Eta offers talks, but threatens battle
The armed Basque separatist group Eta yesterday tried to turn the Madrid train bombings and the subsequent change of government to its advantage by offering “dialogue” to the incoming Socialists while also announcing that it would “keep fighting”. The move was immediately denounced as a cynical attempt to wring some sort of gain out of the bloodshed in Madrid and the ensuing row over whether, as the outgoing government of José María Aznar at first insisted, Eta had been responsible. “We are totally disposed to achieve the solution through dialogue. It is possible to achieve peace via reason and common sense,” Eta said in a communique sent to a Basque newspaper. Full Story