Zapatero condemns ‘cowardly’ ETA

The Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has condemned as ‘cowardly’ the murder of a Basque businessman by suspected ETA terrorists. Two gunmen attacked 71-year old Ignacio Uria in the Basque town of Azpeitia, shooting him dead. Uria owned of a construction firm building a new high-speed rail link across the region.

Tomorrow, Zapatero is due in the region to meet Basque business people. He said ETA will never win: “I want to re-iterate the absolute determination of the government to pursue the people who did this,” he said. “The killers of Ignacio Uria know they will spend the rest of their lives in prison.”

Polls indicate waning support for ETA’s dream of an independent Basque country, a region which already enjoys considerable autonomy in Spain. Construction work on the planned high-speed rail line has been disrupted several times by ETA. The terrorists claim the service, which will link the cities of Vitoria, San Sebastian and Bilbao to the capital Madrid is not in the interests of the Basque people.

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tags: Basque country, Terrorism