The ANNOTICO Report
Italian aid worker Clementina Cantoni has been kidnapped
in Afghanistan.
Clementina was to have returned to Italy at the end of
the month. She had
been working in Kabul, Afghanistan. for three years,
for the aid
organization Care International.
Afghans have staged protests in Kabul to condemn her kidnapping.
While the article states that Italy has had at least eight
of its citizens
kidnapped in Iraq, two of whom have been killed.(My totals
indicate nine
kidnapped, and three killed, plus Calipari).
Fabrizio Quattrocchi, when confronted with execution,
defied his captors by
shouting at them, "I will show you how an Italian dies".
Italian journalist Enzo Baldoni, was volunteering for
the Red Cross while
in Iraq, was taken hostage, and killed.
Salvatore Santoro, an Italian national from Naples, who
had long resided in
Britain was taken hostage and killed.
Simona Pari and Simona Torretta are members of Un Ponter
Per Baghdad
(Bridges to Baghdad) an independent Italian humanitarian
organization.
Simona Turretta has spent a third of her life for Iraq;
Simona Pari joined
her in 2003. As chief of Bridges¹ in-country operations,
Simona Turreta has
been supervising projects to rehabilitate Iraq¹s decrepit
water
infrastructure and to repair school buildings. Among
other things, Simona
Pari was organizing educational programs for Iraq's traumatized
children.
Both were eventually freed.
Umberto Cupertino, Maurizio Agliana and Salvatore Stefio,
security men
working for a private firm, were taken hostage, but were
freed by a
Military Operation.
Of course we are all familiar with the Giuliana Sgrena
kidnapping, and her
being freed, only to be seriously wounded, and her Negotiator
Maj.Gen.
Nicola Calipari being killed by American soldiers in
an American
communications "snafu".
Voice of America
By Sabina Castelfranco
Rome, Italy
17 May 2005
Italians are experiencing new feelings of fear and anguish
following the
kidnapping of a young aid worker in Afghanistan.
Some have begun to feel
Italian nationals are too exposed and their presence
in crisis areas should
be limited.
Italian aid worker Clementina Cantoni was to have returned
to Italy at the
end of the month. She had been working in Kabul
for three years, for the
aid organization Care International.
Her abduction has brought new anguish in Italy where many
have become
increasingly aware of just how difficult it is for aid
workers and
journalists to work in some areas of the world, namely
Iraq and Afghanistan.
Many Italians still vividly remember the nightmare that
ended with the
freeing in Iraq of journalist Giuliana Sgrena, but the
killing of an
intelligence officer who helped negotiate her release.
This time it is a
young aid worker who has been helping out Afghan widows
and their families.
Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini called the hostage's
family in Milan. He
said caution and especially discretion are needed and
promised that no
efforts will be spared.
A family friend spoke briefly to journalists outside the
hostage's Milan
home.
The family has nothing to say at the moment, he said,
asking journalists to
kindly leave because at the moment, the family does not
have the energy to
deal with the press.
The prefect of Milan, Bruno Ferrate, one of the city's
top officials, also
visited the family.
He said this is a beautiful Italian family, which is tried
by the events,
just as anyone would be. The prefect said the government
and institutions
are close to this family and he too asked it be left
alone.
The Secretary General of the World Muslim League, Abdullah
bin Abdelmohsen
al Turki, on a visit to Rome, condemned the kidnapping
and appealed for the
aid worker's release.
Italians in the streets are fearful of what could happen
to Clementina
Cantoni. Italy has had at least eight of its citizens
kidnapped in Iraq,
two of whom have been killed.
Rome has denied ever paying a ransom to obtain the release
of its hostages,
but analysts say the Italian government has negotiated
in every possible
way to free its nationals. They say that because
of this Italians have
been more at risk than others of being abducted.
PHOTO:An Afghan widow holds a photograph of Clementina
Cantoni to condemn
her kidnapping during a protest in Kabul