End of the Road for Basque Terror Group ?

As Spain grapples with a new threat of Islamist terrorism following the Madrid train bombings last March, it appears to be winning a decades-long battle against Basque terrorists. The guerrilla group ETA has not staged a major strike in 18 months. Now, many are wondering if the days of Europe's last homegrown terrorist group are numbered. From the Basque capital of Bilbao, Lisa Bryant reports.

The orders were chilling and meticulously detailed. They gave the location of Gotzone Mora's office at the University of Basque Country in this regional capital. And they described the 55-year-old sociology professor as easily accessible to students.

A bullet to the neck is the best method, the directions concluded.

Sitting in a hotel in Bilbao, Mrs. Mora recounts the death threat against her, found in a document seized by Basque police six years ago. The alleged authors are commandos from the Basque separatist group ETA, which has fought

a bloody, 37-year-war for an independent country in northern Spain and parts of southwestern France.

It is not the only death threat against Mrs. Mora, a senior member of the local Socialist party who has condemned ETA's violence and its separatist dreams. Today, Mrs. Mora lives with round-the-clock police protection.

Mrs. Mora describes herself as living in a soft (comfortable) prison. She changes her driving route to classes regularly. And everywhere she goes -- including the

meeting for this recent interview -- she is accompanied by bodyguards. She says it's like living in the corridor of death.

ETA has been accused of killing more than 800 people since 1968. But it has been over a year since the extremist group staged a major strike. In the affluent and industrialized Basque region, and elsewhere in Spain, many believe the group is dying out. That includes Pere Vilanova, a political analyst at the University of Barcelona.

"I think ETA is ended. Of this I am convinced. In terms of comparing the weight ETA has had in Spanish political life in the last 30 years, which doesn't mean the smallest people or groups remaining can't decide (to carry out) further killings. But excluding a few more killings, its agenda, its mid-long-term strategy has failed."

In a statement published Sunday in a local Basque newspaper, ETA called for talks with the Socialist government of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez

Zapatero, and said it backed a November peace proposal by the Batasuna party, its banned political arm.

And in a letter last August, half a dozen senior ETA prisoners called on the terrorist group to renounce its campaign of violence, and seek an independent Basque nation through political means. ETA is dying a slow death, concluded the letter, which was leaked to Spanish newspapers.

Mr. Zapatero's government appears to agree. A government official told reporters in Madrid this week that Spain may possibly see the rapid demise of ETA. But the government insists that ETA first lay down its weapons before it will hold talks. And while some Basque politicians speculate that ETA may soon declare a ceasefire, there is no indication the group will renounce violence for good.

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