Nassiriya, survivor appeals to Draghi: “Compensate survivors”

“I make an appeal to Draghi asking to intervene, even against the opinion of the State Attorney, as happened in other cases, to compensate the survivors of Nassiriya”. This is what Riccardo Saccotelli, a survivor of the Nassiriya massacre, said to Adnkronos, on the eve of the anniversary of the attack on the ‘Maestrale’ base which took place on 12 November 2003. Saccotelli, who was 28 at the time and is no longer in service , has been carrying out a legal battle for some time for compensation for the damage reported in the attack. He says he has already addressed the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella and the former Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte in the past. Then, last May, he claims to have also written to Prime Minister Mario Draghi. “It is well known that in the past the presidency of the council of ministers considered, owing to the country’s high institutional sense of closeness to the victims – I would like to say of affection and human respect – underlines Saccotelli, addressing Draghi – to also intervene against the opinion contrary to the state advocacy, liquidating the damage suffered by professors Marco Biagi and Massimo D’Antona, also victims of terrorism “. Saccotelli then turns to Draghi with a “heartfelt request for intervention and institutional closeness, which has ceased to exist in these 18 years that have distanced us from that Wednesday, the day of the massacre”. Saccotelli now explains the reference to Biagi and D’Antona, killed by the Red Brigades: “If we are all victims of terrorism, the State should compensate everyone in the same way. The wives of Biagi and D’Antona have always stood up in defense of the victims “.” The Italian state feels strong because it thinks that the passage of time and anniversaries lead to forgetting, but this is not the case. The passing of the years gives roots to the idea that the sacrifice was useless, that this state does not deserve you and that what you did and what you believed did not help “, says Saccotelli. Accotelli still has in his eyes those dramatic moments when he was on guard at the base and found himself about ten meters from the car bomb that killed the three colleagues next to him to him. He sustained injuries in the attack, which still mark his life for some time now he has been carrying on a legal battle for compensation for damages. “My experience is made up of suffering, pain, sleepless nights. The State not only at the beginning I he dropped out, but then started rejecting my claims, “he continues. The memory of those moments “sometimes becomes stronger, suddenly comes back in dreams in the form of flowing blood, of burnt bodies, of corpses”, he says. “Tomorrow, as I have not been invited to official ceremonies, I will be in Rome to meet a friend of mine who survived in Nassiriya – he continues telling what he will do on the anniversary – I asked him to see us tomorrow because, even without speaking, I know we can understand each other”.