THE GUARDIAN - Eta expected to announce definitive end to four decades of violence | World news, Oct 17, 2011

Basque separatist group that has killed more than 800 people believed to be ready to make statement this week

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• Giles Tremlett in Madrid
• guardian.co.uk, Sunday 16 October 2011 21.00 BST
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Eta members announce a permanent verifiable ceasefire in January - a precursor to the declaration expected this week. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

In a historic step for Spain, the armed Basque separatist group Eta is this week expected to announce a definitive end to more than four decades of violence, according to sources close to the negotiations.

With the former UN secretary general Kofi Annan flying into the Basque country on Monday for talks and a recent call from several hundred Eta prisoners for an end to violence, sources in the Basque country and others involved in the process say the group will make a significant announcement shortly.

Senior members of Socialist prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero's government have been saying for several weeks that they expect the group to make such a move. Eta is already observing what it terms a "permanent" ceasefire, called in September 2010, though it has broken previous unilateral truces that it had deemed permanent.