SPAIN: Spaniards protest at ETA bomb at Madrid airport

People gathered at town halls across Spain on Sunday (December 31) to condemn Saturday's (December 30) ETA bomb attack at a car park in Madrid's international airport. In Madrid, hundreds of people protested carrying Spanish flags and chanting for Zapatero to resign. Members of the 'Association of Victims of Terrorism', accused Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, leader of the ruling Socialist party, of being an accomplice of the Basque separatist organisation, ETA. Ignacio Estarloa, member of the opposition popular party condemned the attack. "We wish to express our deep felt condemnation of yesterday's attack which has probably caused the loss of two human lives and immense pain in many families in these special days of the year. Along with the condemnation, we want to transmit our personal and political solidarity to each and every person who suffered yesterday with the brutal attack, the brutal explosion, caused by the ETA terrorist organisation," he said. The Spanish government suspended planned dialogue with ETA after the attack, but the banned political party linked to the separatist guerrillas said talks for a peaceful solution to the conflict would carry on. Rescue workers used heavy machinery to search for two men, both Ecuadorean immigrants, believed to be buried under tonnes of concrete brought down by the car bomb which wrecked a multi-storey car park at the ultra-modern Terminal Four at 9 a.m. (0800 GMT) on Saturday. If their deaths are confirmed, the airport blast will have been the first ETA attack to claim a life for more than three years. In June, Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero declared the start of a peace process with the organisation, which has killed more than 800 people in its fight for independence of the northern region of Spain.

ITN Source | January 1, 2007

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