September 27, 2016•Update: September 27, 2016
By Alyssa McMurtry
MADRID
The Basque terrorist group ETA on Tuesday described the Spanish and French governments’ attitudes since a 2011 ceasefire by the group as “more than poor”.
In a statement published by the Basque newspaper Gara, ETA contrasted its current situation to the “success” of a peace deal between the FARC guerilla group and the Colombian government signed on Monday.
“They [France and Spain] haven’t complied with the minimums that were agreed upon then, and they haven’t responded as they should to the issues that make up the resolution,” read the statement.
“Only ETA has kept its word,” it added.
In October, a ceasefire agreement with ETA will see its fifth anniversary. The deal brought an end to a four-decade armed conflict in which ETA killed more than 800 people in its quest for an independent Basque state in northeastern Spain and southwestern France.
In Tuesday’s statement, the group said the two governments must deal with the issue of hundreds of imprisoned and exiled ETA members with “the urgency it deserves”.
ETA previously signed another ceasefire agreement in March 2006 but this was brought to a bloody end when the group set off a van bomb at Madrid’s airport, killing two and injuring 52.
However, in this recent statement the group said it still wants to work towards “resolving the conflict”.
The ETA statement comes after two inconclusive general elections in Spain, leaving the country without an agreed government for more than nine months.
Basque regional elections were held on Sunday. The conservative, moderate Basque Nationalist Party won enough votes to form a minority government and leftist nationalists, symbolically led by former ETA prisoner, Arnaldo Otegi, came second.
