Mallorca bombings

To learn more about the ETA and their strategies, Deutsche Welle interviewed Professor Paul Heywood, an expert on the Basque separatist group at the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom.

DW: The authorities have yet to conclusively link ETA to Sunday's three bomb blasts. Is there any doubt about their involvement?

Paul Heywood: It is almost certain this was the work of ETA, they had released statements the day before about a series of previous attacks that had taken place in June and July and these latest attacks follow a very similar pattern, including two attacks on holiday resorts in the past.

From your knowledge of the way ETA operates, would they have had an active cell on the island, or would they have sent in people from the mainland?

They probably sent people in from the mainland. Now there was, of course, the assassination of two Civil Guards on the island in Palmanova on 30th July and these bombs that went off yesterday (Sunday ed.) were all on timer devices, so it is just possible that the cell which carried out the assassinations just over a week ago also planted the bombs, though it's a long time for bombs to be on timer devices, it's more likely that they've still got some people on the island.

How successful have the Spanish authorities been in the past in tracking down ETA bombers?

Well there have been a lot of high profile arrests of ETA leaders and there's been in recent years much more effective collaboration with the French authorities, so that the French and the Spanish police have worked together to capture some of the top ETA leaders. However one of the issues - it can hardly be overstressed with any organization like ETA - is that they are not single organizations where there is one leadership and if you capture that leadership then the organization is undermined. These organizations operate on the basis of numbers of different cells which operate according to different command structures within different parts of the country, and indeed, they are often characterized by splits within the organization, so ETA, just like a lot of other terrorist organizations, has historically had splits between an official leadership - quite often wanting dialogue and political interaction with the government - and more militant, often younger members, who are against dialogue and want to continue the campaign of violence.

What is likely to be the impact on Spain's tourism industry?

That's what they are aiming for - to hurt Spain's tourism industry - this is a form of economic terrorism. The targets are not members of the public, still less actual tourists. ETA has a history of mainly targeting members of the Spanish armed forces or police and recent assassinations which have taken place have been of members of the Civil Guard. ETA has never really gone for soft targets in the sense of members of the public or holidaymakers, tourists. But what they do want to do to is to instil a sense of fear so that people think twice about whether they are going to visit Spain on holiday and in that sense create an economic climate for the government, which of course is already struggling with the impact of recession, which makes it much more difficult for them.

Interview: Mark Caldwell
Editor: Michael Lawton