Quotes of the Day
During a hostage crisis, the families of captives will do anything and everything they can to get their loved ones safely home. So in that sense it wasn't surprising last week when relatives of the three Italian security contractors being held by insurgents in Iraq followed their captors' instructions — and organized a march against the war. The families said the demonstration was simply "for peace" and not aimed at pressuring Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to withdraw Italy's nearly 3,000 troops from Iraq, as the insurgents had specifically demanded. But the net effect was the same, and so many Italians stayed home. "Participating is an error," says Enrico Boselli, an opposition leader with the Socialist party. "It can make the captors think that you are available to comply with their requests." Still, the unknown hostage-takers were apparently gratified by the sight of 5,000 people marching in Rome on Thursday. They released a statement on al-Jazeera Friday saying they were pleased with the march and would not harm the Italians. But they added a new condition for release: Italy must convince the Kurds to let go Iraqi prisoners.
This is a new twist in the tactics of terror — going over the heads of enemy governments to negotiate directly with the people — and it adds another dimension to the threat facing Italy and other members of the increasingly shaky U.S.-led coalition. The insurgents seem to be following the example of the March 11 Madrid bombers, and trying to unglue the Western alliance one member at a time. Despite Italy's laudable restraint, they managed to make it look as if people were rushing to meet their demands — images of the march beamed around the Middle East saw to that — and that doesn't bode well; it won't be long before another terrorist issues another ultimatum.
Italy has been riveted by the hostage drama since the first videotape, broadcast on April 13, showed four Italian men sitting on the floor with their heads bowed surrounded by heavily armed, shrouded captors. A second video, sent to al-Jazeera the next day but never aired, recorded an execution: one of the four hostages, Fabrizio Quattrocchi, shouted, "I'll show you how an Italian dies," just before he was shot through the neck. And the third tape, sent to the al-Arabiya network in Dubai and broadcast in Italy last Monday, preyed on the nation's hopes and fears in a cruel, subtle way. It showed the three survivors, Salvatore Stefio, Umberto Cupertino and Maurizio Agliana, perched on a couch in what looked like a living room. They had been dressed in clean white Arab clothes, appeared healthy and composed and had a spread of local cuisine before them. Stefio looked at the camera and said, "We haven't suffered any physical harm."
Since Madrid, al-Qaeda video- and audiotapes have become stunningly specific. Last month, Osama bin Laden released a tape offering a truce to European nations who pulled their troops out of Iraq. Now the Italian drama has put Berlusconi in a bind. The Prime Minster has repeatedly said that Italy won't give in to terrorist demands, and proudly emphasized Italy's alliance with the U.S. Despite his rhetoric, Berlusconi is starting to feel the pressure; now that Spain has pulled its troops from Iraq, Italy is the highest-profile coalition partner on the Continent.
With the home movie, however, came a chilling death threat — a written message that said the hostages would be killed within five days unless "the Italian people ... say no to the policy of your Prime Minister with a demonstration through the streets of your capital in a sign of protest against the war" in Iraq. It was an odd demand, in a way, since Italy had fulfilled it back in February of last year, when more than 1 million Italians marched against the war shortly before the U.S.-led invasion. While that march sprang from popular sentiment, Thursday's had more to do with terrorist blackmail.
Some of those in the Roman crowd last week were responding directly and unabashedly to the captors' demands. Piero Sanna, a 36-year-old factory worker, had come in a caravan of 10 buses from Sammichele di Bari, the small southern hometown of hostage Umberto Cupertino. Sanna was in Rome to do "whatever
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Most Italian political leaders did not attend the rally. But several prominent antiwar politicians, including left Democrat Senate leader Gavino Angius and Green Party lower-house whip Paolo Cento did join the march — though they claimed they were appearing as private citizens, not as politicians, in an effort to avoid being seen as appeasers. Protesters carried rainbow pace banners and shouted slogans calling for the immediate return of Italian troops. One sign referring to Iraqi civilians read: 22 million hostages. italy out of iraq.
