SPAIN REGRETS GETTING UN TO BLAME ETA FOR MADRID BOMBING

SPAIN expressed regret yesterday for persuading the U.N. Security Council to blame the Basque separatist group ETA for the deadly train bombings in Madrid last month. Despite misgivings, the 15-member council adopted a resolution just hours after the attacks on March 11 that named ETA as the perpetrator of the attacks that killed 191 people on four Madrid commuter trains. In a letter to the Security Council, Spanish Ambassador Inocencio Arias said information available at the time led police authorities to come to a conclusion “not borne out by the facts that emerged later.” “On that basis Spain submitted a petition to the Security Council, which was formulated in the hours immediately following the attack and which I now regret,” Arias wrote. He said the attacks were committed by “radical Islamic elements” and that Spain would keep the council posted on its investigations.
The Security Council, in past actions condemning terrorist onslaughts, refrained from naming any particular group, including a resolution adopted 24 hours after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks against the United States. But in this instance, the pressure from Spain, a council member, was intense. German Ambassador Gunter Pleuger, this month's Security Council president, whose delegation was among those who questioned the wisdom of naming ETA, said no further action would be taken.