SPAIN: Spanish group Victims of Terrorism organise rally in Madrid against negotiation with Basque separatists ETA

Record ID: 214409

  • Title: SPAIN: Spanish group Victims of Terrorism organise rally in Madrid against negotiation with Basque separatists ETA
  • Date: 26th February 2006
  • Summary: POPULAR PARTY LEADER MARIANO RAJOY IN CROWD; RAJOY SHAKING HANDS WITH DEMONSTRATORS
  • Embargoed: 13th March 2006 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Spain
  • Country: Spain
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA14XIHD2J8W1WK5V2UFY217MO9
  • Story Text: Victims of ETA's campaign of violence led tens of thousands of protesters through Madrid on Saturday (February 25, 2006) in a warning to Spain's Socialist government not to negotiate with the Basque separatist group. Marching from the Plaza de la Argentina -- a square where an ETA car bomb wounded 16 civil guards in 1985, people hurt in ETA attacks and opposition figures including ex-Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar carried banners that read: "Not in my name". The march was called by the "Association of Victims of Terrorism", which includes people who have been injured, or have had relatives killed, in ETA attacks. It was backed by the opposition Popular Party, which constantly attacks the Socialist government's policy on ETA. "If ETA renounces violence in a definite way, if they disband, if the ask for pardon, if they hand in their arms, if they give themselves up to justice, then we are all in agreement. What we cant do is fall in the trap of the terrorists again. With nice words they will fool us again because what we don't accept is a definitive cease fire because that doesn't get us anywhere," said Maria San Gil, Popular Party Leader in the Spanish Basque country. A sea of umbrellas, placards and flags moved slowly through Madrid's posh Salamanca district, as the crowd shouted "Zapatero resign" and "Negotiation is surrender". Opposition conservatives have accused Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero of being soft on ETA since his offer last May to talk to the outlawed group if it abandoned violence for good. A recent poll showed most Spaniards agree with the policy.
    Madrid's opposition-controlled regional government said 1.4 million people turned out in the rain for the protest. Central government officials gave a much lower figure of 111,000. Newspapers reported this month that a number of ETA prisoners convicted of murders were due to leave prison after serving 18 to 20 years. However, the Supreme Court this week limited reductions for good behaviour that such prisoners can receive, meaning they will stay behind bars for 30 years. ETA, classed as a terrorist group by the European Union and the United States, has killed more than 800 people since 1968 in its campaign for an independent Basque Country. Bombings continue but no one has been killed in an ETA attack since May 2003. Zapatero has denied the government is already in talks with ETA, despite opposition suspicions.
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