THE EDITOR, Sir:WITH PAINED surprise I note that the front page article of your Friday edition recounting the murders in Madrid attributes the crime to the Basque separatist group.
ETA is a terrorist organisation, which for over 30 years has been carrying out murders which, for now, has culminated in the terrible acts in Madrid yesterday, and as such appears on the United States Department of State and the European Union's list of terrorist organisations.
Spain's Constitution allows for the freedom of speech and ideas. Within our country's political arena are independent, republican, nationalist groups etc. which freely express their ideas and, in fact, most of these groups have parliamentary representation.
However, as is the case in any democratic state, there has to be a clear and precise limit and that is, those ideas must be expressed in a peaceful manner.
Terror and murder have no justification whatsoever and for this reason to call a band or murderers a separatist group is to justify it in some way and it is an insult, both to the hundreds of victims of these terrorists, as well as the victim's families.
I am, etc.,
RAFAEL JOVER
Ambassador of Spain
