News, April 2005

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New ETA arrests

29th April. Yesterday two more presumed ETA members were arrested in Caussade, France, adding to other recent arrests over the past months. On this occasion police work was more a question of luck than hard work, as the terrorists forgot a bag of laundry, including an ETA engraved pistol at the launderette! Peio Eskisabel Urtuzaga (alias 'Xerpa') is considered the leader of ETA's international operations and likely successor to Mikel Antxa, arrested late last year.

The bag was taken to 'lost property', and the office handed it on to police. as well as the pistol was a false ID card with Xerpa's photo. When the terrorists returned to the launderette for their forgotten bag, they found a police escort waiting. Antxa was ETA's leader, so it is possible that 'luck' has allowed his successor to be arrested in this short time.

During March a number of presumed ETA terrorists were arrested, both in Spain and France. This is good news for the police and for the 'pro-democracy' parties (the majority), who long to see an end to terrorism in Spain.

In the run up to the April 17th Basque regional elections, it will be interesting to see how the voters respond to the proposals of the contesting parties on how to deal with the threat.

More recent news of ETA: Go ETA
More about the background to the Basque problem: http://www.prayforspain.com/comment/index3.html