The Spanish government announced Tuesday that it would recruit and deploy more police to combat the Basque separatist organization ETA, international terrorism and organized crime.
Spanish Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said the government plans to train 500 more experts before 2012, adding that the number of police officers employed to combat ETA had increased to 1,800 since 2004.
Perez also announced that the government would recruit 800 policemen and civil guards to combat organized crime and another 1,248 agents to fight violence against women.
During an appearance before the Interior Committee of Congress, Perez hailed the recent capture of main ETA leader Javier Lopez Pena as the end of the organization which has been waging a campaign for an independent Basque homeland in northern Spain and southwestern France since the 1960s.
ETA "will never reach its goal," Perez said.
He warned however that even though ETA had been weakened and the government was "stronger than ever," ETA still has the capacity to "harm us a lot".
The government would soon send a draft to the parliament, Perezrevealed, which if ratified would lead to a new law to unify protection and compensation for victims of terrorism in a single text.
ETA's campaign has led to some 850 deaths, and the European Union and the United States have listed the organization as a terrorist group.
ETA's main leader Lopez Pena, alias "Thierry," was captured on May 20 in Bordeaux, France.
Source:Xinhua
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