06 October, 2009
A mafia turncoat recently made this revelation,
confirming what Italian environmentalists have been claiming for the past
two decades. Francesco Fonti, a former member of one of Italy's deadliest
and most far-reaching international crime syndicates, the 'Ndrangheta,
recently gave shocking testimony attesting to what a few Italians have
known for years – that the Mediterranean contains many sunken merchant
ships carrying radioactive and poisonous substances.
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"Since the 1990s, scores of investigations have been opened by prosecutors across the country, but for some reason or another the cases were never fully investigated. Since 1991 we've been mapping the locations of sunken ships that may contain toxic waste. We know, and prosecutors know, where these suspected shipwrecks are, but no one, including the State, has ever gone underwater to reveal their contents. But this time the State has to take action", Barillà said. "We not only have the locations of suspected toxic ships, but we have a list of companies that can be called upon to safely pull these containers out of the sea. All the State has to do is ask. It's been some 20 days since we produced proof of the ship and containers Fonti was talking about, which was dumped off Cetraro, and still nothing has been done". Politicians had to have known about the toxic ships being dumped, Barillà says: "It takes approximately 10 hours for ships that big to sink. It's impossible that the port authority or the coast guard never witnessed or reported anything. They were likely paid off to turn a blind eye." What seems as the Italian State's dilatory approach to the situation has enraged regional governments and local populations. Calabrian mayors have threatened to organize protests if the government fails to intervene and take action soon. "We want to know if there is toxic waste. We cannot live with this terror," says Aurelio Garritano, deputy mayor of Longobardi. Local citizens are also making desperate calls for government action. "We want to be sure that the fish we buy from local markets doesn't have toxic substances, that the tap water we drink isn't polluted, that the air we breathe doesn't have traces of radioactive dust and that bathing in the sea doesn't pose a risk", says Maria, a young mother of three young children who lives just 10 kilometers away from the town of Cetraro. Scientific tests and satellite images carried out in the region reveal high levels of toxins and radioactive substances in areas along the Oliva River, located near the seaside town of Cetraro. Doctors and politicians have recently noted a sharp increase in the incidence of tumors and other pollution-related diseases among people living in these areas. Bruno Giornado, the public prosecutor in the nearby town of Paola, recently told Italian media that this rise in tumors may be caused by the toxic contents of a ship that was sunk near the mouth of the Oliva River back in the 1990s. Marco, a teenager who lives just 20 kilometers from Cetraro, hopes State officials act soon, not only to find out how many ships there are and what's in them, but also to crack down on the local mafia. "Everyone knows about the mafia, but we never talk about it here. Now with the news that these toxic ships may cause irreversible damage to our coast and land, and even kill people, Calabrians might start to speak out. It's different when the mafia's reach touches you personally. If they poison the land and they automatically poison the people, the people will start to fight back. The State, too, can no longer remain silent, especially because there are so many of us facing a death sentence." For over twenty years these toxic ships have laid silent at the bottom of the Mediterranean, threatening both sea and land. After years of investigations, it's time that this inconvenient truth be brought to the surface, Barillà remarks. "We won't know the real effects of these so-called toxic ships for at least another twenty years, but by then it could be too late." Brenda Dionisi for RT
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