Bologna massacre

Bologna massacre

Rescue teams making their way through the rubble.
Location Bologna Central Station
Date 2 August 1980
10:25 (UTC+1)
Attack type
 Bomb attack
Deaths 85
Non-fatal injuries
 200+
Perpetrators Luigi Ciavardini,
Valerio Fioravanti and Francesca Mambro (members of the Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari)

The Bologna massacre (Italian: strage di Bologna) was a terrorist bombing of the Central Station at Bologna, Italy, on the morning of 2 August 1980, which killed 85 people and wounded more than 200. The attack was carried out by the neo-fascist terrorist organization Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari (Armed Revolutionary Groups), which always denied any involvement; other theories have been proposed, especially in correlation with the strategy of tension. The bombing is the fourth deadliest terrestrial terrorist attack in Western Europe behind the Nice attack in July 2016, the Paris attacks in November 2015, and the Madrid train bombings in March 2004.

Bombing

Rescuers carrying a victim.
Bystanders assisted with the rescue operations.

At 10:25 a.m., a time-bomb contained in an unattended suitcase detonated inside an air-conditioned waiting room, which, the month being August (and with air conditioning being uncommon in Italy at the time), was crammed full of people. The explosion destroyed most of the main building and hit the Ancona–Chiasso train that was waiting at the first platform. The blast was heard for miles. The roof of the waiting room collapsed onto the passengers, which greatly increased the total number killed in the terrorist attack.[1]

On that summer Saturday the station was full of tourists and the city was unprepared for such a massive incident. Many citizens and travelers provided first aid to victims and helped to extract people buried under the rubble. Given the large number of casualties, since the ambulances and emergency vehicles were not sufficient for the transport of the injured to the city's hospitals, firefighters also employed buses, in particular the line 37, private cars and taxis. In order to provide care to the victims of the attack, doctors and hospital staff returned from vacation, as well as departments, closed for summer holidays, were reopened to allow the admission of all patients.

In the following days the central square of Bologna, Piazza Maggiore, hosted large-scale demonstrations of indignation and protest among the population, in which were not spared harsh criticism and protests addressed to government representatives, who attended the funerals of the victims celebrated in the Basilica San Petronio on 6 August. The only applause was reserved for the Italian President Sandro Pertini, who arrived by helicopter in Bologna at 17.30 on the day of the massacre, and said in tears in front of reporters: "I have no words, we are facing the most criminal enterprise that has ever taken place in Italy."[2]

The bus no. 37, together with the clock stopped at 10:25, remained a symbol of the massacre. The attack was recorded as the worst atrocity in Italy since World War II.[3]

Investigations

The next day, police investigators found metal fragments and scraps of plastics near the source of the explosion.[4]

The bomb was later found to be composed of 23 kg of explosive, a mixture of 5 kg of TNT and Composition B, improved from 18 kg of T4 (nitroglycerin for civil use).[5]

The Italian Government led by Christian Democrat Prime Minister Francesco Cossiga first assumed the explosion to have been caused by an accident (the explosion of an old boiler located in the basement of the station). Nevertheless, soon the evidence gathered on site of the explosion made it clear that the attack constituted an act of terrorism. L'Unità, the newspaper of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) on 3 August already attributed responsibility for the attack to neo-fascists. Later, in a special session to the Senate, Cossiga supported the theory that neofascists were behind the attack, "unlike leftist terrorism, which strikes at the heart of the state through its representatives, black terrorism prefers the massacre because it promotes panic and impulsive reactions."[6][7]

Disinformation and false leads

Almost immediately after the bombing, the press agency Ansa received a telephone call from someone purporting to represent NAR claiming responsibility. The call later proved to be fake, and to have originated from the Florence office of SISMI, the Italian Military Secret Service. Federigo Manucci Benincasa, director of the Florence branch of SISMI, would later be charged with obstruction of justice.

In September 1980 a "Lebanese connection" was manufactured, involving Al Fatah, Phalangists, Italian radicals and Swiss journalists tied to the Italian intelligence community, who supplied investigators with fake notes, memos, and reports.[8] This was followed by a "KGB connection" fostered by head of Intelligence General Giuseppe Santovito, a member of P2, and Francesco Pazienza.

