Case marò: the coherence between thought, word and action?

15/05/14

Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini is in Washington, where she met US Secretary of State John Kerry.

The foreign ministry holder, before leaving for the USA, announced that she wanted to tackle important issues, first of all the latest developments on Ukraine agreed at the 12 May Brussels summit attended by those responsible for the diplomacy of 28 member countries of the 'Union and to have intention, during the meeting, to "certainly" raise the issue of the Italian marines accused of the death of two fishermen in India, "also to evaluate together the scenarios opened by the Indian elections, and to update Kerry on the new ones steps that Italy is making on the road to internationalization of the affair ".

Then, directly from Washington, Mogherini is back on the subject informing that Italy will ask the United States for support in the crisis affecting the two navy riflemen, Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone, detained in India.

An official communication provided to the media upon arrival in Washington DC. "It will be a theme that I will raise to evaluate together the scenarios that the Indian elections open and also to update Kerry, with whom we spoke about the marines during President Barack Obama's visit to Rome".

On this occasion, Mogherini also specified that Italy is preparing the ground for international arbitration and avoiding a trial in India and added: "I will update it by asking for their support also because the fundamental theme is the recognition of functional immunity".

The meeting took place. At the end of the work, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs held a press conference whose video is published on Youtube at the link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dE4eGnu22J0but, given the possibility of any error in the interpretation of his words, it does not appear that he spoke with Kerry about the two marines.

An information omission or rather a choice of the minister bound by the applicant confidentiality that is increasingly imposed on the matter or, rather, an omitted communication of the media present?

At the moment it is not known because, as usual, especially in the last two governments, the brief and sporadic flashes on the story of the two marines are immediately obscured by an impenetrable curtain from which nothing permeates, borrowing the "Secret Diplomacy" approach of Boniniana memory, of which Mogherini seems to have fallen in love too and has chosen the path of confidential contacts not to "disclose".

A silence perhaps suggested by those who seem to be hypothesizing confidential contacts with Modi, the winner of the Indian elections, preferring the "off record" line which, in any case, would guarantee those responsible for being able to affirm in the event of failure: "I was not there , if I was there I didn't see ".

Choice, however, not consistent with the much-flown intention to internalize the affair and with the desire to guarantee our military the right to functional immunity.

Many doubts, few certainties, many hypotheses. Not least that the road opened on March 22, 2013 by the Monti government with the return of the two navy riflemen to the undue judgment of India, continues to be traveled under the pressure of interests that cannot be better defined by the economic lobbies that continue to keep the "Pandora's box" of the whole affair.

Surely as the facts show, we prefer not to "disturb" even to the detriment of the fate of two men, two Italian citizens who are denied any national protection.

Fernando Termentini