Italy welcomes 'heroes' home

2004-06-09 13:34

Rome - Three Italian hostages freed by coalition forces in Iraq were on Wednesday given an emotional welcome home by family, friends and government officials after nearly two months in captivity.

The plane carrying Maurizio Agliana, 37, Umberto Cupertino, 35, and Salvatore Stefio, 34 arrived at Rome's Ciampino airport shortly after 11:15 (09:15 GMT) from Kuwait City.

The three security guards taken hostage on April 12 by Iraqi insurgents appeared in good health as they stepped down from the plane into the arms of their overjoyed families and the glare of media attention.

Dressed in jeans, they were immediately engulfed in the embrace of their families and friends.

"We're home, we're home," shouted Agliana to a throng of journalists.

Stefio's father, Angelo, who has campaigned for the men's release by carrying the Italian tricolour each time he appeared in public, sank to his knees as he embraced the three men in turn. He was still carrying the flag.

Deputy Prime Minister Gianfranco Fini and Foreign Minister Franco Frattini and Defence Minister Antonio Martino headed the official welcome party, which also included Rome mayor Walter Veltroni.

A fourth hostage, Fabrizio Quattrocchi, was executed after two days by their "Green Brigade" captors to punish Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi for his refusal to withdraw the 3 000-strong Italian military contingent in Iraq, one of the conditions set for their release.

Their captors had also exhorted Italians to take to the streets in protest against the war in Iraq.

After barely half an hour with their families at Ciampino, the men where whisked off by helicopter to a military barracks outside Rome where they were expected to interviewed by Italian prosecutors investigating Quattrochi's death.

The three Italians and a Polish national kidnapped last week were rescued by US and Polish special forces on Tuesday.

The Corriere della Sera newspaper said the news of the release provided a timely boost for Berlusconi's flagging campaign for European and local elections this weekend.

Berlusconi's office contacted media organisations on Tuesday and the prime minister, in the United States for the Group of Eight summit, dominated the airwaves throughout the day with a vague account of the military operation to rescue the men. He said he had personally given the go-ahead for the rescue operation.

"The unbridled satisfaction with which the prime minister greeted the Baghdad raid underlined his sense of victory," the Corriere said in an editorial.

For the centre-left opposition, according to the newspaper, "the joy of the happy ending is accompanied by the fear of the advantage that Berluconi could extract from the hostages' return to Italy".

"I don't want to search for hidden motives, but there is a suspicion of a coincidence too fortuitous given the imminence of the elections," said Greens deputy Paolo Cento.

- AFP