Islamists and the Jordanian King at Loggerheads Over Elections

by Adam Nicky
Sunday, January 20, 2013

Muslim Brotherhood set to boycott parliamentary elections

With just three days left ahead of Jordanian parliamentary elections, King Abdullah and representatives of the Muslim Brotherhood's political party the Islamic Action Front (IAC), who are boycotting the election, are on a collision course ahead of the vote.

After failing to attract the Islamist movement to run in the polls, which he promotes as fruit of the Arab Spring, King Abdullah this week appeared to have given up on the IAC. The pro-Western monarch accused them of seeking to establish a "religious dictatorship" and said he didn't trust the Islamists.

"I am not worried about the Islamists winning in the elections. I am worried about pluralism and an exchange of power" that might result from such a victory, Abdullah said in a January 13 interview with the French magazine L'Observoire. He also expressed concern about how much change such a victory would bring to the country.

Meanwhile, the state-controlled media has been leading a smear campaign against the Islamist movement ahead of the polls.

Jordanian officials point out that the January 23 elections will lead to the creation of the country's first parliamentary government. The king would name a prime minister to form a government that includes members of parliament, and retain the right to name and dismiss the prime minister.

Jordan elects its parliament every four years to choose 150 MPs in the lower house, while the king appoints the upper house with 50 senators forming the legislative authority. It remains unclear how many MPs would join the new government, but lists of candidates show former officials and businessmen leading the race in the absence of powerful opposition.

Wary of the possible negative effects of an Arab Spring in Jordan, Abdullah's spokesmen argue that gradual reforms are safer in a country surrounded by major powers struggling for Mideast interests.

"The region is facing an uncertain future. We don't know where Syria is heading and countries that saw change in the Arab Spring are suffering," a senior government official told the Media Line.

"The king is determined to go ahead with his vision of reform. He has said that his son will not inherit the monarchy as he did," the official added, referring to opposition demands that the king relinquish his constitutional powers that allow him to form governments.

Over the past two years, Abdullah endorsed amendments to the constitution, including that the king can sack the parliament only once in four years and the government must resign after parliamentary elections, and he established an independent electoral committee that promised fair and free elections.

The opposition accuses the king of procrastinating and exploiting the Syrian storm to block fundamental change.

It wants quick reforms including trimming the king's powers, separation between authorities to shield judicial authority and the parliament from government interference, and a fair elections law.

"The so-called concessions, including the constitutional court, etc….[are] like a camel that gave birth to a mouse. We expected too much and got so little," Kathem Ayash, a member of Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood Shura Council, the highest governing body of the group, told The Media Line.

"This is an arrogant attitude. The state says we give you this little and we have to be happy for it. We will not take part in this political process," he added.

The Islamist movement said this week it plans to organize a major rally in downtown Amman against the elections, but vowed not to hold protests on election day, a sign it might not be acting as strongly as expected.

The highly publicized polls are expected to do little to defuse tension between maneuvering authorities and stubborn opposition, said political analyst and researcher Mohammed Imran.

"Jordan will remain in the same place as two years ago, when the Arab Spring started. The kingdom is headed to the unknown in such a situation," argues Imran.

Islamist movement opponents say the group’s bark is bigger than its bite, accusing Shura Council President Abdul Latif Arabiyat, IAF party leader Hamza Mansour and other senior Islamists of failing to live up to their status as the biggest opposition party in the kingdom.

"Street protestations look more like a formality than a genuine expression of anger by the public. The Islamist movement has been treading so carefully that they are becoming powerless," said Rami Rafeeq, a leader from the Jordan professional association.

Other opposition groups including some leftist parties have insignificant support.

Besides the planned election boycott, the Muslim Brotherhood has been enduring its own internal strife. Some party leaders say it supports peacefully achieving political rights and recently some said they are not seeking to overthrow the regime.

A melting pot for immigrants from around the region, Jordan has survived the bloody ripples of the Arab Spring that have occurred in other Arab countries.

King Abdullah takes his authority and powers from a general belief among the seven million inhabitants that the royal family is the safest option for a country built by refugees from what is today Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Armenia, Chechnya and elsewhere seeking safety.

However, young opposition activists from Jordan University's student council say they want better than their parents had, insisting the king must face the inevitable and change.

Copyright © 2013 The Media Line. All Rights Reserved.

