In December 2024, the Syrian National Army (SNA) backed by Turkey, has been reported to commit severe violations in northeast Syria, specifically targeting the city of Manbij. These acts have included attacks on health facilities, which are vital lifelines for the local population and displaced individuals. Un Ponte Per (UPP) denounces that such actions constitute a blatant violation of international humanitarian laws that explicitly protect medical facilities and personnel during armed conflicts.
The Kurdish Red Crescent (KRC), our partner organization and principal healthcare provider in the region, has been severely affected by these hostilities. The primary healthcare centers in Manbij and Abu Qalqal supported by our joint projects, which offer critical services such as internal medicine, pediatrics, gynecology, psychological support, laboratory diagnostics, pharmacy access, and emergency services, were vandalised and looted on Dec 08, with medical equipment and supplies worth thousands of dollars stolen from the facilities in addition to 1 ambulance from Abu Qalqal. Similarly, Al Furat hospital, which is the only secondary/tertiary public hospital in Menbij was stormed by armed SNA fighters. KRC's ambulance centre, which is within the premises of Al Furat hospital, was also vandalised and looted with 3 ambulances being stolen. This healthcare infrastructure is essential not only for the city but also for surrounding areas that rely on it for survival.
The reported vandalism, looting, and destruction of healthcare facilities during this time are acts of grave aggression. These targeted attacks on medical centers exacerbate an already dire humanitarian crisis, depriving vulnerable populations of essential medical care and violating their fundamental rights.
The international community must urgently take a stand against these violations. Immediate and robust measures are needed to ensure the preservation and protection of health facilities, the safety of medical staff, and the continuation of lifesaving services. Supporting organizations like the Kurdish Red Crescent, which tirelessly serve affected populations, is critical to mitigate the consequences of this conflict.
The targeting of health facilities and the acts of vandalism perpetrated against them are unacceptable under any circumstances. All parties to the conflict must be held accountable to ensure compliance with international laws safeguarding humanitarian spaces. An unequivocal call is made to stop these aggressions and to prioritize the safety and well-being of civilians above all else.
Appeal by Un Ponte Per, developed thanks to the testimonies of our staff and field partners.
After 13 years of uninterrupted conflict and war, Syria - forgotten by the international community and out of the media headlines - is back in the news for yet another crisis affecting its population. What has been happening since the end of November is a direct consequence of turning our eyes away from that context, forgetting a conflict that continues uninterrupted with a devastating impact on the lives of hundreds of thousands of people.
From Aleppo to Idlib to Hama, the situation is serious and is affecting the population and the possibility of action by humanitarian actors.
We at Un Ponte Per have been present in the North East of Syria since 2015, working side by side with a number of long-standing local partners - including the Kurdish Red Crescent (Heyva Sor a Kurd - KRC) and Doz International, with interventions aimed at ensuring free access to healthcare, rebuilding the local health system, creating Safe Spaces to support women and children survivors of war and gender-based violence with psychological support and education.
Today, we can only observe what is happening with deep concern and anguish for our colleagues, friends and the entire population. With our ambulances and Mobile Medical Units we are preparing to receive new flows of people fleeing, restless, seeking shelter, moving to where they are most needed to provide first aid and guidance. In the coming hours, we expect at least 120,000 people to arrive.
In the city of Raqqa, still in rubble and far from overcoming the page of war that has engulfed it, we have set up a first aid point in the city stadium together with KRC to receive people fleeing. These are mainly Kurdish people, previously displaced from Afrin, who are now leaving Aleppo moving eastwards.
In the meantime, we are reconverting our work in Raqqa into first aid interventions: the Safe Spaces that usually support women and children survivors of gender-based violence, operational thanks to our local partner Doz International, are providing first reception, orientation and psychological support to the people arriving, who have joined those fleeing Lebanon in recent weeks. And it was precisely with our colleague Dilbrin, from Doz, that we had spoken a few days before this new crisis erupted, while another one was already unfolding on the ground: that of the Syrian people who had fled the war in Lebanon in recent years, forced to retrace their path in reverse, to escape this time the Israeli offensive on Beirut.
