ASSESSMENTS

A Basque Group's Latest Call for a Cease-fire

Jan 10, 2011 | 19:47 GMT

Thomson Reuters

Summary

Basque separatist group Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA) on Jan. 10 called for a "permanent cease-fire" in its fight for autonomy in northern Spain and southwestern France. This is ETA's fifth call for a cease-fire in 19 years, and it, like the others, has come at a time when the group has suffered operational setbacks as a result of increased French and Spanish security pressure. Thus, in the short term, the likelihood that this appeal will lead to a complete cessation of militant activity is very low. The group also faces demographic, political and economic challenges to its separatist ideology, which likely will lead the group to continue to use violence more for financial gain through organized crime than to further its ideological cause.

Separatist movement ETA's latest appeal likely does not mean the end of militant violence in the region....

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