"Unconscionable and Monstrous" Attack of Innocent People in Spain / Millions march in Protest by UN News / SBS World News / Reuters / BBC News 8:12am 12th Mar, 2004   17 March, 2004    Madrid honours victims of bombing. (BBC World News)    Several thousand people, including Spain's Queen Sofia, have attended a memorial service for those killed in the Madrid bomb attacks. The service was held at Almudena cathedral, Madrid's largest.    This was a chance to reflect on where it all began - with the horrific bombing of four commuter trains in the Thursday morning rush hour. The archbishop of Madrid said the people of the city had responded magnificently to the crisis. "The tragic attacks of March 11 have sunk us all into deep pain," Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco Valela said. "To kill your own kind, to kill a brother, is to attack God himself." His congregation's faith would not be shaken by terrorism, he promised.    A giant black ribbon - now a symbol of Spain's collective grief - hung next to the altar. And black ribbons were pinned to the clothes of mourners fingering rosary beads outside. Outside Madrid, in the commuter town of Alcala de Henares - the home of about 40 of the victims, and where the bombs were suspected to have been put on three of the four trains hit - residents held a silent evening march to protest against the violence.    An estimated 50,000 marchers carried photos of victims and candles.    March 13, 2004    Millions march in protest against Spainish bomb attacks. (AAP)    More than eight million people took to Spain's streets in an unprecedented show of grief and fury at bomb attacks the day before on Madrid commuter trains that killed 200 people and injured more than 1,400, police said.    Thousands more marched in cities around the world - in London, Brussels, Washington, Mexico City, Caracas and Buenos Aires - to express their solidarity with the Spanish people and to denounce terrorism.    The demonstrations in Spain - vast seas of umbrellas in rain-soaked cities and towns - were by far the biggest the country has ever seen, easily beating the previous record set in February last year when the population protested against its government's support of the US war on Iraq.    "A people united will never be defeated," the crowd roared in unison in Madrid, where police said 2.3 million people had gathered..    March 12, 2004. (ABC News Online)    Thousands of people carrying black ribbons demonstrated against ETA in the Spanish Basque city of Vitoria today. Larger rallies are planned across Spain on Friday as the country mourns the 198 people killed and more than 1,400 wounded by coordinated bomb blasts in Madrid on Thursday. The atrocity, which Spanish media and officials described as "our own September 11", came just three days before general elections that the ruling conservative Popular Party is widely expected to win.    Three days of national mourning have been declared. Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to take to the streets of Spain later today in anti-terrorism peace marches.    Spain said on Friday that the death toll was 198 killed and that 1,430 people wounded, up from the previous 192 dead and 1,421 injured. The carnage, carried out in four trains and three railway stations in the southeast of the capital in morning rush-hour, was the worst terror attack in Europe since the 1988 Lockerbie bombing that killed 270 people.    In Madrid and throughout Spain, people took to central squares to hold protests against terrorism. Spanish authorities, who initially blamed ETA, said they had found a stolen van containing detonators and an audio tape with Koranic verses in Arabic in the town of Alcala de Henares, 35 kilometres east of Madrid, after the blasts. At the same time, a London-based Arabic newspaper, Al-Quds Al-Arabi, issued a statement it said it had received from Al Qaeda claiming responsibility.    11 March 2004    United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan deplores ‘senseless’ bomb blasts in Spain. (United Nations News)    Reacting to news of several bomb blasts in Spain this morning, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today reiterated his stance that there is no justification for targeting civilians, and said the perpetrators must to be held to account for their crimes.    “It is indeed with profound shock and indignation that I learned about the terrorist attack in Madrid today,” Mr. Annan told the press upon arriving at UN Headquarters in New York. “Once again we see senseless killing of innocent people. Killing of innocent people cannot be justified regardless of the cause.”    Offering his deepest sympathy to King Juan Carlos, the Government of Spain and to the people and friends who were killed or injured in the explosions, the Secretary-General said he hoped that the perpetrators would be brought to justice swiftly. In Geneva, the Acting UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Bertrand Ramcharan condemned the bombings as "unconscionable and monstrous."    "The one thing terrorists all over the world have in common, whatever their claims, is an utter disregard for life and all human rights", Mr. Ramcharan said, vowing that these attacks "will not succeed in destroying the edifice of international law and human rights."    He joined Mr. Annan in stressing that the perpetrators must be brought to justice "within the human rights standards that help bind our societies together and that they constantly assail."    12 March 2004    Scale of killings is a potential crime against humanity. (Amnesty International)    The massacre in Madrid yesterday, which caused at least 198 deaths and injured over 1460 people, could constitute a crime against humanity under international law, the Amnesty International confirmed today. The organization expressed its outrage at the attacks and its deepest sympathy for the victims, their relatives and loved ones.    