But disagreements lead to breakdown of ceasefire6 Feb 1992: car-bomb in Santander kills three15 Jan 1992: ex-UCD senator and minister Manuel Brosta Pons killed in Valencia1992: Spanish government arrests in France Eta's entire leadership21 June 1993: six soldiers and a civilian killed in car-bomb attack in Madrid29 July 1994: three people, including a general, killed in the centre of the capital23 Jan 1995: Gregorio Ordonez, provincial leader of Popular Party in Basque country, shot dead in San Sebastian19 April 1995: Jose Maria Aznar, PP national leader, escapes car- bomb attack10 Aug 1995: Police foil plot to kill King Juan Carlos11 Dec 1995: Six die in car-bomb attack in Madrid6 Feb 1996: Basque Socialist leader Fernando Mugica shot dead in San Sebastian14 Feb 1996: Francisco Tomas y Valiente, ex-president of constitutional court, shot dead in his study at Madrid University. Eugenio Etxebeste "Antxon" emerges as new interlocutor and contacts resumed19 June 1987: bombing of a supermarket in Barcelona kills 21 and wounds 351989: Ceasefires announced as Eta-government discussions take place in Algeria. Responsible for more than 800 deaths since 1968, including 20 national or local political figures1961: Eta attempts to derail a train taking Francoist veterans to a rally in San Sebastian. Police arrest and torture more than 100 Eta suspects20 Dec 1973: assassination of Luis Carrero Blanco, prime minister and Franco's designated successor, prompting the collapse of the dictatorshipOct 1979: Jose Mara Uriarte Alvain, mayor of Bilbao, killed1980: Eta's bloodiest year - 118 killed30 Sept 1980: Jose Ignacio Ustar, of the conservative UCD executive committee, killed in Vitoria23 Feb 1984: Enrique Casas Vila, Socialist senator, shot dead in San Sebastian12 June 1985: army colonel and his chauffeur killed in Madrid on day Spain signs EC membership deal25 April 1986: five Civil Guardsmen killed by car-bomb14 July 1986: 12 Civil Guardsmen and 56 people hurt in truck explosion in Madrid1986: Contacts established between Eta leader Txomin Iturbe and government1987: Txomin killed in Algeria. But uncertainty will remain about whether an incoming Conservative government can offer anything to prevent the Basque country from slipping towards civil war.Bloody struggle for Basque independence1960: Eta founded by students to fight for independence and self-determination of Basque people. But sometimes it freezes your heart."If Mr Gonzalez loses on 3 March, it will be largely because of Gal's anti-Eta skulduggery laid at his door.

I was seven years in a Jesuit seminary, then two years doing military service, then I served four years in the police, and more than six years in prison Discipline is good, it makes you treat people with respect. But I'm afraid the extremist forces it has unleashed will escape its control like the sorcerer's apprentice and we'll have an explosion."Mikel Sueskun notes that many Eta members come from the Jesuits, founded by the Basque Ignacio de Loyola, whose seminaries "hold the Basques' written history and tradition" He muses: "I have always led a disciplined life. Mr Montero is convinced Eta will consider conversations with Madrid only from a position of strength, defined in military terms."Eta believes the contradictions of the armed struggle can be solved only by armed struggle, action for the sake of action Their leadership has become intoxicated by its own dogma. He spent years defending Eta prisoners and and helped establish links that led to doomed talks between Eta and the government in Algeria in 1989.

"Unlike in Sinn Fein, where a leadership has matured over 25 years, in Eta over the same period the leadership has been renewed five or six times, each time becoming more extreme and more remote from the real world," he says. I want the independence of Euskadi but only if the majority want it."This is a view shared by Jose Maria Montero, a Bilbao lawyer and former MEP for Herri Batasuna. The organisation says the attempt to break their spirit has failed and that prisoners have a constitutional right to serve their terms near their home and families.This demand motivated Eta's decision to kidnap Ortega Lara, an officer at Logrono prison, last month, and probably lay behind the killing of Fernando Mugica, who was a strong advocate of the policy of dispersal and whose brother, Enrique, introduced the practice when Justice Minister from 1988 to 1991.Sueskun remains committed to Basque independence and self-determination, and shares the beliefs of Eta and Herri Batasuna "But I can't support their methods I'm in prison for defending the rights of a people. Some 540 of more than 600 Eta prisoners are dispersed throughout Spain in a deliberate attempt by the government to break their formidable solidarity and get them to recant and opt for early "reinsertion".One of Eta's principal demands is that their prisoners be brought nearer home. He had been in contact with Eta since the Seventies and became close to them around 1983.He was lucky to serve his sentence in prisons near his home. "I can't say I wish it had never happened, but it was a mistake," he says of his crime. "I'm sure my sentence was harsher because I was an ex- policeman." He returns to Nanclares prison in Vitoria at night and is awaiting the act of pardon that would give him freedom.Sueskun was among up to 30 Eta prisoners who promised to renounce violence in exchange for early release and "reinsertion" into society.