13 charged in Spain over ETA links.

MADRID Spain's leading anti-terrorist judge on Monday charged 13 members of two pro-independence Basque parties over their alleged ties to the armed separatist group ETA. In February, Judge Baltasar Garzon barred the two parties, Democracy Three Million (D3M) and Askatasuna, from engaging in political activities for at least three years over their links to ETA and its outlawed political wing Batasuna. Garzon on Monday charged the 13 with "collaborating with ETA." They included the president of Askatasuna, Jose Antonio Munduate, and the spokesman of D3M, Amparo Las Heras. The judge dropped cases against 12 others for lack of proof. ETA is blamed for the deaths of 828 people in its decadeslong campaign for an independent Basque homeland in parts of northern Spain and southwestern France. Spanish courts also barred two other radical Basque parties, PCTV (Party of Basque Lands) and ANV (Nationalist Basque Action), from running in Basque regional elections in March over alleged links to ETA. Radical Basque separatist parties draw support from approximately 10 percent of Spain's Basque voters.

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