Italians Troubled by Role in NATO Raids

As NATO jets climbed into drizzly skies here Friday for new raids on Yugoslavia, Adriano Fieroli and his 11-year-old nephew, Alessandro, stopped under the flight path to watch in awe with scores of other curious passersby.

The boy, standing outside Aviano Air Base and holding a cell phone, asked for President Clinton’s number so he could ask his permission to get on the base. “I want to see one of the black ones,” he said, referring to the U.S. Air Force F-117A Stealth aircraft operating from here.

But the spectacle of so much U.S. and allied air power being launched from this country against its neighbor across the Adriatic Sea was troubling to the boy’s uncle and to many other Italians, who want the offensive to end.

“Being part of NATO, I understand that we have an obligation to take part in these operations,” said Fieroli, who lives near Venice and was driving across northern Italy on a weekend trip. “But in some cases there are serious moral questions, and this is one of them.

“Certainly, this action is aimed at stopping a massacre,” he added. “But at the same time, we don’t want to cause another one.”

Such qualms about Operation Allied Force, which began Wednesday, have been voiced in scattered parts of Europe. The assault aims to neutralize Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic’s brutal crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists in Kosovo, a rebellious province of the dominant Yugoslav republic, Serbia.

Greece, which shares an Orthodox Christian heritage with Serbia, on Friday became the first North Atlantic Treaty Organization member to call for a halt in the bombing. Its air force is not participating.

As a Greek government spokesman voiced the appeal, about 15,000 protesters, some chanting “Clinton, Fascist, Murderer!” and burning American flags, marched on the U.S. Embassy in Athens, where riot police turned them back with tear gas and fire hoses.

Italian opposition to the bombing has been expressed more quietly, but it matters far more.

With 11 NATO bases on its territory, Italy is at the heart of the allied campaign. Most of the 400 aircraft sent by 13 nations to take part in the raids are being deployed, with Italy’s approval, from bases in the northeastern and southern parts of the country.

From runways at the foot of the Italian Alps, Aviano dispatched about 70 planes after dark Friday--the busiest night at the busiest base of the operation. The aircraft included the Stealth bombers; F-15E, F-16 and F/A-18 fighter jets; and EA-6B Prowlers, planes that seek out and destroy air defenses.

Along a road by the base, Italians stopped their cars, popped open umbrellas and watched the spectacle through binoculars or telescopes. The chain-link fence surrounding the base was hung with green mesh--a security measure added after local pacifists marched Sunday to protest the presence of NATO aircraft.

An opinion survey published Friday by the Rome newspaper Il Tempo showed that 46% of Italians are “unfavorable” toward the raids while 39% hold favorable views.

Italians are worried by Yugoslav claims that the raids are killing civilians and by the threats of a wider Balkan war, Serbian retaliation and an unbearable burden of war refugees.

Italy’s center-left government is also divided, with Communists threatening to pull out. Its hesitancy to back raids against Milosevic was compounded March 4 by popular outrage over a U.S. military court’s exoneration of an American pilot whose Aviano-based Prowler sliced a ski cable during a training flight in the Italian Alps last year, killing 20.

Italy went along with the operation, but Prime Minister Massimo d’Alema is still walking a tightrope between NATO partners and critics at home. After suggesting Thursday that it was time for force to give way to diplomacy, D’Alema won parliamentary support Friday to keep taking part in the raids while lobbying for new peace talks.

“The negotiating table must remain open, even at such a dramatic moment,” he said.

But Americans at Aviano said they were readying for a prolonged operation. At a tent city built for 1,000 U.S. Navy, Air Force and Marine personnel brought in for the air raids, men and women in uniform were busy Friday installing lockers--the latest in a growing array of comforts that include a gym, rented cell phones and computers for e-mailing home.

“We’ve lived year-round in tents in Kuwait, and we can do it here,” said Air Force Master Sgt. Jim Hynes. Hot weather is months away, but “we’ll air-condition these tents if we have to,” he added.

Outside the fence, Carmello Pessot, 49, an Italian construction worker who helped build Aviano’s runways two decades ago, came to watch the warplanes take off.

“I hope this war ends soon without serious consequences,” he said. “But I’m afraid it’s going to continue for a while.”