Basque leader apologises to ETA victims in book

The jailed leader of the Basque independence movement, Arnaldo Otegi, apologises to victims of the militant separatist group ETA in a new book, according to extracts published Sunday. For the first time the leftwing independent leader offers "his most sincere apologies" for exacerbating the "pain and humiliation" of victims of ETA, which announced last year it had abandoned its armed struggle but has not formally disarmed or disbanded. Arnaldo Otegi was jailed for six years in 2009 for attempting to reform Batasuna, the separatist party banned in 2003 and considered the political arm of ETA. In the book compiled from interviews, "El tiempo de las luces" ("The time of light"), which comes out on September 28, the Basque leader said he wanted to make amends, according to extracts published in the Gara newspaper. "If as spokesman (and I speak in the name of all spokesmen of Batasuna), I have added in any way to the pain, suffering or humiliation of the families of the victims of armed actions by ETA, I want to present here my most sincere apologies, accompanied by an 'I am sorry' from the heart," he wrote. ETA is blamed for more than 800 killings in a four-decade campaign to create a Basque homeland in northern Spain and southwestern France. Some 600 of its members are in jail in Spain and about 100 more in France. From / Ahram Online