Two men calmly walked into the Restaurant Basque in Madrid last week, strode toward a table of legislators slated to take seats at the parliament's opening the next morning and opened fire. One diner was killed, another badly wounded. As the gunmen left the restaurant, they told a security guard nearby that all was well, then disappeared down a dark street.

Both victims, who were moderate members of the Basque separatist group Herri Batasuna, had hoped that ending their party's ten-year boycott of the parliament would spur negotiations with Madrid to redress Basque grievances. As news of the murders spread, thousands of Basques went into the streets of Bilbao, San Sebastian and other cities, smashing windows and burning buses and cars.

The style of the attack, the weapons used and other details suggested that ultrarightists, perhaps with ties to the army, were involved. The far right opposes the Socialist government's attempt to improve relations with the Basques.