"The situation is very complicated, because Raqqa remains a city deeply wounded by the war, still partially in rubble, lacking schools, health facilities, normal living spaces for people," Dilbirin told us, explaining how the Safe Spaces for women and children opened together had become an important reference point for the population over the years. Both for those in Raqqa, who had finally found a place where they could be supported psychologically, and who had recently also started to provide remedial classes for children forced to drop out of school; and for the Syrian population arriving from Lebanon. "They already knew us because we had helped them in the past. When people came back, they knew they could count on us like you count on long-time friends. In Safe Spaces, we were able to direct them to services provided by other organisations, to give them a hand in putting conflict-torn lives back together again," Dilbrin said. Now, they will be joined by new flows of internal migration generated by this umpteenth emergency.
Since 27 November, in fact, the fighting front has been volatile, changing from day to day and making it extremely difficult to predict future scenarios. At the moment, the cities of Aleppo, Idlib and Hama are suffering the worst conditions, where heavy bombardment is reported, hitting key facilities such as water plants, schools, hospitals and clinics, making it very difficult to provide treatment and first aid.
Therefore, thanks to the valuable work of our colleagues and local partners, we will continue to do our utmost to support the population as we have always done, and as long as necessary.
Since last September, the region-wide Israeli offensive has caused disastrous consequences for the civilian population in Lebanon. An estimated 475,000 people have already crossed the border between Lebanon and Syria in search of shelter. Of these, at least 71 per cent are Syrians who have already fled the same way in the past, but in reverse: from the war in Syria they had entered Lebanon, seeking refuge. Today they are going back, on a path without peace.
This is a story we know well. For years, whenever a conflict has affected the populations of the countries where we operate, we have been at the borders to provide reception, guidance and first aid to people fleeing wars. Today we return to do so in north-eastern Syria, where we have been operating since 2015, and where we immediately took action to provide aid and first aid in coordination with our local partners, the Kurdish Red Crescent (KRC), to Syrian and Lebanese people arriving
First, we set up two medical units at the main crossing points between the Syrian regime-controlled areas and the north-eastern area where we are present.
These medical units have been strategically placed at the first point of entry of incoming persons to provide essential medical services. The main objective of these mobile diagnostic units is to ensure that all persons in need of assistance receive the necessary support, in particular those wishing to cross into north-eastern Syria only to reach north-western Syria. This service is also crucial for people without identity papers, providing care and necessary help while waiting to receive them.
The UPP and KRC medical team ensured that these units are fully equipped with the necessary resources to provide high quality primary care, guaranteeing the presence of stable staff.
In addition, we have provided a 24-hour ambulance service to transport people in need to the nearest medical facilities. These are vehicles that KRC has provided and that shuttle between the clinics we have built together in Manbij and Raqqa.
Tents have been set up near the medical units, one for men and one for women, to provide privacy and rest for the arriving people: it often takes three to four days to reach the first crossing point into Syria from Lebanon. Some people are expressing a desire to continue on to north-western Syria, so they remain in tents while they complete the necessary paperwork, wait for documents and finalise their journeys. These processes take time, and the tents we have set up provide a place to wait.
The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for 'crimes against humanity and war crimes' committed in Gaza since 8 October 2023, calling the ongoing one a 'widespread and systematic attack against the population'.
The main accusations concern the use of hunger and thirst as a tool of war and indiscriminate attacks on the civilian population and health facilities. According to the Court, conditions were created that could be described as persecution of the Palestinian population in Gaza.
This is a historic decision, which will allow international jurists and experts to bring many other Israeli officials and political representatives, as well as those responsible for complicity with the genocide, before the Court.
The impunity granted to Israel by the international community must end. We hope that this is only the first step. As Gaza strips the world bare, we continue to support the Palestinian people and their struggle for survival, freedom, justice and self-determination.
