Bayonne prosecutor Samuel Vuelta Simon said he had received an email tip-off that "a quantity of arms" belonging to ETA had been retrieved by police (AFP Photo/IROZ GAIZKA) |
Bayonne
(France) (AFP) - Basque separatist group ETA has handed over several cases of
weapons and munitions as a confidence-building measure ahead of its expected
disbanding, a French prosecutor said Wednesday.
Bayonne
prosecutor Samuel Vuelta Simon said he had received an email tip-off that
"a quantity of arms" belonging to ETA had been retrieved by police
after being dropped at a location in the south of the French Basque city.
The
announcement comes days before ETA is expected to announce its dissolution,
definitively ending its nearly four-decade campaign of bombings and shootings
for an independent Basque state in northern Spain and southwest France, seven
years after it declared a permanent ceasefire.
A source
close to the case said the police had found four cases "in the open air,
in the city centre" containing around 20 handguns, several hundred bullets
for 9mm and .38-calibre revolvers and a 20-metre-long detonator cable as well
as several electronic detonators.
They also
found around 200 fake registration places and materials that can be used to
steal cars, added the source, who requested anonymity.
ETA last
year had already provided French authorities with a list of eight arms caches.
A member of
a group mediating in the peace process told AFP that ETA had committed to
finding those weapons "which had gone astray" and not been included
on the list.
"This
restitution process, which remains confidential, is ongoing," Jean-Noel
Etcheverry said.
Last week
ETA asked forgiveness from its victims for the "pain" caused by its
campaign, a move seen as a necessary step towards reconciliation.
Created in
1959 at the height of Francisco Franco's dictatorship ETA is blamed for the
deaths of at least 829 people.
International
mediators are organising a peace conference in southwest France on May 4.
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