SPAIN: The pro-independence Basque party Batasuna moved yesterday to get around Spanish efforts to shut down all its operations as Madrid said it was considering putting the movement on an EU terrorist blacklist.
Batasuna, facing a tough crackdown by Spanish authorities over its alleged links to the armed separatist group ETA, announced on its web site yesterday a new address across the border in the southwestern French town of Bayonne - also part of the Basque region.
Spanish police shut down Batasuna's national headquarters in Pamplona and several other offices in the Basque region of northern Spain, triggering clashes between party supporters and security forces, after a top anti-terrorist judge on Monday ordered a suspension of the party's activities under Spanish law.
Madrid, which is pressing the Supreme Court to outlaw Batasuna, is also seeking to include the party on an EU blacklist of terrorist organisations, a government source said yesterday.
"The government will try once more to get Batasuna included on the list of European terrorist groups at the end of December, when the EU presidency changes and the list is due to be renewed," the source said.
Such a move "would mean that across Europe we could strangle the organisation's funding," the source added.
The government of Prime Minister Mr Jose María Aznar had tried in vain to get its EU partners to include Batasuna on the first list in December 2001.
The latest crackdown followed a string of bomb attacks blamed on ETA in Spanish resorts at the height of the tourist season, with Judge Baltasar Garzon accusing the movement of crimes against humanity. The judge charged that Batasuna was part of ETA and on Monday suspended the party for three years, ordering the closure of offices and its assets seized.
But a defiant Batasuna has accused the government of carrying out repression against the Basque people unseen since the era of General Franco.
Under Franco, Basques were subjected to repressive policies that spurred the rise of ETA and Batasuna. - (AFP)