Last Saturday the Basque separatist group ETA handed over weapons to the French Police in a step to its disarmament. The police searched eight hiding places pointed out by members of the group and collected different weapons, ammunitions and explosives. All of the locations were on the French side of the Pyrenees mountains that separate France from Spain.
The act was highly welcomed by the French authorities and Matthias Fekl, the French interior minister, described it as “a major step.” The Spanish side remained more reserved and cautious, though, and the Spanish Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido warned the group’s remaining members not to expect any leniency in return or “impunity for their crimes.”
The French police is now responsible for making an inventory of the uncovered weapons and investigate the issue further. A group of international observers reported that the arsenal handed found on Saturday comprises 120 firearms, three metric tons of explosives, detonators and ammunition.
ETA has killed more than 800 people, mainly in Spain, since late 1960s and is considered a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union.
