November 12 is a day of remembrance
and must not be sullied by making a classification of the dead,
Defence Minister Guido Crosetto said on Sunday.
"Even after 20 years, the State does not forget the people who
have served it," said the minister, referring to the victims of
the November 12, 2003 bombing at the Italian Nassiriya military
base in Iraq in which 28 people including 19 Italians - 17
military personnel and two civilians - died.
"Today is a time of remembrance, it is not right to make a
classification of the dead. There is no such thing as A and B
grade victims," he continued, responding indirectly to relatives
of the Nassiriya victims who recently called for their dead
loved ones to be awarded the gold medal of military valour.
"The moment of remembrance must not be sullied.
"Today we are commemorating the 20th anniversary of the
Nassiriya deaths, but we are (also) remembering all the fallen,
both civilian and military," said Crosetto after a Mass
celebrated in the Roman Basilica of Santa Maria in Aracoeli in
suffrage of the military and civilians who died in international
peace missions.
Last Monday Marco Intravaia, son of Vice Brigadiere Domenico
Intravaia, one of the soldiers killed in the Nassiriya attack,
appealed to President Sergio Mattarella, Premier Giorgia Meloni
and Crosetto to grant the fallen of Nassiriya the gold medal for
military valour in their memory.
"November 12 marks the 20th anniversary of the Nassiriya attack,
the biggest massacre of Italian soldiers since the second world
war," said Intravaia.
"On this occasion, we would have expected a different
level of sensitivity to what my father and the other victims did
for the State, by deciding to remain in Iraq despite the high
risk they were exposed to, a choice they paid for with their
lives," he continued.
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