Spain honours train bomb victims

Spain today honoured the victims of the Madrid train bombings by unveiling a towering glass monument bearing messages of condolence written in the days after the attacks three years ago.

King Juan Carlos, Queen Sofia, senior government officials and an invitation-only crowd of several hundred people observed three minutes of silence at a solemn anniversary ceremony in memory of the 191 people killed and more than 1,800 wounded in the attacks of March 11, 2004.

Under glorious sunshine, a lone cellist played the mournful strains of “Song of the Birds” by Pablo Casals, a composition meant to be a call for peace. There were no speeches.

Some in the crowd wept during the ceremony outside Atocha rail station, one of four targets in the string of 10 backpack bombs that ripped apart morning rush-hour commuter trains in Europe’s worst terrorist attack blamed on Islamic extremists.

Accompanied by guards wearing old-style plumed helmets, the king placed a laurel wreath at the foot of the monument: a 35ft tall glass cylinder with a transparent inner membrane bearing messages of condolence that Spaniards and other people left at Atocha after the attacks – on notes left at makeshift memorials of flowers and candles, or on a computer terminal set up for them to record their thoughts.

These messages, written in Spanish and other languages, are only visible from an underground viewing chamber beneath the hollow, slightly oval-shaped monument.

“We are still here and we do not forget. Together forever,” one message in Spanish reads.

Another, in English, said: “Words are not enough.”

The monument’s designers say different phrases will stand out more clearly over the course of a day as the light shifts. At night, they are illuminated.

Newspapers reprinted photos of that hellish day three years ago: red and white train cars blown apart by dynamite-and-shrapnel bombs activated with mobile phones, families that are still grieving, a handful of victims still in hospital.

Twenty-nine people are currently on trial in Madrid over the attacks.

The bombings were claimed by Muslim militants who said they were acting on behalf of al-Qaida to avenge the presence of Spanish troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Spanish investigators say, however, that the cell did not receive orders or financing from Osama bin Laden’s terrorist group, but was inspired by it.

The conservative government in power at the time of the attacks had sent 1,300 peacekeepers to Iraq and initially blamed the Basque separatist group ETA, maintaining this argument even as evidence emerged of the involvement of Islamic extremists.

That led to allegations of a cover-up to divert attention from its unpopular support of the war in Iraq, and in elections three days after the attacks the conservatives were voted out of power.

Victorious Socialists led by Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, now the prime minister, quickly brought home Spain’s troops from Iraq.

The attacks left Spain deeply divided. Conservatives question the Socialist government’s legitimacy, saying it took power through tragedy and unfairly refuses to resume a probe into a possible ETA link.

The Socialists say the conservatives made Spain a terror target by backing the war.