Trip in late August

When they met last year and they smiled in front of the photographers who immortalized the event, it was difficult seeing in these two men in their seventies (with dyed hair and fake smile) the leaders of two countries that were "making peace", after years and years of hostility. Now, after one year, on August 30, they will celebrate the first anniversary of the "friendship treaty" between Libya and Italy.

The anniversaries need to be celebrated and Silvio Berlusconi never miss a celebration. His handshake and his smile will remain intact even though we are consuming a massacre of innocent immigrants rejecting them on the Libyan coast (thanks to the security decree) where they are killed without mercy. We send back the illegals and most of the time we do it without even ask if they are entitled to refugee status.
But Italy doesn't care about having excellent relations with a country that has quietly killed 20 Somalis in a detention camp for undocumented immigrants in Benghazi.
Italy doesn't care of the many inmates' deaths (their only fault trying to escape to another country) killed due to torture by the police. Although in Libya torture is prohibited by law. Our country will pretend not to know of human rights constantly violated, because in Italy, after the approval of the last security decree, human rights of migrants are subject to the discretion of the police, then the differences are few. Italy will celebrate with great honor the 40 years since the coup in which Gaddafi took power in 1969. And even if Berlusconi will be already in Italy on September 1st, the anniversary day, (to avoid involvement not appreciated by the rest of the world) our warplanes the Three colored Arrows, with nine aircraft MB339, will take part at grand parade organized by the Libyan leader.
The journey of our premier does not seem out of place even after the British controversy after the release of a terrorist Abdel Basset al-Megrahi who was sentenced to life imprisonment for the bombing of Lockerbie in Scotland, and accepted at home as a hero. According to British sources al-Megrahi could be the focus of celebrations for the anniversary.

The Italian Foreign Ministry, however, is confident that "Gaddafi will not create unpleasant incidents" and it is convinced that the visit is still necessary: because Gaddafi is president of the African Union, because in this way we will demonstrate our breaking up with colonialism and because with that country we have "a relationship of Mediterranean collaboration." Words that actually mean oil, since we import from Libya a quarter of the oil used in Italy and 10% of natural gas, thanks to the construction of the pipeline Greenstram, linking Mellitah to Gela.
Berlusconi's trip should help to find out how is going the coming into force of the Italy-Libya treaty, which should block the leakage of desperate african immigrants and indeed is just increasing the number of innocent victims in the Mediterranean Sea.
A problem that Italy, it is evident, cannot solve. Yesterday the Minister Frattini had reported the absence of Europe on the problem of illegal immigration. Dennis Abbott, spokesman for the EU Commission, has told that European countries are doing their best to resolve the issue. So the italian right had to shut up after European criticism, aware that the problem cannot be solved by force alone.
In a situation far from peaceful, Berlusconi prepares his suitcases in order to celebrate with his friend Gaddafi. After all, the controversy that might ensue would be a minor thing in comparison to his personal problems that have occupied the last months of Italian politics. And after Bush is gone, Berlusconi needs to find another playmate.

Marianna Lepore

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