CORRESPONDENTS' CORRESPONDENCE
Correspondents' Corresponaence BRIEF TAKEOUTS OF MORE THAN PERSONAL INTEREST FROM LETTERS AND OTHER COMMUNICATIONS RECEIVED BY THE EDITORS. Italy in the Gulf Rome—Amid assurances ad...
...Italy in the Gulf Rome—Amid assurances ad nauseam of neutrality and absolute nonbelligerent from Christian Democratic (DC) Prime Minister Giovanni Goria and Foreign Minister Giulio Andreotti, Italy has sent a fleet of three frigates, three minesweepers and one support ship into the Persian Gulf to protect its tankers operating in that explosive area...
...Instead of promptly cooperating with the United States Navy and at the same time voicing support for UN peace efforts, the Goria leadership pretended that the two actions were mutually exclusive...
...What could have been a serious discussion of an important but circumscribed foreign policy issue outside the framework of old alliances too often degenerated into little more than an exchange of highblown insults, strictly for domestic consumption...
...Aside from the patronizing character of "good boy" pats on the back from a bigger power to a smaller, if somebody had to be praised it should have been Craxi for his fight against the "strange bedfellowship" of foot-dragging Christian Democrats and Communists (PCI...
...The collaboration, which evolved under pressure from Washington, was launched back in June 1986 with the signing of a formal accord between the International Air Transport Association, an organization headquartered in Montreal representing the airlines, and the CCC...
...and pro-Atlanticist Christian Democrats, but from former Prime Minister Bettino Craxi's Socialists (PSI) and the minor Center-Left parties in the governing coalition...
...The upsurge in the region's output of the deadly drug is an indirect consequence of the revolution in Iran, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and the decline of opium production in the "Golden Triangle" of Burma, Thailand and Laos...
...It puts airline personnel, for the first time, in the front line of drug detection: They now conduct checks for illicit substances before and sometimes during flights, and are encouraged to note irregularities in the behavior of passengers and the documentation of cargo...
...Small wonder that the citizens of a mature democracy have not been engaged by such tired clichés.—Silvio F. Senigallia Mideast Drug Busting Brussels—The Middle East's "Golden Crescent, "comprising parts of Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan, has recently emerged as a cheap and abundant source of high-quality heroin...
...In any case, the wily, Pilate-like stance did not ward off an Iranian attack on Italian shipping...
...Evidently the Italian people are content to leave the shaping of the nation's foreign policy to politicians...
...The airlines have also agreed to develop a system for preventing the use of compartments in aircraft for concealing contraband...
...Those advocating direct measures were labeled "warmongers" and "imperialists...
...Principal aims include: Preventing drugs from being smuggled on board...
...As pointed out by Paolo Garimberti, foreign policy commentator for the Rome daily Reppublica, the Italian government's decision to send an adequate task force to the Gulf was sound, but it was made too late and in the wrong way...
...Deterring them from involvement in illicit trafficking...
...Even if measures such as these are successful in reducing the flow of heroin from the Golden Crescent to the West, the Middle East itself will have to contend with an unhappy legacy of its drug production—namely, the disastrous rise in local addiction...
...Guidelines to help the merchant marine combat the flow of heroin are being jointly prepared by the CCC, the International Chamber of Shipping, and the United Nations Maritime Organization...
...Both inside and outside of Parliament, politicians delivered overdramatized and longwinded speeches that tried to make Italy's role in the Gulf—slightly more than marginal, in reality—seem like a major international factor...
...Now that some of the impressive results of the accord between the customs authorities and the airlines are in, a move is under way to extend the program to cover commercial shippers as well...
...Certainly Goria and his foreign minister did not deserve the praise lavished on them by the Reagan Administration when the announcement was officially made that Italy would send warships to the Gulf...
...Heroin was hardly consumed in the area before 1980...
...In Parliamentary debate the DCs and PCIs echoed each others' calls for a hands-off policy in the Gulf and urged that protection of navigation there be entrusted to the United Nations —despite the World Organization's well-known slowness and limited effectiveness...
...Thus the Italian government, which apparently has yet to learn that under-the-counter dealings with terrorist regimes never pay, ended up taking hastily and with insufficient preparation the defensive measures it had deliberately postponed and even decried...
...Determining what actions should be taken by ship operators and crewmen when drugs are found aboard their vessels...
...He neglected, however, to confront the question of why Italy should not feel free to defend its own shipping interests, let alone what it might do in the meantime ifan Italian tanker were sunk or simply fired on again while crossing the Gulf...
