Basques Call For Cease-Fire Spanish Government Asked To Negotiate Independence

The armed Basque separatist group ETA called a one-week cease-fire on Sunday, and urged Spain’s conservative government to enter negotiations for the independence of Basque provinces.

The group gave no explanation for the timing of its cease-fire, which it announced in the radical Basque newspaper Egin.

The moderate Basque Nationalist Party, the largest in the three-province Basque region of northern Spain, criticized the shortness of the cease-fire and called for “a lengthy and hopefully definitive truce.”

ETA began its armed fight for independence in 1968, and has killed more than 760 people since then.

Its latest victim was an army sergeant killed by a car bomb on May 20. It also claimed responsibility last year for a failed car bomb attack against then-opposition leader Jose Maria Aznar, now prime minister.

Aznar insists his two-month-old government will not negotiate with ETA, which observed a three-month truce in 1989 during failed talks with Spain’s then-Socialist government.

ETA enjoyed wide support in its early years, but a majority of Basques have turned against it since democracy returned to Spain in 1978 and the government granted the Basque region control over taxes, police and education.