Spanish protest against negotiations with ETA

Madrid, Feb 4: Thousands of people took to the streets of Madrid to protest against any negotiations between the government and separatist Basque guerrillas ETA.

The march, backed by the main opposition Popular Party (PP) and headed by its leader Mariano Rajoy and former prime minister Jose Maria Aznar, was headed by a banner which read ''For freedom.

Together we can beat ETA. No negotiation.'' The crowd shouted slogans calling for the resignation of Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.

ETA broke a ceasefire last month with a bomb in a car park at Madrid airport which killed two Ecuadorians, and the government called off a nine-month-old peace process.

But the PP has argued that the government has not said clearly enough that peace talks have ended.

''This march is a success for the many democrats who believe two things: one, that you can't negotiate with terrorists and that yes, we have to do away with them,'' the PP's party chairman Angel Acebes told reporters among the crowd yesterday.

The PP, which groups conservatives as well as far-right factions, last month declined to join a separate anti-ETA protest organised by an Ecuadorian group and supported by trades unions, arguing that the protesters tacitly supported talks with the outlawed group.

That march attracted tens of thousands in Madrid.

ETA has claimed some 200 lives in a four-decade campaign for a separate Basque homeland comprising parts of northern Spain and southern France.

Reuters