Spanish P.M. under pressure to tell all

Press, 27 May 1981, Page 8

Spanish P.M. under pressure to tell all

NZPA-Reuter Madrid The Spanish Prime Minister (Mr Leopoldo Calvo Sotelo) came under increasing pressure yesterday from the Left-wing opposition and his own Centrist Party to give Parliament a full explanation of the week-end bank siege in Barcelona.

the 37-hour.'occupation of the Banco Central by a group of gunmen who ‘.grabbed about 200 hostages was finally brought to an end by Spains elite anti-guerrilla squad. They captured' nine gunmen, another was killed and none, of the., hostages was: seriously injured. The police have said that 10 gunmen were involved in the siege, not 11 as first believed.

But Spanish politicians, and in.particular the opposition Socialists and Communists, declared themselves totally unconvinced by the Government s statement that the bank raiders were anarchists and petty criminals. Earlier, while the siege was in progress, official sources had said the gunmen were suspected Rightists demanding the release of alleged leaders of February's

•attempted military coup in Spain. The Socialists and Communists. criticising contradictory information about the siege, demanded that Mr Calvo Sotelo tell Parliament today about the identity of the gunmen, their political links, weapons used and backers.

Mr Calvo Sotelo, whose Administration has been under constant pressure from political violence since it took office after the abortive February- coup, was yesterday weighing a decision on whether to address Parliament, informed sources said.

The parliamentary spokesman of the ruling Centrist Party. Miguel Herrero Rodriguez de Minon. said he was "in favour of the Government giving Parliament an explanation of the siege. Miguel Roca Junyent. parliamentary spokesmen of the Catalan Nationalist Party, also urged the Government to give full details about the people behind the siege, while the Justice Minister (Mr Francisco Fernandez Ordonez) told foreign correspondents there would be no cover-up.

In Madrid, the police said they had arrested six Rightwing extremists yesterday for questioning over the bank siege.

E.F.E.. the Government news agency, quoted sources close to the Cabinet as saying: "The first, details indicate an operation organised and financed by elements of the extreme Right.’’ There was no official comment on the report. The police offered no official accounting of the number of hostages finally freed, nor did they comment on the announcement by the Interior Minister (Mr Juan Jose Roson) on Monday that the captors were professional gunmen with criminal records — not Rightist members of the Civil Guard, the para-military national police, or the Army as police sources had said during the siege.

The liberal Madrid newspaper "Diario 16" said a dozen questions remained to be answered, including why the gunmen, at one time identified by Government officials as anarchists, would shout “Long Live Spain” several times after seizing the bank.