The Hindu : Spain follows up two leads

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 14, 2004

International

International

Spain follows up two leads

GLOBAL SOLIDARITY: Leaders of several countries march with hundreds of thousands in Madrid on Friday in protest against Thursday's train bombings. The leaders are (from left), the Portuguese Prime Minister, Jose Manuel Durao Barroso, the Spanish Interior Minister, Angel Acebes, the Socialist Opposition leader, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, the French Prime Minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, the Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, the Spanish Prime Minister, Jose Maria Aznar, Prince Felipe, Princess Elena, Princess Christina and the Popular Party candidate for Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy. — AP

MADRID, MARCH 13. The Spanish Interior Minister, Angel Acebes, said today enquiries into Thursday's bomb blasts in Madrid ``are progressing'' with the Government following up two leads.

``Police investigations are advancing rigorously and professionally,'' he told a news conference.

``But (Basque militant group) ETA remain our prime suspects,'' he added, insisting the Government had been pursuing that lead as well as the possibility of Islamic fundamentalists from the start.

``No Spaniard should be surprised that we are prioritising the terrorist group which has been committing terrorist acts in Spain for 300 years and killed some 900 people.

``There is no doubt those who are responsible will be brought to justice and made to pay,'' he said.

Autopsies carried out after the terror attacks have turned up no evidence of a suicide bombing, the Minister said.

``Of the autopsies carried out, none of them have given as a result that (death) was caused by a suicide bomb,'' Mr. Acebes said.

Suicide attacks are a hallmark of militants linked to the Al-Qaeda. Spain held emotional funerals today for some of the 200 victims of the bomb attacks in Madrid on the eve of general elections that have been overtaken by the debate over who is responsible for the bloodshed.

Masses were held in many places, one day after the biggest demonstrations the country has ever seen denounced Thursday's atrocity, in which 10 bombs tore through packed morning commuter trains.

More than a quarter of Spain's population of 41 million turned out late on Friday under a rainy sky to vent their fury at `terrorism' and hurl slogans against the two main suspects: the Basque separatist group ETA and the Al-Qaeda.

In Alcala de Henares, a town just east of Madrid which was the first stop for the doomed trains, more than 1,000 people crowded into a gymnasium for a funeral service for the 30 locals killed in the blasts.

``Alcala is broken'' said the Mayor.

Spaniards, and experts around the world, are divided as to which is to blame, and media observered that the confusion has made Sunday's elections impossible to predict.

- AP

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