The Basque separatist group in Spain, announced a permanent ceasefire after four decades of armed military resistance. The Scotsman reports:
The news prompted jubilation across the country, where ordinary citizens say they can hardly believe the end has come for a group blamed for more than 850 deaths…
A masked woman, read out the statement on videotape: ETA “has decided to declare a permanent ceasefire as of 24 March, 2006. “The aim is to promote a democratic process in the Basque country and to build a new framework in which our rights as a people will be recognised” …
ETA has announced a number of cease-fires in the past, but never one it called permanent.