Abortion opponents march in Washington

January 26, 2013

WASHINGTON (AP) — Anti-abortion demonstrators from around the country marched through Washington to the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday to protest a landmark court decision that legalized abortion.

The annual event took on added significance for many in the crowd because this year marks the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that created a constitutional right to abortion in some circumstances. The demonstrators, carrying signs with messages such as "Defend Life" and "Defund Planned Parenthood," shouted chants including "Hey, Hey, Ho, Ho, Roe v. Wade has got to go."

They packed sections of the National Mall and surrounding streets for the March of Life. "I just felt this 40th year marked a huge anniversary for the law," said one demonstrator, Pam Tino, 52, of Easton, Mass, who also participated several years ago. "Forty is a very important year in the Bible as well, in terms of years in the desert. And I just felt like maybe this year (there) was going to be something miraculous that might happen. We might see something going forward with the cause."

With the re-election of President Barack Obama, she added, "we just have our walking papers. Now we just feel like we have to keep the battle up." The large turnout reflected the ongoing relevance of the abortion debate four decades after the Jan. 22, 1973 decision.

It remains a divisive issue with no dramatic shift in viewpoint on either side; a new Pew Research Center poll finds 63 percent of U.S. adults opposed to overturning Roe, compared to 60 percent in 1992. Earlier this week, abortion opponents marked the anniversary of the court decision with workshops, prayers and calls for more limits on abortion rights. And even as Obama this week reaffirmed his commitment to "reproductive freedom," state legislatures continue to consider varied restrictions on a woman's ability to receive an abortion.

In Mississippi, for example, the state's only abortion clinic said it received notice Friday that the state intends to revoke its operating license. The clinic's operator has struggled to comply with a 2012 state law that requires anyone doing abortions at the clinic to be an OB-GYN with hospital admitting privileges.

Police do not provide crowd estimates, but organizers said hundreds of thousands may have turned out at Friday's rally in Washington. Among the speakers at Friday's rally was Rick Santorum, the former Pennsylvania senator and staunch abortion opponent who last year unsuccessfully sought the Republican presidential nomination.

He recalled the love and support the country showed for his young daughter, Bella, who was born with a serious genetic condition and whose illness led him to take some time off from the campaign trail. He cited his daughter's life — "she is joyful, she is sweet, she is all about love" — as a reason to discourage abortion even in instances when women are told that it would be "better" to have one.

"We all know that death is never better — never better. Really what it's about is saying is it would be easier for us, not better for her," he said. "And I'm here to tell you ... Bella is better for us and we are better because of Bella."

He said the anti-abortion cause was made up of people who every day advocate for their position outside abortion clinics and at crisis pregnancy centers. "This movement is not a bunch of moralizers standing on their mountaintop preaching what is right," Santorum said.

Rep. Chris Smith, a New Jersey Republican, called Roe v. Wade "infamous, reckless and inhumane." "The passage of time hasn't changed the fact that abortion is a serious, lethal violation of fundamental human rights," he said. "And that women and children deserve better. And that the demands of justice, generosity and compassion require that the right to life be guaranteed to everyone."

One demonstrator, Mark Fedarko, 44, of Cleveland, said he regularly stands outside of abortion clinics in hopes of discouraging women from going inside. "There's God's law and man's law," he said. "But I follow God's law first. Like it says right here, thou shall not kill. That's the end of the story. We need to protect these children."

EU approves military training mission to Mali

January 17, 2013

BRUSSELS (AP) — European officials had a message Thursday for French forces fighting on the front lines of the battle against Islamist extremists in the troubled African country of Mali: We're behind you all the way — and right behind you is exactly where we plan to stay.

European leaders agree that the Islamist radicals controlling a vast swath of northern Mali pose a global threat, saying they are capable of developing terrorist plots that could strike any country in the world. The U.S. government shares that view.

But after a decade bogged down in Afghanistan, also in a war against jihadists, there is scant appetite either in Europe or the U.S. to put boots on the ground in Mali — however much national leaders say that something needs to be done.

At an emergency meeting in Brussels on Thursday, EU foreign ministers approved sending a military training mission to Mali to shore up the army and so, it is hoped, enable the country's government to regain control of all its territory, perhaps with help from neighboring African countries. Even that is nothing new; the EU has long planned to send trainers, but the timetable is being expedited.

