ETA announces a "Permanent" Cease Fire

On March 22, 2006, Euskadi Ta Askatasuna announces a permanent cease fire. Since 1968, ETA has killed 851 people, about half civilians, and kidnapped 77 others, including a German Counsul whom they held for 25 days.

Hope is tempered with the experienced of other unilateral "cease fires" announced by ETA starting after the attempted coup d' etat in 1981 until the most recent in 1998.

I don’t know why but I feel that this ETA cease fire is different from other two. I am full of hope that the violence is truly over. I believe that the Madrid Bombings in March of 2004 by Al-Quada broke the back of ETA. The killing of almost 200 civilians who were just going about their daily lives, was so horrible an act of violence that not even the ETA wanted to go there. However, that was a possible future for their organization if they continue their violent methods. Organizations like Manos Blancas have also been arguing for years that independence must be achieved peacefully through the referendum process which is not possible in an atmosphere of terror that suppresses real dialogue.

ETA is at its weakest in its history. 160 members have been arrested over the past year. The assets of several related organizations including their political arm Batasuna have been frozen. Additionally, if ETA, already despised throughout Spain including the Basque Country, had continued with killing civilians, the outrage would have impeded any and all of their efforts.

This announcements comes on the heels of last Saturday's before manifestations around Spain against terrorism, including one in Bilbao that called for "Por la Paz, el Acuerdo, y la Consulta" (For Peace, agreement and in consultation"). The ETA set off a couple of bombs which only caused property damage last month. While an article by Bernardo Atxaga in the New York Times today is hopeful (Basque Spring in the Editorial Page), the expression of many Basque in the Spanish Press has been one of "wait and see." Spain's Deputy Prime Minister, María Teresa Fernández de la Vega told reporters "The government has to be more prudent now than ever, but our hope and desire is that this is the beginning of the end."

At the end of the Cease Fire Announcement, ETA stated that the objective of their decision to lay down their arms was to "advance the democratic process in order to construct a new framework that will recognize the rights that we as a people deserve. At the end of the process, the Basque citizens should have the final word and decision about their future."

Hard to argue with that.