Generals Pietro Musumeci, a member of P2, and Giuseppe Belmonte of SISMI had a police sergeant put a suitcase full of explosives, of the same type that blew up the station, on a train in Bologna. The suitcase also contained personal items of two right-wing extremists, a Frenchman and a German. Musumeci also produced a phony dossier, called "Terror on trains". General Musumeci was charged with falsifying evidence in order to incriminate Roberto Fiore and Gabriele Adinolfi, two leaders of Terza Posizione who had fled to London.[9] Both Terza Posizione leaders claimed that Musumeci was trying to divert attention from Licio Gelli, (head of the "masonic" lodge P2).[9]

Licio Gelli and Francesco Pazienza were convicted of obstructing the investigation, as were Generals Pietro Musumeci, and Giuseppe Belmonte of SISMI.

Prosecution and trial

The attack has been attributed to the NAR (Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari), a neo-fascist terrorist organization. A long and controversial court case began after the bombing. Francesca Mambro and Giuseppe Fioravanti were sentenced to life imprisonment.

In April 2007 the Supreme Court confirmed the conviction of Luigi Ciavardini, a NAR member associated closely with close ties to Terza Posizione. Ciavardini received a 30-year prison sentence for his role in the attack.[10] Ciavardini had been arrested following the armed robbery of the Banca Unicredito di Roma on 15 September 2005.[11][12] Ciavardini was also charged with the assassination of Francesco Evangelista on 28 May 1980, and the assassination of Judge Mario Amato on 23 June 1980.[12]

On 26 August 1980, the prosecutor of Bologna issued twenty-eight arrest warrants against far right militants of the NAR and Terza Posizione. Among those arrested were: Massimo Morsello (future founders of Forza Nuova), Francesca Mambro, Aldo Semerari, Maurizio Neri and Fascist militant Paolo Signorelli. They were interrogated in Ferrara, Rome, Padua and Parma. All were released from prison in 1981.

Main stages of the trial:

On 12 February 1992 the United Sections of the Criminal Court of Cassation acquitted Roberto Rinani and Paolo Signorelli from the charge of murder (Signorelli is also acquitted for armed gang and subversive association). It also acquitted a number of other defendants od various charges, cancelled the judgment and ordered a new trial. The Court of Cassation declared the appeal process must be redone, because the sentences were deemed "illogical, incoherent, not assessing proofs and evidence in good terms, not taking into account the facts preceding and following the event, unmotivated or poorly motivated, in some parts the judges supporting unlikely arguments that not even the defense had argued".

In April 1998, Francesca Mambro was authorized to leave her prison during the day, and carried out activities against the death penalty in the headquarters of the Radical Party.[14]

In June 2000, Massimo Carminati (NAR member), Ivano Bongiovanni (thug with sympathy for far-right) and Federigo Manucci Benincasa (SISMI officer) were convicted for obstruction. Carminati and Manucci Benincasa were acquitted for lack of evidence in December 2001, while the use of Bongiovanni is declared unreliable (the conviction becomes final).[15] On 30 January 2003, the Court of Cassation finally acquitted Carminati and Manucci Benincasa.

Alternative hypotheses

Funerals of the victims.

Due to the protracted legal procedures over the years and the numerous proven false leads, there developed a number of assumptions and divergent political interpretations around to the real perpetrators and masterminds of the attack.

Italy since the birth of the First Republic was, as everyone knows, a country with limited sovereignty (...) now, when, for immediate issues ( ...) has – rarely – made choices that have been found contrary to the covenants to which I said, it made, as said in a mafia-political-diplomatic terms, a sgarro, a "bad mistake". And like in the mafia when a kid is wrong he ends up in some concrete pillar or is deprived of a relative (commonly called "cross-revenge"), so it is among states: When any country is wrong, one does not declare war, but it sends a "warning", as a bomb exploding in a square, on a train, a ship, etc. etc.

Legacy

Plaque at the Bologna Central Station

The municipality of Bologna together with the Associazione tra i familiari delle vittime della strage alla stazione di Bologna del 2 agosto 1980 hold an annual international composition competition, which culminates with a concert in the town's main square, Piazza Maggiore annually on 2 August, which is also the day designated as a national memorial day for all terrorist massacres.

