Gerry Adams: Basque Peace Move An Essential Step

Gerry Adams is president of Sinn Féin.

The decisive and positive terms of ETA's response to Monday's "Declaration" in Donostia-San Sebastian by the International Conference group is to be welcomed, as is the response of the Spanish government and others.

It has taken many years of patient work to get to this point and every effort must be made to build momentum into the process.

I first became involved in the efforts to build a peace process in the Basque country at the time of our own peace agreement in 1998. An Irish priest, Fr. Alex Reid, who I have known for almost 40 years, had played a key role in creating the Irish peace process and he was asked by a priest in that region to bring his expertise to bear.

In the years since then, Sinn Féin leaders, including myself, have traveled regularly to the region and met representatives from the Basque country and the Spanish state.

It is obvious that many of those in the Basque region who we met are committed to peace and that they have consciously sought to learn from the Irish experience...