Helping an Italian journalist to be released can be a dangerous business.
Emergency, an Italian humanitarian organisation, played a key role in the liberation of the Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo, who was kidnapped in Afghanistan on March 6th and released on the 18th. Three days later, Emergency says, Rahmatullah Hanefi, one of their staff was arrested by the Afghan security service and may be being tortured.
The Italian media always react strongly against kidnapping of Italian citizens, but this time the reaction was enormous. First, Mastrogiacomo was a reporter of the second most important Italian newspaper, La Repubblica. The newspaper waged a strong campaign to free him, supported across the media.
Second, Prodi’s government collapsed some weeks ago because the upper chamber couldn’t agree to back Italy’s military presence in Afghanistan. (The government was eventually re-established and the mission approved a few days ago).
Last but not least, the Taliban was convinced that Mastrogiacomo had been collaborating with western intelligence services. The Taliban said they found a satellite mobile phone and a laser hidden in a shampoo bottle, both provided by western intelligence services. That was enough for them to execute Mastrogiacomo’s driver — and for Italians to fear that Mastrogiacomo was the next on the list.
Mr Matrogiacomo was released in exchange for five Taliban prisoners, including the brother of the top Taliban military commander Mullah Dadullah. NATO allies raised concerns about the deal, but it is hard to believe that Taliban prisoners could be released without the authorization of NATO forces.
However, there was friction between Emergency and the NATO/Afghan forces, and on March 20 the Afghan government decided to arrest Mr Hanefi, the Afghan manager of Emergency’s hospital in Lashkargah. (Emergency has run hospitals in Afghanistan since before the NATO forces arrived.)
Indeed, Emergency played an important role, through its contacts, in freeing Mr Mastrogiacomo, who was eventually handed over to the organisation. Emergency says it has information that Mr Hanefi is being tortured.
Please read the petition and sign the petition for Hanefi’s release here. It can be signed by clicking at the end of this page, under “subscribe”.
