BATASUNA PARTY EXPECTED TO PLEAD FOR LASTING PEACE PLAN

A quiet expectation gripped the country on Sunday when the banned Basque separatist party, Batasuna, was expected to appeal for an end to decades of armed conflict in the campaign for Basque independence. The issue was much to the fore from the beginning of the week, when King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia went to Vitoria, in the Basque Country, to open an exhibition to mark the 25th anniversary of the first municipal councils to be voted into existence after the death of dictator Francisco France in 1975. In his speech, the King praised the progress made since the return to democracy. But Basque President Juan José Ibarretxe used the occasion to say he dreamed of the day when the banned Batasuna party would once again be represented on local councils. Batasuna is the political arm of the ETA terrorist group and was banned by government decree nearly two years ago. With ETA seemingly in its death throes, after the arrest of most of its leaders over the past few months either in France and Spain, Basque nationalists have been calling for Batasuna to be made legal again. However, the government has said Batasuna will remain out in the cold as long as it does not make an official declaration that it is prepared to lay down its arms. And that is exactly what Batasuna leader Arnaldo Otegi was expected to do on Sunday in a broadcast from the Basque radio station Euskadi. According to excerpts already broadcast, Sr Otegi will stress Batasuna's determination to "move definitively beyond armed political conflict" in the Basque region, and he will call on supporters to "abandon past methods" in their campaign for independence to build "a lasting and stable peace plan." However, an explosion (see photo) at a military mountain refuge on Saturday which has been blamed on ETA, may undermine his message. Many political commentators are already sceptical about Batasuna's "peace message". In the past, ETA has announced, and broken, dozens of ceasefires, one of which held for 15 months between 1998 and 1999.