Fourteen months of peace in the Spanish Basque Country could come to an end later this week after the separatist movement ETA announced an end of the ceasefire declared last year.
In an announcement published yesterday in the pro-ETA Basque newspaper, Gara, the terrorist group said that on Friday next it would be instructing its militants on future actions leading to a new campaign of violence.
ETA put the blame for the ending of its truce on the Spanish and French governments for their "continuing repression" against the movement.
Police activity against suspected terrorists has continued on both sides of the border, and as recently as last month the woman named as a negotiator for the organisation was arrested in south-west France.
ETA has also blamed the moderate Basque nationalist parties for their failure to keep secret promises allegedly made shortly before the ceasefire was announced in September, 1998. The president of PNV, the Basque Nationalist Party, Mr Xabier Arzallus, yesterday accused ETA of "lying" and denied any secret agreement was signed between the parties and ETA's political front.
The peace process has made little progress over the past year. One of ETA's principal demands was that all Basque prisoners should be transferred to jails near their home region - some of them had been imprisoned in jails as far away as the Canary Islands or North African enclaves, making it difficult for family visits - but to date only 135 of over 400 prisoners have been moved closer to home.
Nor have contacts between the authorities and the terrorists been any more successful.
After various contacts at a lower level, only one top-level meeting has taken place, in Switzerland last spring, and all contact was broken during the summer.
The past 14 months of peace have been the longest in the organisation's 30-year campaign which has left more than 800 dead.
Although violence came to a halt and there have been no deaths since the end of August last year, there has been no halt to the kale barroka, or street violence by gangs of pro-ETA youths, which has continued virtually unabated.
More than 400 attacks against businesses and private property have been reported over the past 14 months - most recently on Saturday night, when the car of a local town councillor and a telephone company repair van were destroyed by fire.
The first hint that the truce could be threatened came last week when a group of masked youths held up a factory at gunpoint and stole a machine for falsifying car number plates.
The ceasefire breakdown has been condemned by politicians of all parties. The Spanish Prime Minister, Mr Jose Maria Aznar, was awoken at 3 a.m. to be told of the announcement. He called a pre-dawn meeting with his top security advisers and held telephone conversations with other leaders.
"ETA are seriously mistaken if they believe that coercion, blackmail or terror will break the determination of the Spanish people. They cannot turn people into hostages for their objectives or put a price on those who want to live in peace," he said.
Shortly after the ceasefire announcement, Ms Esther Agirre, head of international relations for EH, ETA's political front, told The Irish Times that there had been many contacts between the Basques and the IRA.
"We were inspired by the progress made in Northern Ireland and hope that it can be mirrored in the Basque Country," she said.
Unfortunately, it now looks as if her wishes may not come to fruition.