We call on the Italian government to protect the independence of the ICC from the Israeli government's attempt to delegitimise it and to immediately give the Court unconditional cooperation in the implementation of the arrest warrants
Civil society is considered a key actor in the democratisation and development process of countries. Covering a range of fields, civil society acts as a bridge between local communities and the authorities, facilitating citizens' participation in public life and providing basic services. Iraqi civil society is no exception. In Iraq, the origins of civil society date back to the 1920s. Despite its early emergence, long years of authoritarian rule and several conflicts affected the effectiveness and involvement of civil society in the life of the country. It was only after the military ouster of Saddam Hussein in 2003 that civil society was finally able to flourish again. More than two decades after the US military invasion, Iraqi civil society is an important actor on the public stage, where it plays significant roles, including providing humanitarian aid to victims of war and violence, offering legal support to vulnerable and marginalised groups, promoting and consolidating the principles of peace, peaceful coexistence, human rights and justice, supporting women's rights, fighting corruption, monitoring parliamentary and provincial elections, and many more.
The role of civil society in Iraq is recognised by law, thanks to international treaties signed by Iraq and a series of national and regional laws adopted over the past two decades. In addition to these, a number of operational measures regulate civil society in the country.
After a first part on the origins of civil society and its role, the study presents an overview of the legal and operational framework governing civil society in central and southern Iraq, as well as in the Iraqi Kurdistan region. The study suggests a number of recommendations to local authorities to promote cooperation between civil society actors and institutions.
The research was carried out in the framework of the EU-funded project Mubadara - Fostering an Enabling Environment for Civil Society in Iraq, in partnership with Peace and Freedom Organisation and Ufuq Organisation for Human Development.
To download the full study:
Today, for us at Un Ponte Per, is an important day. In fact, Flai CGIL has chosen to give concrete support to our fundraising campaign 'Water for Gaza', with which we are distributing drinking water, food and hygiene kits to Palestinian families affected by the Israeli offensive, thanks to the valuable work of our local partner, the Union of Agricultural Work Comittees (UAWC).
The Union of Palestinian Agricultural Work Committees is an NGO that has been active for over 30 years in Palestine, supporting Palestinian farmers, workers and fishermen, protecting land and distributing seeds.
On 5 November 2024, Flai and Un Ponte Per signed an agreement that will allow the funds collected by the union from the payments made by Flai national workers in the general strikes of the last two years to be allocated to Gaza.
'We are proud to be able to stand by the martyred Palestinian people , ' explained Flai CGIL Secretary General Giovanni Mininni at the signing of the agreement . 'More than forty thousand deaths in one year is an intolerable reality. We want to actively promote in all areas of the organisation the spirit of militancy and solidarity necessary to build a permanent mobilisation against the war, for the implementation of a just transition that puts work, economic, environmental and social sustainability, democracy, freedom and Peace back at the centre'.
"At a time of unprecedented regional humanitarian crisis, any help can make a difference, as can forging solidarity links between European and Palestinian workers for the protection of land," said our President, Giulia Torrini, and our Director, Martina Pignatti . "All the more so because Flai's support will not only be limited to the humanitarian response to the emergency, but aims to promote initiatives of economic and technical support to small farmers and fishermen, often organised in cooperatives, to enable them to resume their activities as soon as possible once the humanitarian crisis is over. While denouncing the war crimes and grave violations of international law committed by the Israeli army, we are jointly committed to giving a horizon of hope to those in Palestine who refuse to abandon their land and surrender to despair'.
All of us at Un Ponte Per thank Flai for being able to build together another piece of the solidarity needed by the Palestinian population, particularly in the Gaza Strip, so that they can have decent access to water and food, and protect what remains of their farmland.
