SORTU considers that the declaration of the Basque Political Prisoners Collective responding to the recommendations of the Social Forum to promote the peace process is a high level contribution to the resolution process of the Basque political conflict. Therefore, before anything we wish to underscore the valour of these conclusions to which the prisoners have come to after a process of debate and reflection made in extremely difficult conditions.

The contents of the declaration don't leave any doubt as to the commitment of the Basque political prisoners with the peace process. These contents literally affirm that:

• The prisoners recognize the suffering and damage caused as a consequence of their participation in the conflict.
• They take as their own the political scenario that came about from the decision by ETA to put an end to armed activity. They affirm themselves in the use of political and democratic methods and renounce the methods used in the past.
• The prisoners assume that in the process of their release they must use legal channels; that this reintegration will be done in a staggered way and they make a reference to individual commitments.
• And finally, they assume the responsibility derived from the consequences of their activity, including the assumption of responsibilities of each and every one of them.

The potential of this reflection is unquestionable and it carries with it an exercise of responsibility that must serve to make the peace process viable. This declaration serves as a before and after for the change in the penitentiary policy and the end of dispersion.

Facing the situation of blockage to which from one part they wish to condemn the resolution process, SORTU evaluated at the time as a valid tool the recommendations elaborated by the Social Forum for the Promotion of the Peace Process. The contents of the reflection and later conclusions of the Basque Political Prisoners Collective fit perfectly with the efforts that from the Basque Country as well as the international community have been making for the resolution of the conflict.

The Basque Political Prisoners Collective is a part of the political conflict and therefore must be an active subject in the resolution process of the conflict, the same as the rest of the political and social actors.

For that, the objective of guaranteeing their participation and making possible their contribution in said process, it is urgent to end with the policy of dispersion. It is the time for once and for all to end a cruel penitentiary policy wherever it is and which has caused such a high human cost for the prisoners and their relatives.

Finally, our summons to the institutions, political forces and the civil society of the country to implicate itself in ending this criminal penitentiary policy, to put an end to the violation of human rights, and at this specific moment to welcome this declaration of the Basque Political Prisoners Collective in the direction of making viable the resolution process and to be able to achieve a just and lasting peace.