Shot down by a French missile. According to former prime minister Giuliano Amato, this is what happened to the Itavia DC9 which crashed near Ustica on 27 June 1980. All 77 passengers and 4 crew members died in the massacre.
«After forty years the innocent victims of Ustica have not received justice – says the former prime minister in an interview with Repubblica -. Why keep hiding the truth? The time has come to shed light on a terrible state secret. Macron could do it. And NATO could do it. Who knows now, speak: he would have great merits towards the families of the victims and towards history ».
«The most credible version - he continues - is that of the responsibility of the French Air Force, with the complicity of the Americans. They wanted to kill Gaddafi, flying on a Mig of his air force. The plan envisaged simulating a NATO exercise, a staging that would have made it possible to pass off the attack as an involuntary accident ». «Gaddafi - continues Amato - was warned of the danger and did not get on his plane. And the missile fired against the Mig ended up hitting the DC9. The most accredited hypothesis is that that missile was launched by a French fighter».
«From the beginning - he adds - the military had closed in an armored silence, hindering the investigations. And when I played a role in this affair as undersecretary, in 1986, I began to receive visits from generals who wanted to convince me of the bomb thesis. I understood that there was a truth that needed to be shielded. And our air force was deployed in defense of the lie».
«I would have known later, but without having proof of it - he still declares - that it was Craxi who warned Gaddafi. He had no interest in it coming out: he would have been accused of infidelity to NATO and of espionage ». “It was not entirely unreasonable that the generals, in order to keep the secret safe, were careful not to share it with politicians – he continues, and politics, for its part – did not have the advantage of knowing fully. Either way, the truth was uncomfortable. And it was better to leave it buried.'
Between fidelity to the Constitution and fidelity to NATO, Amato argues, the latter prevailed: «An apparatus made up of military exponents has repeatedly denied the truth. All these people covered up the crime for reasons of state. I do not justify and yet I understand the pressures that led to the concealment of the truth, but 40 years later it is difficult to understand. I wonder why Macron, even historically extraneous to the tragedy - concludes Amato - doesn't want to remove the shame that weighs on France. Either by demonstrating that this thesis is unfounded or by making the deepest apologies to Italy and to the families of the victims in the name of its government".
Words that make a lot of noise those of the former premier: "Words that are important and deserve attention," comments Giorgia Meloni . «Amato, however – underlines the premier – specifies that these words are the result of personal deductions. I ask President Amato to know if, in addition to the deductions, he is in possession of elements that allow us to return to the conclusions of the judiciary and of Parliament , and to possibly make them available, so that the Government can take all possible and consequent steps".
(Unioneonline/D)