'Civil Peace Corps' is the name given to young volunteers who carry out non-governmental peacekeeping actions in 'conflict areas'. The institution, born in Italy in 2013 within the Department for Youth Policy as a non-violent and unarmed civil defence corps, has in recent years taken many young Italians to different areas of the world for a year of activities aimed at conflict prevention and interposition. The last year has just ended and the young people who left with Un Ponte Per have recently returned to Italy from Lebanon, Jordan and Romania. The following document reports their precise considerations on the current situation of international escalation and very serious human rights violations. In what capacity do they express themselves? Article 2 of the decree for the organisation of the Civil Peace Corps, point 2., letter c), expressly mentions 'monitoring respect for human rights and humanitarian law' among the programme's areas of intervention in conflict areas.
This is why the following communiqué is particularly significant.
"2 October 2024 - As volunteers CCP (Civil Peace Corps), we denounce and condemn the human rights violations that have been taking place in Palestine and Lebanon for almost a year. Since 7 October, the state of Israel has been carrying out a genocidal campaign against the Palestinian people that has exterminated, to date, over 42,000 civilians, including over 16,000 children. Israel has knowingly razed to the ground civilian homes, hospitals, schools, newspaper offices. With the deception of so-called 'safe places', it has forced people to move from one place to another in the Gaza Strip, bombing both those very makeshift spaces referred to as shelters, and the areas crossed by the fleeing population. Since 8 October, the state of Israel has been carrying out a bombing campaign in southern Lebanon, hitting military and civilian targets. In the last week, Israeli bombs have reached the capital Beirut, causing over 1,000 deaths, razing entire civilian neighbourhoods to the ground and causing theforced exodus of thousands of people. On Lebanese territory, in addition to the white phosphorus bombs already reported, destructive bunker busters were used on Friday 27 September, which, penetrating even underground locations before exploding, literally pulverised the bodies of civilians killed in the attack, making it almost impossible to give an exact estimate of the real number of victims. On the brink of aground invasion into Lebanese territory, which cannot be justified in any way by the 'right to defence', we are concerned and disheartened by theinadequacy of our policies in countering these operations. The war crimes and crimes against humanity that the state of Israel has been committing for almost a year now have been denounced by all international bodies, from the UN to the Hague Court; however, the criminal conduct of the Jewish state goes unpunished. Just as the crimes committed by Israel since its foundation remain unpunished. The UN Resolutions aimed at countering Israel's continuing campaign of occupation of Palestine and the Middle East - an intent well spelled out by Israeli Prime Minister B. Netanyahu at the UN headquarters - and the plan for the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people, the apartheid regime, as well as those Resolutions enshrining the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their land in Palestine, remain just words. We are well aware, therefore, that even these words of ours will remain just that and that they will be added to the many others that have been uttered before, without making any noise. Nevertheless, we know that this is the only right thing to do. To denounce by every means at our disposal, in every space we cross, the horror and inhumanity that is taking place before our eyes, to express solidarity with the Palestinian and Lebanese people, to carry out small daily practices aimed at opposing the normalisation of a criminal state. First of all, follow and join the BDS campaign , Boycott Divestment and Sanctions.
We invite readers to not only follow the campaign's indications of daily funding and purchases, but to develop a greater awareness of the impact of each seemingly small action, to further empower themselves. We also invite you to support, according to your possibilities, fundraising campaigns to address the urgent needs of the civilian population in Gaza and Lebanon, in cooperation with the Palestinian Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC) and the Lebanese Amel Association International, respectively.
To donate:
Lebanon Emergency Fund | A Bridge To
Aware, moreover, of the great synergy between the army, industry and academia in Israel, and in line with the desire to oppose the normalisation of a state that violates UN Resolutions, we denounce all agreements on cooperation in the military and defence sector between the Italian and Israeli governments, first and foremost the sending of Italian arms and the presence of 1,000 Italian reservists with Israeli passports in the ranks of the Israeli army.
In this regard, we recall how Law 185/1990 explicitly prohibits the sale of arms to countries whose governments are responsible for proven violations of international human rights conventions.
