Spanish bomb overshadows election

HERNANI, Spain -- A fatal car bombing blamed on a Basque separatist group has cast a shadow over a crucial election campaign in the troubled region.

Although nobody has claimed responsibility for Friday's pre-dawn blast in Hernani in which a policeman died, regional officials have pinned the attack on the Basque separatist group, ETA.

Two people suspected of involvement in the attack were arrested the same day the Basque regional government confirmed, adding that a third person had also been detained but did not specify on what grounds.

The rare attack on the Basque region's own police force was widely seen as retaliation by ETA for a recent string of arrests, including the capture in France last month of the man believed to be the group's top military leader.

Security officials have cracked down on ETA ahead of Basque regional elections on May 13 and have warned of a possible increase in violence aimed at intimidating voters.

The latest attack came just one day after a masked gang of suspected ETA members seized more than 1.5 tonnes of explosives from a warehouse in France.

That raised fears ETA may be replenishing its arsenal to intensify bombings during the already tense political campaign.

Friday's killing would take to 27 the number of deaths blamed on ETA since it called off a 14-month cease-fire in December 1999.

The separatist group has frequently used car bombs in its 33-year campaign for a Basque homeland straddling the Spanish-French border.

The two officers in the Basque force, Ertzaintza, caught up in Friday's blast appeared to have been lured into a trap as they responded to a call about a vandalism spree.

A car that had been pushed into the middle of the street detonated by remote control killing Inaki Totorika Vega, 25, and slightly injuring a second officer.

People gathered at midday in towns across Spain in silent protest against ETA, a grim routine that follows every killing and politicians across the spectrum denounced the attack.

"Basque society has not asked you to stop defending your ideas," Basque regional President Juan Jose Ibarretxe said in a televised address directed at ETA.

"It has told you over and again you must do so without firing a shot, without killing anybody -- that you act like people and not like animals."

But the Spanish government, which has accused mainstream nationalists like Ibarretxe of being soft on ETA, chided the Basque president for not taking a stronger stand.

The Basque region remains deeply divided as it heads into the election campaign. About half its two million people consider themselves nationalists and the other half support parties opposed to changes in the region's wide autonomy.

Ibarretxe was forced to call early elections because of a political crisis caused by ETA's return to arms, and his nationalists now face the biggest threat of losing power since democracy was restored in Spain in 1976.

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar has pledged never to cede to ETA's demands.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Suspected ETA leaders charged
More arrests after Spain bombing
Chief ETA suspect arrested
Basque region calls early elections

Association for Peace in the Basque Country
The Basque Government
Spanish Interior Ministry

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