A senior Spanish official told reporters on Wednesday that an
ETA request to bring France into the peace talks was
"unrealistic."
The armed Basque separatist group ETA must first "repudiate any
form of violence irreversibly and definitively," said Maria Teresa
Fernandez de la Vega, Spain's deputy prime minister.
ETA has struggled for an independent Basque homeland in
northeastern Spain and southwestern France, a region the Basques
call Euskal Herria.
ETA called on France to participate in the dialogue earlier on
Wednesday, saying "if France does not recognize Euskal Herria, the
fight for our rights and the conflict will continue."
The Wednesday statement appeared to contradict ETA's March
declared ceasefire which it said would be "permanent," although the
organization has not laid down its weapons.
The deputy prime minister said "I have already said that ending
all types of violence is the prerequisite for peace."
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero told Spanish
radio on the same day that direct contacts with ETA might take
place as early as this summer, adding that he had a date in
mind.
"This is a great opportunity for Spanish democracy" to end the
violence, he said.
Zapatero plans to ask his Socialist-led parliament to endorse
the beginning of direct talks with the group, which Spanish
authorities say has been responsible for more than 800 deaths,
during its four-decade campaign for independence.
(Xinhua News Agency June 15, 2006)
