FROM HEAVEN TO EARTH
I WROTE ON 10TH AUGUST 2010:
MY ANGER. MY THIRST FOR JUSTICE.
I'VE SAID AND REPEATED IT, THE ANTICHRIST IS REPRESENTED BY THE SELLERS OF DEATH, SPECULATORS OF HUMAN LIFE.
POOR ITALY, IT ALSO ENDED IN THE INFERNAL CIRCLE OF THE COUNTRIES SELLING DEATH.
BUT MY ANGER BECOMES EXTREME WHEN I SEE A CATHOLIC CHURCH, VATICAN AND ITS PRINCES THAT FOR FEAR, HYPOCRISY AND COMPLICITY DO NOT SAY ANYTHING TO THE MERCHANTS OF DEATH.
WOE! WOE TO YOU PHARISEES, HYPOCRITES! SAID THE YOUNG NAZARENE SON OF GOD.
WOE, WOE TO YOU BROOD OF VIPERS, PRINCES OF THE CHURCH, I SAY. A VOICE CALLING IN THE DESERT.
TO YOU SELLERS OF DEATH I REPEAT: BE CAREFUL!
GOD WATCHES OVER AND MEASURES, DAY BY DAY, HOUR BY HOUR THE TIME OF HIS HOLY JUSTICE.
GIORGIO BONGIOVANNI
Sant?Elpidio a Mare (Italy)
10th August 2010
THE PROHIBITED BOMBS THAT ITALY WILL CONTINUE TO SELL
The UN Convention starts, but the government of B. does not sign
by Maurizio Chierici
On 10th August the UN convention ties the hands of every country in the world. It is prohibited the manufacture, export and storage in the more or less secret warehouses, of cluster bombs, cluster munitions. They sputter as the others but that's not all: they disperse 150, 170 fragments that are not ordinary splinters, but deadly traps, coloured to intrigue those who rummage through the rubble or find them in the grass fields. Barely touched they burst "more effective than landmines." Every year they change the life of thousands of children: some die and some remain different forever. Gino Strada and his Emergency are the witnesses of the disaster in Afghanistan: artificial legs parachuting into dangerous areas float in the air like plastic ghosts.
The document signed by 30 countries
TO MAKE obligatory the International Convention given by the UN secretary Ban Ki-moon, it was necessary to put together at least 30 governments. The last to sign "for a sense of civilization" were Burkina Faso and Moldavia. Italy forgot. As always, Russia, United States, China, Pakistan and Israel look with the distrust of those who can not stand the fanatic moralism of pacifists even if Obama is committed to a moratorium which prevents the deregulation of the warrior Bush. It prohibits the export of non-conventional weapons (in addition to cluster, white phosphorous missiles, napalm, etc.) with the order to destroy before 2018 the 800 million cluster bombs stockpiled in the arsenals of the United States. How come that Italy doesn't sign it? Two years ago, two ministers of ours in Oslo had supported the initiative. "We are at the top of hundred countries to demand a more humane war?, moral that makes you smile because there is nothing human in wars, but it looked like a first breath of good will. Yet they have forgotten it.
There are many explanations. Political turmoils that drown the memory or the convenience not to undermine the weapons' industry that continues flying. In 2008 (latest figures available) the value of the permits issued by the government to sell to other countries tanks, helicopters, bombs of any kind, missiles and sophisticated tools of attack, had a 35% growth: 5.7 billions of Euros. Trend confirmed in 2009. In a while we'll know the quantity of extra business. Turkey that crushes the Kurds is a golden customer: a billion and 93 millions. Then France and many countries including Libya, Venezuela of Chavez, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Kuwait, Nigeria. The companies authorized by our Ministry of Defense are 300. Three are the privileged banks in the intermediation: Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, Deutsche Bank and Soci?t? Generale. At the bottom of the rank there are Banca Intesa and Unicredit. Millions of commissions through the steps. Apart the black list of countries to which it is prohibited to sell directly, the ambiguous game of triangulations works since Israel bought in Europe and exported in South Africa where there was an embargo designed to deflate state racism. If Italy or other countries are present to rescue the desperation of the people, weapons slip without arousing censorships.
If they were still produced in the Lazio region?
ITALIAN ARMS in Libya (Amnesty and Human Rights Watch) where who claims freedom of expression, association and thought can be sentenced to death. Not to mention the inhumane welcome to the refugees fleeing dictatorship of Sudan and Eritrea. We sell to Thailand, where the red shirts of the former president and the army of President fight upsetting cities and countryside. Which of the two factions do we sell to? Not to mention Saudi Arabia, UAE, Oman where women remain clandestine shadows. Human Rights makes known our national deposits of cluster bombs: "Italy continues to hide the figure." Among the companies that produced the clusters and do not clarify if they are going to go on and how many bombs are still piled up in their warehouses, there is Simmel Difesa of Colleferro. It sells to La Russa munitions for armoured vehicles in Afghanistan. Years ago, while the public opinion was agitated in front of the torment of women and children burned by the American white phosphorus in Fallujah or the Israeli one in Gaza, the cluster bombs in Afghanistan shocked televisions and newspapers and Simmel banned its catalogue online: the prohibited munitions disappeared. But an investigation by RAI News 24 and information by the NGOs that protect human rights filled the emptiness: the production went on. If they were real, it would be a thrill of horror. Since around the world there are 100 million cluster bombs unexploded. Selling is good for business, but what kind of future are we imagining? The silence continues, Italy does not sign.
The responsibility can not be exhausted in the ambiguity of politics or in the golden affairs of Dr. Strangelove of heavy industry: where are the unions? In 1984 in a debate with Luciano Lama, someone suggested to take OTO Melara's workers to a trip in the Beirut freshly ground by Sharon's cannons. Yesterday as today the unions CGIL-CISL-UIL avoid to connect the "work that makes free" to the freedom of distant peoples burned by that work. Lama was angry: " We'll convert tanks in locomotives, give us time." Time passed and at Simmel of Colleferro nobody protested. In the days of lost jobs, a safe place is worth some distraction
IL FATTO QUOTIDIANO 6th AUGUST 2010
