SPAIN: Interior minister condemns ETA car bomb attack on Madrid airport which broke a nine-month ceasefire

A car bomb exploded on Saturday (December 30, 2006) in the car park of Madrid's main airport. A huge pall of smoke rose over Barajas Airport's Terminal Four after the explosion which appeared to end a ceasefire declared by ETA in March after four decades of armed struggle for independence of the Basque Country. "As we were putting our luggage down, we heard a big bang and we all come out of the coach," said a male passenger. A woman added: "We felt the explosion. I looked to the left and saw a big black cloud. Glasses went trembling and were all shaken." A mother holding her young daughter described the panic after being rescued by a police car. "It was desperate. People did not know where to go. It was quite scary -- mostly because of my daughter," she said. The ultra-modern terminal was evacuated after the warning at about 8 a.m. (0700 GMT). A man with a Basque accent called Basque traffic authorities to warn them of a bomb in a purple Renault Traffic car. Shortly after, a separate caller to emergency services said the bomb had been planted by ETA, a spokesman for the Basque regional government said. The bomb exploded at about 9 a.m. (0800 GMT), causing minor injuries to four people including two police officers and a taxi driver. All suffered only minor bruises or cuts, said a member of the emergency services. All flights from Terminal Four were suspended after the attack. Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said the government condemned the attack, which ends nine months without violence on the part of ETA, which breaks the permanent ceasefire. An end to ETA's ceasefire would be a major blow to Spain's Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who in June announced the start of a peace process to end the Basque conflict. "The first thing is condemnation. Naturally, in the government's name I want to emphatically condemn this attack. It is an attack that interrupts nine months without violent ETA acts. It is an attack that breaks the ceasefire that ETA announced almost nine months ago," Perez Rubalcaba told a news conference. Opposition Popular Party leader Mariano Rajoy added: "ETA is a criminal organisation, ETA does not want peace, ETA does not want freedom for Spaniards, ETA wants to impose its ideas by gunfire as it has done throughout the last thirty years. I think the Spanish people have accepted the blackmail, I think the Spanish society has faced the circumstances over these thirty years and I think what we should all do at this time is to show them our support, show our confidence, in the law and the rule of law." ETA has killed more than 800 people during its armed struggle. The group said in November that it would break off contacts with the authorities unless there was quick progress in separate talks among political parties in the Basque Country over the region's future.

ITN Source | December 30, 2006

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