Basque arrests could spur violence

MADRID, Spain -- With the peace process in ruins, Spanish authorities dealt a dramatic blow to ETA's political wing, arresting virtually its entire leadership in a show of force likely to raise tensions in the decades-old conflict with Basque separatists.

Police sealed off a town in the Basque region Thursday night and rounded up 23 members of the outlawed Batasuna party's executive committee as they held a secretive meeting.

Although Batasuna was banned in 2003, its leaders have often been allowed to hold news conferences and stage street rallies. Coveting the political prize of ending the decades-old Basque conflict, Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has seen Batasuna as a potential bridge to ETA gunmen and bombers who hold the key to peace.

But peace talks that followed a March 2006 cease-fire by ETA went nowhere. The rebels ended the truce with a bombing that killed two people in December.

For the government, any thought of leniency was over: It has arrested dozens of ETA suspects since the blast and is now going after ETA's political allies.

Kepa Aulestia, a former ETA member who now opposes the group and works in the Basque region as a journalist and political commentator, said the government has no choice but to act tough.

"I think the government's intention is clear in the sense of showing that ETA must be the one that comes out losing," he told The Associated Press.

Batasuna has kept an uncharacteristically low profile since the truce ended, suggesting hard-liners are now in charge. Thursday's arrests will throw the party further into disarray, Aulestia said.

During the truce, Spanish judges and police went easier on the pro-independence movement. With the cease-fire over, Aulestia said it was only a matter of time before Spanish authorities went after Batasuna. Its most prominent leader, Arnaldo Otegi, was jailed on terrorism charges in July.

The Basque issue is certain to play prominently in a national election expected to be held in March. Even now, the conservative opposition hammers away at Zapatero for engaging in the failed peace talks with ETA, insisting the group was on its last legs and the government effectively allowed it to regroup and resurrect itself.

Spain's Supreme Court outlawed Batasuna in March 2003 on grounds that it was part of ETA, which has killed more than 800 people since the late 1960s in a campaign of shootings and bombings. ETA seeks an independent Basque homeland in northern Spain and southwest France.

Still, the ruling only shut down Batasuna's offices and telephone lines, barred it from running in elections and prevented its leaders from holding formal meetings.

It did not make it illegal to belong to Batasuna, whose leaders have until now walked freely, regularly holding press conferences and often convening street rallies

Thursday's arrests were ordered by Judge Baltasar Garzon on grounds that the meeting in Segura amounted to a violation of the ban on Batasuna activities as a formal organization.

"These activities cannot be tolerated," Spanish Attorney General Candido Conde-Pumpido said Friday. "So if the police find out about them, as they did in this case in Segura, it seems natural that they should be ordered to intervene."

Opposition conservatives welcomed the raid but questioned why it did not occur earlier.

The Basque regional government condemned it as timed politically to strike back against its plans for a referendum next year on independence or remaining part of Spain.

Pernando Barrena, a Batasuna leader not among those arrested, said the raid was revenge for the pro-independence movement's unrelenting stance in the peace talks.