Military

DATE=11/07/00

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=SPAIN / ETA (L ONLY)

NUMBER=2-268947

BYLINE=GIL CARBAJAL

DATELINE=MADRID

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Police in Spain have arrested six people on suspicion that they are active in the Basque separatist group ETA. Gil Carbajal in Madrid reports the operation took place as Spain's two major political parties discussed a common strategy in the face of the terrorist organization's current campaign.

TEXT: Security agents in Spain's capital, Madrid, arrested six people accused of belonging to ETA. They also searched three apartments in Madrid and one in a nearby town.

Police say they discovered false identity documents and weapons. There was also evidence indicating the suspects came to Madrid to gather information for new terrorist attacks. They are not believed to have participated in a car bomb attack one week ago which killed a Supreme Court judge, his driver, and his bodyguard.

ETA has not yet claimed responsibility for that attack, but it has admitted setting off three other car bombs in Madrid since it called off a 14-month truce in December. ETA is fighting for a separate homeland, and has been blamed for a series of bombings. Police also speculate the group arrested in Madrid was sent to replace those who carried out the most recent car bomb attack.

Once they realized they were being followed, two of the suspects tried to seek asylum in the Cuban embassy. However, Cuban officials alerted police who arrested them as they left the building.

Spanish Interior Minister Jaime Mayor Oreja said the group was probably preparing another terrorist attack in Madrid, but he was careful to point out that ETA's organization in the capital had not yet been dismantled. The interior minister also noted the youth of the suspects, most of whom are in their early 20s. In previous statements, he has said that ETA has been recruiting from among young people who carry out systematic street violence in Spain's Basque Country.

/// OPT /// Evidence from the arrests in Madrid has also led to the preventive detention in Barcelona of two women - one from France and the other from Argentina. /// END OPT ///

Meanwhile, the leaders of Spain's ruling Popular Party and the main opposition Socialist parties met Tuesday in Madrid to work out a common political strategy in the face of ETA's current terrorist campaign, which so far has claimed 19 lives. Among the victims have been politicians of both parties.

A key issue they are discussing is how to deal with the pro-independence but moderate Basque Nationalist Party. Since it was abandoned by ETA's political wing last summer, it has been ruling the Basque autonomous region with a minority government and has not been able to pass a budget for the current fiscal year. The Popular Party and the Socialists are demanding early elections. (Signed)

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