Ustica, Mattarella: "The truth is an indispensable duty". Bonfietti asks the government to move

Appeal to the truth ofPresident of the Republic, Sergio Mattarellaon the occasion of the anniversary of Ustica massacre. “Recomposing what happened on the Tyrrhenian Sea on that tragic 27 June 1980 remains an indispensable duty – the Head of State stated in a message -. 46 years have passed since the massacre in the skies of Ustica. On this day of reflection and remembrance, the thought of closeness and solidarity goes first and foremost to the families of the victims, torn apart by an unacceptable event and by a profound pain that time cannot soothe. In the history of the Republic the sign of that catastrophe cannot be erased. Eighty-one lives were destroyed. All the passengers and crew members of the DC9 which left Bologna and headed for Palermo died. There were many bodies that could not be buried. The reconstruction of what happened – underlines the Head of State – remained nebulous for a long time, however the path to the search for truth was followed and led to significant results. Recomposing what happened on the Tyrrhenian Sea on that tragic 27 June 1980 remains an indispensable duty.”

Bonfietti, “we don’t accept it being archived”

“We expect the last piece of truth to be established, because knowing for sure that the DC9 of Italy was shot down during an air war episode, we cannot accept that it is archived without being able to find the material authors – he declared Daria Bonfiettipresident of the association of the victims’ families, on the sidelines of the commemoration in the Municipality of Bologna for the 46th anniversary of the tragedy -. Who shot down Itavia’s Dc9? If the judiciary cannot succeed with the weapons of justice (investigations and letters rogatory), politics must, I believe, succeed, the government of my country must move in a much more substantial way, to demand answers from friendly and allied countries regarding their certain, certain, certain presence in our skies”.

Bonfietti reiterated the need to ascertain the “material” responsibility for the shooting down of the DC9 Itavia, urging a more incisive initiative from the Government towards the allied countries involved to shed full light on what happened.

Requests to the government and the prime minister

From the prime minister Giorgia Meloni “I haven’t had any answers yet, the meeting was yesterday, as you know, to which I was referring, I asked Meloni to tell the State Attorney’s Office to appear, as we did, against the dismissal requested by the prosecutor”, Bonfietti further explained. “It should be important – he added – that the Government asks, because it also wants to know what happened that night in our skies. And then precisely with the meeting that took place the other day with Macron, that the Government tends to ask, demand, some response from them too”. Bonfietti therefore urged the executive to support the opposition to the dismissal request and to launch a diplomatic initiative, also towards France, to obtain definitive clarifications on the massacre.

The appeal of the family and of Mayor Lepore

‘Memory cannot be archived’ is the appeal of the families of the victims of the Ustica massacre“an appeal that I share, that I relaunch; in these 46 years we have had red herrings, rubber walls, now is the season of convenient archiving”, declared the mayor of Bologna, Matteo Lepore. “I believe – he added – that our country should not allow it, so the President of the Republic has already intervened and I thank him as always because he is very close to the families of the victims and he also asked that there be clarity, a clarification between allied countries and I believe that there is an international context that allows it. Forty-six years later I don’t see the reasons why the allied countries or in particular France should not clearly make clear information available”. Lepore therefore asked for full collaboration from the allied states, maintaining that the international framework now allows definitive light to be shed on the matter.