Mourner accuses Aznar at Madrid funeral

WORLD leaders dressed in black joined Spanish royalty and families of the 190 victims of Madrid’s train bombings at a state funeral yesterday, honouring those killed in the nation’s worst terrorist attack.

On a cold, overcast day, King Juan Carlos and the rest of the royal family were joined by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, US Secretary of State Colin Powell, French President Jacques Chirac, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Prince Charles and more than a dozen other heads of state or government in the packed, 19th-century Almudena Cathedral for the Mass.

"We have cried, and we have cried together," Spanish Cardinal Antonio Rouco Varela told the congregation.

The royal family sat in front, with the Spanish government and other politicians immediately behind, including Prime Minister José Maria Aznar and his successor, José Luís Rodriguez Zapatero. Foreign dignitaries sat on the left side of the aisle among the 1,500-strong congregation.

"Great pain has filled your lives and those of your families since that black day in which brutal terrorist violence, planned and executed with unspeakable cruelty, ended the lives of your most beloved," Rouco Varela said.

"From the very first moment that of the anguished search and the inevitable identification of your loved ones your pain became the pain of our dear city of Madrid, of Spain, and very quickly, of the whole world," he added.

Before the Mass began, one unidentified man in the congregation shouted, "Mr Aznar, I hold you responsible for the death of my son!"

Many Spaniards have accused Mr Aznar of provoking the bombings by supporting the US-led war in Iraq, and his party lost the national election to Mr Zapatero's Socialists three days after the attacks.

Mr Zapatero has pledged to withdraw the estimated 1,300 Spanish troops now serving in Iraq unless the United Nations takes control of the operations.

During the service, Spain's Queen Sofia wiped away tears and the king held a handkerchief up to his face.

As the Mass ended, the king and queen and members of the royal family went from row to row, clasping the hands of the bereaved or kissing them on the cheek. One of the king's two daughters, Princess Cristina, cried openly as she hugged mourners.

Neither Aznar nor anyone in his government went to see grieving relatives.

Giant TV screens were set up in a cobblestone courtyard outside the cathedral, in a Royal Palace garden, and in Puerta del Sol, a bustling plaza.