FRENCH FREE BATASUNA PARTY MEMBERS

The 14 members of the illegal Batasuna party who were detained in the French Basque Country last Thursday were released two days later after being questioned in Bayonne. The Batasuna party is not illegal in France, but the group were detained at the request of the Anti-terrorist Prosecutor's Office in Paris as part of an investigation into the financing of the Communist Party of the Basque Country (PCTV), which was illegalised by Spain's National Court the previous week. Last Monday, police in south-west France detained six suspected Basque militants following an investigation into the financing of terror attacks. Last Tuesday, the French police arrested two suspected members of the Basque terrrorist group ETA, following three weekend car bombs blamed on the group, one of which killed a Spanish army officer. Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said last Monday that the weekend attacks were apparently planned and prepared in France. ETA has traditionally used France as a base for its activities. Police last year discovered a bomb-making factory in the southern French town of Cahors, and last December two Guardia Civil were shot dead by suspected ETA members while conducting a reconnaissance mission in France.