In an interview with La RepubblicaGiuliano Amato accuses France of being responsible for the Ustica air disaster which left 81 dead on June 27, 1980. The 85-year-old man appeals to Emmanuel Macron.
Rome,
The accusation had been circulating for years, but as a rumor. This time, it is a former Italian prime minister (1992-1993 then 2000-2001) who makes the accusation in an interview with La Repubblica . According to the democrat Giuliano Amato, 85 years old, it was France which, during a plan organized by NATO countries to get rid of Gaddafi (a plan which went wrong), would have shot down a DC-9 of the company airline Itavia. The plane which was to connect Bologna-Palermo crashed in the Tyrrhenian Sea, near the island of Ustica, north of Sicily, on June 27, 1980. The crash left 81 dead.
“The most credible version is that of the responsibility of the French air force, with the complicity of the Americans and those who participated in the air war in our skies on the evening of June 27accuses Amato in the interview. The plan was to strip Gaddafi, flying him in a Mig (Soviet aircraft manufacturer, editor’s note) of its air force.” A plan, on paper very complex, which consisted of “simulate a NATO exercise, with numerous planes in action, during which a missile was to be fired at the Libyan leader: the exercise was a staging which was intended to make the attack appear as an “unintentional accident“, Continues the politician without advancing concrete evidence of his accusations. But things would have turned out badly:Gaddafi was warned of the danger and did not board his plane. And the missile launched against the Libyan Mig ended up hitting Itavia’s DC9 which sank with eighty-one innocent people inside.Paris and Washington have always denied any involvement of their devices in the drama. “On this tragedy, France provided all the elements in its possession each time it was requested“, indicates the Quai d’Orsay to Rai. The ministry adds that every piece of information has been provided “particularly in the context of investigations carried out by the Italian justice system“. “We obviously remain available to work with Italy if they ask us to do so.»
No hard evidence
Also in his interview at the Republic, Amato explains that once undersecretary at the presidency of the council, six years after the events, he would have received a visit from generals who tried to convince him of the thesis of the explosion of a bomb inside the plane. A thesis which, according to him, came to replace that of the structural defect of the plane. “I understood that there was a truth that had to be hidden. And our air force was ready to defend the lie.» Bettino Craxi, then president of the council and who died in 2000, would have expressly asked him to “do not bother the militaryes”.
A long judicial investigation resulted in a criminal trial against several senior Italian military officials, suspected of having concealed information in this affair, which ended definitively in 2007 with their acquittal before the Court of Cassation. Then Roman magistrates reopened the investigation into Ustica in 2008 following statements by former leader Francesco Cossiga, 81, who said that a French missile had shot down the Italian DC-9.
A call to Emmanuel Macron
When he himself returned to the Palazzo Chigi in 2000 as Prime Minister, Amato would have decided to “write to Presidents Clinton and Chirac to ask them to shed light on this air tragedy». “I received very polite responses referring me to the relevant bodies. But afterwards, I heard nothing more. Total silence», he adds. Today he asks Emmanuel Macron, barely born during the tragedy, to “wash away the shame that hangs over France» either by demonstrating that this thesis is unfounded, or, if it is confirmed, by presenting the most sincere apologies to Italy and the families of the victims.
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Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni called on Amato to provide concrete evidence for his accusations. “I ask President Amato, in addition to his deductions, to let us know if he is in possession of elements which would allow us to reconsider the conclusions of justice and Parliament, and to make them available to the government.”