Italy's position on the front line of the hostage crisis is the latest consequence of what the former Italian ambassador to nato, Sergio Romano, calls Europe's "outburst of unilateralism," the same go-it-alone spirit that recently poisoned debate over the new E.U. constitution. "Italy alone can't make the Americans change their line," says Romano, now an editorial writer for the Milan daily Corriere Della Sera. "Only a united European stance can have weight. But every country has behaved all along as if a united Europe is impossible." Thus while war is raging in the Middle East, E.U. governments remain as divided as ever over the proper response.
The new Spanish Prime Minister, José Luís Rodriguez Zapatero, was recently accused of unilateralism himself. Zapatero announced on Sunday, April 18, that he would immediately begin to pull his troops from Iraq — two months before his deadline, and before the U.S. and U.N. could begin to meet the conditions he'd set for troops to stay. He has strong domestic support for his decision — 67% back the move — but opposition Popular Party deputy Gustavo de Arístegui says there might be a long-term price to pay: "He didn't give the U.N. the slightest chance or take the pulse in the Security Council. Spain will lose its image as a reliable ally." Diego López Garrido, the Socialist Party's parliamentary leader, argues that the reverse is true: "Spain has recovered enormous credibility in Europe. We have demonstrated that when the Socialist government says it will do something, it abides by its pledge."
The coalition is showing more small cracks: Nicaragua, which rotated troops out of Iraq in February, now says it may not send them back; Kazakhstan has issued conflicting statements; the Dominican Republic and Honduras are out; and El Salvador, Norway and the Netherlands have yet to decide on redeployment after June 30. Feet are also getting colder in Poland, America's other big Continental ally, with 2,400 troops in Iraq. Defense Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski said the number of soldiers slated for deployment in 2005 will be "considerably smaller." "Parliamentary elections are planned in Iraq in January of 2005," he said. "We'll want to reduce our presence in a significant way after these elections." In a CBOS poll published in the national daily Gazeta Wyborcza, 66% said they did not support the participation of Polish soldiers in operations in Iraq, up from 52% in January; 29% did support Polish action, down from 42%.
Public opinion in Italy is also growing more pessimistic. A poll for Rome daily La Repubblica last week found that just 37% thought the war was helping democracy, down from 60% last year. Nearly 60% said they expect armed conflict to last at least another year.
The center-left opposition does not want to be perceived as using the hostage crisis for political gain, but Berlusconi is showing plenty of vulnerability on other fronts: the economy is stagnant, his coalition is divided, his trial for allegedly bribing judges has restarted, and he's left key campaign promises on tax cuts and judicial reform unfulfilled. A government crisis could follow if Berlusconi's coalition is roundly defeated in European and regional elections in June.
Still, Berlusconi has something to crow about this week: Wednesday marks his 1,059th day in office, making his administration the longest uninterrupted government in the famously unstable political history of postwar Italy. Part of the credit must go to the opposition, which has managed to dilute its effectiveness through constant bickering and power struggles. The debate over Iraq is no exception. Though the two largest opposition parties have both threatened to call for a troop pullout, they are deeply split over whether to first give the U.N. plan a chance. Meanwhile, the parties further to the left have insisted on calling home the contingent right away.
For now, Berlusconi shows no signs of wobbling on Iraq, though a U.S. official in Rome says the hostage situation raises the stakes. "It's an extremely difficult situation," the official says. "But we haven't seen any cracks." Still, Berlusconi made a point last week of saying Italy's partnership with the U.S. doesn't come for free. "We are not America's servants," he said, "but we are grateful that [the U.S.] saved us from communism and fascism and dictatorship."
But the Prime Minister appears particularly unsettled by the hostage crisis. He has twice intimated that a release could be imminent, only to have hopes dashed. While he tries to navigate this national drama, one of his allies — former Italian Foreign Minister Gianni De Michelis, a supporter of last year's invasion — says it's time for Washington to meet a demand of its partners: a new U.N. resolution that compromises on the makeup of the incoming Iraqi government. "With June 30, we are at a moment of truth," De Michelis says. "The question is whether the American Administration is ready to accept the idea that the main precondition to its world leadership is the organization of a broad coalition. If not, it's unilateralism — and the main winner will be bin Laden."
- JEFF ISRAELY | Rome
- Hostage-takers try to blackmail Italy into getting out of Iraq