ETA accuses France, Spain of being 'enemies of peace'

Basque separatist group ETA accused France and Spain in a statement Saturday of being "enemies of peace" after French police seized a weapons cache belonging to the organisation.

Police raided an opulent villa in the southern French seaside resort of Biarritz at dawn on May 28 and found weapons and bomb-making materials and arrested the couple who own the home on suspicion of ties to ETA.

In its first reaction to the police operation, ETA said in a statement published in Basque newspaper Gara, a mouthpiece for the group, that the weapons were going to be put out of use or sealed by the group as part of its decision to end its armed campaign.

The French and Spanish governments "are enemies of peace. What else explains this scenario which consists of attack the process which has as its objective putting Eta weapons out of use?", the statement said.

ETA said the French government was aligning itself "with the most extreme attitude" of Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's conservative government, which has long taken a hard line against the group.

"All forces favourable to the resolution (of the conflict) should politically back this process and take a strong stand against his type of aggressions," it added.

A source close to the case in France said there was no clear evidence that ETA was about to seal the weapons which were found in Biarritz.

"It is true that everything was properly labelled but that could be the case of a zulo," the source said using the Spanish word for a hole used to hide weapons.

"Nothing indicated that these weapons were to be sealed, even if it is not impossible that they were brought together for this purpose."

ETA is accused of killing 829 people in a four-decade campaign for the independence of the Basque region that straddles the French and Spanish border.

It announced the end of its armed campaign in October 2011, but has refused to hand over its weapons or dissolve the organisation, as demanded by governments in both countries.

It began a unilateral disarmament programme in early 2014, in cooperation with the International Verification Commission, an independent group of experts from various countries that has not been officially recognised by the Spanish government.

Earlier this month, ETA once again rejected a disarmament plan put forward by the Spanish Basque regional government.