MADRID, March 17 (Xinhua) -- The Basque separatist group ETA confirmed on Friday it will give a list of its arms caches in order to accelerate the disarmament of the organization.
The disarmament will be completed by April 8th according to civilian intermediary Jean Noel Etcheverry, the French Le Monde newspaper reported.
Etcheverry, who was detained in the south of France on Dec. 16 in a police raid which also recovered 29 pistols, nine assault rifles and 12 automatic rifles along with over 3,000 bullets, is reported to have commented that ETA had "given us the responsibility for the disarmament of its arsenal and it will be totally disarmed by the night of April 8th."
He explained that in view of the refusal of the Spanish and French government to take part in the disarmament, "several hundred people from civil society and numerous public officials from the region" would participate in the process which would have a "previously unseen reach."
The announcement comes five-and-a-half years after the organization, whose 45-year-struggle for the independence of the Basque Region in the north of Spain and southwest corner of France has cost around 830 lives, announced a permanent and lasting ceasefire.
The intervening period has seen the arrest of over 140 people thought to have links with the organization and it is thought ETA's military capacity is now almost inexistent, with its few remaining members living in or hiding in France.
Spanish Government Spokesman Inigo Mendez de Vigo responded to the news by commenting the organization needed to "disarm and dissolve."
