Political Slaying Blamed on Basque Separatists

A Socialist town councilor was shot dead in a bar in northern Spain on Thursday in an attack that politicians blamed on armed Basque separatists, the first killing of the year attributed to the outlawed ETA group.

Police said Juan Priede Perez was shot at close range by two gunmen as he stood in a bar a few yards from his home in the Basque coastal town of Orio.

The head of the Basque regional government, Juan Jose Ibarretxe, described the killing as another “ETA barbarity.”

Priede, 69, was a widower with children. Police said that his two bodyguards dropped him at his house for lunch but that he later left alone to visit a neighborhood bar.

“He was someone who had appeared on ETA’s hit list,” Rosa Diez, a Socialist deputy in the European Parliament, told reporters. “He has been murdered by these fascist cowards.

“Those who have killed him have to know they are going to pay for it, that we are going to catch them. We are going to put a stop to ETA,” she added.

The ETA, or Basque Homeland and Freedom, was recently listed by the European Union as a terrorist organization. The ETA has killed more than 800 people since 1968 in its drive for an independent state in Basque areas of northern Spain and southwestern France.

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, speaking at a United Nations development conference in Mexico, said terrorism was a “crime against humanity.” Referring to the attack in Spain as well as to those in other countries, he said terrorism was destined to be defeated.

The ETA was blamed for a March 2 explosion that also targeted a Socialist party councilor, who lost a leg in the blast.

“ETA is trying to condition the political agenda, not just that of the Socialists, but that of the Basque region in general,” said Patxi Lopez, another Socialist who is a candidate for secretary-general in regional party elections.