Police swoop on ETA suspects

Basque separatist group ETA is fighting for an independent Basque state in northern Spain

MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- Spanish police have arrested 12 people suspected of having links to the Basque separatist group ETA.

The 12 belong to an organisation called Gestoras Pro Amnistia, which regularly lobbies to bring hundreds of convicted or suspected ETA prisoners, spread throughout Spain, to jails closer to their homes in the northern Basque region.

The pre-dawn raids, in the Basque region, were directed by investigating magistrate Baltasar Garzon who suspects the pro-amnesty group and some other Basque organisations may be providing vital logistical support to ETA.

Spanish media reports said Garzon may try to charge some of the 12 people arrested with belonging to ETA, which is outlawed as terrorist group in Spain.

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Spanish and French police have arrested several suspected ETA members in recent months including at least two people believed to be senior members of the organisation who were held in France in September and October.

On Sunday, ETA published a statement saying it wanted peace but not without its key demand of self-determination, something the Spanish government has ruled out.

Politicians have intensified their calls on ETA to lay down its weapons after the Irish Republican Army began to decommission weapons last week, a major breakthrough in Northern Ireland's peace process.

ETA has been linked to about 800 deaths since 1968, 35 of them since it ended a ceasefire in 1999.