ETA MASSACRES EVENTS
Eta's 35-year campaign for a sovereign Basque state, which has cost more than 800 lives.
July 2003: Bombs explode within minutes of each other in the Spanish resorts of Alicante and Benidorm, injuring at least 13. Five days later another bomb rips through a car park at Santander airport.
May 2003: The United States declares Batasuna a terrorist group. The European Union follows suit a month later.
March 2003: Spain's Supreme Court bans Batasuna permanently in response to a government request. It is the first time since Franco died in 1975 that a political party has been banned in Spain.
February 2003: The Spanish Government shuts down Basque newspaper Euskaldunon Egunkaria on the grounds that it is linked to Eta - but a new Basque newspaper, Egunero, hits the stands the next day, under the headline "Shut but not silenced".
December 2002: Suspected Eta logistics chief Ibon Fernandez Iradi escapes from police custody in southern France only three days after being captured near the Spanish border.
September 2002: French police arrest a man and woman suspected of being top leaders of Eta following a joint operation with Spanish police. The man, Juan Antonio Olarra Guribi, is believed to be the group's military head.
August 2002: Judge Garzon suspends Batasuna for three years on the grounds that it is part of Eta, which he declares "guilty of crimes against humanity". Parliament, meanwhile, votes to seek an indefinite ban on Batasuna.
July 2002: Judge Baltasar Garzon orders the seizure of 18m euros in assets belonging to Batasuna.
December 2001: The European Union declares Eta a terrorist organisation - the first time all 15 member governments have labelled Eta as such, in a significant diplomatic victory for the Spanish Government.