Mineo is a pleasant Italian town in the province of Catania in Sicily, located on some hills on the north-western slopes of the Iblei mountains. Above all, with its barely 5.000 inhabitants, it is… distressingly far from all inhabited centers that are not isolated villages: 13 km from Palagonia, 23 km from Caltagirone, 54 km from Gela, 57 km from Ragusa and 63 km well from its capolugo, Catania. Ben 35 are the miles away from the Naval Air Station of Sigonella: yet, at the end of the nineties our brilliant politicians had the good idea to lodge us the families of the American soldiers, whom we imagine enthusiastic to move into the middle of nowhere. We forgive the "minioli", but their beautiful village - where the Residence degli Aranci was built to welcome US guests - in the 2011 saw the stars and stripes move "to better beaches, towards more pleasant areas from the point of view landscaped and natural and less distant from the airport, as the press wrote at the time.
This "logistics" premise is important, because the choice of the mega structure as the site of a CARA (Reception Center for asylum seekers) arises only from the need to position it as far as possible from everything. In short, to take full advantage of a logically unhappy logistical situation. We invite the reader to keep this premise in mind when reading the interview with the Hon. Gianluca Rizzo, president of the Chamber Defense Commission.
Let's start from a premise: the 15 February 2011 the then Minister of the Interior, the Northern League's Roberto Maroni, during a press conference held in the Prefecture of Catania, announces the idea of the Government to host in Mineo (a village of 5172 inhabitants on the slopes of the Monti Iblei, in the province of Catania) all asylum seekers scattered throughout the national territory. CARA is in fact the acronym of Reception Center for Asylum Seekers. The chosen structure was the "Residence degli Aranci" of Mineo: 404 housing units owned by the "Pizzarotti Parma" which hosted a US military center until 2010 in December, the year in which the US Navy Department revoked the contract of location. Does the Residence degli Aranci always belong to Pizzarotti Parma, which we remember being one of the largest construction companies in Europe and with interests also in the so-called TAV Torino Linea project? Regardless of who it is, have you consulted with the owner of this establishment?
Notwithstanding that it is also the property's interest to make use of the former village, I must point out that it is not up to us parliamentarians to contact the owner of the structure. We put forward a proposal whose feasibility is the responsibility of the Government. Meanwhile, however, we have stirred the water, forced all to a public discussion on the destiny of that area and on the importance it can play for the revitalization of our territory. If there are other proposals, more binding and better than ours, they are welcome. The important thing is that we do the public interest. On the other hand, the same Pizzarotti-Parma, and we report it in the question, gave us the opportunity to unravel and break down the structure. If this happened without a reconversion or reuse it would be an impoverishment for the whole territory.
The chronicles tell us that about fifty MPNUMXS parliamentarians proposed to "transform the current CARA of Mineo into a training and training center for the armed forces, the police, the civil protection and the fire brigade both for the military cooperation for peacekeeping initiatives ". Did you do a feasibility study of this project, including its financial sustainability at all stages from implementation to operation? If yes, could you describe it to us? If not, could you explain how the project is technically feasible and financially sustainable?
As I have already said, ours is not a project, it is a proposal that we advance to the government and to public discussion. We made an argument that was not just localistic. The European Union has decided to implement Pesco, the Permanent Structured Cooperation in the field of defense and security. All EU countries have agreed to intensify the work of the Union in this area and indicating that, to achieve this goal, it is necessary to strengthen coordination and increase investment in defense and cooperation in the development of defense capabilities . Now Sicily is in the heart of the Mediterranean, a crossroads and leads to the peoples and nations of the southern hemisphere. It is an ideal location for a training and education structure both in the field of civil protection and in that of Peacebuilding. Only in the last two years have hundreds of thousands of hectares burned with dozens of deaths in two EU countries such as Portugal and Greece. Fires, earthquakes and other natural disasters also afflict entire areas. No country can be left alone to face them. If the EU makes sense then we must work for European civil protection. On the Peacebulding it is necessary to put to use the many international peace missions in which Italy participates together with the other allied countries.
According to reports, you expressed a desire to "exclude a purely militaristic label of the proposal". Could you please explain to our readers, many of whom work in the armed forces, what do you mean by the adjective "militarist", from a semantic and concrete point of view?
We simply do not want to build a military base, it seems to me that those are not lacking on our territory. We want to create both a civil and military training center in which the professionalism of the rescue, defense and security sector intersect and work together. Our Armed Forces are not militarist, in the sense that they do not aim at the enslavement of political life and social and cultural functions and relationships to a military power, but are inspired by the constitutional values of our democracy.
Still talking to colleagues in the press, I read that you wondered why we do not train small groups even in Italy. In this way, according to you, we would act "on two extremely delicate factors such as the security of our soldiers otherwise engaged in international missions abroad (Somalia, Mali, Central African Republic, Lebanon, Palestine, Iraq and Djibouti) even in hostile theaters and the economic saving". May I ask you who would pay the bill for some tens, perhaps hundreds, of members of the security forces or similar foreigners, coming from countries with serious economic difficulties because of conflicts?
The training of foreign personnel is usually "offered" by the country in question, receiving political benefits in exchange. The training of military, police and relief forces is one of the main tasks of the peacekeaping strategy, especially where it is necessary to rebuild fundamental institutions for the transition from war to peace. Having the possibility to train civil and military cadres in a specialized center far from the conflict zones makes it possible to increase the quality of the courses and to optimize costs. Obviously if this pole has a European caliber it will draw on additional funds and not only on that of the existing military missions.
What were the consequences of the sudden closure of the CARA for the economic fabric of Mineo and its surroundings? Unfortunately, this experience could not continue. Already the parliamentary investigation in the last legislature prefigured its overcoming. Mineo's Cara was based on an emergency and it was obvious that, sooner or later, it would end. These are many people and their families who no longer have an income and who need to be answered.
Can I ask you how the Five Star people reacted to your proposal? What answers those who criticized it?
All criticisms are legitimate if they are done with a constructive spirit. The arrogance is not part of my character and we listen to all the bells, especially those that can help. It is necessary to overcome the way of acting of those who, considering themselves prejudicially an enemy, issue judgments without having regard to the merits of the issues. A public discussion has opened on the fate of that area. It is a matter of using creativity and the capacity for innovation. This is the main merit of our proposal.
