A permanent ceasefire declaration from armed Basque separatists ETA has been rejected by Spain’s Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.
He was responding to the first unilateral declaration of a permanent ceasefire in ETA’s campaign of bombings and shootings for a homeland independent of Spain, which has claimed the lives of 829 people since 1959.
An ETA statement on Monday had talked of a ceasefire, but there was no promise to disband or disarm.
The group has regularly targeted holiday resorts as part of its campaign of violence.
Zapatero ruled out dialogue, saying ETA’s only choice was to disarm and respect the law. “The only thing we are waiting for from ETA is a statement on its definitive dissolution,” he said in a Spanish TV interview.
Achieving an end to ETA’s violence would be a costly and difficult process, Zapatero added. “We are without any doubt on the horizon of seeing that end to violence but it will take time,” he said.
“We must remain united, with strength and intelligence and defending the democratic state. That way we will achieve it. I have no doubt.”
The Basque Country’s interior minister Rodolfo Ares said the statement was a step in the right direction, but was “insufficient, because ETA has not decided to abandon terrorist activities”.
ETA announced a “permanent ceasefire” almost five years ago within the framework of negotiations with Madrid. But nine months later, it set off a bomb in the car park of Madrid-Barajas airport, killing two men.