No European leader downplays the danger posed by northern Mali. "The threat of jihadi terrorists is something that should be a matter of great concern to all of us," Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans said on his way into the meeting. "And there is not one European country that can hide if this threat would present itself to the European continent."

Yet no combat role is envisioned for the EU troops. Instead, France is out alone on the front lines, at least so far. "It is completely possible - but this is up to them - that others or the same European countries decide to offer not just logistical support, but also to make soldiers available," French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said. "But we're not going to force them to, obviously."

French officials say the opposition they've encountered has been fiercer and more heavily armed than they had expected, hardly words to encourage queasy national leaders to participate. A French helicopter pilot has died in the effort.

Of course, there can be other reasons for reluctance. European adventurism in Africa has a sorry history. EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton said this week that Mali is clearly a case where Europe should help, but one where it should also make sure that Africans are in charge as much as possible.

Heather Conley, Europe program director for the Center for Strategic and International Studies, noted that such forays often have unintended consequences. In fact, Mali's current problems can be partially traced to the international intervention in Libya, where the fall of leader Moammar Gadhafi led weapons and fighters to spill across porous borders and spread throughout the lawless desert.

Another reason for the rest of Europe's reluctance to follow France's lead may be simple battle fatigue. Many European countries have been fighting militants in Afghanistan for more than a decade. Countries as varied as Bulgaria, Belgium, Slovakia, Lithuania and Poland still have troops deployed there. Larger countries, such as the U.K., Germany, Italy and France still have thousands of troops committed.

The Islamist radicals in northern Mali are said to have ties to al-Qaida, the terrorist group that made its home in Afghanistan. And history's verdict on whether, after so many years, the international operation in Afghanistan will in the end be called a success has yet to be delivered.

Similarly, French officials have given different goals at different times since the operation in Mali began last week. E.J. Hogendoorn, deputy director for the International Crisis Group's Africa program, said the French military could certainly take the cities of northern Mali if it puts all its might behind such a mission — but finding a durable, peaceful solution for an area the size of Texas would be another matter.

"Once this mission is stepped up, they'll be able to hold the major cities, but then the question comes up: who fills the vacuum?" he asked.

Raf Casert in Brussels contributed to this report.

French president bares tough side in Africa fights

January 14, 2013

PARIS (AP) — Bombing militants in Mali may be the most popular thing Francois Hollande has done as France's president.

The bespectacled and self-described "normal" man who was once lampooned as resembling flimsy yellow custard, is now flexing France's military muscle against al-Qaida-linked Islamist extremists who he believes pose a threat to northwest Africa, France and Europe. And in doing so, he has nearly united the French political class.

"His hand didn't tremble," Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said of Hollande's order Friday for French troops to fight the insurgents blamed for kidnapping, drug-running and forcing oppressive rules on the people of Mali, a former French colony. "The president made his decision knowing the risks it implies."

Nearly simultaneously, across Africa's midsection, French commandos led a raid in Somalia in a failed effort to free a comrade held hostage there for 3-1/2 years. Officials said 17 Islamists and two commandos died and that they believe the hostage was killed. Hollande is said to have given the green light for that high-risk mission last month.

Both the Mali mission, which entered a fourth day Monday with continued French air strikes, and the Somalia raid bared an unfamiliar side of the French leader, who took power eight months ago and had seen his popularity slide.

For all his qualities, few French fancy Hollande as a warmonger. As Interior Minister Manuel Valls, quoted in Le Monde newspaper, said of his boss: "It's in exceptional and difficult times that a statesman emerges."

The French appear to welcome this new, hard Hollande in the guise of terrorism-fighter-in-chief. But it's not clear whether he can revive his own popularity in the long-term. "It's too early to draw conclusions about the benefits for Francois Hollande's image. We need to wait and see how the situation in Mali evolves," said Ifop agency pollster Frederic Daby. "But what we know is that Francois Hollande is benefiting from a movement of national unity — a sacred union because French interests are at stake."

An Ifop poll released Monday found that 63 percent of respondents in France supported the intervention in Mali. The poll of 1,021 adults was taken this weekend; the margin of error was about 3 percentage points.

The head of the conservative opposition, Jean-Francois Cope, said France's air strikes in Mali had "complete international legitimacy," and even far-right leader Marine Le Pen called the intervention "legitimate."

Hollande's order for the Mali operation is particularly perilous because seven French hostages are in the hands of the same al-Qaida-linked jihadist groups that France's troops are fighting in vast northern Mali.