We also denounce the normalisation practices between the Italian and Israeli governments that are expressed through collaboration agreements between Italian and Israeli universities, economic-commercial agreements, and cooperation agreements in the field of research and industrial, scientific and technological development. In this regard, we recall how on 29 October 2023, in the midst of the bombardment of Gaza, an agreement was signed whereby ENI and other companies obtained a licence to exploit a gas field in the sea off Gaza. What has been written so far is part of our rights and duties as human beings and political subjectivities, as members of the so-called 'civilised nations' whose general principles of international law on which our Constitution is based should be in force. Well, our Constitution, our partisan history, and our mandate to "monitor respect for human rights and humanitarian law" as Civilian Peace Corps oblige us not only not to remain indifferent to the genocide in Palestine and the massacres in Lebanon, but to express our dissent and put in place practices and tools to raise awareness aimed at not normalising inhumanity. We invite anyone reading this communiqué to do the same.
Civil Peace Corps members just returned from a year-long mission in Lebanon, Jordan and Romania with the association Un Ponte Per
We are happy to share some important news for you who follow and support us! Together with Iraqi activists and associations, we have organised the first solidarity trip to south-central Iraq.
An unforgettable experience in the cradle of civilisation: ten days from Basra to Baghdad to discover the most important archaeological and natural sites, the country's ancient and more modern culture, and its vibrant civil society.
"This is a journey that goes beyond sightseeing, giving you the chance to experience the warmth of Iraqi hospitality in a sustainable way and to rediscover a country rich in history, culture, natural and social beauty, starting from Basra, passing through Basra, Nassiriya, Ur and Uruk, Najaf, Kufa, Karbala, Babylon and ending in Baghdad"
Issam, activist and local tour guide.
Download the complete programme >>
BOOK NOW! Write to travels@unponteper.it
Click on the images to enlarge them:
Explore Mesopotamia in a sustainable way.
Discover the wonders of Mesopotamia in a sustainable, safe and environmentally friendly way, admiring the beauty of historical and religious sites that tell the story of the cradle of human civilisation, while contributing to local development projects.
Immerse yourself in Iraqi culture and traditions.
Stay in local guesthouses, enjoy authentic cuisine and meet local people, associations and activists committed to promoting human and environmental rights.
Support sustainable tourism in Iraq.
Help promote a positive image of Iraq and contribute to the development of sustainable tourism, promoting the cultural rediscovery of the country.
Visit UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Explore several UNESCO World Heritage Sites, including southern Iraq's Ahwar (the wetlands of the marshes), the archaeological cities of Ur, Uruk and Babylon.
PERIOD: 10-19 NOVEMBER 2024
DURATION: 10 DAYS, 9 NIGHTS
COMMITMENT: MEDIUM
LOCAL GUIDE IN ENGLISH
COST: 2,000 €
N.B. The following are excluded from the cost of the trip: airfare, insurance, visa for Iraq and transport to/from the airport.
Ask Issam, an activist, guide and interpreter from Nassiryia who has worked with Un Ponte Per in projects to enhance the archaeological and environmental heritage of the South, and Aurora, a member of our National Committee, who will guide you through this experience.
Hurry, places are limited! SEND AN EMAIL to travels@unponteper.it TO RESERVE YOUR PLACE!
Download the complete programme >>
More than 40 years after its release, Un Ponte Per brings "IL LEONE DEL DESERTO" (1981, directed by Mustafa Akkad, starring Anthony Quinn, Irene Papas and Oliver Reed, 173', sub Italian language version) to Italiancinemas for the first time to recall the responsibilities of Italian colonialism in Libya.
A historical film based on the life of the Senussite leader Omar al-Mukhtar who led the fight against colonial occupation and the harsh Italian repression, it was never shown in cinemas. The film has been boycotted in Italy since its release. Considered by the government to be 'detrimental to the honour of the army', its distribution was blocked. In 1987, the Digos prevented its screening in Trento during a pacifist meeting.
On 16 September 2024, Libyan Day in memory of the victims of colonisation, Un Ponte Per organised its screening in 12 cities: Rome, Turin, Naples, Milan, Arezzo, Monza, Bologna, Modena, Pisa, Catania, Florence and Verona!