The area of the station where the bomb detonated has been reconstructed but, as a memorial of the attack, the original floor tile pierced by the detonation has been left in place and a deep crack closed by a glass panel has been made in the reconstructed main wall. As a further memorial, the station clock that stopped at 10:25 due to the explosion, has been repaired but permanently set at that time.

List of victims and their ages

  • Antonella Ceci, 19
  • Angela Marino, 23
  • Leo Luca Marino, 25
  • Domenica Marino, 26
  • Errica Frigerio, 57
  • Vito Diomede Fresa, 62
  • Cesare Francesco Diomede Fresa, 14
  • Anna Maria Bosio, 28
  • Carlo Mauri, 32
  • Luca Mauri, 6
  • Eckhardt Mader, 14
  • Margret Rohrs, 39
  • Kai Mader, 8
  • Sonia Burri, 7
  • Patrizia Messineo, 18
  • Silvana Serravalli, 34
  • Manuela Gallon, 11
  • Natalia Agostini, 40
  • Marina Antonella Trolese, 16
  • Anna Maria Salvagnini, 51
  • Roberto De Marchi, 21
  • Elisabetta Manea, 60
  • Eleonora Geraci, 46
  • Vittorio Vaccaro, 24
  • Velia Carli, 50
  • Salvatore Lauro, 57
  • Paolo Zecchi, 23
  • Viviana Bugamelli, 23
  • Catherine Helen Mitchell, 22
  • John Andrew Kolpinski, 22
  • Angela Fresu, 3
  • Maria Fresu, 24
  • Loredana Molina, 44
  • Angelica Tarsi, 72
  • Katia Bertasi, 34
  • Mirella Fornasari, 36
  • Euridia Bergianti, 49
  • Nilla Natali, 25
  • Franca Dall'Olio, 20
  • Rita Verde, 23
  • Flavia Casadei, 18
  • Giuseppe Patruno, 18
  • Rossella Marceddu, 19
  • Davide Caprioli, 20
  • Vito Ales, 20
  • Iwao Sekiguchi, 20
  • Brigitte Drouhard, 21
  • Roberto Procelli, 21
  • Mauro Alganon, 22
  • Maria Angela Marangon, 22
  • Verdiana Bivona, 22
  • Francisco Gómez Martínez, 23
  • Mauro Di Vittorio, 24
  • Sergio Secci, 24
  • Roberto Gaiola, 25
  • Angelo Priore, 26
  • Onofrio Zappalà, 27
  • Pio Carmine Remollino, 31
  • Gaetano Roda, 31
  • Antonino Di Paola, 32
  • Mirco Castellaro, 33
  • Nazzareno Basso, 33
  • Vincenzo Petteni, 34
  • Salvatore Seminara, 34
  • Carla Gozzi, 36
  • Umberto Lugli, 38
  • Fausto Venturi, 38
  • Argeo Bonora, 42
  • Francesco Betti, 44
  • Mario Sica, 44
  • Pier Francesco Laurenti, 44
  • Paolino Bianchi, 50
  • Vincenzina Sala, 50
  • Berta Ebner, 50
  • Vincenzo Lanconelli, 51
  • Lina Ferretti, 53
  • Romeo Ruozi, 54
  • Amorveno Marzagalli, 54
  • Antonio Francesco Lascala, 56
  • Rosina Barbaro, 58
  • Irene Breton, 61
  • Pietro Galassi, 66
  • Lidia Olla, 67
  • Maria Idria Avati, 80
  • Antonio Montanari, 86

Victims' association

Relatives of the victims formed an association (Associazione dei familiari delle vittime della strage alla stazione di Bologna del 2 agosto 1980) to raise and maintain civil awareness about the case. The victims' association (Associazione tra i familiari delle vittime della strage alla stazione di Bologna del 2 agosto 1980) was formed on 1 June 1981 in order to "get due justice with possible initiatives", made up initially of 44 people; the number of members later grew to 300 elements.

