SPAIN: The outlawed Basque terrorist group Eta yesterday called a truce limited to the Spanish region of Catalonia in a shock move amid a general election campaign obsessed with Spain's territorial unity.
"Eta informs the Basque and Catalan people of the suspension of its campaign of armed action in Catalonia as of January 1th, 2004," one of two masked Eta spokesmen said in a video broadcast on Basque television.
"A revolutionary salute to all pro-independence Catalans," the spokesman said, speaking against a backdrop of Basque and Catalan flags.
As in the Basque country, nationalist leaders in Spain's largely autonomous Catalonia region surrounding Barcelona seek greater self rule from the central government in Madrid.
The partial truce is the first of any kind by Eta since it announced the end of a 14-month ceasefire in November 1999. After that unilateral ceasefire, which applied to all of Spain, Eta launched its first deadly attack in January 2000 and has been active ever since. Eta has killed nearly 850 people since 1968 in a campaign for an independent state in northern Spain and southwestern France.
The announcement, which drew a rebuke from the central government, showed signs of aggravating regional tensions in Spain, particularly those between Madrid and the restive regions of Catalonia and the Basque country.
"The government wishes to express its unequivocal rejection of any kind of negotiation except for one in which they surrender their arms," Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar said in a televised address. "The government will continue pursuing the terrorists inside and outside Spain."