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TV cameraman injured in anti-ETA talks protest
By m.p. - Jun 29, 2006 - 11:24 PM

The demonstrators outside Congress on Thursday evening. Photo - EFE.
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It happened outside Congress after Zapatero announced the start of dialogue, a decision ETA's political wing says has great political importance
A television cameraman has been injured during a demonstration outside Congress against talks with ETA.

The demonstration on Thursday evening was called by the Terrorism Victims Association and Rosas Blancas, after the Prime Minister’s statement to Congress in the morning that dialogue is to begin.

What started as a crowd of around 200 people at 7pm, soon increased, as did the tension, amongst shouts of ‘terrorist government’ and ‘no negotiation with assassins.’

The arrival of a TVE news team was not well received by the angry crowd, who shouted out accusations of ‘manipulators.’ One of the cameramen was hit in the face during the scuffle.

The outlawed political wing of the ETA terrorist organisation has meanwhile described the Prime Minister’s announcement of the start of dialogue to Congress as ‘positive.’

Pernando Barrena, one of Batasuna’s joint spokesmen, said in a brief press conference in San Sebastián that there were two reasons why José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero’s statement to Congress had ‘great political importance’: firstly because ’it opens up the scope for dialogue’ and, secondly because it gives a commitment ‘to respect the decisions which the people of the Basque Country freely adopt.’ Neither Barrena nor the other Batasuna leader with him, Marije Fullaondo, accepted any questions from journalists, but they announced that Batasuna will present a ‘political document’ on Friday, after a more studied review of Zapatero’s words.