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- WORLD, Page 61World NotesSPAINBullets for Basques
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- Two men calmly walked into the Restaurant Basque in Madrid
- last week, strode toward a table of legislators slated to take
- seats at the parliament's opening the next morning and opened
- fire. One diner was killed, another badly wounded. As the gunmen
- left the restaurant, they told a security guard nearby that all
- was well, then disappeared down a dark street.
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- Both victims, who were moderate members of the Basque
- separatist group Herri Batasuna, had hoped that ending their
- party's ten-year boycott of the parliament would spur
- negotiations with Madrid to redress Basque grievances. As news
- of the murders spread, thousands of Basques went into the
- streets of Bilbao, San Sebastian and other cities, smashing
- windows and burning buses and cars.
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- The style of the attack, the weapons used and other details
- suggested that ultrarightists, perhaps with ties to the army,
- were involved. The far right opposes the Socialist government's
- attempt to improve relations with the Basques.
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