The scale of the attacks - in which 10 nearly simultaneous explosions blasted four trains as they approached three different Madrid railway stations during the early morning rush hour - was unprecedented in Spain. They are among the most serious to take place in a European Union country.    "Targeting commuters going about their daily business shows complete contempt for the most fundamental principles of humanity. If these bombings are part of a widespread attack on the civilian population of Spain in furtherance of an organization's policy, they would constitute a crime against humanity," Amnesty International said.    Amnesty International called for the perpetrators to be brought promptly to justice in proceedings which meet international standards. "We must be compassionate in our support for the victims, determined in our search for justice and vigilant about the rights of all people," the organization said.    New York, March 11, 2004. (Human Rights Watch)    Today’s train bombings in Madrid were an assault on the fundamental principle of respect for civilian life, and those responsible for this atrocity must be apprehended and brought to justice, Human Rights Watch said today.    Once again, the logic of terrorism—that the ends justify the means—has led to the deaths and injury of hundreds of innocent people. This logic is contrary to the most elementary values of humanity. There can be no justification for acts that assault the right to life and the rule of law.      Spanish authorities have stated that those responsible for the bombings will be caught and will pay for their crime. In that effort, the government must uphold those very principles that came under attack today. In apprehending and prosecuting the perpetrators, the Spanish government must itself respect the rule of law and observe its human rights obligations. It should reinforce the message that it is dedicated to these very principles that will ultimately prevail over the logic of terror.      Human Rights Watch extends its condolences to the victims of the bombings, their loved ones and the people of Spain.      190 KILLED IN MADRID BLASTS (SBS World News)    12.3.2004.    At least 190 people have been killed and more than 1,240 wounded in the Spanish capital Madrid, when a series of coordinated bomb blasts tore apart rush-hour commuter trains in one of Europe's worst-ever terrorist attacks.    World leaders condemned the attack as an assault on democracy, coming just three days before Spanish general elections scheduled for Sunday. The Government has announced three days of mourning over the atrocity and election campaigns were halted early, although the elections will go ahead.    Interior Minister Angel Acebes said there was "no doubt" the separatist Basque group ETA, listed as a terrorist organisation by the US and EU, was behind the attack. The group has been held responsible for more than 800 deaths over a nearly four-decade violent campaign for an independent homeland in northern Spain.    Hoever Mr Acebes says the government hasn’t excluded the possibility that Islamic terrorists carried out the attacks, after police discovered a van in Madrid containing detonators and a tape in Arabic.    There has been no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks, however the banned Basque political party, Batasuna, denied ETA militants were involved, instead blaming “Arab resistance”. Batasuna party leader Arnaldo Otegi highlighted Spain's role in the US-led occupation of Iraq, which has already drawn warnings of revenge attacks from al-Qaeda.    Mr Acebes says a total of 10 bombs exploded within minutes of each other in and around three railway stations in the southeast of the capital, starting at around 7:30am when trains were packed with suburban commuters. Another three devices were found and set off in controlled explosions.    A Spanish anti-terrorist official says the explosive in the attacks was dynamite, commonly used by ETA militants. He added that the devices appeared to have been on timers and some may have been placed in the train wagons themselves.    Scenes of carnage followed the blasts, with emergency workers attending to critically injured passengers and hauling away bodies to a makeshift morgue.    "The coach behind mine was packed with bodies. Some people were burnt in their seats," said one passenger who survived, Antonio Villacanas.    "There were people like me going to school. It was a strange sensation. I can't explain the feeling, dead people all around," said one student at Atocha station.    Spain's King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia visited survivors in hospital. A spokesman for the royal household said the monarch would make a statement later Thursday.    11 March, 2004,    "Shock and grief in Madrid" (BBC World News)    A mood of shock and grief descended on Madrid after the morning rush-hour blasts which left scores dead.    In the aftermath of Spain's worst terror attack, weeping commuters streamed away from stations as emergency services rushed in to treat the hundreds of injured and dying. Hospitals appealed for blood as up to 1200 casualties, some with horrific blast injuries and lost limbs, were ferried in. Residents responded in droves, queuing up to donate at mobile centres.    The scale of moving the casualties to hospital overwhelmed the system. Buses became makeshift ambulances, but even ambulance drivers were traumatised by what they saw. "I won't forget this ever," said ambulance driver Enrique Sanchez. "I've seen horror."    Mobile phone networks became jammed as thousands of commuters caught up in the blast or the chaos which followed tried to ring loved ones.    In one hospital, a doctor answered the mobile phone of a critically injured woman to find it was the patient's cousin, desperately trying to trace her.    Hotels offered free rooms to people caught up in the tragedy, as the sheer scale of the attack paralysed much of the city's transport system. Police helicopters circled over the scenes of the blasts, as officers on the ground carried out controlled explosions on 10 of a total of 13 devices which had been planted.    