The arrest of three officials of an aid ship from which 37 Africans disembarked onto the Sicilian coast provoked an outcry Tuesday, with aid groups and the Vatican saying the arrests violated humanitarian principles.
"Legume! Round up all the usual media and NGO suspects!"
"Inspector, are they under arrest?"
"No, you ee-diot, there's a press conference!" |
The ship run by the German aid agency Cap Anamur had been stranded at sea since June 20. On Monday, after weeks of debate over who should accept the Africans, the ship won permission to dock in Sicily. Italian authorities immediately arrested the ship's captain, its first mate, and the head of the aid agency. Prosecutors say they aided illegal immigration. Police said some of the Africans had claimed they were from Sudan's troubled Darfur region, which the United Nations has described as having the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. But the ANSA news agency said authorities had determined that 30 of the men were from Ghana, six from Nigeria and one from Niger. Officials could not be reached late Tuesday to confirm the report.
| Oops! Learn to read a map, folks. |
The Rev. Guido Sarducci Cosimo Spadavecchia, a priest who spent three days on the ship and spoke to the Africans in Arabic and English, earlier insisted they were Sudanese - or at least from a conflict zone. He cited their psychological distress and "the emotions they showed: crying, shouting, and threatening to jump into the sea."
| That would be enough to convince the average left-leaning Euro. |
"When they came to the center, they were shown a map to indicate where they came from and they put a finger on a place that wasn't Sudan," he explained. But he argued that this was due to the their lack of education. ... Their hope is just that they can find some freedom here, educate themselves, and then perhaps bring all 300 members of their extended family to Italy at government expense return," he said.
In Germany officials expressed dismay at the arrest. A spokeswoman of the Foreign Minister in Berlin said an official was sent to Sicily "to provide consular support for those involved." "Humanitarian actions must not be criminalized," said a joint statement from Germany's federal Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul and Harald Schartau, the economics minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, where the Cap Anamur organization is based.
| "It is their feelings that are most important!" |
The Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, said Tuesday that "carrying out the duty of rescuing people, whatever their nationality, always takes priority." "Political reasoning ... can come later," it said.
| Assuming that there is any. |
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