Spain Explains ETA Reference After Madrid Attack

Spain Explains Reference To Eta In Security Council Resolution After Madrid Attacks

Spain's Ambassador to the United Nations has written to the Security Council explaining his Government's decision to blame the Basque separatist group ETA for last week's terrorist bombing in Madrid in a http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2004/sc8022.doc.htm resolution adopted shortly after the atrocity.

When the Council passed the measure on Thursday just hours after a series of explosions struck three train stations in Madrid, killing 200 people and injuring more than 1,400 others, "my Government was firmly convinced that the terrorist group ETA [Euskadi ta Askatasuna] was behind the terrible events of 11 March," Ambassador Inocencio F. Arias wrote in a letter yesterday to the President of the Council.

The Spanish Government came to that conclusion "because of the immediate background, because of information then available to it and because of the analysis of such information by the experts," Ambassador Arias added.

He noted that since then, "new elements have been discovered that suggest other lines of investigation and point to the involvement of citizens of other countries in the attacks."

The Spanish representatives also said that investigations are continuing and no definitive conclusions can be reached at the moment.

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