MADRID : Spain ended an emotional day of mourning for the
victims of the Madrid train bombings a year ago with a solemn
requiem service evening attended by King Juan Carlos and leading
politicians.
The service came at the end of a day of memories so painful for the
relatives of the 191 people killed when 10 bombs went off on four
trains targeted by Islamic extremists that many of those who lost
loved ones stayed away from official ceremonies to grieve in
private.
Madrid Archbishop Antonio Maria Rouco Varela used the occasion at
Madrid's Almudena cathedral to insist that terrorism would never
cow Spanish society, rocked by the worst attacks in its history 12
months ago.
Quoting Saint Paul, the archbishop urged the peoples of the world
"to overcome evil with good."
Many of the 1,900 people who survived the blasts, the worst attack
perpetrated anywhere in Europe since the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am
jet over Lockerbie, Scotland, are still recovering from the
physical and psychological injuries.
King Juan Carlos, clad in a black coat and black tie for the sombre
occasion, attended the service with Queen Sofia, who wore a black
stole.
Heir to the throne Prince Felipe and Princess Letizia, who married
in the cathedral last May, also attended the service, as did Prime
Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and leader of the main
conservative opposition Mariano Rajoy.
There were no speeches at the main events throughout the day, as
victim's associations had requested that silence was the
appropriate way to honor those who died or were wounded in the
blasts.
Earlier, traffic came to a halt and commuters stood in silence as
Spain showed its enduring grief.
A five-minute silence from midday (1100 GMT) left the capital
eerily quiet as people bowed their heads to honour the dead.
Trains across the country stopped and television screens everywhere
scrolled the long list of the names of the victims, killed at three
railway stations in carnage blamed on a group loyal to the Al-Qaeda
extremist network.
Juana Leal placed flowers and two lit candles on the platform of El
Pozo station in a working-class district to mark the spot her
husband, Angel Pardillos Checa, died.
After the moment of silence, the king and Zapatero opened a "forest
of remembrance" where 192 olive and cypress trees will pay lasting
tribute to the 191 victims and a policeman who was killed in April
last year when the attack's suspected masterminds blew themselves
up as officers raided their flat.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and Moroccan King Mohammed VI
attended the ceremony, where the minutes of silence came to an end
as a lone woman cellist played Pablo Casals' "El Cant dells Ocells"
(The Song of the Birds).
Annan earlier told a news conference that "the world mourns" with
the bereaved.
The emotional day began with Madrid's 650 churches all ringing at
sunrise, at the exact time the bombs went off a year ago.
Spain is still investigating the blasts, though several victims'
relatives have expressed disgust with politicking that has
dominated the months-long probe.
Twenty-two suspected Islamic extremists, most of them Moroccans,
are in jail.
For three days preceding the anniversary of the attacks, Madrid
played host to an international conference dedicated to the
issue.
The Madrid conference, grouping former presidents and heads of
state of democratic countries, on Friday presented the "Madrid
Agenda", a series of recommendations aimed at combatting
terrorism.
Meanwhile, the group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Al-Qaeda's
frontman in Iraq, vowed to defeat "infidels and apostates" in a
statement published on the Internet on Friday in response to the
Madrid conference on terrorism. - AFP