Sunday, May 30, 2004

ETA Terrorism

El Mundo publishes today an article about the Spanish terrorist group ETA - apparantly today is the first time in 30 years that the terrorists have gone a whole year without killing anyone (not counting the 1999 truce between ETA and the Spanish Government).

This does not suggest any new benevolence on behalf of the terrorists. Last year bombs planted by ETA in a carpark in Santander, hotels in Alicante and Benidorm, and other buildings and public transport in Pamplona, Madrid, the Basque Country, Navarra etc. Police also succeeded in finding explosives being transported to Madrid by two ETA terrorists just weeks before the Madrid train bombings. Since 1972, ETA has killed 848 people, according to El Mundo, and since breaking the truce in 1999, has caused the death of 46 victims and injured over 300.

It would be a relief for everybody in Spain if ETA were to rethink its violent policies in Spain's new climate of political dialogue and consensus. Many see this as a historical moment in Spain as, for the first time, political parties have agreed to negotiate constitutional change (even the King of Spain referred to this possibility recently).

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