Spaniards hold massive demonstration against dialogue with ETA

Hundreds of thousands of people marched through Madrid Saturday to protest against a government offer to open dialogues with Basque separatists guerrilla group ETA.

Protesters from across the country walked between two Madrid squares that had witnessed bloody ETA car bomb attacks and demanded the government to reject dialogues with ETA. No clashes were reported.

Leaders of the opposition Popular Party, including former Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, took part in the marches and said they were strongly against any negotiations with ETA.

There were no government officials or ruling Spanish Socialist Workers Party members in the demonstration, which police said were attended by around 850,000 people.

Jose Blanco, an official of the Spanish Socialist Workers Party, said after the marches that the government would not change its stance on the ETA issue.

Spain's parliament has approved a government request to open peace talks with ETA under a precondition of ETA's demilitarization.

ETA, listed by the European Union and the United States as a terrorist group, has claimed responsibility for more than 850 deaths since 1968 in a campaign to set up an independent Basque state in northern Spain and southwest France.

Source: Xinhua