MOGADISHU, July 21 1999
 

   The parents of a Somali gunman acquitted by an Italian court of the charge of murder on Wednesday expressed delight at the verdict.

The court acquitted Hashi Omar Hassan on Tuesday after finding him not guilty of killing Italian television journalists Ilaria Alpi and Miran Hrovatin in Mogadishu in 1994.

He was arrested when he arrived in Rome in January last year to demand that he be compensated for injuries inflicted on him by Italian members of a UN peacekeeping force in deployed in Somalia at that time.

"Now I have full confidence in the adequacy of the Italian justice system. I thought the Italian judges would be guided by national bigotry. Our son proved his innocence," Hashi Omar's father, Omar Hassan Foodbal, told AFP.

Hashi Omar will, however, remain in an Italian jail to be tried for rape. He allegedly raped a Somali woman in north Mogadishu 1996.

His mother Madina Mohamed Sandeere had before the acquittal expressed fears that she might never see her son again. "Nobody is defending my son. If you do not have a government no one will respect your rights," she said.

But on Wednesday she described her son's lawyers as brave and clever people committed to defending innocent people.

Hashi Omar went to Italy along with 11 other Somalis to testify in an Italian commission probing allegations that Italian troops committed atrocities against Somalis in 1993 and 1994.

The commission, headed by former constitutional court president Ettore Gallo, concluded that Italian soldiers mistreated Somalis, including Hashi Omar. 

MOGADISHU, Jan 19, 1999
 

   The parents of a young Somali man charged in Rome with taking part in the 1994 murders of two Italian television journalists in Mogadishu said Tuesday that their son would not get a fair trial in Italy.

Omar Hashi, father of Hashi Omar Hassan, told a press conference that his son was a "victim of torture by Italian troops in Somalia in 1993-94, and later was trapped by faulty justice in Italy."

Hassan, 25, was arrested in January 1998 shortly after arriving in Italy to testify to a government commission investigating charges that Italian soldiers had tortured civilians during the 1992-93 UN operation codenamed "Restore Hope."

He is charged with driving the vehicle from which six militiamen opened fire on a car in which RAI 3 journalist Ilaria Alpi and her cameraman Miran Hrovatin were riding, killing them both.

Hassan's mother Madina Muhumad Sandheere said that she spent a sleepless night after learning that her son was displaying a placard in the Italian court with a message pleading his innocence, which she said "would not favour his case."

The accused entered Rome's Foro Italico district court hanging around his neck a placard which his lawyer Douglas Duale said read in Somali: "This trial is a disgrace. I came here to demand justice and I find myself accused of being an accomplice to a double murder."

Duale said in Rome on Monday that his client had a verifiable alibi and charged that the Italian government was looking for a "scapegoat."

Alpi was investigating international arms trafficking and corruption affairs involving Italians and Somalis, according to former MP Mariangela Grainer, co-author with Alpi's parents and an RAI journalist of a book entitled "The Execution," which implicates Italy's secret services in the affair.

Somali lawyers here also accused Italy of using Hassan's case as a "cover-up for atrocities" towards the Somali people.

Hassan's mother said: "He cannot speak Italian to understand the tricks of Italian judges."

Somali Indicted in Italian Deaths

ROME
 

    A Somali man was indicted Monday in the 1994 slayings of two Italian journalists ambushed in the Somali capital of Mogadishu.

Hashi Hassan, who has been jailed in Italy since January, allegedly drove the Land Rover that blocked the Italians' vehicle when they were shot to death on March 20, 1994. The victims were RAI state television journalist Ilaria Alpi and cameraman Miran Hrovatin.

The motive of the attack was unclear, and Italian authorities said they were looking for others who were involved.

Hassan had come to Rome to testify against Italian troops accused of torturing local militiamen during the 1992-95 U.N. peace mission. He was arrested following accusations by the driver for the Italians.

The trial was set to begin Jan. 18, according to Italian news agencies.

by  REESE ERLICH

ROME
 

    A photo of their murdered daughter sits on a bookshelf in the Alpi family  home in Rome.

Nearly four years ago Ilaria Alpi, a talented investigative reporter for  the RAI-3 television network, helped expose some of the dirty secrets of  Italy's peacekeeping mission in Somalia. She witnessed acts of brutality by  Italian officers against Somalis and collected evidence of gun-running.

The 32-year-old journalist was shot to death along with her cameraman,  Miran Hrovatin, on the day Italian troops left Somalia - March 20, 1994.

