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Priest Wants Peaceful Resolution for Basques

An Irish priest is offering his help and working to encourage Spanish authorities in Madrid to sit down with all parties involved in the Basque peace process. A priest known simply as "Father Reid" by some news networks worked to secure a fragile peace in Northern Ireland, and is now working as an intermediary in the Basque region. For the record, Northern Ireland is relatively peaceful but true peace and resolution of the conflict is still remote until Protestants and Catholics in the region reconcile with each other`s presence and rights.

He was also one of two clergymen who acted as witnesses to the final act of arms decommissioning by the Irish Republican Army last September. Meanwhile, ETA, an armed Basque nationalist organization that seeks to create an independent socialist state for the Basque people in the Basque Country, said only political parties should join political negotiations.

ETA, classified as a terrorist organization by the U.S. and European Unionhas killed more that 800 people during a 40-year struggle to win independence for the Basque region of northern Spain and southwestern France. Many in the Basque countryside they would accept autonomy for the region, and protections for their culture, but others want full independence from Spain.