Palma.ETA, the Basque separatist group which killed two members of the Guardia Civil with a car bomb in July, 2009, announced on Thursday evening that they are ending four decades of armed struggle and called for talks with the Spanish and French authorities.
Yesterday, the President of the Balearics, Jose Ramon Bauza, said the news was very positive, but he still called for prudence and caution when interpreting exactly what ETA has announced.
And, we must never forget the real protagonists of the conflict, the victims, he added.
We must never forget the victims, in particular Carlos Sainz de Tejada and Giedo Salva who were murdered in Calvia, the President said. We need to handle this positive development with care because ETA has not apologised to the families of the victims nor mentioned that it is going to disband the organisation and we wait to see what they plan to do with their weapons, Bauza said.
To make this work, ETA has to apologise, disband and hand over all its weapons, the President added.
Apart from the 2009 car bombing, in 1997, ETA came very close to assassinating King Juan Carlos of Spain on board his royal yacht moored in Porto Pi. The police managed to rumble the plot just hours before it was due to have been carried out.
The Speaker of the Balearic Parliament, Pere Rotger, also described the development as very positive but he warned that there is still a long road to cover to peace and he also called on ETA to apologise to the victims, disband and disarm. The Balearic business community said that it sincerely hopes that ETA mean what they have announced.