THE armed Basque separatist group ETA said yesterday it was ending its 15-month-old ceasefire and warned Spain's government of new attacks "on all fronts".
In a communiqué sent to Basque media, the rebels said they were calling off the truce because of "arrests, tortures and every type of persecution" by the Socialist government.
ETA, which has been fighting for independence for the Basque territori
es for four decades, declared a ceasefire in March 2006 and had insisted that it still held despite killing two people with a bomb in Madrid airport in December last year.
The government of prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero started exploratory peace talks in mid-2006, but broke them off at the end of the year after the airport bomb.
At the time, ETA said it had not meant to kill anyone and was only seeking concessions in peace talks.
"ETA wishes to announce that it is abandoning its permanent ceasefire and has decided to act on all fronts in defence of Euskal Herria," the group said, using the Basque language name for the Basque Country.
Mr Zapatero said the ceasefire had already been broken in December by ETA, which also called off an earlier truce in 1999.
"ETA's decision is absolutely the opposite of what Basque and Spanish society want: the road to peace," he said. "Spanish society has shown over a long period that pain does not sap its strength, that suffering does not reduce its determination," he added.
The ETA announcement, widely anticipated by state security services, could mean a big attack is imminent, analysts said. "They will probably stage attacks, it's possible they might carry out assassinations," said Pello Salaburu, a former rector of the Basque Country University, who added that he thought the group was doomed by falling levels of support.
"They don't understand how much people hate them... They live on another planet," he said.
ETA has killed more than 800 people in four decades of armed struggle for independence of the ancient Basque territories of northern Spain and southern France.
Most Basques do not want to secede from Spain, polls show, and the Basque Country already enjoys considerable autonomy.
More than 700 arrests in Spain and France since 2000 seriously weakened the rebels, who also lost support after the Madrid bombings in 2004 increased public revulsion against terrorism, security services believe.
On the streets of one Basque town, Getxo, the reaction to ETA's move was one of dismay.
"It's enough to make you want to go into exile," said Patxi Bengoetxea, 70. "We don't want to be with Spain, but we don't want to have anything to do with these brothers of ours, these sons of ours either."
The end of the ceasefire is bad news for Mr Zapatero who defied fierce criticism from opposition conservatives by opening exploratory peace talks with ETA. The government says it wants a negotiated solution to the Basque conflict but will talk to ETA only if it abandons violent activity.
ETA's banned political party ally Batasuna was not allowed to take part in last month's regional elections. "We suffer from a lack of democracy," complained ETA in its communiqué, adding: "The recent elections were illegitimate."
UPRISING AGAINST DICTATORSHIP TURNED TO TERRORISM
FOR decades, ETA sowed terror in Spain with car bombings and assassinations, after beginning its struggle in the last days of Spain's right-wing dictatorship.
Its aim is the creation of an independent Basque state in northern Spain and south-western France.
Euskadi ta Askatasuna, meaning Basque Homeland and Freedom, was founded in 1959 when General Francisco Franco ruled and the Basque language was suppressed.
It was not until in 1968 that it carried out its first killing, of Meliton Manzanas, the chief of police in the Basque city of San Sebastian.
In 1973, Franco's prime minister, Luis Carrero Blanco, was killed when his car passed over explosives planted by ETA in Madrid. ETA's bloodiest year was in 1980 when nearly 100 people were killed, despite Spain's recent return to democracy.
In total, ETA has killed more than 800 people since 1968, typically using car bombs or shootings. The number of ETA killings had fallen from 23 in 2000 to just three in 2003.
In 2002, the Spanish parliament passed a law which effectively banned the Basque political party Batasuna, which it described as ETA's political wing. The party denies the allegation.
From May 2003 to 30 December 2006, ETA killed no-one until a bomb went off at Madrid Airport, killing two Ecuadorians.
The full article contains 762 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
