Giuliana Sgrena

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Giuliana Sgrena
Giuliana Sgrena

Giuliana Sgrena (born December 20, 1948) is a well-known Italian journalist and author who works for the Italian communist newspaper Il Manifesto and the German weekly Die Zeit. While working in Iraq, she was kidnapped by insurgents on 4 February 2005. After her release on March 4, 2005, Sgrena and the two Italian intelligence officers who had helped secure her release came under fire from U.S. forces while on their way to Baghdad International Airport. Nicola Calipari, a Major General in the Italian military intelligence service was killed, and Sgrena and one other officer were wounded in the incident. The event caused an international outcry.

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[edit] Background and Career

Giuliana Sgrena was born and raised in Masera, Province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola, a town of fewer than 1000 people that had seen intense fighting during World War II between Italian partisans and German soldiers. Her father, Franco Sgrena, was a noted partisan during the war and later became an activist in the communist railway union.

Sgrena studied in Milan where she became involved in leftist politics. She became a professed pacifist and from 1980 worked for Guerra e Pace, a weekly publication edited by Michelangelo Notarianni.

In 1988, she joined the communist paper Il Manifesto and, as a war correspondent, has since covered conflicts such as the Algerian Civil War, the Somalian and the Afghanistan conflicts. During her travels, she reported extensively on topics from the Horn of Africa, the Maghreb and the Middle East.

As a campaigner for women's rights, she has been particularly concerned with the conditions of women under Islam. About this topic she wrote Alla scuola dei Taleban ("At the Taliban's school"), ISBN 88-7285-266-8.

Like many Italians, she opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq. At the start of the war she went to Baghdad to cover the bombing of that city, for which work she was awarded the title Cavaliere del Lavoro on her return to Italy.

[edit] The kidnapping

Screenshot of Giuliana Sgrena on the Iraqi video
Screenshot of Giuliana Sgrena on the Iraqi video

Sgrena was kidnapped outside Baghdad University by gunmen in February 2005. In an article from March 2003 she had spoken openly about her concern for the security situation in Baghdad and her fear of being kidnapped.1

[edit] Allegations of Imprudence

Harald Doornbos, a war reporter traveling with American forces, wrote an article published on March 8 2005 by the Dutch centre-right newspaper Nederlands Dagblad's2. that a woman (in a group of three women, which included Sgrena) had told him that they were in no danger from Iraqi insurgents saying that Doornbos did not "understand the situation. We are anti-imperialists, anti-capitalists, communists, the Iraqis only kidnap American sympathizers, the enemies of the Americans have nothing to fear."

Conversely, anti-globalization activist Naomi Klein reported that Sgrena was "fully aware" of but willing to take "tremendous risks" in order to document the war3. Sgrena defended her decision to risk kidnapping as a necessary part of working as an unembedded reporter in a warzone. She points to her reporting on such critical incidents as the Second Battle of Fallujah, where, she argues, only unembedded reporters were able to report the level of destruction in the city and the ferocity of urban warfare, which according to her included the use of napalm4.

She was later shown in a video pleading that the demands of her kidnappers, the withdrawal of Italian troops from Iraq, be fulfilled. Her release was subsequently negotiated and she was freed on March 4 2005.

[edit] Vauro's Campaign

"You brought her back!"
"You brought her back!"

During the whole month-long captivity, the satirical artist of Il Manifesto (and therefore a colleague of Ms Sgrena), Vauro, maintained an uninterrupted focus on Sgrena, independently from any Italian political issues. His drawings typically featured a dove, symbol of peace, that was supposed to bring Sgrena back; some of the drawings were sad, some tried to be more cheerful, depending on the current hopes of retrieving Sgrena alive. In one occasion he wrote an appeal in Arabic to the kidnappers: "Give us Giuliana back, because I want to go back mocking Berlusconi!". After one month, the series came to an end with Sgrena's liberation and Calipari's death: the dove, now likely symbolising Calipari, returned mortally wounded.

[edit] Rescue and Incident

Main article: Rescue of Giuliana Sgrena

After being rescued by Nicola Calipari and another SISMI agent, Ms Sgrena was transported by car to Baghdad International Airport. However, a blocking position, put in place to protect John Negroponte's car convoy, shot on the vehicle, causing the death of Calipari and the wounding of Sgrena and of the other agent. The exact circumstances of the situation were hotly debated in the media, and caused strain in diplomatic relations between Italy and the United States.

[edit] Aftermath

In a November 2005 RAI documentary, Fallujah, The Hidden Massacre, Sgrena declared that the U.S. had used white phosphorus and napalm in Fallujah during Operation Phantom Fury 5.

On June 26 2006, Sgrena offered to meet with Spec. Mario Lozano, the New York City National Guardsman who had shot her.[1]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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