Posted April 09, 2017 11:15:14

Photo: Pro-independence Basques hold up the Basque flag and a symbol called "Artisans of the Peace". (AP: Alvaro Barrientos)

The Basque separatist group ETA has given up weapons to French authorities in what is seen as a crucial move toward disarmament and a definitive end to its decades-long fight for a homeland on the French-Spanish border.

ETA revealed eight caches where French police found weapons, ammunition and explosives.

Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said police have searched each site and discovered "dozens of handguns and rifles, thousands of pieces of ammunition, several hundred kilograms of explosives and products that can be used to make explosives, several hundreds of detonators and timers".

A detailed inventory of the ETA weapons caches is underway and the results of French authorities' technical examination and other elements of their investigation will be given to Spanish justice authorities, Mr Molins said.

Representatives of the self-appointed Peace Artisans group, who are acting as mediators in the disarmament process, said that ETA had surrendered 120 firearms and about 3 tonnes of explosives and ammunition.

"We hope that, with this, the movement can move forward to a long-lasting peace in the Basque country," activist Mixel Berhokoirigoin said.

French Interior Minister Matthias Fekl said: "It's a great step, an unquestionably important day."

ETA, or Euskadi Ta Askatasuna, which translates as Basque Country and Freedom, has been inactive for more than five years but had conducted a violent independence campaign since 1968 that killed 829 people, mostly in Spain.

The weapons handover is the second-to-last step demanded by France and Spain, which want ETA to formally disband. The organisation has not said yet whether it would.

Spain "will not make any evaluation of the handing over of weapons by ETA until they have been analysed by French authorities," Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido said in a televised address.

"The government will not alter its position: Terrorists cannot hope to receive any special treatment from the government nor immunity for their crimes."

Spain called on ETA to "announce its definitive dissolution, ask forgiveness from its victims and disappear."

The caches were in south-western France, a region historically used as a support base by ETA.

Photo: Pro-independence Basques walk under a banner reading "All people are Artisans of the Peace" after the weapons surrender was announced. (AP: Alvaro Barrientos)

Basques celebrate handover

Around 20,000 people gathered in the streets of Bayonne, in south-western France, to celebrate the peace.

Many sang slogans calling for convicted ETA members to complete their sentences in their homelands.

Some Basque separatists have pushed for convicted members to serve their prison time closer to their homes, not scattered around Spain and France. The Spanish and French governments have refused.

The president of the Basque Country's regional government in Spain called the disarmament an "important step with historical value".

"It certifies that there should have never been any ETA victims," Inigo Urkullu said. "All the victims are part of this success."

When speaking about victims, Basque nationalists usually take into account the ETA militants and supporters killed during the "Dirty War" led by government-sanctioned counter-terrorism groups.

However, the president of the Victims of Terrorism Foundation, Maria del Mar Blanco, whose brother was kidnapped and killed by the ETA in 1997, called for "nobody to rewrite history."

"The bad guys are still the bad guys. The good guys — we, the victims of terrorism — are still the good ones," Ms Blanco told Spanish national television.

A handful of ETA members are still on the run. Hundreds of killings also remain unsolved, and the arms caches could help lead authorities to some of the perpetrators.

AP

Topics: terrorism, unrest-conflict-and-war, france, spain