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Two people died in the 2006 bombing on Madrid-Barajas airport, claimed by ETA. AFP/Getty Images

Basque separatist group ETA apologises for 'pain' and 'harm' it caused

The statement came just days before ETA is expected to announce its dissolution.

THE BASQUE SEPARATIST group ETA apologised today for the “pain” and “harm” it caused during its decades-long campaign of violence, and appealed to its victims for forgiveness.

“We have caused a lot of pain, and irreparable harm. We want to show our respect to the dead, to the wounded and to the victims of the actions of ETA… We sincerely regret it,” it said in a statement released in the Basque newspaper Gara.

The statement came just days before ETA is expected to announce its dissolution.

“We know that, forced by the necessities of all types of armed struggle, our actions have harmed citizens who were not responsible. We have also caused serious wrongs which are irreparable. We ask forgiveness to those people and their families”, it said.

ETA waged a nearly four-decade campaign of bombings and shootings to establish an independent Basque state in northern Spain and southern France.

At least 829 people were killed before the group announced a permanent ceasefire in 2011.

In its statement to Gara, its traditional means of communication, ETA said it was not the alone in being responsible for the violence in the Basque Country.

“Suffering existed before the birth of ETA and continued after it ceased its armed struggle,” it said.

The group has been severely weakened in recent years after police arrested hundreds of its members, including its leaders, and seized several of its weapons stashes.

Spain’s 2.2-million-strong Basque region is now gearing up for the dissolution of the group created in 1959 at the height of Francisco Franco’s dictatorship.

Yesterday an international mediator, Alberto Spektorowski, said that “failing a last-minute surprise” ETA would announce its dissolution on 5 or 6 May.

“The declaration that ETA no longer exists will be very clear,” the Israeli academic, a member of the International Contact Group, told Basque radio EITB.

“I cannot say what words they will use but no one will be left in any doubt,” he said, adding that the announcement would be made across the border, in the French Basque region.

© – AFP, 2018

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    Apr 20th 2018, 8:28 AM

    Wonder would the IRA and loyalist paramilitaries have gone the same way….. just died out if there was no Good Friday Agreement….In the end IRA and loyalist got a very generous deal….

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    Apr 20th 2018, 10:08 AM

    @pc_comments: And the Brits got away with Murder

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    Mute Gerry Fallon
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    Apr 20th 2018, 9:08 AM

    Do they think it’s ok now to apologise?
    Just move on and forget it never happened?
    Cool heroes like the IRA?
    singing rebel songs.
    No,it’s not.The damage is done.unnecessary killings and bombings will leave a stain on this country and Spain too forever.
    Where did it get them?Nowhere.

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    Apr 20th 2018, 9:21 AM

    @Gerry Fallon: good man forget about the reason

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    Mute Matt Beaumont
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    Apr 20th 2018, 9:22 AM

    @Gerry Fallon: agreed but it‘s still better to admit being in the wrong than to carry on regardless. Sure the crimes cannot be undone but further crimes for their cause can be prevented

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    Apr 20th 2018, 9:35 AM

    @David Clarke: David,what reason can you have that justifies killing innocent people?
    Can you explain to me because I cannot see a reason.

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    Mute Brian Ó Dálaigh
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    Apr 20th 2018, 9:57 AM

    @Gerry Fallon: I always did wonder why the onus for apologising is always placed solely at the feet of the “terrorist” organisation and never at the feet of any government. The Spanish and British governments tortured, executed and blew up innocent civilians too, but they never had to apologise. They were also the ones that instigated the policies that led to the rise of these groups in the first place.

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    Apr 20th 2018, 10:00 AM

    @David Clarke: Civil disobedience is the best action to take. it shows up your aggressors for what they are.

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    Apr 20th 2018, 10:21 AM

    @Gerry Fallon: it was a war it happpens it sad but when you hav war innocent people die. So if you don’t want it to happen stop supporting government who invade other people’s country.

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    Apr 20th 2018, 10:23 AM

    @Sean Conway: Where did civil disobedience get the Civil Rights Movement? Tear gas, baton charges and people burnt out of their homes.

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    Apr 20th 2018, 11:02 AM

    @Sean Conway: and when that doesn’t work

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    Apr 20th 2018, 11:04 AM

    @No One: do have to laugh at people who never went through what oppressed people went through telling them what they are doing is wrong

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    Apr 20th 2018, 11:15 AM

    @No One: Planting bombs where children are bown to pieces is a better way?

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    Mute Peter gowan
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    Apr 20th 2018, 9:00 PM

    @Gerry Fallon: you should educate yourself before talking rubbish,they where under attack and responded,read a book or two about Spanish civil war

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    Mute David Dineen
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    Apr 20th 2018, 8:55 AM

    Let’s hope there can be a truth and reconciliation process that can allow “victims” and those that caused pain and suffering to confess and seek forgiveness

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    Apr 20th 2018, 11:06 AM

    @David Dineen: won’t happen just like the six county because if they did that people would see what the British did

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    Apr 20th 2018, 8:55 PM

    They said sorry for what they done,,when are the Spanish gonna say sorry for how they treated the basques and all republicans.also anyone thinks ETA where the only problem should look what Franco’s fascists did during civil war..

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