Bomb Attempt Follows Basque Party Ban

Spanish police today defused a bomb placed outside a court in Tolosa, just hours after Spain's high court outlawed the Eta-linked Basque separatist party, Batasuna.

A caller claiming to represent the terrorist group Eta warned Basque newspaper Garatold that the device had been placed in Tolosa, 16 miles south of the seaside city of San Sebastian.

The incident followed yesterday's high court ruling banning the Basque party because of its links to Eta. The legal ruling was followed by an overwhelming vote in the Spanish parliament endorsing the moves to outlaw Batasuna's activities.

Spain's most senior anti-terrorism judge, Baltasar Garzon, ordered that the 24-year-old party's offices be closed and its activities suspended for three years. The lower house of parliament then passed legislation asking that the government formally ban the party.

The ban, approved by a parliamentary vote of 295 to 10, with 29 abstentions, was backed by Prime Minister Aznar's Popular party as well as the main opposition Socialist party.

The Popular party's secretary-general, Javier Arenas, said: "Today is a historic day for the fortitude of our democracy."

Following the legal order, police stormed the party's head office in Pamplona late last night, closing it down. Twenty provincial assembly members and party members were made to leave the building.

Batasuna spokesman Fernando Barrena, who was among those forced to leave the headquarters, said: "This is what they mean in Madrid when they talk about democracy and peace."

Batasuna party supporters gathered outside party offices in the Basque region last night, waving red, white and green Basque flags and swastikas symbolising Spanish fascism.

Several hooded youths wielding clubs smashed the windows of a bus in San Sebastian after forcing its occupants to leave.

One of Batasuna's leaders, Arnaldo Otegi, told protestors in Bilbao that the party would continue to "work for sovereignty and independence". He said the judicial and parliamentary moves to close down the party were worthy of "a banana republic" and warned that they would be a "political Stalingrad" for the Spanish government.

Opposition to the ban came from regional parties in Galicia, Catalonia and the Basque provinces, where regional nationalism, local culture and local languages were all quashed during the Franco dictatorship.

Batasuna's failure to denounce a car bombing earlier this month that killed two people, including a six-year-old girl, catalysed the legal proceedings that led to yesterday's parliamentary vote.

Judge Garzon's 375-page ruling said that Eta - which is considered a terrorist organization by Spain, the US and the EU - has killed 836 people since 1968 in a total of 3,391 attacks.

He accused Batasuna of complicity in the armed group's "crimes against humanity". The closure order, which can be extended to five years, prohibits Batasuna from organising public rallies, receiving state electoral funds or running in municipal elections scheduled for next May. However, the seven Batasuna politicians in the 75-member Basque regional parliament will be allowed to serve out their terms.

The party won 10% of the vote in the last Basque regional election in May 2001.