Italy halts to mourn victims of Iraqi attack

Updated November 18, 2003 23:17:00

Italy ground to a halt on Tuesday from the Alps to Sicily as the nation bade an emotional farewell to 19 Italians killed in Iraq in its worst military slaughter since World War II.

As tears flowed at a state funeral mass in Rome, a cardinal told the packed congregation that Christians had to love their enemies, even if they were "terrorist assassins".

Minutes of silence were observed, stores pulled down their shutters and millions of people in schools and offices followed the funeral which was shown live on most television stations.

President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi led the nation in mourning at St Paul's Basilica, Rome's second-largest church, where the 19 wooden coffins rested on a red carpet in front of the altar.

Seconds before the solemn mass started an elderly man went to the microphone and said in a distraught voice: "My God, my God, so much suffering for nothing".

Most Italians opposed the US-led invasion of Iraq and many had mixed feelings about the subsequent deployment of some 2,700 Italian troops to the country once Baghdad had fallen.

However last Wednesday's suicide attack on a Carabinieri military police barracks in the southern city of Nasiriyah has united the nation in grief and Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has vowed that the Italian contingent will remain in Iraq.

Mr Berlusconi and other leaders gave the plush seats that had been prepared for them to relatives of the dead and most of the politicians sat instead on wooden chairs.

Nearly all of the 20 Italians wounded in the Nasiriyah strike also attended the funeral mass.

Some wore bandages and at least one was on crutches.

Thousands of Italians who could not get into the ornate basilica watched the mass on large screens outside.

Love your enemies

In his sermon, Cardinal Camillo Ruini, Pope John Paul's vicar for Rome, said not even "terrorist assassins" should make Christians deviate from the dictate to love their enemies.

"We won't run from them but face them with all our courage, energy and determination. But we will not hate them," he said.

"Instead, we will not stop trying to make them understand (that Italy is committed) to human co-existence where there is space and dignity for every people, culture and religion."

Tens of thousands of men, women and children lined the streets as the flag-draped coffins on army trucks, accompanied by a cavalry escort, skirted around the Colosseum and headed towards the huge basilica on the fringes of the city.

"Our hearts are as big as our heroes," read one banner.

As the bodies passed, onlookers crossed themselves and threw flowers onto the streets.

Many wept openly for a tragedy that has united the country in grief and swept aside lingering controversy over the conflict in Iraq.

Bells tolled and residents hung the red, white and green national flag from their windows in honour of the 17 military and two Italian civilians who died in the attack.

Nine non-Italians also died in the massacre.

Topics: unrest-conflict-and-war, italy, iraq

First posted November 18, 2003 19:47:00