A parcel bomb believed to be the work of armed Basque separatist group ETA injured a journalist on Tuesday, two days after elections in Spain's Basque Country dealt a setback to ETA's political allies.
Gorka Landaburu, who works for the magazine Cambio 16, Cope radio and Canal Sur television, received the package at his home in the coastal town of Zarautz, near San Sebastian, according to police.
Landaburu was injured in the hands and face but his life was not considered to be in danger, a police spokesman said.
"He's well," Landaburu's wife, Marina, told state radio. "He opened a package that he had not opened yesterday but I am not exactly sure what happened because I was not home. He has injuries mainly to his hands, burns."
A friend told Spanish state radio that Landaburu had been threatened several times by ETA in the past.
The explosion followed a car bomb also blamed on ETA that rocked central Madrid early on Saturday on the eve of the bitterly fought Basque regional election which was won by moderate Basque nationalists.
The Basque Nationalist Party (PNV), which favors moves toward independence but condemns ETA violence, won the most votes and will have the first chance to form a government.
Euskal Herritarrok, a radical separatist coalition believed to be ETA's political wing, had its representation in the 75-seat Basque parliament cut from 14 to seven. That was its worst result since Spain created its system of autonomous regions in the late 1970s, after the death of dictator Francisco Franco.
ETA, which stands for Basque Homeland and Freedom in the Basque language, has claimed 29 killings since ending a cease-fire in December 1999. It was also blamed for the fatal shooting of a senator from Spain's ruling Popular Party earlier in May.
ETA has been linked to about 800 killings in its three-decade armed campaign for an independent state in the Basque-speaking regions of northern Spain and southwestern France -- MADRID (Reuters)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
