ROME, 10 September 2004 — A junior Italian minister headed for the Middle East yesterday to seek help from Arab governments in securing the release of two female aid workers held hostage in Iraq amid mounting efforts to present a united front at home.
The Italian opposition continued to show unprecedented support for the government in its efforts to safely end a kidnapping that Italians see as particularly odious in that it concerns two women volunteers working on behalf of Iraqi children.
Junior Foreign Minister Margherita Boniver left yesterday for Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Yemen and Syria to seek the help of those countries in freeing charity workers Simona Pari and Simona Torretta. The two women, both 29, were snatched from their Baghdad office on Tuesday. Boniver is to meet officials and women’s groups “to raise awareness in the Arab world about how monstrous the kidnapping of these two women was.”
Her mission comes ahead of Rome talks today between Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and visiting Iraqi President Ghazi Al-Yawar, scheduled to focus on aid and economic issues but likely to be devoted partly to the situation of the kidnapped aid workers.
There was still no news of the women early yesterday and no credible claim from the kidnappers had been received. Italian daily newspaper Corriere della Sera said the kidnappers could be former Iraqi intelligence agents.
“Their modus operandi closely resembles that of (former president) Saddam Hussein’s special intelligence teams,” it said. The kidnapping of the two women, aid workers with the non-government agency Un Ponte per Baghdad (A Bridge to Baghdad), comes two weeks after the execution by extremists in Iraq of Italian journalist Enzo Baldoni.
The Rome government was severely criticized for not doing enough to save Baldoni’s life and the new hostage-taking has sparked calls for national unity. Rallies in support of the women took place in Rome and Naples late Wednesday. “National unity to save them”, the left of centre La Repubblica newspaper said on its front page yesterday. “United to save the two Italian women,” Corriere della Sera proclaimed.
On Wednesday the Italian opposition pledged to support the government in the crisis and, while reaffirming its opposition to last year’s US-led invasion of Iraq, said it would not for the moment renew its call for the withdrawal of the 3,000 Italian soldiers operating there with the US-led coalition.
Luciano Violante, of the opposition Democrats of the Left, said in an interview with Corriere della Sera yesterday that priority must be given to freeing the two women.
“We must show the country’s unity. For the moment we are talking about the fight against terrorism. We will talk about the rest later,” he said.
Italy’s left-wing parties were bitterly opposed to Berlusconi’s support for the US campaign in Iraq and want Rome to follow the lead set by Spain whose left-wing government, elected earlier this year, withdrew its troops from Iraq where they had been sent by the previous conservative government.
