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A Report From The Italian Senate: The Political Undercurrents Of The Sgrena Affair
by Andrea Loquenzi
Originally posted to BNN 3/10/2005
At the conference held yesterday by the Italian Senate regarding the Sgrena Affair everyone was expecting Mr. Berlusconi to clarify the events better, particurarly to address the issue of the ransom.
But the Prime Minister did not mention it and confirmed the official Italian position that denies any payment ever made to the terrorists.
Fourteen senators spoke, six of them for ten minutes, one for fifeteen, and rest had 2 to 5 minutes.
When Berlusconi took the microphone, he quickly recalled the facts (the Italian version) and announced that a mixed commission between the two countries will be investigating the case soon, claiming this to be a sign of Italian diplomatic success.
Peter Vangjel (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4330405.stm) will be the American General to collaborate with Italian one in the investigation of Calipari’s death.
Berlusconi wants this operation to be “as fast as possible, two-three weeks long at the maximum”.
The Italian General chosen will be able to speak perfect English, will be experienced in the Iraqi territory and knowledgeble about the code that US soldiers must respect in a war zone. Plus there will be an Italian diplomat to coordinate with the two generals.
Berlusconi repeated that “there is no kind of link between the presence of Italian troops in Iraq and the abductions,” and that the “case of a friendly fire is the hardest one to digest”. He is also conviced that “there is not an organized movement to kidnap journalists in Iraq.”
The rest of the speakers covered a diverse political spectrum from extreme anti-war postions to neutral support for the Prime Minister’s policy.
Even if not officially discussed, the “ransom issue” was the main point the Italian government had to smooth over in order to agree with the American policy. Both Gianfranco Fini, the Foreign Affairs Minister and Berlusconi know this very well and agree about the necessity of find a solution to the problem, because “it is not admissible that the Italian government is still paying for the missiles that the Iraqi terrorists are buying in Dubai” as reported by Corriere della Sera, the Milan-based daily newspaper.
After a long week we were finally able to clarify better some aspects of the issue and we understood why the American version of the facts and the Italian one are so different.
Calipari’s death has been a horrible mistake and I am sure the guys from the third regiment who shot the Italian agent at the checkpoint are terribly sorry. A fighter does not like to kill allies. Moreover, it is not useful or practical to blame the troops who are daily facing a nightmare at those checkpoints and are not expected to be almighty.
Young soldiers should not be losing their lives in such a dangerous place, but this is a reality that we cannot change at the moment. And Bush knows that.
Rumors heard in the Senate were quite elucidating about the international scandal, it has been said that Mrs. Sgrena had been lingering for too long outside the Mosque on February 4 (and she admitted that).It was also stipulated that the task force sent to freed her made a mistake in the first place. It would have been better for the agents to bring the journalist to the Italian embassy in Baghdad and leave the country the next day.
WHY THE ITALIAN AND AMERICAN VERSION OF THE FACTS ARE DIFFERENT
The American political and diplomatic position
As with any diplomatic case, an explanation can be satisfying only once the internal political situation of the countries is studied and understood.
There are many elements to consider and all of them require a deep understanding of this aspect.
The American position takes place in the dangerous diplomatic environment of a military invasion of Iraq right after the Afghanistan campaign.
Anyone who denies any economic interests of the United States in operation “Iraqi Freedom” is not being objective or honest. It is undeniable at the same time that “you cannot export a democracy with a war” as one senator said and the elections “did not bring any effective democratic government to Iraq”. The war has ended, but the guerrilla fighting continues.
The United States (and certainly not only them) are interested in oil revenues in this country. Democracy is interesting too but trying to deny this fact is not admitable.The fact itself, in my opinion does not need to be judged as it’s a normal question of interests, always witnessed in any political system for millennia and frankly defended by every political group that ever existed.
I do not blame the American government for that and I would rather be represented by the United States than anyone else.
We know that at the time of the invasion (March 2003) not every country agreed to wage this war and the UN was unable to handle the situation.
This is the reason why an ally like Italy (to date we have lost 20 soldiers and a hero in Iraq), which has always been grateful to the American government since its liberation in 1945, can only be treated with a certain diplomatic respect.
