Dove-shaped balloons are released at the end of Basque peace association Gesto Por La Paz (A Gesture For Peace)’s final meeting yesterday after 28 years of existence, following armed Basque separatists ETA’s 2011 permanent ceasefire and cessation of armed activity in Bilbao.
Reuters/Bilbao
A peace movement set up 28 years ago to counter the violence of the Basque militant group ETA formally dissolved yesterday, saying that it had achieved its objective now that ETA has laid down its arms.
Three hundred people congregated for a minute’s silence in Bilbao’s Circular Square, the scene of the first protest of the group, “A Gesture for Peace” (Gesto Por La Paz), when people gathered to protest the murder of four people by ETA in 1985.
ETA laid down weapons in October 2011 after four decades of armed struggle for independence for Basque lands in Spain and southern France that resulted in more than 800 deaths.
Those who gathered yesterday included representatives of all the region’s political parties. They released dozens of white balloons shaped like doves under grey skies in Bilbao.
Basque ombudsman Inigo Lamarca said it would have taken longer to end the region’s violence without the group.
“A Gesture for Peace is breaking up, but its testimony, bravery and civic courage will live on,” said Lamarca, whose job is to supervise regional offices.
Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA), which means Basque Homeland and Freedom, dates back to the late 1950s.