Spain Remembers Bombing Victims

Hundreds of people fell silent in a somber ceremony for victims of the Madrid train bombings on Saturday, the second anniversary of the carnage, with a lone cellist playing a song for peace at a memorial in the capital's Retiro Park while the prime minister and other dignitaries looked on.

At the El Pozo train station, the hardest hit in the March 11, 2004 attack, about 100 people bowed their heads in silence. Some held flowers in their hands. Many cried.

But unlike in last year's first anniversary, when the entire nation fell silent, most Spaniards carried on as usual Saturday. Cars and passers-by continued on their way along Paseo de la Castellana, the wide avenue that cuts through the capital.

Some 191 people were killed and more than 1,500 injured when Islamic terrorists set off 10 bombs in packed commuter trains in the capital. The attacks were claimed by al Qaeda, but a two-year investigation revealed that Osama bin Laden's group gave no logistical or financial support to the bombers, two senior intelligence officials told The Associated Press.

Following the five minutes of silence at the Forest of Remembrance, a young cellist played "Song of the Birds" by Pablo Casals. Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and others laid wreaths before a Spanish flag that fluttered at half-staff at the memorial park, a grove of olive and cypress trees set up in memory of the victims.

Earlier, a 70-member delegation from Morocco, the homeland of many of the suspected bombers, lit candles and bowed their heads at Atocha station, which was also hit hard in the massacre. A joint prayer by members of Spain's Christian, Jewish and Muslim faiths was taking place later in the day.

The Moroccan delegation, called the Caravan for Peace and Solidarity, set out from Morocco in buses on March 5, stopping in several Spanish cities before arriving at Atocha train station on a cold, blustery morning.

Members held a red Moroccan flag next to the red-and-yellow one of Spain as they stood in silence inside the station, one of four sites where 10 backpack bombs exploded exactly two years ago.

Many of the 24 suspects jailed in connection with the massacre are from Morocco, but some had lived in Spain for years.

"We want to express our solidarity and support for the Spanish people and show that the Moroccan people are a people of peace and against terrorism," said Mohamed Boujida, a delegation member. He noted that Morocco itself was hit by Islamic terrorists in May 2003 with suicide attacks that killed 45 people, including the bombers.

The delegation deposited a wreath of red and white roses and daisies inside the station and wrote messages of condolence on a large-screen computer terminal set up at a memorial site inside the building.

The ceremony was the first of several scheduled for a day in which the normally festive atmosphere of a weekend in Spain was replaced by heartbreaking memories of the morning of March 11, 2004.

The bombs, loaded with dynamite and shrapnel, turned crowded, rush-hour commuter trains into a maelstrom of bodies and body parts, twisted metal and wailing sirens.

Spain's version of Sept. 11 is etched so indelibly in Spaniards' minds that virtually everyone remembers where they were when they learned of the bombings, the frantic rescue efforts, the anguished search for missing loved ones.

The computer screen at Atocha station showed images of people crying that day, amid other pictures from a hellish morning.

"March 11 is a date I will never forget," said Javier Hervas, 35, who stopped by the terminal Saturday morning on his way to catch a train. "More than anything I remember the silence" that engulfed the city after the massacre.

Around the station, a few people lit candles and set them on the ground with flowers. But the outpouring was small compared to last year's display of grief, with only a handful of Spaniards in attendance.

Paqui Fernandez, a 40-year-old security guard on her way to work, stopped by the station to honor the victims, and said she was wasshocked by how few others had made the trip.

"In Spain, everything is forgotten right away. I simply could not believe there were so few candles, that there was no one here in comparison to the big outpouring last year. I put myself in the place of the victims and simply want to remember them, to honor their memory," she said.

As it did last year, the Association of Victims of March 11 was expected to mourn in silence. It sent no official representative to the ceremonies.

No one has been tried or even formally charged over the attack, but the judge leading the investigation said he expected to hand down the first indictments by April 10.

Unlike the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in America, which united Americans across political lines, at least temporarily, the Madrid bombings proved to be divisive.

In elections three days afterward, voters elected the opposition Socialists and unseated a pro-U.S. government that had sent 1,300 peacekeepers to Iraq. Many Spaniards blamed that administration for the attack, saying it had made this country a target for terrorists. The Socialists quickly brought the troops home.