Sgrena’s declaration about the fact that the US troops were trying to kill her surprised too many people.
If Americans were really trying to do so then “someone in the US army needs a lot of shooting training”, as heard in the Italian Senate yesterday. We know they were not trying to kill anyone and that was immediately clear. What seems to be disregarded is that Sgrena was held in captivity for a month and that is not an easily forgettable experience. No one gave this journalist the opportunity to take a breath and think about what happened.
She has been described in many ways but seldom as a tired and angry person who witnessed the death and extreme povertry of the Iraqi people. (take a look at the pictures she took there, http://www.libreriadelledonne.it/news/foto_sgrena.htm )
She always declared herself a lover of this country and witnessing what is happening there could have been shocking for anyone.
It is foolish for any American to think that their interests should be endorsed by everyone on this planet, and to claim the fact that a democratic republic must be installed in Iraq is purely ideological. Or else, why are they not trying to export the “democracy” to Chiapas?
How far is this country from the US? And why is democracy not important there at the same level?
Knowing what the American troops are facing in Iraq, it is not strange that they might kill some innocents and I do not think it is possible to avoid tragedies sometimes. It is the theory of the big numbers, if you put a hundred men with long knives in an small room it is likely that someone will be wounded at some point.
Knowing that the Italian agents made some mistakes in the first place, don’t you think that Bush and Rumsfeld have been kind enough toward our government? Ever wondered why? It is obvious that they are walking on a razor’s edge in Iraq and they cannot risk losing an ally.
Even for the most powerful country it is not easy to find an infinite numbers of soldiers to send to a war zone; allies are important and no one was born yesterday in the American government. Also, the fact that many soldiers are very young and inexeperienced is well-known, http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2003/iraq/forces/casualties/
The Italian political and diplomatic position
Mr. Berlusconi was forced by Italian and international public opinion to free Sgrena. Administrative elections are going to take place in Italy in April, therefore the government could not risk losing the majority or any possible vote, for the sake of its own stability. (Would you like your government to fail as a Prime Minister?)
This is also the reason why both Fini (Minister of Foreign Affairs) and Berlusconi repeated the concept of a “strong Italian diplomatic image” that came out of the incident when Bush immediately excused himself in a phone call and when the intergovernmental commission was set to begin, the same concept was reiterated.
Our Prime Minister found himself in a difficult situation; having to balance the United States’ requests to avoid paiyng ransom money and the pressure of the public opinion that wanted the “communist” Sgrena freed. Italian communism by the way is very different from the Russian, and is not a revolutionary movement but a part of the government like is counterparts in every Western democratic country. It has never intended, in other words, to start a “dictatorship of the masses”, based on the control of production, as in the Marxist-Leninist-Stalinist philosophical scheme in Russia. Rather, it has always been involved in the institutional democratic process, as an outgrowth of the resistance movement against the fascist dictatorship.
The Italian government, however, cannot officially admit to financing terrorist groups, as that would be explicitly against American interests. Our president does not want that to happen, both because he admires Bush and the United States in general and because giving money to the jihadist movement it is not the smartest thing to do and declare.
I am sure our president did not want to do it but had to.
On one hand it was not possible to leave the leftist journalist in captivity, on the other, it was not possible to admit the payment of the ransom for many reasons; it would be dangerous for any Italian who is working in Iraq who could be seen as a source of money by every kidnapper. That would be anyway, like going against the United States in the first place, not doable.
This case put the Italian government in a very difficult situation. It has been said that “our journalists need to be more cautious and aware about the territory [Iraqi] and to be in close collaboration with the troops and the checkpoints while doing their work in Iraq” and respectful of every suggestion from the military.This is to avoid any similar situation in the future.
My personal conclusion is that the Italian government wants to coordinate better with the necessity of not paying any other ransom, which is the understandable and logical American request. As I already explained it was not possible to clearly and officially blame the Sgrena for her “misbehavior” due to the pressure of the International Public Opinion that thinks the war itself it is not supportable. That is also understandable, is it shameful to be a pacifist?
Andrea Loquenzi blogs at Middle East News.
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