DISPATCH FROM DOWN UNDER
Freed Italian hostage tells of hero's last moments
By Bruce Johnston and Philip Sherwell
March 7, 2005
The Italian woman hostage freed in Iraq has described how she hugged the secret service agent who died shielding her from a hail of bullets fired by US soldiers at a Baghdad airport roadblock.
In an emotional meeting in a Rome hospital on Saturday, the journalist Giuliana Sgrena met the widow of Nicola Calipari, the Italian intelligence agent who last week negotiated her release by Iraqi kidnappers, and described the last moments of the man who gave his life to save hers.
"Giuliana embraced Nicola Calipari twice: the moment she was freed and when she realised that he was dead," said Gabriele Polo, her editor at Il Manifesto, after talking to her.
Sgrena, 56, told her boyfriend, Pier Scolari that her worst moment "was when I saw the person who had saved me die in my arms."
Mr Calipari's body was flown home to a hero's welcome early yesterday. His wife, mother and daughter broke down in tears as his casket, draped in an Italian flag, was carried out by a guard of honour.
President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi held both hands up to the coffin, before it was placed in a hearse. Mr Calipari will be given a state funeral today
As a row escalated over who was to blame for the tragedy, Sgrena described in her first interview since being flown back to Rome how the car in which she was travelling was hit by a "rain of fire".
A US State Department official said that the Italians had not informed the American embassy in Baghdad or its military commanders that Sgrena had been freed and was on her way to the airport. Army officials also said that the unmarked car had ignored signals to slow down as it sped at night towards a US roadblock on a highly dangerous stretch of road where dozens of soldiers and civilians have been killed by suicide car bombers.
However, Scolari, a fellow journalist who had been talking by mobile phone to the passengers in the car with Italian government officials when the shooting occurred, rejected this account. He said the Americans had been told that the car was coming through and that it was just 640 metres from the airport and travelling at moderate speed in heavy rain.
In an interview from her hospital bed, where she is receiving treatment for shoulder injuries sustained in the attack, Sgrena described how Mr Calipari was talking to her when the car was riddled with bullets. "He suddenly lent against me, probably to protect me. Then he collapsed and I realised he was dead.
"The firing continued because the driver couldn't manage to explain that we were Italian. It was absolutely terrible."
Sgrena was abducted by gunmen outside Baghdad University a month ago and a harrowing video was later released showing her pleading for her life. Details of her release have not been disclosed.
President George Bush telephoned Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian Prime Minister, expressing regret over the attack.
In Baghdad, a US Army spokesman, Lieutenant-Colonel Clifford Kent, said the military was "aggressively investigating" the incident.
Telegraph, London; Reuters
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2005/03/06/1110044260359.html
By Bruce Johnston and Philip Sherwell
March 7, 2005
The Italian woman hostage freed in Iraq has described how she hugged the secret service agent who died shielding her from a hail of bullets fired by US soldiers at a Baghdad airport roadblock.
In an emotional meeting in a Rome hospital on Saturday, the journalist Giuliana Sgrena met the widow of Nicola Calipari, the Italian intelligence agent who last week negotiated her release by Iraqi kidnappers, and described the last moments of the man who gave his life to save hers.
"Giuliana embraced Nicola Calipari twice: the moment she was freed and when she realised that he was dead," said Gabriele Polo, her editor at Il Manifesto, after talking to her.
Sgrena, 56, told her boyfriend, Pier Scolari that her worst moment "was when I saw the person who had saved me die in my arms."
Mr Calipari's body was flown home to a hero's welcome early yesterday. His wife, mother and daughter broke down in tears as his casket, draped in an Italian flag, was carried out by a guard of honour.
President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi held both hands up to the coffin, before it was placed in a hearse. Mr Calipari will be given a state funeral today
As a row escalated over who was to blame for the tragedy, Sgrena described in her first interview since being flown back to Rome how the car in which she was travelling was hit by a "rain of fire".
A US State Department official said that the Italians had not informed the American embassy in Baghdad or its military commanders that Sgrena had been freed and was on her way to the airport. Army officials also said that the unmarked car had ignored signals to slow down as it sped at night towards a US roadblock on a highly dangerous stretch of road where dozens of soldiers and civilians have been killed by suicide car bombers.
However, Scolari, a fellow journalist who had been talking by mobile phone to the passengers in the car with Italian government officials when the shooting occurred, rejected this account. He said the Americans had been told that the car was coming through and that it was just 640 metres from the airport and travelling at moderate speed in heavy rain.
In an interview from her hospital bed, where she is receiving treatment for shoulder injuries sustained in the attack, Sgrena described how Mr Calipari was talking to her when the car was riddled with bullets. "He suddenly lent against me, probably to protect me. Then he collapsed and I realised he was dead.
"The firing continued because the driver couldn't manage to explain that we were Italian. It was absolutely terrible."
Sgrena was abducted by gunmen outside Baghdad University a month ago and a harrowing video was later released showing her pleading for her life. Details of her release have not been disclosed.
President George Bush telephoned Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian Prime Minister, expressing regret over the attack.
In Baghdad, a US Army spokesman, Lieutenant-Colonel Clifford Kent, said the military was "aggressively investigating" the incident.
Telegraph, London; Reuters
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2005/03/06/1110044260359.html
posted by Kangaroo Brisbane Australia at 4:33 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home