Initial reports by the military indicated that Alpi was raked with AK-47  fire during an attempted robbery. But an autopsy two years later revealed she  was killed by a single shot to the head, possibly from a pistol.

The Italian army inventoried her personal belongings and shipped them and  her body home. Three of her notebooks, some videotape, a still camera and film  were missing by the time her possessions reached Rome.

For her parents, Luciana and Giorgio Alpi, the murder was both a personal  tragedy and a political scandal. Mrs. Alpi, who believes her daughter was shot  by Somalis on orders from Italians, says authorities are stonewalling in the  investigation into the death.

The center-left Italian government elected in 1996 was expected to  thoroughly investigate the charges of murder, rape, torture and arms  trafficking leveled against Italian troops. But despite press publication of  photos showing Italians torturing and raping Somalis, no Italian troops have  been tried, and the identities of a handful of soldiers and officers charged  remain secret.

Mauro Paissan - a member of parliament from the Green Party, part of the  coalition government - sharply criticizes the military for covering up what  has become known as "Somaliagate."

"This is a state mystery, like too many others we've had over the past 50  years," he said. "It's very important that prosecutors pursue the truth in  this case."

The Greens have called for the disbanding of the crack "Thunderbolt"  airborne unit that allegedly committed the atrocities in Somalia. The unit is  now stationed in a peacekeeping capacity in the former Yugoslavia and Albania.

Italy sent some 2,500 combat troops to Somalia as part of the  U.S.-sponsored multinational force in December 1992. The stated mission was to  provide humanitarian aid to starving Somalis.

But it quickly transformed into an effort to install a pro-Western  government. It ended in disaster with the deaths of more than 10,000 Somalis  and 100 peacekeepers, including 42 Americans.

As the former colonial rulers of Somalia, the Italians always thought they  better understood the political situation. They sharply criticized the U.S.  military for attacks against warlords that resulted in the civilian deaths.

At the time, Defense Minister Fabio Fabbri said, "We are not used to  carrying out massacres. We don't like Rambos." Officials now concede,  however, that some soldiers acted like Rambos.

Current Defense Minister Beniamino Andreatta says a few lower-ranking  soldiers engaged in brutality in Somalia, saying they had developed a "street  corner mentality." He also admits that there was a "relaxation in the chain  of command."

But he strongly denies that high-ranking officers condoned or even knew  about misconduct by the troops.

Now, a soldier once stationed in Somalia has come forward to contradict  that view. Warrant Officer Francesco Aloi said he witnessed rape, torture and  other brutality. He documented his charges with a 170-page diary, which he has  turned over to the authorities.

Aloi says that the brutality was so widespread that commanding officers had  to be aware of it. "Colonels and other high-ranking officers were responsible  for torture and atrocities," Aloi said in an interview. "The commander of  all the troops has a responsibility as well, because it's a crime not to  report such actions."

At the time of her death, Ilaria Alpi was investigating arms smuggling by  Italian arms merchants to Somali warlords. Aloi said that "high-ranking  officials were involved in arms trafficking."

Somaliagate is being investigated by the army, military prosecutors,  civilian prosecuting magistrates and a government-appointed commission.

Meanwhile, Alpi's parents press on with their own investigation. "Since  1994 we've been fighting to know the truth," said Giorgio Alpi. "And we'll  search every path to find it out."

GRAPHIC: BLACK AND WHITE MAP; locates Somalia

LENGTH: 390 words

Somalian charged with murder of Italian journalist

MOGADISHU, Jan 16
 

   A Somalian was formally charged Thursday with the murder of Italian television journalist Ilaria Alpi and cameraman Milan Horovatin in Mogadishu in March 1994, lawyers said.

Hashi Omar Hassan, 24, was arrested in Rome Monday after he arrived to testify to an Italian government-appointed probe commission investigating alleged torture and rape committed in Somalia by Italian troops serving with the UN peacekeeping contingents between 1993 and 1994.

Hassan's lawyer, Duale Douglas, said his client had given ample evidence to his interrogators that he had nothing to do with the murder.

"We will prove that the statements of a prosecution witness are false," he added.

Hassan was denounced on his arrival in Rome by the Somali driver of the vehicle in which Alpi and Horovatin were travelling when they were killed, allegedly because they were investigating arms dealing between Italian peacekeeping troops and Somali factions.

The investigating commission has recognised that Hassan himself was tortured by Italian paratroops in 1993.

