Spain, France to form joint police unit against Basque rebels

By Xinhua

Lisbon : Spain and France will create a permanent joint police investigation team to fight the Basque separatist group ETA, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has said.


Support TwoCircles

Zapatero, who was attending the second European Union-Africa Summit, said Sunday that he and French President Nicolas Sarkozy agreed to establish the unit at a bilateral meeting on the summit’s sidelines and it would focus on preventing ETA attacks.

ETA suspects killed two Spanish policemen, who were on a joint mission with French police, in southern France’s Capbreton town on Dec 1. The French police captured two suspects last week, while a third is at large.

ETA has been fighting to establish an independent Basque nation covering parts of northeast Spain and southwest France.

It declared a cease-fire in March 2006, but carried out a bomb attack at Madrid’s Barajas Airport on Dec 30, killing two people.

SUPPORT TWOCIRCLES HELP SUPPORT INDEPENDENT AND NON-PROFIT MEDIA. DONATE HERE