The association in the years following the massacre remained active, both for the memory of the massacre and to propose initiatives that were added to the investigation. Quarterly, its components are used to go to the court, in order to meet prosecutors and, out of the meeting, even launching a news conference for information on the state of things.

On 6 April 1983, the Association, together with the associations of victims of the massacres of Piazza Fontana, Piazza della Loggia and Italicus train, formed, based in Milan, the Union of Relatives of Victims to Massacres (Unione dei Familiari delle Vittime per Stragi).[27]

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Neofascist bombing at Bologna (1980).

References

  1. ↑ "1980: Bologna blast leaves dozens dead", BBC News
  2. ↑ La storia d'Italia, Vol. 23, Dagli anni di piombo agli anni 80, Torino, 2005, pag. 587
  3. ↑ Davies, Peter, Jackson, Paul (2008). The far right in Europe: an encyclopedia. Greenwood World Press, p. 238. ISBN 1846450039
  4. ↑ "'95 Percent Sure' Station Blast Was Terror Bomb". Associated Press. 3 August 1980.
  5. ↑ Carlo Lucarelli, Blu notte La strage di Bologna (in Italian).
  6. ↑ "Police search starts for Bologna bombers". The Globe and Mail. 5 August 1980.
  7. ↑ "Neo-Fascists 'Prefer Massacre'". Reuters. 6 August 1980.
  8. ↑ Ferraresi, Franco. Threats to Democracy, Princeton University Press, 2012, p. 260,n.53 ISBN 9781400822119
  9. 1 2 René Monzat, Enquêtes sur la droite extrême, Le Monde-éditions, 1992, p.89
  10. ↑ "Bologna bomber's 30-year jail term confirmed". Associated Press. 11 April 2007.
  11. ↑ "Strage di Bologna, 30 anni a Ciavardini—Cassazione conferma la condanna all'ex Nar", la Repubblica, 11 April 2007 (in Italian).
  12. 1 2 "Arrestato l'estremista nero Ciavardini per una rapina a mano armata", la Repubblica, 10 October 2006 (in Italian).
  13. 1 2 3 4 Sergio Zavoli, La notte della Repubblica, Nuova Eri, 1992 (in Italian).
  14. ↑ Anne Hanley, "Bologna bomber slips back into society", The Independent, 16 April 1998 on-line (in English).
  15. ↑ "Bologna, due assoluzioni in appello Per la strage non ci fu depistaggio". la Repubblica. 22 December 2001.
  16. ↑ Latto, Maria Rita. "The Massacre of Bologna... 30 Years Later", i-Italy, 2 August 2010
  17. ↑ Dossier.
  18. ↑ "Il giallo della strage di Bologna. Ecco le prove della pista araba", il Giornale, 22 October 2007 (in Italian).
  19. ↑ "Strage Bologna: Cossiga, forse atto del terrorismo arabo" Archived 7 August 2009 at the Wayback Machine.
  20. ↑ "La strage di Bologna, fu un incidente della resistenza palestinese", Corriere della Sera, 8 July 2008 (in Italian).
  21. ↑ "Our World: The convenient war against the Jews" Archived 12 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine., Jerusalem Post, 6 October 2008.
  22. ↑ , Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
  23. ↑ "A Bologna a colpire furono Cia e Mossad. Carlos: utilizzati giovani neofascisti, però per me Mambro e Fioravanti sono innocenti", Corriere della Sera, 23 November 2005 (in Italian).
  24. ↑ "Denuncian que Almirón también participó en la ultraderecha española" Archived 27 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine., Telam Argentine news agency, 6 January 2007 (in Spanish).
  25. ↑ "Strage di Bologna. Parla il figlio di Sparti, testimone chiave dell'accusa: «Mio padre ha sempre mentito»", Il Sole 24 Ore, 24 May 2007 (in Italian).
  26. ↑ "Svolta sulla strage del Due Agosto Indagati due terroristi tedeschi", la Repubblica, 19 August 2011 (in Italian).
  27. ↑ The Association was responsible, together with other associations of victims of massacres the publication of the book entitled Il terrorismo e le sue maschere published by Pendragon in Bologna

Further reading

Coordinates: 44°30′22″N 11°20′32″E / 44.50611°N 11.34222°E / 44.50611; 11.34222

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