willing to collaborate to end ETA's terrorism, but he warned that the government must not "pay a political price" for peace because that would signify an ETA victory.

A spokesman for the outlawed leftist Batasuna party, widely seen as the political wing of ETA, said the party would have no comment until a news conference in the Basque region later Wednesday.

Analysts say a concerted police crackdown in recent years in Spain and France may have helped weaken the group and prompt its cease-fire statement.

About 500 ETA prisoners are in Spanish jails, either convicted or awaiting trial, a government spokeswoman told CNN. Anti-terrorism sources say unofficially that another 140 to 150 ETA prisoners are being held in France.

Many Spaniards also say they believe the March 11, 2004 terror attacks in Madrid -- carried out by Islamic extremists -- effectively stymied ETA, with public revulsion over terrorism making deadly violence politically impossible for the Basque group, The Associated Press said.

It is thought to be the first time in ETA's long fight for an independent Basque homeland that it has declared a "permanent" cease-fire.

The previous full-scale cease-fire, in 1998, was described by ETA as "indefinite." It lasted only until early 2000, when the killing began again.

ETA has not killed anyone since 2003, and many of its recent attacks have been preceded by warning calls that gave police time to evacuate people before the bomb exploded.

Ignacio Sanchez, the author of studies on ETA, said Wednesday's statement could be taken "very seriously."

"They have been weakened more than ever, both by the judiciary and the police. They are the last active terrorist group in Western Europe and everything points to this being a permanent truce," he told Reuters.

The cease-fire announcement may come as a relief to several thousand ordinary Spaniards -- teachers, journalists and local town councilors among them -- who cannot leave home without armed bodyguards because of their outspoken comments against ETA.

There was no immediate indication that these people would be giving up their bodyguards, but many Spaniards rejoiced, according to AP.

"I can't believe it!" said Carmen Marichalar, 53, a Madrid tourism office official. "I think it's brilliant. Now they can negotiate and bring an end to this terrorism which has gone on for so long in Spain."

Sandra Dorada, a 29-year-old postal worker, was equally jubilant: "It's amazing! I hope to God it's true," she said. "But they (ETA) have said this before and it wasn't true."

ETA has been blamed for more than a dozen attacks this year, mostly without injury, and ETA has claimed responsibility for many of them in statements to Basque media.

ETA truce draws cautious response

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