Separatists end Basque truce

SAN SEBASTIAN, Spain -- The separatist group ETA announced yesterday the end of its 14-month truce, bringing to an abrupt end hopes of lasting peace in the Basque country of northern Spain.

"ETA has decided to take up arms again" because the peace process "is rotting now", the group said, in a declaration published in the pro-independence newspaper Gara.

"From December 3 1999, ETA will let its operational commandos know when to recommence their actions."

Justifying their move in an interview also published in Gara, ETA representatives blamed the attitudes of Spain and France, as well as that of moderate Basque nationalists.

"Over the past year...Spain and France have continued their domination, their occupation (of the Basque country) and their repressive attacks," the group said.

The organisation said that the moderate Basque parties, the Basque Nationalist Party -- which holds power in the regional government -- and its ally Eusko Alkartasuna had failed to respect a secret accord reached with ETA at the time of the truce in September 1998. -- Sapa-AFP