PRESIDENT NICOLAS Sarkozy pledged to eradicate Eta bases in France yesterday as he joined mourners at the funeral of a French policeman who was shot dead by an alleged member of the Basque separatist movement.
“We will eradicate, one by one, all Eta bases in France. We will flush them out one by one. We will dismantle all of the support networks of this terrorist organisation,” the president said.
Mr Sarkozy was joined by Spanish prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero for the ceremony in Melun, southeast of Paris, that began with the observation of a minute’s silence in memory of 52-year-old Jean-Serge Nérin.
Mr Nérin was killed last week when his patrol was attacked after it stopped speeding cars in Dammarie-les-Lys, a quiet suburb about 50km (31 miles) southeast of Paris. Despite having used France as a staging post for years, it was the first time Eta killed a member of the French security forces.
French police have arrested a 27-year-old man who identified himself as an Eta member, and are searching for five others. “This crime will not go unpunished,” Mr Sarkozy insisted yesterday. “France, more than ever, stands side by side with democratic Spain . . . We will not allow French territory to serve as a base for terrorists and assassins.”
Last week’s murder followed an escalation of French efforts to stymie Eta, with a series of high-profile raids and arrests believed to have badly weakened the group. Earlier this month, the suspected leader of its military wing, Ibon Gogeascotxea (54), was arrested in Normandy with two other terrorist suspects. They were detained in a joint French-Spanish police operation near the village of Cahan, where they were driving a car with false licence plates.
In a statement earlier this week, Eta said it was ready to take steps towards political change in the Basque region, but stopped short of calling for an end to the armed struggle.