ETA, separatist group accused of train attacks in Spain

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, March 12, 2004

ETA, separatist group accused of train attacks in Spain

A series of train bombings shocked the Spanish capital Madrid on Thursday morning, killing about 190 people and injuring more than 1,400 others.

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A series of train bombings shocked the Spanish capital Madrid on Thursday morning, killing about 190 people and injuring more than 1,400 others.

The Spanish government claimed that the Bask Separatist Movement (ETA) was probably behind the attacks.

ETA is a leftist group that applies terrorist means in hopes offorming an independent Basque state in northern Spain and southwestern France.

ETA stands for Euskadi ta Askatasuna, which means "Basque Fatherland and Liberty" in the Basque language.

ETA, founded by the militants who separated from the EKIN groupin 1962, claims that it is fighting for freedom of the Basque Region.

At first, leftist students of the University of Madrid formed guerrilla units, with every unit made up of approximately 200 students.

They adopted hit-and-run tactics and combated with police. At first, the aim of this terrorist movement was to end the Franco regime in the country and replace it with a socialist system, but today it aims to separate Basque from Spain and establish a free state.

The Spanish government lists ETA as a foreign terrorist organization and the United States and the European Union have frozen ETA assets since the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States.

Spain has long fought ETA and opposed an independent Basque homeland, though its 1978 constitution designated an autonomous Basque region with responsibilities for education, health care, policing and taxation.

France decided to deport all ETA members in 1986 and the Frenchliving in Spain became another target of ETA.

ETA now has hundreds of members, who often conduct attacks and crimes in Spain, France, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Uruguay and Dominica.

Since 1968, around 1,000 people have been killed and thousands of civilians injured in ETA attacks.

ETA has close connections with other terrorist organizations.

In August 1983, representatives of Katalonia Tierra Libra, Basque, ETA, the Corsica Liberation Movement, the Irish Republic Army (IRA), and KADEK (Kurdish Workers' Party, or PKK) held a meeting.

In the 1970s, ETA militants were trained in El Fetih Camp in Palestine and in the same period, THKO/THKP-C militants were thereas well.

Moreover, DEV-SOL (Revolutionary Left), TKP/ML (the Turkey Communist Party/Marxist Leninist) and ETA issued a joint declaration in Hamburg on Jan. 2 1984.

IRA is one of the terrorist organizations that have close ties with ETA. The two leftist terrorist organizations signed an agreement in April 1972 and the Breton Freedom Front has also joined this accord.

This agreement aims to determine the political views of these three provincial movements. After 1972, ETA has divided into threewings, the Moderates, the political wing and the military wing. This structure is very similar to IRA's structure. The military wings of both organizations are in close relations and their members meet very often.

ETA's activities are believed similar to KADEK's. In 1987, ETA bombed cars, conducted armed robberies and took money from the rich under the name of "Revolution Tax." On Jan. 30, 1988, it proposed a cease-fire to the government, promising to solve the conflicts around a table. But It began its violent actions soon again, killing civilians, including women and children.

Source: Xinhua

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