The attack left citizens stunned. A country used to living with a permanent threat of Eta or even al Qaeda attack had never expected carnage on this scale. "This is incredible, a whole city brought to collapse by the explosions," Spanish journalist Inigo Amescua told BBC News Online. "It is the worst day for any democracy in Europe since World War II."    An eerie calm descended on the city as residents crowded round television sets in cafes and restaurants, or stayed glued to the coverage at home.    Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, in a televised address to the nation, praised the solidarity of Spaniards in the aftermath of the attack. The blasts came amid final preparations for Spain's general election, due on Sunday. Shocked leaders suspended campaigning and expressed their horror at the multiple attacks, which they saw as linked to the poll.    "This was a massive, indiscriminate attack on people going to work,"said Mariano Rajoy, leader of the governing Popular Party and currently expected to succeed outgoing Jose Maria Aznar as prime minister. "Eta is a criminal organisation with no respect for life. It has thrown Spanish democracy into mourning.    Socialist leader Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero condemned the attacks and Eta. "I hope that these scum, these criminals, fall as swiftly as possible into the hands of the police... so we can put an end to Eta, this violence, this barbarism," he said.    The head of Madrid's regional government, Esperanza Aguirre, said: "The killers have carried out a most terrible and criminal act, producing a massacre on an unprecedented scale.    "Democracy will prevail over the imposition of terror."    VIENNA, March 11 (Reuters)    "Terror experts see "9/11 factor" in Madrid bombs" by Mark Trevelyan, Security Correspondent.    Killing civilians en masse and at random, Thursday's Madrid bombings bear the signature of the modern militant age ushered in by al Qaeda, whoever actually planned them.    Security analysts said that if ETA separatists planted the rush-hour bombs that killed at least 180 people, they were drawing at least partly on al Qaeda's inspiration and tactics.    Despite Spain's insistence on blaming the Basque group, some experts were reluctant to rule out Islamist involvement.    "This kind of operation is the style of terrorism of our century...That's the new modus operandi coming from militant Islamists," said German security analyst Rolf Tophoven, contrasting the indiscriminate mode of the attacks with ETA's traditional targeting of bankers, politicians or police.    Roland Jacquard, head of the International Terrorism Observatory in Paris, said Thursday's bombings suggested the influence of "the World Trade Center effect" on the strategies of traditional militant groups -- a reference to the U.S. September 11 attacks for which al Qaeda is blamed.    Manuel Coma, security expert at Spain's Royal Elcano Institute, suggested Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network had caused a kind of global terror inflation.    "Since September 11, there has been a qualitative leap. Small attacks are no longer adequate. They (ETA) have to aim higher to have influence," he said. A fourth analyst, Sebestyen Gorka, said any evidence of Islamist involvement or influence on a traditional European guerrilla group like ETA would mark a major precedent.    It would completely reverse an older trend whereby groups like the Irish Republican Army transferred their expertise to militants in the developing world like Colombia's FARC, assisting with technology and training, he said.    Arguing for ETA's involvement were the timing of the attacks, three days before Spanish elections, and a series of recent arrests and explosives seizures which suggested a major attack by the Basque group was in the offing.    SHIFT IN TACTICS    But the bombings departed from traditional ETA tactics in the lack of prior warning and the very scale of the operation, which killed over eight times more people than the group's previous deadliest attack.    Also striking was the use of multiple, simultaneous explosions, 10 in all, borrowing a favoured tactic of al Qaeda.    European stockmarkets fell sharply on fears of Islamist involvement, even though the Spanish government firmly rejected that possibility.    "There are characteristics of each," a U.S. official told Reuters, referring to ETA and al Qaeda.    "You have multiple attacks, multiple explosions in different locations in a short period of time which is very al Qaeda-ish."    Islamist militants have ample motives to attack Spain, which has arrested a number of al Qaeda suspects. They have targeted Spanish interests before, for example in the May 2003 suicide bombing of a Spanish restaurant in Casablanca, Morocco.    "Spain is an Islamic target. It sides with Britain and the United States in the war on terror, and I have seen statements from Islamic militants claiming parts of Spain for the Islamic world," said Richard Evans, editor of Jane's Terrorism and Insurgency Centre.    "It would be premature to rule out at this stage the possible involvement of Islamic militants."    If ETA committed the attacks, several analysts said this pointed to a split in its ranks and the emergence, after many senior leaders were caught, of what Jacquard called a "third generation" -- younger, less experienced but more radical.    "The only explanation I have is that it's a weakened but more radical ETA behind this. In other words, the older members have all been arrested and these are very young, very radical people left over," Joachim Krause of the University of Kiel told Germany's N-TV channel.    "They've perhaps taken al Qaeda as a role model, or other terrorists that turn to spectacular attacks, as in New York and Washington. They've seen that's how to get media attention." (Additional reporting by Jeremy Lovell in London, Tabassum Zakaria in Washington and Erik Kirschbaum in Berlin)
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