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Tony Blair welcomes historic statement ending more than fifty years of violence

Half a century of conflict in the Basque country has come to a historic close after the separatist group Eta finally renounced the use of arms and sought talks with the Spanish and French governments. In a statement released this morning, Tony Blair made it clear he would help the Spanish Government deal with the consequences of the conflict in any way he can:

“I warmly welcome today's historic and unconditional statement by ETA ending more than fifty years of violence.

I pay tribute to the courage and determination of the Spanish people who have not allowed themselves to be cowed by the terrorist campaign. There is only one winner today and that is democracy.

On the basis of my experience in Northern Ireland I know how difficult it is to end a conflict, and I congratulate prime minister Zapatero, Alfredo Rubalcaba and all the Spanish political parties for standing firm and making it clear there would be no concessions until violence was over while always holding out the hand of peace to ETA if that happened.

ETA has responded positively to the appeal of international leaders in San Sebastian this week by definitively ending all armed action. The terrorist campaign is over.

As in Northern Ireland it is now necessary to address the consequences of the conflict by talks on decommissioning weapons, demobilising eta, dealing with prisoners and exiles and achieving security normalisation.

In doing this we must not forget the tragic victims of violence. The families they left behind must be compensated and supported.

After the Spanish election a new government will take on the burden of dealing with the consequences of the conflict. Peace in Spain is crucial to all of us in the EU and the international community more generally and we must give Spain all the support we can in this endeavour. I stand ready to help personally in any way I can.

The last armed confrontation in Europe is finally over. We should all welcome this and work together to make peace irreversible.”