Saturday, January 13, 2007

Terrorism returns to Spain

David Seaton's News Links
All over Spain today there are demonstrations against the Basque terrorist organization Eta, which blew up a Madrid airport parking garage on the 30th of December of 2006, killing two Ecuadorian immigrants who were sleeping in their cars while their relatives were upstairs waiting for the flight from Ecuador to arrive. Here, from the BBC, is a short history of Eta to bring you up to speed:
ETA TIMELINE
  • 1959: Eta founded
  • 1968: Eta kills San Sebastian secret police chief Meliton Manzanas, its first victim
  • 1973: PM Luis Carrero Blanco assassinated
  • 1978: Political wing Herri Batasuna formed
  • 1980: 118 people killed in bloodiest year
  • Sept 1998: Indefinite ceasefire
  • Nov 1999: End of ceasefire, followed by more bomb attacks in January and February 2000
  • Dec 2001: EU declares Eta a terrorist organisation
  • March 2003: Batasuna banned by Supreme Court
  • May 2003: Two police killed in Eta's last deadly attack
  • Nov 2005: 56 alleged Eta activists on trial in the largest prosecution of its kind
  • March 2006: Eta declares permanent ceasefire
This has been a steady part of Spanish life since before Franco died. Madrid, where I live, has been hit over and over again. The daughter of a friend lost an eye in an attack. I heard the machine guns fire and the hand grenade to finish him off, that killed an admiral, the Duke of Veragua the direct descendant of Christopher Columbus. Hundreds and hundreds of men, women and children have died since it began. Nobody here in all these years has ever suggested bombing Bilbao or San Sebastian... You get my drift. DS

1 comment:

The Great Salami said...

Surely the Basque have no moral duty to be in a nation they dont want to be in?
Next they'll be requiring an Army of the 'union' meaning EU, to make sure no nation can leave that particular extrordinary rendition co-operating unaccountable superstate also.

The Basque are Europes great quandry in a nutshell. Why should they be forced into a larger nation they dont want to be in. And if Sarkozy takes over France, the EU will become as tyranical as the USA, Russia and China. I dont want that; and so support the Basque, give them a country.