Basque youth group close to ETA says it has dissolved

Segi, an outlawed youth group linked with the armed Basque separatist organization ETA, said Friday it had disbanded. Segi, which was declared a terrorist group by Spain's Supreme Court in 2007 over its suspected ties to ETA, said it "has ended its course", in a statement published in pro-independence Basque newspaper Gara. "With its mistakes and successes, it has already accomplished what it set out to do. We have always known how to adapt and we have made the right choice. Segi has ended but we are not going home," it added. The Spanish government had accused Segi of being a "recruiting ground" for ETA, blamed for the deaths of over 800 people in more than 40 years of bombing and shooting for an independent Basque homeland in northern Spain and southern France. Segi members have in the past thrown Molotov cocktails at symbols of Spain such as post offices, banks and political party offices. ETA itself announced what it said was the "definitive" end to its campaign of violence in October 2011. Segi's announcement comes just two days after Askatasuna, an outlawed group championing the rights of prisoners including ETA militants, said it was dissolving the movement. Askatasuna, created in 2001 from a fusion of a pro-amnesty association and a support group for Basque political prisoners, was banned by Spain in 2002.