Memorial service in Madrid
2004-03-24 14:31
Madrid, Spain - World leaders have joined Spain on Wednesday at a state funeral for the 190 victims of the Madrid rail bombings in an extraordinary tribute to those killed in the worst terrorist attack in the nation.
On a cold overcast day, King Juan Carlos and the rest of the royal family led mourners in the midday Mass at Almudena Cathedral for those killed when 10 bombs concealed in backpacks ripped through four crowded commuter trains during the morning rush hour of March 11.
Inside the 19th-century church, an enormous white sheet bearing a black ribbon of mourning hung behind the altar. Spanish clergy in purple vestments joined the archbishop of Madrid, Cardinal Antonio Rouco Varela, at the altar.
The royal family sat up front on the right-hand side, with Spanish government ministers and other politicians immediately behind. Foreign dignitaries sat on the left-hand side of the aisle, lined with enormous stone pillars.
Choir and incense
The organist played the Spanish national anthem as the king and his family entered the cathedral. A choir sang hymns as the congregation stood and Rouco Varela waved censers with burning incense.
Before the Mass got underway, one unidentified man in the congregation screamed, "Mr Aznar, I hold you responsible for the death of my daughter." He referred to Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, whom many Spaniards accuse of provoking the bombings by supporting the US-led war in Iraq.
Spaniards have endured Basque separatist attacks for decades, and the highest death toll was 21 in 1987. But the rail attacks, in which Islamic extremists are the prime suspects, have dwarfed that figure.
The attacks were the worst to target a Western country since the suicide airliner attacks in New York and Washington in 2001, and sent shock waves through European capitals fearful that the continent will become the next battleground for Islamic terrorists.
President Jacques Chirac of France, Britain's Prince Charles and Prime Minister Tony Blair, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and more than a dozen other heads of state or government were at the funeral.
Armoured city
Police put on extra security at Madrid's two airports, roads leading into the city and along the route leading motorcades to the cathedral.
"Security forces are working together closely to make Madrid an armoured city," said Francisco Javier Ansuategui, the Interior Ministry's top official for the Madrid region.
The Mass brought much of Madrid to a standstill. Giant-screen TVs to carry the ceremony live were set up in a cobblestone courtyard outside the cathedral, in a Royal Palace garden and in Puerta del Sol, a bustling plaza where one of several makeshift memorials to the victims sprang up the day after the bombings. The youngest victim was a seven-month-old girl.
The monument features a sea of red candles, newspaper clippings about victims, a few teddy bears and photographs.
- AP