Hollande's poll numbers have been on a steady slide ever since he handily beat conservative incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy in May's presidential election, becoming only the second Socialist head of state in France in more than 50 years.

He has been assailed for inconsistent handling of the economy. His backpedaling on campaign promises — like one to freeze fuel prices — or watering down others has frustrated many voters. And his romantic partner Valerie Trierweiler caused him no small embarrassment in June by tweeting a comment that was widely read as a nasty swipe against his ex-partner.

Hollande's headaches as president have mainly been domestic, including a jobless rate around 10 percent, few signs of economic rebound and a full-bodied debate on his plan to legalize gay marriage and thus allow same-sex couples to adopt and conceive children. On Sunday, hundreds of thousands of people marched in protest against that idea.

Critics say Hollande cherry-picked the easiest and most politically palatable reforms proposed in a November report that he commissioned on ways to rejuvenate competitiveness in France's moribund economy — backing down from other ideas amid howls from labor groups that are a pillar of his leftist coalition.

Magazine covers have recently portrayed him under headlines such as "Hollande: The Surrender" and "The Rejection." Hollande also took office vowing to end a policy of "Francafrique," a paternalistic French buzzword for a cushy and corrupt relationship between political and economic elites in France and its former African colonies

Those hopes all but vanished on Friday — even if Hollande insists he still wants Mali and its African neighbors to take command of counterterrorism efforts in the region in the future. Internationally, until now, Hollande's most significant decision was pulling French combat troops out of Afghanistan last month — far ahead of the 2014 timetable of the United States and France's other NATO allies.

Until last week, Hollande had been talking tough both about the terror threat in Mali and against President Bashar Assad's repression in Syria's civil war, but hadn't taken any major concrete action. He'd repeatedly said that France would back up African troops in Mali, but not send troops to fight.

As with some other countries, international issues tend to have less impact on the French president's image than do pocketbook concerns such as jobs. Sarkozy, a brash, hard-nosed former interior minister, put France in a leading role along with Britain and the United States in NATO's air campaign in Libya that helped topple dictator Moammar Gadhafi last year. But he got little lift in the polls and lost the presidency to Hollande.

Still, Hollande could benefit from countering public expectations about him. Unlike tough-guy Sarkozy, he's better-known for glad-handing crowds than — as he did this weekend — looking sternly into TV cameras to defend risky military action and saying France won't give in to terrorists' "blackmail".

Mali rebels make gains, vow to avenge French bombs

January 14, 2013

BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — Despite a punishing bombardment by French warplanes, al-Qaida-linked insurgents grabbed more territory in Mali on Monday, seizing a strategic military camp that brought them far closer to the government's seat of power.

Declaring France had "opened the gates of hell" with its assault, the rebels threatened retribution. "France ... has fallen into a trap much more dangerous than Iraq, Afghanistan or Somalia," said Omar Ould Hamaha, a leader of the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa, one of the rebel groups controlling the north, speaking on radio Europe 1.

French fighter jets have been pummeling the insurgents' desert stronghold in the north since Friday, determined to shatter the Islamist domination of a region many fear could become a launch pad for terrorist attacks on the West and a base for coordination with al-Qaida in Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan.

The Islamist fighters responded with a counter-offensive Monday, overrunning the garrison town of Diabaly, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) north of Segou, the administrative capital of central Mali, said French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian.

The French Embassy in Bamako immediately ordered the evacuation of the roughly 60 French nationals in the Segou region, said a French citizen who insisted on anonymity out of fear for her safety. France expanded its aerial bombing campaign, launching airstrikes for the first time in central Mali to combat the new threat. But the intense assault, including raids by gunship helicopters and Mirage fighter jets, failed to halt the advance of the rebels, who were only 250 miles (400 kilometers) from the capital, Bamako, in the far south.

The rebels "took Diabaly after fierce fighting and resistance from the Malian army, that couldn't hold them back," said Le Drian, the French defense minister. Mali's military is in disarray and has let many towns fall with barely a shot fired since the insurgency in the West African nation began almost a year ago. While the al-Qaida-linked extremists control the north, they had been blocked in the narrow central part of the landlocked nation.

They appear to have now done a flanking move, opening a second front in the broad southern section of the country, knifing in from the west on government forces. In response to the insurgent advances, Mauritania, which lies to the northwest of Mali, put its military on high alert. To the south, the nation of Burkina Faso sent military reinforcements to its border and set up roadblocks. Even Algeria, which had earlier argued against a military intervention, was helping France by opening its air space to French Rafale jets.

