Basque Separatist Group ETA Hands Over Weapons to French Authorities

http://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/08/world/europe/spain-basque-separatist-group-eta-disarmament.html

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The French police on Saturday collected weapons, ammunition and explosives from the Basque separatist group ETA in a step toward the group’s disarmament, a development that prompted a wary response from the Spanish government.

The police searched eight hiding places at locations disclosed by members of the group. The stockpiles were all on the French side of the Pyrenees mountains that separate France from Spain. While ETA’s attacks and killings have been mostly on Spanish soil, the group has fought to create an independent Basque homeland between northern Spain and southwestern France.

Matthias Fekl, the French interior minister, described ETA’s decision to hand over the weapons as “a major step.” But his Spanish counterpart, Juan Ignacio Zoido, offered a more cautious assessment, and warned the group’s remaining members not to expect any leniency in return or “impunity for their crimes.” He called on ETA to disband and ask its victims for forgiveness.

The Spanish government also said that it would leave the task of investigating and making an inventory of the weapons recovered on Saturday to the French authorities. The stockpiles contained about 120 firearms, three metric tons of explosives, detonators and ammunition, according to a group of international observers who have been trying to act as mediators between ETA and the authorities.

Spanish security experts said they believed that the weapons found on Saturday made up only a part of the group’s arsenal and did not include weapons that could be used to identify ETA assassins.

ETA has killed more than 800 people since the late 1960s as part of its campaign to establish an independent Basque homeland. The group is considered a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union.