On Wednesday Hassan's Abgal clan vowed to retaliate against Italians in Somalia for his arrest.

, vowed that his clansmen will retaliate against Italians in their fiefdom.

"Hassan was abducted and taken to Italy by Italian special envoy to Somalia Guiseppe Cassini. Therefore, we consider the action as a government-sponsored attack," Abgal leader Ali Hassan Juma'ale said.

He warned: "We shall react agressively until Hassan is released and sent back to Somalia."

"We will detain any Italian in our area of responsiblity until our man is freed by Italian autorities."

The Abgal clan is dominant in the north of the capital, Mogadishu, and supports Somali strongman Ali Mahdi Mohamed's Somali Salvation Alliance (SSA).

Somalia's biggest human rights group, Doctor Ismail's Centre for Human Rights (DICHR), urged at a press conference here on Wednesday that the case of Hassan "must be investigated by a neutral body, not Italy."

Another Somali human rights group, the Somali Intellectual Society (SIS) also accused Italy of using the arrest of Hassan as a ploy to cover up "massive human rights violations committed by Italian troops in Somalia."

The two groups have accused the Italian commission headed by Etore Gallo of trying to cover up the scandal.

Small town finds itself in centre of arms scandal LETTER FROM NAPLES

By JESSICA TAYLOR
 

   THERE IS little about Torre Annunziata to suggest international intrigue. In its maze of streets, peopled by vendors of contraband cigarettes and ubiquitous groups of idle old men, state-sponsored terrorism seems a million miles away and smuggling of nuclear materials a fairy tale. Yet in a prosecutor's office more used to minor mafia misdeeds, dossiers have been opened on the Lockerbie tragedy, the Iran-Contra affair and the murder of an Italian journalist in an inquiry that, at every bizarre turn, points to links between some of greatest unsolved mysteries of recent times. It was in the course of a routine money-laundering inquiry in the early 1990s that the prosecutors in this small town on the Bay of Naples stumbled across potentially shattering evidence. The sums were higher than usual, the shipments of arms larger, the international implications more daunting. But it was not until late last year, when an Italian wheeler-dealer called Francesco Elmo was arrested and began helping with inquiries, that the case took off. Now, magistrates say they want to question Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the ultra-nationalist Russian leader; Archbishop Ricardo Maria Carles of Barcelona, and Said Omar Mugne, a Somali import-export dealer. Investigators are seeking to establish connections between movements of arms to, and nuclear materials from, eastern Europe; transactions in state bonds, real and false; and dealings in huge shipments of gold and non-convertible currencies. Some of those currencies, such as Libyan dinars, are conveniently use similar paper to German banknotes. Poor-quality ink can be washed out and the notes run through printing presses to emerge as deutschmarks. High on the list of people wanted for questioning is Nicholas Oman, a Slovenian arms dealer. Mr Zhirinovsky, photographed chummily clinking glasses with him in Slovenia last year, indignantly denies ever meeting Mr Oman, and is angry at any suggestion he might have had anything to do with shipping nuclear materials to the West. The investigators' job is made more difficult because it seems to be dealing with a loosely spun web of connections linked by what is known as a roll programme. It works like this: the owner of a large sum of dubiously acquired money offers to exchange it for 15 per cent less in another currency, giving the buyer large amounts of liquidity to "invest" in dodgy international deals while allowing the seller to offload ill-gotten gains that police might be able to trace. The intermediaries, say the magistrates, come from all walks of life and all remain totally anonymous. "This leads to a mosaic which involves large credit institutes, banks, private citizens, multinationals and deviant sectors of governments in Western, east European and African countries," they told a recent news conference. Investigations are now spread across 14 countries, including Somalia, home of Said Omar Mugne. The magistrates want to question Mr Mugne about an arms-trafficking operation with eastern Europe that was being investigated by the Italian journalist Ilaria Alpi when she was ambushed and killed in Somalia in March 1994. Investigators are also following up alleged links between Mr Mugne and the Iran-Contra scandal involving US arms sales to Iran, and with the supply of materials to some of the suspects in the Lockerbie bombing. More bizarre is the investigation into the roles of the highly respected Archbishop of Barcelona and Ignazio Sala, a business-law professor at Barcelona University. Undeterred by the pair's denials and protestations of complete confidence in them from Spanish authorities, the Torre Annunziata magistrates are inquiring into large sums they allege passed into the Vatican Bank dirty and emerged clean - thanks, it is claimed, to the intervention of these dignitaries.