Many of Mali's neighbors, who had been pushing for a military intervention to flush out the jihadists, had argued that airstrikes by sophisticated Western aircraft would be no match for the mixture of rebel groups occupying northern Mali.

Leaders of ECOWAS, the regional body representing the 15 nations in western Africa, stressed that the north of Mali is mostly desert, and that it would be easy to pick off the convoys of rebel vehicles from the air since there is almost no ground cover.

Monday's surprise assault and the downing of a French combat helicopter by rebel fire last week have given many pause. Just hours before Diabaly fell, a commander at the military post in Niono, the town immediately to the south, laughed on the phone, and confidently asserted that the Islamists would never take it.

By afternoon, the commander, who could not be named because he was not authorized to speak publicly, sounded almost desperate. "We feel truly threatened," he said. He said the rebels approached Diabaly from the east, infiltrating the rice-growing region of Alatona, which until recently was the site of a large, U.S.-funded Millennium Challenge Corporation project.

French aircraft bombed a rebel convoy 25 miles (40 kilometers)) from Diabaly late Sunday, the commander said. "This morning we woke up and realized that the enemy was still there. They cut off the road to Diabaly. We are truly surprised — astonished," he said.

It was unclear what happened to the Malian troops based at the military camp in Diabaly. The commander said that he had not been able to reach any of the officers at the base, raising fears they were massacred.

A French squadron of about 150 troops and armored vehicles stationed in neighboring Ivory Coast was headed to Bamako to help with the offensive in Segou, said Col. Thierry Burkhard, a spokesman for the French military in Paris. The troops were joining the 550 French forces already in Mali, said an African diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.

The French national being evacuated from Segou said the email she received from the French Embassy indicated that small groups of rebel fighters were already heading to Segou, a drive that normally takes two to three hours.

Mali's north, an area the size of France, was occupied by al-Qaida-linked rebels last April following a coup in the capital. The international community has debated what to do, with most foreign powers backing a U.N. Security Council resolution in December that called for training the Malian armed forces before any military intervention was launched. Diplomats said no intervention could happen before September.

All that changed in a matter of hours last week, when French intelligence services spotted two rebel convoys heading south, one on the mostly east-west axis of Douentza to the garrison towns of Mopti and Sevare, and a second heading from a locality north of Diabaly toward Segou.

If either Segou or Mopti were to fall, many feared the Islamists could advance toward the capital. French President Francois Hollande authorized the airstrikes, which began Friday, initially concentrated in the north. France has sent in Mirage jets stationed in Chad that can carry 550-pound (250-kilogram) bombs.

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Monday that the United States has "a responsibility to go after al-Qaida wherever they are," including in Mali, adding that the U.S. is already providing intelligence-gathering assistance to the French in their assault on Islamist extremists.

Besides France and the U.S., 11 other nations have pledged troops or logistical support. Britain over the weekend authorized sending several C-17 transport planes to help France bring more troops. "Not a half hour goes by when we don't see a French plane either taking off or landing," said Napo Bah, a hotel worker in Sevare, the central town that is a launch pad for the operation. "It's been a constant since last week, when they authorized the military operation."

At least 30,000 people have been displaced by the fighting since the insurgents began moving south last week, said U.N. deputy spokesman Eduardo del Buey. __ AP writers Greg Keller and Jamey Keaten in Paris, and Lolita C. Baldor aboard a U.S. military aircraft, contributed to this report.

Amateur Astronomers Discover 42 Alien Planets

By Elizabeth Howell | SPACE.com
Sat, Jan 12, 2013

A team of amateurs has discovered evidence for 42 alien planets, including a Jupiter-size world that could potentially be habitable, by sifting through data from a NASA spacecraft.

Forty volunteers with the crowd-sourcing Planet Hunters project discovered the new planet candidates, which include 15 potentially habitable worlds and PH2 b, a Jupiter-size planet that the team confirmed to be in the habitable zone of its parent star.

This is the second time Planet Hunters project, which is overseen by Zooniverse, has confirmed a new exoplanet discovery. What's more, several candidate planets found by the project may be in the habitable zones of their parent stars. These candidates are awaiting confirmation by professional astronomers.

