Petition: Stop celebrating fascist war criminals!
A mausoleum and park, dedicated to the memory of Fascist Field Marshall Rodolfo Graziani, has recently been opened in the Italian town of Affile. At a cost of €127,000 to local taxpayers, the mayor Ercole Viri has expressed hope that the site will become as ‘famous and as popular as Predappio’ – the burial place of Mussolini which has become a shrine to neo-Fascists.
Graziani was notorious as Benito Mussolini’s commander in colonial wars in Ethiopia and Libya where he carried out massacres and used chemical weapons against the native populations.
In the 1920s, Graziani was commander of the Italian forces in Libya where he became known as ‘the Butcher of Fezzan’. He was directly responsible for suppressing the Senussi uprisings and the construction of concentration and labour camps. He was also directly responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of Libyans including Omar Mukhtar in eastern Libya.
From 1935 to 1936, Graziani implemented the invasion of Ethiopia before becoming viceroy of Italian East Africa and governor-general of Addis Ababa in 1937. In an attempt to consolidate Italian control over the country, Graziani’s occupation army murdered up to 30,000 civilians in just three days in February 1937. Eyewitness accounts tell of how Italian soldiers doused houses with gasoline and set them on fire. Some even posed on the corpses of their victims to have their photographs taken. In the same month, Graziani ordered the massacre of the monks and pilgrims at the ancient monastery of Debre Libanos. In May, he was responsible for the assassination of up to 3,000 Ethiopian intellectuals. For these actions, Graziani earned his second title: ‘the Butcher of Ethiopia’.
As Mussolini’s minister of defence in 1943, Graziani was also responsible for putting down dissent in the Nazis’ puppet republic of Salo in Italy. He drafted a decree, which threatened any Italian who refused to serve in the army with execution and many were killed as a result.
Both the League of Nations and the United Nations failed to carry out trials against Graziani – even though the charges and evidence against him were presented to the UN War Crimes Commission, which agreed that there was a prima facie case against eight Italians including Graziani.
In 1950, an Italian military tribunal condemned Graziani to 19 years for collaborating with Nazis. He was never charged with specific war crimes. He served only four months. He was never prosecuted for specific war crimes. In the 1950s until his death, he was the head of the neo-Fascist Italian Social Movement party.
We, the undersigned, condemn unequivocally this atrocious use of public money to celebrate a war criminal and a Nazi collaborator.
Furthermore, we call upon the European Union and our own governments to use current European and international legislation to:
(1) Demand that the Italian government and the Mayor of Affile issue an apology for allowing the memory of Graziani’s victims to be desecrated in this way
(2) Demand that the Italian government and the Mayor of Affile remove all allusions to Graziani, both direct and indirect, from the memorial
(3) Demand that the Italian government and the Mayor of Affile dedicate the memorial to all those in Italy and around the world who gave their lives in the struggle against Fascism
(4) Demand that the Italian government and the Mayor of Affile install a specific memorial at the site which commemorates those Africans who died resisting Italian occupation of their countries
Please also join our Facebook page: http://on.fb.me/TeHxwm.
Graziani was notorious as Benito Mussolini’s commander in colonial wars in Ethiopia and Libya where he carried out massacres and used chemical weapons against the native populations.
In the 1920s, Graziani was commander of the Italian forces in Libya where he became known as ‘the Butcher of Fezzan’. He was directly responsible for suppressing the Senussi uprisings and the construction of concentration and labour camps. He was also directly responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of Libyans including Omar Mukhtar in eastern Libya.
From 1935 to 1936, Graziani implemented the invasion of Ethiopia before becoming viceroy of Italian East Africa and governor-general of Addis Ababa in 1937. In an attempt to consolidate Italian control over the country, Graziani’s occupation army murdered up to 30,000 civilians in just three days in February 1937. Eyewitness accounts tell of how Italian soldiers doused houses with gasoline and set them on fire. Some even posed on the corpses of their victims to have their photographs taken. In the same month, Graziani ordered the massacre of the monks and pilgrims at the ancient monastery of Debre Libanos. In May, he was responsible for the assassination of up to 3,000 Ethiopian intellectuals. For these actions, Graziani earned his second title: ‘the Butcher of Ethiopia’.
As Mussolini’s minister of defence in 1943, Graziani was also responsible for putting down dissent in the Nazis’ puppet republic of Salo in Italy. He drafted a decree, which threatened any Italian who refused to serve in the army with execution and many were killed as a result.
Both the League of Nations and the United Nations failed to carry out trials against Graziani – even though the charges and evidence against him were presented to the UN War Crimes Commission, which agreed that there was a prima facie case against eight Italians including Graziani.
In 1950, an Italian military tribunal condemned Graziani to 19 years for collaborating with Nazis. He was never charged with specific war crimes. He served only four months. He was never prosecuted for specific war crimes. In the 1950s until his death, he was the head of the neo-Fascist Italian Social Movement party.
We, the undersigned, condemn unequivocally this atrocious use of public money to celebrate a war criminal and a Nazi collaborator.
Furthermore, we call upon the European Union and our own governments to use current European and international legislation to:
(1) Demand that the Italian government and the Mayor of Affile issue an apology for allowing the memory of Graziani’s victims to be desecrated in this way
(2) Demand that the Italian government and the Mayor of Affile remove all allusions to Graziani, both direct and indirect, from the memorial
(3) Demand that the Italian government and the Mayor of Affile dedicate the memorial to all those in Italy and around the world who gave their lives in the struggle against Fascism
(4) Demand that the Italian government and the Mayor of Affile install a specific memorial at the site which commemorates those Africans who died resisting Italian occupation of their countries
Please also join our Facebook page: http://on.fb.me/TeHxwm.
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