French police arrest two ETA suspects
Source: Reuters
(Adds comments from ETA prisoners, interior minister) By Jane Barrett MADRID, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Police arrested two suspected ETA members in southern France on Tuesday, the Spanish Interior Ministry said, 10 days after the Basque separatist group killed two people by blowing up a car park at Madrid airport. They were the first arrests since the bombing, in which ETA killed for the first time since May 2003, shattered a nine-month ceasefire and ended a peace process in the Basque Country. It was not clear if the arrested were linked to the airport attack. "The arrests were made early this morning near (the village of) Ascain and police seized at least one pistol," a ministry statement said. It said one of the people arrested, named as Asier Larrinaga Rodriguez, had been connected to hoards of explosives that police have found in the Basque Country in the last few weeks. The other person had not yet been identified. A week before the airport bomb, Spanish police found an arms cache in the Basque Country. Last week they found 180 kg of explosives stashed nearby, including parts that could be used for limpet bombs, which ETA has typically used to blow up cars. The finds have worried Spain that ETA could be ready to launch a new wave of violence in its four-decade-old fight for independence for the Basque Country, an area that stretches across the Spanish-French border. When ETA declared a "permanent truce" last March, peace talks were widely expected to focus on moving ETA prisoners to jails closer to home and disarmament, rather than independence. ETA PRISONERS' PLEDGE Basque newspaper Gara, which ETA often uses to publish statements, published a statement by ETA prisoners on Tuesday, saying they would continue to fight for self-determination and accusing Spain and France of repression. "The democratic path that leads to self-determination and amnesty will be a path of struggle," the Collective of Basque Political Prisoners said, calling on all Basques to join them. They did not say how they planned to fight. Political party Batasuna, banned for its links to ETA and seen as its political wing, has distanced itself from the Madrid attack and called on ETA to resume its truce. Madrid demands that Batasuna take the step of condemning ETA's violence before the group can be re-legalised and take part in elections. Polls show about one in seven Basques support Batasuna, which also wants self-determination for the area. In an interview with the New York Times on Tuesday, Spanish Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said there was tension between Batasuna and ETA and that Batasuna's surprise at the attack showed nobody was expecting the truce to be broken. "There will never again be a credible truce with ETA," Rubalcaba was quoted as saying. "They have a different logic, a murderous, psychopathic logic." (Additional reporting by Teresa Larraz)
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