In a Trough of Trouble Again

By John Nielsen

More terrorism, hardship and scandal provoke gloom

In the maximum security prison of Irani in southern Italy, 70 inmates held on suspicion of terrorism had risen up in rebellion, seized 18 guards as hostages and taken over a prison wing. Their sweeping demands for exchange of the hostages included the closing of all nine of the country's maximum security prisons and the abolition of new antiterrorist laws. The demands were not met. Instead, one afternoon last week two helicopters loaded with specially trained troopers landed on the prison roof at the same instant that a squad of carabinieri on the ground blew open the prison doors and stormed inside. Just 25 hours after it began, the revolt had been smashed. Four prisoners and 23 hostages and security men were injured in the attack, but none seriously.

For once the government in Rome appeared to have acted swiftly and effectively. But the lightning raid on Trani prison was about the only message of holiday cheer for Italy's beleaguered Prime Minister Arnaldo Forlani. The satisfaction turned out to be sadly short-lived. Just two days after the success, terrorists struck again, this time outside prison walls in Rome. Two teenagers, posing as delivery boys, gunned down Carabinieri General Enrico Galvaligi, 61, as he and his wife returned home from New Year's Eve Mass. The slain general had been in charge of external security for Italian prisons.

The New Year's Eve killing was a severe additional blow for Forlani's tottering four-party center-left coalition, which has been in office less than three months. The government was already hounded by discontent on all sides as Italy once again descended into a trough of multiple troubles. In southern Italy, 200,000 people shivered in the quake-stricken mountains, their suffering compounded by a corrupt, discredited bureaucracy. A high-ranking judge remained in the hands of his terrorist kidnapers. A Cabinet officer had resigned in a spreading oil-tax scandal which may involve $2.2 billion. The national mood, and respect for political authority, was probably at its lowest point since former Prime Minister Aldo Moro was kidnaped and murdered by the Red Brigades in 1978. A published opinion poll revealed an electorate so disaffected that 55% rejected all of Italy's political parties.

The kidnaping of the judge, carried out once again by the Red Brigades, sadly recalled the Moro affair. The victim in this case was Magistrate Guido Giovanni D'Urso, responsible for overseeing the assignment of prisoners in Italy's penitentiaries. The terrorists struck a fortnight before Christmas and have issued "communiques" with photographs of D'Urso, gaunt and unshaven, seated before a Red Brigades flag and looking much as Moro did during his captivity. The brigatisti have threatened to try him before a "people's court."

The D'Urso affair very nearly toppled a government already divided over a number of other issues. Forlani and his fellow Christian Democrats favored a hard line toward the kidnapers. The Socialists, the No. 2 party in the coalition, favored negotiations, arguing that the drive to crush terrorism should not cost innocent lives. Forlani averted collapse with an eleventh-hour "summit" among the four coalition partners--Christian Democrats, Socialists, Social Democrats and Republicans. He argued that a breakup of the government would constitute a show of weakness in the face of the terrorist attack. The parties agreed and, for the moment, pledged their support.

Forlani's coalition partners have been sidling away from him ever since news of the oil-tax fraud broke last November. About 100 businessmen and high-ranking financial police officers have been arrested on suspicion of having been involved in an elaborate scheme to dodge petroleum taxes by falsifying product invoices and bribing officials. The affair has claimed at least one prominent victim: Minister of Industry and Commerce Antonio Bisaglia, who resigned two weeks before Christmas after being accused of involvement in the scandal. Bisaglia has denied any wrongdoing and a Senate inquiry body, the Jury of Honor, failed to corroborate allegations against him. But the public outrage has badly tarnished the governing party's image.

The alleged tax fraud was still front-page news when last November's earthquake ravaged southern Italy, killing 2,614 people and leaving more than 200,000 homeless. The government was utterly unprepared. It had no emergency earthquake plans, and the necessary equipment and manpower were hundreds of miles away. It did manage to move temporary housing into the quake area, but relief supplies were painfully slow in reaching the remotest villages. Through sheer incompetence, tons of food, clothing and medicine were lost, stolen or left to rot.

By contrast, La Camorra, a Neapolitan version of the Mafia, appeared to be a model of criminal efficiency. Camorra agents pillaged supply convoys and warehouses, distributing some of the goods to its families and friends and selling the rest to quake victims at exorbitant prices. Not surprisingly, the victims were enraged. They pleaded with anyone who would listen to bypass the government and send relief supplies directly to the stricken villages. "This earthquake is a dramatic demonstration of the gap between the people and those who rule them," said Sociologist Franco Ferrarotti. "When there is so little confidence in the country's institutions, it may be the death knell of Italian democracy."

The popular dismay could yet prove to be the last straw for Forlani. The opposition Communists have loudly called for a government of "honest people"-- including some Christian Democrats--that would be charged with overhauling the far-flung and overgrown bureaucracy. But the prospect of a government dominated by the Communists obviously frightens the other parties. Forlani thus seems likely to hang on until a second coalition summit meeting later this month. What happens then is anyone's guess. "This government is extremely weak," says Piero Bassetti, a leading Christian Democrat. "There is no agreement on anything, but there is no alternative. In spite of appearances, no one wants elections."

--By John Nielsen.

Reported by Wilton Wynn/Rome

With reporting by Wilton Wynn/Rome

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