1991, January 21 - Interrogation of Maurizio Cocciolone, prisoner in Iraq
The dramatic images of Maurizio Cocciolone—shot down over Iraq with Gianmarco Bellini and held prisoner in a war that Italy officially calls a "police operation"—enter Italian homes with all their violence on January 21, 1991. Mimmo Liguoro, presenting the news program /g/2 at 20:00, emphasizes his outrage at the media and propaganda use of the prisoner, which violates the 1949 Geneva Convention [articles 3-1c and 13, see http://it.wikisource.org/wiki/Trattam... ]. Liguoro specifies that he is showing "this document for informational purposes."
00:56 Beginning of questioning [the translation used in the news is reported]:
Can you tell us your rank, name, and nationality?
My name is Maurizio Cocciolone, I'm a captain in the Italian Air Force.
How old are you?
I'm thirty.
Can you tell us which unit you belong to?
My unit is the 155th Squadron, stationed at the United Arab Emirates base.
What type of aircraft did you fly?
It's a Tornado.
What was your mission?
To attack an ammunition depot in southern Iraq.
How was it shot down?
We don't know exactly. It was fired from Iraqi soil.
What is your opinion on war and aggression against Iraq?
War is the wrong way to solve a political problem. War is a bad thing. I believe the best solution is to find political and peaceful means to end the conflict.
Do you have a message to convey?
I believe the only message I can convey is to my political leaders. Solving a problem with war is always foolish. We must find—now—a political solution to this war.
I also have something to say to my parents, to my family: "Don't worry. I'm quite well here. They're taking care of me. Thank you."
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Watching this interview twenty years later, aside from the impression made by Captain Cocciolone's young age and the obvious signs of the harsh physical and psychological treatment he was subjected to, what is striking is the dignity with which he managed to withstand it, without resorting to invective against those who had sent him on the mission and without mentioning the "aggression" against Iraq (as his captors expected and as other Allied pilots did). Cocciolone limited himself to a general condemnation of the war, using almost exactly the same words he had used in the interview conducted by Franco Ferrari—before the hostilities—at Al Dhafra, the base of the Italian Locusta mission.
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Cocciolone would be subjected to a second public interrogation—formally an Iraqi TV interview with a staid, plainclothes host—broadcast on Italian television on January 24, 1991.
With a more polished appearance and a clean-shaven face, the captive captain once again limited himself to general statements such as: "I'm very lucky to still be alive."