Basque terrorist organisation Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (Eta) has asked for forgiveness from the victims of its bloody 50-year separatist campaign, as it prepares to disband next month.
“We know that we caused a lot of pain during that long period of armed struggle, including damage that can never be put right,” said the statement, published by Basque newspapers Gara and Berria. “We wish to show our respect for those who were killed or wounded by Eta and those who were affected by the conflict. We are truly sorry.”
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“We know that, owing to the necessities of all kinds of armed struggle, our actions have hurt people who bore no responsibility whatsoever,” it continued. “We have also caused damage that can’t be undone. We apologise to those people and their families. These words won’t make up for what happened nor will they lessen the pain, but we speak to them respectfully and without wanting to provoke further suffering.”
Between 1968 and 2010, the group is believed to have murdered at least 829 people, and injured thousands more, in terror attacks on Spanish soil, reports The Guardian.
Eta declared a definitive ceasefire in 2011 and disarmed in April 2017, “bringing a close to Western Europe’s last major armed insurgency”, says Reuters. The group has spent months working on a declaration to confirm its final dissolution, to be marked at a ceremony in France during the first week of May, says Spanish newspaper El Pais.
The Spanish government said that today’s apology was long overdue, and hailed it as further proof that “Eta has been defeated with the weapons of democracy and the strength of the rule of law”.
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