Madrid blast probe conflict

2004-07-07 19:16

Madrid - Spanish police probes into the Madrid bomb massacre in March conflicted with initial government claims that the explosive was of a kind used by the Basque separatist group ETA, a public enquiry heard on Wednesday.

A parliamentary committee of enquiry wanted to know why the government of former prime minister Jose Maria Aznar had drawn such quick conclusions about the substance, although police had no immediate evidence and laboratory tests later refuted the claim.

The then interior minister Angel Acebes made the claim to journalists within hours of the blasts killing 191, thereby casting suspicion on ETA.

The al-Qaeda extremist network, and not ETA, later claimed responsibility for the early-morning March 11 blasts on four commuter trains, which also injured 1 900.

Bomb disposal chief Juan Jesus Sanchez Manzano told the enquiry no one in his squad had identified the substance titadyne, the dynamite brand used by ETA since 2000.

He said police had established by 14:00 on March 11 that dynamite had indeed been used. But it had not been until after 02:00 the following morning that it was identified as another type, Goma-2 Eco.

Minister blamed ETA

But a document had already emerged from the interior ministry at midday on March 11 claiming "elements indicating that the explosive used was that normally used by ETA."

The then interior minister Angel Acebes told a press conference at 13:30 the same day that the explosive was the same as that normally used by ETA, thereby casting suspicion on the Basque separatist group that has been conducting a violent campaign for independence for the Basque country in northern Spain.

The public enquiry was set to examine specifically the order and detail of events between the moment the commuter bombs went off and a general election - won by Spain's Socialists - on March 14, three days later.

Part of the enquiry's brief is to examine whether Aznar's conservative government had been justified in its assertion in the period leading up to the vote that the main line of inquiry focused on ETA.

Aznar's government maintained its ETA line despite emerging evidence in the days following the blasts that the attacks were carried out by Islamic extremists in retaliation for the government's support for the US-led war on Iraq.

Sixteen people have been remanded in custody in Spain, one person has been detained in Italy and another in Morocco in connection with the attacks.

- AFP