A nation gangs up on the Mafia
The largest mass trial ever to be held in Italy will begin on
Monday.
WALTER SCHWARZ
I, of the “Guardian,” London,
reports from Palermo.
A double line of steel fencing is being put up, three metres high, round "the bunker” here, to protect the largest mass trial in the history of the Mafia, a history much older than that of Italy.
The “maxi-trial,” as the headlines call it, begins on Monday when nearly 500 alleged Mafiosi will stand accused of drug trafficking, extortion, kidnapping for ransom, forcing women into prostitution and' othertypical activities. , The trial is seen all over Italy as a turning point, not only because of its size — the indictment runs to 8000 pages — but because for the first time both the Sicilian authorities and the local church are claiming to put their full weight behind the proceedings. .7 . X Previously, Christian-Demo-cratic mayors of Palermo, the Archbishops and their subordinates have been at best neutral and in some cases deeply implicated in the Mafia which, for centuries, has offered a kind of security — at a price — when legal authority has been weak, or unpopular, or both. Another breakthrough is judicial: for almost the first time the authorities have been able to break the traditional silence of witnesses, by using the internal feuds among rival gangs of drugtraffickers to produce evidence. The device has already yielded many convictions in Naples of “comorristl” — the Neopolitan version of Mafia.
“We are dealing with a new Mafia,” said the Mayor of Palermo, Leoluca Orlando. “As multi-national drug operation it no longer needs local people or local influence: it buys
or it kills. This gives us hope. However, we’re still building that bunker because they could try some spectacular violent act: it would be in their tradition to do something symbolic rather than rational.” . • •
Mr Orlando, a professor of law who, at 38, belongs to the Christian Democrats’ most liberal wing, is in complete contrast to his predecessor Vitto Ciancimino, who is in detention after conviction of Mafia dealings and last week had property worth SNZI2 million confiscated.
The Archbishop, Cardinal Salvatore Pappalardd, aged 68, has been the first in his office publicly to denounce the Mafia as “a dark stain — pretending to work through honour, but in fact only working by gangsterism.” His predecessor .was widely felt to be neutral over the Mafia and several priests have been exposed in courts as Mafia operators. Archbishop Pappalardo’s stand has been endorsed by the . Pope who created his own. precedent five years ago when he said in Palermo: “We should not be resigned” to the Mafia. However, the Cardinal has worried some people by becoming less outspoken of late. “We can’t go on and on making the same speech,” he explained last week. “It isn’t as if nothing has been done about the Mafia problem, and anyway I’m a bishop and I speak in accordance with the necessities of the Church.” Since the Mafia and the Comorra are at the root of most organised crime and corruption in Italy, the trial, which is expected to last 18 months, has stirred hopes far afield.,
The socialist Mayor of Venice has secured the agreement of a dozen other mayors to come to Palermo on Day One to show the
flag. Trade unions, student movements and progressive lawyers are supporting a nation-wide fund to help Mafia victims use
the trial to file damage claims, rnming down here to give the mayor last minute moral support last week, Mr Craxi, the Prime Minister, said: “The Mafia is reeling.” But wide scepticism remains. Thirty miles down the coast in Paftinico, Danilo Dolcl, who has spent decades writing, teaching and acting in defence of the poor against the Mafia,- said: “This is not the way: you need to give people something else than the Mafia to provide for Dolci, aged 62, has taught’* * people to form co-operatives and exert pressure .on the Govern-:** ment to build a local dam for--irrigation. “We have learned • v here that democratic water is-; cheaper than Mafia water.” However, optimism in Palermo is fed by the success of the.,; recent trial in Naples., The h mayor said the “really historic.; date” was not the maxi-trial but the murder four years ago of General della Chiesa, the legend- 3 ary security chief who took on’;; the Mafia, as Prefect in Sicily, after successful work against the 'J Red Brigades. Della Chiesa was shot in broad J daylight in a busy street with his v wife and chauffeur. “At that moment,” said Mr - Orlando . “the whole of Italy biasked who is stronger, the Madia . or the State?”
' The final answer may depend s on what the authorities can offer.,? in replacement. ’ < "Giving people higher doesn’t help,” said MrDolci.-r? . “You can only win by them to act for themselves.” In the same spirit Palermo’s councillors of all parties have drafted a declaration on how to end the “emergency” that has gripped the town since the gen-.-eral’s murder. It is a list ranging from job creation to honest ministration. If half of.it were., realised, the Mafia would be-$ come redundant at last. .. s
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19860208.2.128
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
Press, 8 February 1986, Page 18
Word count
Tapeke kupu
861A nation gangs up on the Mafia Press, 8 February 1986, Page 18
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Press. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Copyright in all Footrot Flats cartoons is owned by Diogenes Designs Ltd. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise these cartoons and make them available online as part of this digitised version of the Press. You can search, browse, and print Footrot Flats cartoons for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Diogenes Designs Ltd for any other use.
Acknowledgements
Ngā mihi
This newspaper was digitised in partnership with Christchurch City Libraries.