...now Pakistan alone has over 500,000 addicts.—Thomas Land...
...Consignments of the drug packed in condoms are transported in the stomachs, colons and vaginas of couriers, several of whom have succumbed to liver or kidney failure when their packages ruptured...
...The poor timing was compounded by the official ambivalence surrounding the sendoff of the fleet, and the eagerness to let all and sundry know that it would turn back as soon as the UN succeeded in cooling of f the conflict between Iran and Iraq...
...Those favoring a wait-andsee attitude toward Italian military involvement were accused of lacking senso dello stato—"national consciousness," whatever that means...
...pressure...
...Customs officials, for their part, have taken on the task of assisting the airlines in upgrading their security procedures by providing material support and specialist training, and by identifying high-risk flights...
...The gangs spread the risk and work by arranging for couriers to pass off the contraband in passenger lounges in the course of air and sea journeys involving multiple switching of destinations...
...Lately, a little-known cooperative agreement between the Brussels-based Customs Cooperation Council (CCC) and the world's airlines has led to spectacular successes in the campaign to staunch this trafficking...
...Goria declared that the move, virtually unavoidable after the strafing of the Italian freighter Jolly Rubino by an Iranian (although officially unidentified) speedboat, was made "without enthusiasm...
...Whatever the nuanced differences in their basic motives, one could not help being struck by the convergence between the PCI and large sectors of the DC party on Gulf policy, especially when the arch-neutralist DC Senator Elio Rosati was warmly embraced at the end of his speech by PCI Floor Leader Ugo Pecchioli...
...Nor did the announcement that an Italian company had sold a large quantity of mines to the Teheran regime add a reassuring touch to the whole operation...
...Oddly enough, the impetus for dispatching the Italian ships to the Gulf came not from Goria's traditionally pro-U.S...
...Notwithstanding the neutralist rhetoric, the hard fact is that the Communists and many Christian Democrats did not want to send Italian warships to the Persian Gulf because of their proArab slant...
...Moreover, it claimed that its "privileged dialogue" with Iran was beneficial to the Western cause...
...Discouraging drug abuse by seafarers...
...Andreotti, in fact, tried to block the departure of the fleet up to the last minute...
...The revelation has led to the arrest of more than 100 heroin-carrying Nigerians at various Western European airports...
...Had Italy stuck to this dilatory and ambiguous course much longer, it would have lost all credibility with its allies—not a welcome prospect for a country anxious to remain in good standing in the exclusive club of leading Western industrial nations...
...These measures may seem modest, but they have already helped crack a syndicate believed responsible for the smuggling of $400 million worth of Middle Eastern heroin to Western Europe and North America, and enabled authorities to pinpoint security loopholes...
...The DCs are sensitive to oil supply considerations, and are not immune to the influence of the Vatican...
...they prefer to concentrate their attention on domestic issues, especially those affecting their pocketbooks...
...To be sure, Andreotti's persistent objections were overruled, yet not before the operation was carefully coated in a plethora of caveats, qualifications and limitations...
...In addition, they are responsible for monitoring access to company facilities, aircraft, baggage, and mail...
...Once the fleet had departed, however, the Communists repeatedly lit into the majority party for yielding to alleged U.S...
...Even after the attack on the Jolly Rubino the DCs showed only moderate determination...
...Channeling the Middle Eastern heroin to lucrative markets in the West is the business of international gangs of smugglers...
...As for the PCIs, they are only slightly more likely to take Ronald Reagan's side against the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini than they are to take Yitzchak Shamir's against the Palestine Liberation Organization...
...Their apathy may have something to do with the quality of the national debate...
...This came as something of a surprise: Since Nigeria was not known for significant heroin abuse, ships and aircraft to and from Lagos had never been subjected to rigorous drug checks...
...For example, it has been discovered that Lagos, the capital of Nigeria and a busy seaport, is the principal staging post for Pakistani heroin smuggled to the West...
...Improving the methods for locating drug caches on ships...
...No action should be taken, he argued, while the UN was exploring diplomatic approaches to bringing about a cease-fire between Iran and Iraq...
...This deliberate "minimization" of the expedition did not make it more palatable to the Italian sailors involved...
...In spite of massive press coverage and the heated debate among the political parties, public opinion has not been particularly aroused by the Persian Gulf issue, save for a day or two following the strafing of the Jolly Rubino...
Vol. 70 • October 1987 • No. 15
