From: "FRANCO BARCHIESI" <029FRB-AT-cosmos.wits.ac.za>
Date:          Thu, 19 Jun 1997 09:59:10 GMT + 2:00
Subject:       Italian atrocities in Mozambique


Dear all,

What follows is a translated article from "Il manifesto", a Rome-
based newspaper. It is a telling story of the racist drift that is 
currently being institutionalised in leading institutions of the 
Italian state. It is a path started with the mass murder of 103 
harmless Albanian refugees (mostly women and children) by an Italian 
navy ship in March. Last week's "Mail & Guardian" reported stories of 
tortures inflicted by Italian soldiers to Somali civilians in their 
"humanitarian mission" in Somalia, mentioning the existence of 
pictures depicting Italian soldiers applying electrodes to the 
genitals of Somali prisoners, and of Italian military staff greeting 
each other with the fascist salute. 
IN CASE ANYONE READING THIS MESSAGE HAS ANY CHANCE TO FIND THE 
REPORT BY GRACA MACHEL QUOTED IN THE TEXT, PLEASE LET ME KNOW.

------- Forwarded Message Follows -------

Date: Wed, 18 Jun 1997 01:38:50 +0200
To: 029frb-AT-cosmos.wits.ac.za
From: cyber.joker-AT-ecn.org (Cyber Joker)
Subject: 
X-PMFLAGS: 34078720


07 June 1997

MOZAMBIQUE

UN exposes: "The Italians' brothels"

TOMMASO DI FRANCESCO - 

"Italian soldiers in the UN mission in Mozambique have recruited 12 
to 18 year-old girls as prostitutes and their officers in command 
have quite often closed their eyes in front of their subordinates' 
crimes of sexual violence". This is the incipit of a 28-pages report 
submitted to the UN in December 1996 -a bit longer than 5 months ago- 
by Graca Machel, former wife of Mozambican leader Samora Machel 
(killed in a blast in October 1986) and current Nelson Mandela's 
partner. The report - which has been widely publicised already by "Il 
manifesto" on 5 January by an article of our writer Patricia Lombroso 
from the UN headquarters- originally came from an NGO, "Redd Barna" 
(Norwegian Save the Children). It has been soon adopted by the UN, 
given ther authoritativeness of the source and the immediate 
confirmation of its findings from international sources- now accuses 
the Italian UN troops, sent in mission to Mozambique from 1993 to 
1994.

The inquiry, which utilizes many interviews to young people directly 
involved in episodes of sexual violence by Italian soldiers, exposes 
the recruitment and the encadrement for prostitution of local girls 12-
 to 18- year old, and it underlines that the 3.600-strong Italian 
contingent of the Albatros Batallion, soon after their arrival in the 
Manica and Sofala areas, started a real trade of children recruited 
in schools and involved in pornography-related activities, with the 
circulation of tapes and pictures in the batallion's ranks. According 
to the report it was even established an "under-age sorting bureau" 
with an officer in charge of mediation between the demands of 
the troops and "the girls", who "were not older than 12" and who were 
the favoured because considered by the soldiers "the safest to avoid 
Aids". Real brothels were established on a 400-kms. area around 
Chimoio, where the soldiers were based and "fees were from one dollar 
for intercourses with condom to 20 dollars without".

The UN report continues: "The encadrement of the child-prostitution 
by soldiers and officers of the Albatros Batallion had created a 
series of "local protectorates" to satisfy the sexual demands of the 
Italian "blue helmets" in their peacekeeping mission; this involved 
the establishment of private clubs the rental of places where 
meetings took place. Tete, Beira and Inhambane police often rushed 
into bars, where it arrested the girls, who were then given 
cobinations of alcohol and psychoactive drugs (...)". Interviews with 
prostituted children then report a practice of public sale where "we 
were chosen, naked, by the soldiers" while the scene was always 
diligently filmed by a UN officer.

The report on Italian UN troops also reveals that already 
during February 1994 - a year after the Italian mission began - the 
scandal had assumed such wide dimensions that neither the Maputo 
government, nor the international NGOs active in the country, could 
ignore it any longer.

Therefore African and Mozambican media published the first public 
allegations against international organizations and especially the 
UN; this was then also circulated by "France Press", "Reuters" and 
media in tens of countries. Only in Italy this did not arise any 
echo, not even on the press. Not only, as the report specifies: "The 
Italian government, its ambassador in Mozambique, General Fontana 
(commander of the Italian troops and responsible for the military 
region) replied to the commission of inquiry that those allegations 
were false, derogatory, and attributable to bigotry of the 
Norwegians. The official spokespersons of the Italian government 
(among which the then Minister of defence Cesare Previti) replied 
with threats and intimidations towards the commissioners of the 
inquiry who were investigating on Mozambique on direct evidence and 
testimonies".

So far, the content of the report the UN adopted, and about which it 
would be interesting to know the opinion of the current Italian 
cabinet - it looks like the Rome General Attorney has started an 
inquiry, about which not much is known so far. The UN report 
was closed by a quote from South African Archbishop Tutu: "We want a 
society where the human being is more important than material 
possession, a society where children are an invaluable good and where 
solidarity and reciprocal respect may reign"

And the Albatros Batallion? The 3.500 men were repatriated without 
any publicity in April 1994, with no reports on the Italian media - 
the cabinet then in charge explained the decision with budgetary 
constraints for the Italian peacekeeping operation. By the way: do 
you want to know who was the Italian ambassador in Mozambique then? 
Manfredo Incisa di Camerana. Yes, that's the man: the "democratic" 
alternative in Albania to the shameful monstruosities of the now 
resigning ambassador Foresti [ambassador Foresti resigned after a 
tape from a telephone conversation proved his support to the 
politics of repression and of manipulation of the electoral process 
by the Albanian dictator Sali Berisha, FB].
ARTICLE ENDS
Franco's note: events reported in this article took place when Italy 
was ruled by a right-wing coalition cabinet whose main parties were 
Silvio Berlusconi's "Forza Italia", the facist National Alliance and 
the racist-separatist "Northern League". However, the current "centre-
left" cabinet led by the Party of the Democratic Left has shown no 
interest so far to clarify the allegations reported by the UN or the 
recent reports of racist atrocities in Somalia, and Italian judiciary 
has not ascertained any responsibility. The centre-left cabinet was 
in charge when a ship of the Italian navy killed 103 Albanian 
refugees who were trying to cross the Otranto Channel. No 
responsible was found for that episode as well. The UN continues to 
expose the brutal and inhumane treatment of Albania refugees on the 
Italian shores.

This service was offered to you by:
------ ECN Bologna ------------
European Counter Network
http://www.ecn.org/bologna
--------------------------------------------------------------------

Franco Barchiesi
Sociology of Work Unit
Dept of Sociology
University of the Witwatersrand
Private Bag 3
PO Wits 2050
Johannesburg
South Africa
Tel. (++27 11) 716.3290
Fax  (++27 11) 716.3781
E-Mail 029frb-AT-cosmos.wits.ac.za
http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/~spoons/aut_html
http://pluto.mscc.huji.ac.il/~mshalev/direct.htm

Home:
98 6th Avenue
Melville 2092
Johannesburg
South Africa
Tel. (++27 11) 482.5011


     --- from list aut-op-sy-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---