Europe mourns its dead after Madrid attacks

Date: 25/03/04

“MISTER Aznar, I hold you responsible for the death of my son,” the father of one of the 190 identified victims killed in the Madrid bombing hollered at outgoing Spanish premier José María Aznar yesterday (24 March).

It was the most tense moment at a memorial mass in the city's Almudena Cathedral, where relatives of the dead openly condemned their government's pro-US policies for leaving them vulnerable to terrorist attack.

Leaders of most European countries attended the ceremony. They included Britain's Tony Blair (along with his wife Cherie), Germany's Gerhard Schröder, Estonia's Arnold Rüütel and Switzerland's Joseph Deiss.

Madrid Archbishop António María Rouco Varela used his sermon to urge his compatriots to reject “all forms of nationalism, racism and intolerance”.