Update [2005-3-5 8:42:54 by Jerome a Paris]:Her companion and father say "US forces wanted her dead."See in comments below and
Gilgamesh's diary with more information
SneakySnu is doing a great job in the comments below to translate (almost live!) the most recent info from Italy (from La Repubblica, which has a live thread). Thank you so much, SneakySnu.
Sgrena is the Italian journalist working for il Manifesto, the left-wing daily, who was kidnapped a month ago in Baghdad and was liberated yesterday afternoon. She is now safely in Rome, after yesterday's "incident", when US forces shot at her car, on the way to the airport, injuring her at the shoulder, killing an Italian agent and gravely injuring another one.
Nicola Calipari is the name of the dead Italian, he was the head of the Italian Secret Services in Baghdad. He led the negotiations to liberate her, and he shielded her with his life when they were shot at. He was married with two children.
See below for European comments and reactions.
A few facts:
- she is now safely in a hospital in Rome; she was able to walk herself out of the plane that took her back. The bullet that wen through her shoulder is apparently also the one that killed Calipari.
- there is still confusion over what happened, as the two conflicting versions put forward by the US military and by the Italians show:
When the driver didn't stop, the soldiers shot into the engine block, which stopped the vehicle, killing one and wounding two others," the 3rd Infantry Division said in a statement.
Another military statement said the car had been travelling in Baghdad "at a high rate of speed" as it approached a checkpoint and that another passenger was killed.
Berlusconi, who called on US ambassador Mel Sembler to explain the shooting, said 50-year-old secret service officer Nicola Calipari died trying to protect Sgrena from bullets fired by the US soldiers at a checkpoint near Baghdad airport.
"Several shots hit the car," said Berlusconi. "One man was mortally wounded by a bullet. We are petrified and dumbfounded by this fatality.
- the Italians say that the US military were informed of the transfer, and the fact that the shooting took place only 700m from the airport, after several other roadblocks were passed, proves it (see item at 13:11).
- she confirms that she was treated correctly by her captors in Irak
- the Italians - her family, her colleagues, the government, were together celebrating the news of her liberation when they learnt of the shoot out and the news of her injury and the death of Nicola Calipari.
When that second phone call arrived in a palace with high ceilings and wide spaces - so different from our daily working place -, we were there. And we will never be able to forget the pain of the colleagues of Nicola Calipari, how Gianni Letta was upset, even how the Prime Minister - whom we saw there and then for the first time - could not believe the news. We will never be able to forget the hectic calls, the chaos, the feeling of being lost by a place of power dealing with a power absolute and uncontrollable, the power of was, of who makes it and directs it. «Nicola died, Giuliana is wounded»: a bit crying, a bit asking for more details of the wound of Giuliana, knowing she was there, with the American guns pointing at her, bleeding who knows how, asking she would be brought immediately to the hospital. Then we heard the wound was not serious, only superficial on the shoulder, because the bullet which could have killed her had first gone through the body of Nicola Calipari. Who saved her. For the second time.
In those chaotic minutes, made of callls among ministries, generals, ambassadors - calls which all seemed pointless -- we witnessed impotence going on stage, the performance of war killing politics, chalking democracy.
- the family of Sgrena, while happy to see her again, are horrified at the fate of Calipari and have had some extremely harsh words for Berlusconi:
La famille de Giuliana Sgrena a fait part de sa douleur après la mort de l'agent Nicola Calipari, marié et père de deux enfants. "C'est grâce à son geste héroïque que Giuliana a eu la vie sauve. Sa mort nous plonge dans le désespoir", a déclaré Franco Sgrena, le père de la journaliste.
"Cette tragédie gâche ma joie", a renchéri Pier Scolari, le compagnon de la journaliste, avant de prendre un avion pour Bagdad pour aller la chercher. "Cette guerre est une folie, la voilà votre guerre, nos troupes doivent partir de là-bas", a hurlé M. Scolari au chef de gouvernement Silvio Berlusconi.
The familiy of Giuliana Sgrena informs of her pain following the death of agent Nicola Calipary, married and father of two. "It is thanks to his heroic gesture that she is alive. His death plunges us into despair", said Franco Sgrena, her father. "This tragedy kills my joy", said Pier Scolari, Sgrena's partner. "This war is a folly. There's your war, our troops must leave from there", he shouted to Berlusconi.
Many commentators in Italy worry that the tensions between left and right on this are going to rip the country apart
BBC World New summary
In Turin's La Stampa, Lucia Annunziata also senses the episode may place considerable strain on the "carefully woven" relationship between Italy and the US.
"If Washington has any skilled diplomats between Rome and Iraq," she says, "it would be well advised to activate them at once."
And the political repercussions within Italy, for government and opposition alike, are likely to be just as serious, she says.
"The government is paying a high price for this tragic conclusion: it has lost one of its men and is on a collision course with its own allies," warns Ms Annunziata, former chairwoman of the state broadcaster Rai.
"But the Left, too, is in danger of reacting by falling back on phobias rather than theories."
Overall, I expect the reaction in Europe to be the following:
- happiness that she is back home and alive
- sadness for the brave Italian agent
- viz. the US, nothing much will change. We are not expecting better anymore from Americans nowadays, so why waste breath about it?
I'll use the word of her paper to conclude
il Manifesto:
We are happy for the liberation of Giuliana Sgrena, we are waiting to hig her here in via Tomacelli and we are above all dramatically hurt for the killing of Nicola Calipari, who has been the maker of Giuliana's freedom. It would be bureaucratic and a limit to write that Nicola Calipari was serving the state. Nicola was a good person, loyal and generous.
I met Nicola Calipari only during Giuliana's kidnapping, when a young old friend, Guido Ruotolo, gave me his name. Then Nicola himself got in touch more intensly with Gabriele Polo, but I will never be able to forget his discretion, his kindness, even while he was smoking a cigarette or referring a conversation, a contact. Discreet, respectful of his superior (who though of him greatly), but always careful to say what was useful to solve the problem, I never heard him saying something to show off, to earn the consensus of his superiors. He was careful to the service, but also - and I understood this recently, meeting him - to the result, which coincided with his morality.
And he expressed this deep morality, that is respect for himself and not only for others, through his modesty, through his ability to never speak over the lines, through the smile which often appeared on his lips. He was a person that inspired the maximum trust even to myself - consumed in so many experiences -: if Nicola told me something, I believed him, I had no doubts nor suspects; Nicola would not say something to hide something else. And all of this was shown - to a careful eye - on his face, on his smile, even on his mustache. And the eyes, which were full of words and discreet. When at the check-point, before the Baghdad airport, from and American car (yes, American, Usa), the first shots were fired against the car which was bringing Giuliana towards the airplane which would have brought her back to Italy, Nicola reacted humanly, immediately, for a reflex unwritten in the rules of his service, he shielded Giuliana's body, and he was killed. Last night Giuliana was in the hospital because she was wounded in her shoulder, but she will come out of the hospital and will come back here to Rome, in Via Tomacelli. The joy for Giuliana is big, but even bigger is our pain, of all of us of il manifesto, for the death of Nicola Calipari. He was not wounded in service, but because he has been extremely generous, which we of il manifesto cannot forget. To his two children and his wife a big hug from all, really all of us
Please also have a thought for Florence Aubenas, the French journalist still held captive in Iraq.