Italy's
Terzi di
Sant'Agata
Talks India
&
Fishermen
Killing,
Death of Small
5
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
May 23 -- Can
murder be
mediated? At
the UN on
Wednesday
Inner City
Press asked
Italian
foreign
minister
Giulio Terzi
di Sant'Agata
about the
alleged
killing of two
Indian
fishermen by
Italian
marines
who are now in
jail in India.
Video
here.
Terzi
di Sant'Agata
gave a long
response,
about the need
to review
different
interpretations
of applicable
law, and said
that the way
India is
applying to
law is hurting
other
anti-piracy
efforts.
Minutes
later
Inner City
Press asked UN
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
spokesman
Martin Nesirky
if Italy has
made any
request for UN
assistance or
mediation of
its dispute
with India.
Nesirky
did not
directly
answer, saying
he would
check, but
noted that
mediation
requires a
request or the
consent of
both parties.
He
was then asked
about Terzi di
Sant'Agata
raising the
matter in his
meeting
Tuesday
afternoon with
Ban and Ban's
team. Nesirky
said he
had not been
in the room.
Later Inner
City Press was
told by a
senior UN
official that
yes, Italy has
raised it to
the UN. But,
one
wag wondered,
which has more
power, Italy
or India?
Italy
is not without
power in the
UN. Inner City
Press also
asked Terzi di
Sant'Agata
about his
country's role
in defeating
the proposal
by the
so-called
Small Five to
pass a General
Assembly
resolution
calling
for changes in
the Security
Council's
working
methods.
Swiss
Ambassador
Paul Seger
particularly
singled out
Italy as an
opponent
of the Small
Five
resolution,
which was
withdrawn
after Ban
Ki-moon's
lawyer
Patricia
O'Brien issued
a legal letter
opining that
the
resolution
would require
a two-thirds
vote than than
simple
majority.
Terzi
di Sant'Agata
responded that
while Italy
liked the
ideas in the
resolution, no
issue can be
solved without
all the issues
being
solved. One
wag mused
that's ONE
school of
mediation;
another school
says make what
progress you
can, when you
can.
Terzi
di Sant'Agata
began by
remembering
anti-Mafia
judge Falcone,
killed
along with his
wife and
guards twenty
years ago. The
recent bombing
that killed 16
year old
Melissa Bassi
at a school
named after
Falcone's wife
in Brindisi --
where there is
a UN logistics
base --
is now blamed
by some not on
organized
crime but
"terrorism."
Other wonder
unrelately if
piracy is more
akin to
organized
crime or
"terrorism,"
or neither...
, 