Researchers suggested this bonanza of planets in the so-called Goldilocks zone around a star, a habitable zone in which conditions are liquid water to exist on a planet’s surface and potentially supportlife, could mean there is a "traffic jam" of worlds where life could exist, project officials said.

"These are planet candidates that slipped through the net, being missed by professional astronomers and rescued by volunteers in front of their web browsers,” said the University of Oxford's Chris Lintott, who helms the Zooniverse, in a statement. “It's remarkable to think that absolutely anyone can discover a planet.”

Life on an 'Avatar'-like moon

The planet PH2 b was found using data from NASA's prolific Kepler Space Telescope and confirmed with 99.9 percent confidence by observations at the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii.

Ph2 b is considered much too large to host life. However, any moons orbiting the planet could be strong candidates, astronomers said. The atmospheric temperature on the planet would range between 86 and minus 126 degrees Fahrenheit (30 and minus 88 degrees Celsius) in the habitable zone.

“Any moon around this newly discovered, Jupiter-sized planet might be habitable," stated Ji Wang, a postdoctoral researcher at Yale University. He is lead author of a paper about the discoveries, which has been submitted to the Astrophysical Journal and is available on the pre-publishing website Arxiv.

If a theoretical moon were to host life, it would likely have a rocky core, plus a greenhouse atmosphere of some sort that could have liquid water on its surface, the researchers said.

"It’s very similar to what was depicted in the movie ‘Avatar’ – the habitable moon Pandora around a giant planet, Polyphemus," Wang added.

A telltale dim

Volunteers spotted PH2 b by watching its parent star. As the planet passed in front of the star, the apparent brightness from Earth dimmed.

This is one of two commonly used techniques for finding exoplanets; the other is looking for wobbles in a star's gravityas a planet speeds around it.

Excluding PH2 b, citizen scientists recently discovered 42 planetary candidates, with 20 of those likely in their respective stars' habitable regions.

"These detections nearly double the number of gas giant planet candidates orbiting at habitable zone distances," the paper stated.

Planet Hunters includes participation from Oxford, Yale and several other institutions. Volunteers pour over data from Kepler. Once the strongest candidates are identified, professional astronomers take a look at them.

Planet Hunters has found 48 candidate planets so far. The first confirmed planet, PH1, was revealed in October 2011.

Large protest for return of Basque prisoners

January 12, 2013

BILBAO, Spain (AP) — Tens of thousands of Basque separatist sympathizers marched in downtown Bilbao on Saturday calling for an amnesty that would allow ETA prisoners to serve out the remainder of their sentences in the northern Spanish region rather than in jails further afield.

Protesters marched to the city's town hall behind banners saying "Human rights, resolution, peace. Basque prisoners back home." Some protesters waved Catalan flags in solidarity with another northern Spanish region with an important separatist movement. One large banner included a slogan in English, saying "Repatriate all Basque prisoners."

Spain has for more than two decades dispersed ETA prisoners under an amendment to the country's 1975 anti-terrorism law. One of the purposes of the law was to stop convicted Basque militants from communicating easily among themselves to plan subversive strategies.

"A large percentage of the Basque nation has been at this demonstration to ask the Spanish government to make a change," 58-year-old protester Maite Perez de Mendiola said. There are an estimated 700 ETA prisoners held in jails dotted around Spain and France, and only around two dozen are believed to be in Basque region prisons.

ETA has killed 829 people since the late 1960s in bombings and shootings to force the creation of a Basque homeland in northern Spain and southwest France. The organization pledged in October 2011 to stop using weapons in its bid for Basque independence, but it stopped short of saying it would disarm and allow inspections of decommissioned weapons, as happened with the IRA in Northern Ireland.

Inaki Olasolo, a spokesman for the protest, said the Spanish government could take advantage of "a historic opportunity to reach a solid peace with justice, with recognition and healing" if it allowed prisoners back.

Olasolo also called for the release of those suffering from terminal illnesses, of which it is believed there are three. Although ETA — classified as a terrorist organization by Spain, the U.S. and the European Union — has declared two previous "permanent" cease-fires, many observers think this time they mean it. Waves of arrests in recent years have repeatedly weakened its structure and diminished its ability to carry out attacks or collect funds.

However, French police late Friday arrested two people who reportedly acknowledged being ETA members and one of the suspects was in possession of a firearm.

Associated Press writer Harold Heckle in Madrid contributed to this report.