Italians March for Abducted Reporter’s Release

In an enormous, politically charged outpouring, tens of thousands of Italians marched through the capital Saturday demanding the freedom of a journalist kidnapped in Iraq.

The demonstration, which ended at Circus Maximus, site of chariot races more than 2,000 years ago, was not attended by representatives of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s government. The kidnapped reporter, Giuliana Sgrena, works for Il Manifesto, a communist newspaper, and many participants were there to protest Italy’s presence in Iraq as much as to plea for Sgrena’s release.

“I think this demonstration is useless, and maybe even risky for the life of the journalist,” said Roberto Calderoli, a minister in Berlusconi’s center-right Cabinet. He added that he feared the march would turn into an anti-government and anti-U.S. rant.

But that kind of sentiment did not go over well with many Italians.

“What this extraordinary day shows us is the great spirit of solidarity that everyone feels,” Rome Mayor Walter Veltroni said.

Although at least eight Italians have been kidnapped in Iraq, including a journalist who was killed, each new abduction shocks the national psyche. Sgrena has been front-page news since her capture Feb. 4. A videotape surfaced Wednesday in which she begged for her life between sobs and called on Italy to withdraw its forces. Although public opinion was strongly opposed to the U.S. war in Iraq, Berlusconi sent about 3,000 troops, one of the largest foreign contingents.

Politicians have generally closed ranks in these cases, despite their differences over Berlusconi’s Iraq policy. But with elections on the horizon, the debate has become sharper. The day Sgrena’s tape was released, the Parliament voted to renew its mission in Iraq through June amid an unusual amount of dissent.

So it was inevitable that politics would inform Saturday’s demonstration.

“The liberation of Giuliana and the end of the war, these things are linked,” said Gabriele Polo, editor of Il Manifesto. Sgrena is the publication’s Middle East correspondent.

Romano Prodi, former president of the European Commission and head of a center-left coalition, is likely to be Berlusconi’s main challenger in next year’s general election. His presence at the demonstration, he said, was a duty that all Italians shared.

“Today’s march shows that the entire nation is close to Mrs. Sgrena,” Prodi said.

Calderoli, from Berlusconi’s camp, said opposition politicians had used a “tragic episode” as a large campaign ad.

The demonstration attracted a diverse bunch. Members of leftist labor unions marched alongside people with rainbow-colored flags, Iraqi flags and Arab Italian women in hijab, or head scarves. There were children as well as elderly people. Many waved large pictures of the 56-year-old hostage and banners calling for her release and for peace in Iraq.

Sgrena’s parents, her companion, Pier Scolari, and her colleagues led the procession, which began in central Rome’s Piazza della Repubblica and wound its way past churches, monuments and parks. At the Michelangelo-designed Piazza Campidoglio, which houses City Hall, onlookers applauded as the demonstrators passed.

In a rare gesture, the Colosseum was lighted Saturday night as a sign of support.

Simona Torretta, an aid worker who was held captive in Iraq for three weeks in September, was spotted at the march.

Organizers said the event was also meant to show solidarity with French journalist Florence Aubenas and her Iraqi driver, Hussein Hanoun Saadi, who have been missing since early January.

A spokesman for the government said officials were doing everything “politically and humanly” possible to secure Sgrena’s release. There have been rumors, which were denied by the government, that Italy has paid ransoms to free hostages in Iraq.

The Vatican, meanwhile, said it had tried but failed to make contact with Sgrena’s kidnappers. Roman Catholic Church officials in Iraq “knocked on all doors to get in,” said Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo, the Vatican’s foreign minister, “but all in vain.”