Basque separatist group ETA says it is committed to peace

The Basque separatist group ETA said in a statement published yesterday it remains committed to peace in the troubled northern region so long as there is an end to "attacks" on the Basque nation.

In a second statement since it shattered a self-imposed cease-fire with a car bomb at Madrid Airport, ETA said, "We have the willingness to commit firmly to ... absence of violence, deactivating even options to retaliate within a situation of cease-fire."

ETA said its commitment would be maintained "if attacks on the Basque nation disappear."

The separatist group wants the inclusion in local elections of parties currently outlawed because of their support for ETA, as well as better treatment for ETA prisoners and a reduction in the arrests of its members.

"The Basque left is denied an opportunity to participate on equal terms in political negotiations," said ETA in the statement, to mark Aberri Eguna, the Basque people's annual feast day.

The statement was published in the Basque newspaper Gara, one of ETA's usual vehicles for communication.

In the statement - written in the form of questions and answers - ETA questioned whether the Socialist government led by Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero had the political will to resolve the separatist problem, which has rumbled on for four decades.

"The question ... is whether they have the will and political decisiveness to find a democratic end to the conflict," said ETA.

The separatist group also called for recognition from France.

On Dec. 30, eight months after declaring a cease-fire, ETA detonated a massive car bomb at Madrid's international airport.

Despite the seeming derailment of the peace process, the separatist group maintained that it had not broken what it called a "permanent" cease-fire, a position it repeated again in Sunday's Gara statement.

"ETA confirms today all the commitments made on March 24" - the day last year when it said its permanent cease-fire came into force - the Gara statement said.

The government said the statement fell short of what was needed.

"ETA only needs to to take one step, renounce violence," a government spokesman told radio network Cadena SER.