Spain: Putting Heat on Separatists

As reputed military chief of the Basque terror group ETA, Domingo Iturbe Abasolo, alias Txomin, is suspected of masterminding dozens of killings in Spain. ETA most recently took responsibility for a bomb attack two weeks ago that killed five policemen. Iturbe, 42, has been kept out of reach of the Spanish since he fled to France in 1968. In 1982 French authorities declared him a political refugee.

Last week Iturbe was picked up by French police near the town of Arbonne in the Pyrenees. His arrest, for violating an order confining him to the city of Tours, came less than a week after European Community ministers vowed closer cooperation in dealing with terrorists. In Iturbe’s case, the law-and-order- minded government of French Premier Jacques Chirac is likely to fulfill that pledge by deporting the suspected terrorist to Latin America or Africa.