The event is promoted as part of the initiatives for the establishment of the Day of Remembrance for the victims of Italian colonialism, and aims to bring attention to the responsibilities of our country during the period of colonial occupation in Libya, the Horn of Africa and the Balkans.
Each screening will be preceded by a brief introduction and historical contextualisation.
X INFO write to decoloniale@unponteper.it
Programme and details of events on 16/09* in each city:
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The entire programme of events is organised with the support of Associazione Nazionale Partigiani d'Italia - ANPI Nazionale, Rete Yekatit 12-19 febbraio and WILPF Italia.
And thanks to the support of all local associations on the list of individual initiatives.
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The film will be shown in its original version with subtitles. Viewing is reserved for audiences over the age of 14.
Would you like to organise the screening in a cinema in your city? Write to decoloniale@unponteper.it
* all screenings are scheduled for 16/09/2024, except where otherwise indicated [NAPLES, 20 September; PISA, 21 October].
In the Pisan countryside, the government is preparing to build a military base that has catalysed the opposition of social movements, pacifists and environmentalists for the demilitarisation of the territory. The costs -520 million taken from the Development and Cohesion Fund- have already tripled.
We will discuss this in Como on 7 September at Altra Cernobbio.
by Fausto Pascali and Martina Pignatti Morano, originally published in Sbilanciamoci
In the Pisan countryside, the government is preparing to start work on the construction of a military base that has catalysed the joint opposition of social movements, pacifist and environmentalist for the demilitarisation of the territory. Even non-politically active citizens in the municipalities of Pisa and Pontedera have understood the scale of the hoax: for this base, an allocation of 520 million euro is planned to date, taken from the Development and Social Cohesion Fund and from resources allocated to the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, a cost that has already tripled compared to the first base project. The local and national associations involved in contesting this project will discuss it on 7 September in Como in the context of the Sbilanciamoci Forum 'L'Altra Cernobbio', but in order to broaden the protest to the trade union and social forces, it is important to reconstruct the facts.
Two years have now passed since the spring of 2022, when the council group Diritti in Comune (Rights in the Municipality) in Pisa discovered and publicly denounced what had appeared in the Official Gazette: a small paragraph in which the Draghi government identified by ministerial decree 'the infrastructural intervention for the construction of the headquarters of the Gruppo Intervento Speciale (Special Intervention Group), the 1st Carabinieri Parachute Regiment 'Tuscania' and the Canine Defence Centre as a work intended for national defence'. In reality, it was to be discovered later that there was a well-detailed project, known for more than a year, but kept hidden by the local authorities involved: the Municipality and Province of Pisa, the Region of Tuscany and the Migliarino San Rossore and Massaciuccoli Natural Park Authority. The popular indignation that followed the denunciation led to the birth of the 'No Base neither at Coltano nor elsewhere' movement, which immediately forced the new government to stop developing the project, but also to move to pursue the militarisation of the territory by other means. In May of the same year, on the one hand, the project was placedunder commission as it was characterised by 'a high degree of project complexity, a particular executive or implementation difficulty involving a significant impact on the socio-economic fabric', and on the other, an inter-institutional round table was set up 'with the task of identifying solutions to relocate the headquarters' of the special wards. A round table that turns out to be an institutional farce aimed mainly at bamboozling public opinion, but which in fact takes place behind closed doors, involving not the population, but the very bodies that knew about the project from the outset and had kept quiet, a round table whose meetings are not known except for contradictory news in the newspapers, while the extraordinary commissioner of the project proceeds apace: asks for and obtains new funds for a pre-feasibility study in the area of the Centro Interforze Studi per le Applicazioni Militari (Cisam): a wooded area also within the San Rossore Park and where for decades it has been planned - financed but not implemented - to clean up the waste of what was a nuclear research reactor for military purposes decommissioned in the 1980s. The technical study is entrusted to Integra AES - a consultancy firm specialising in defence systems and operating worldwide, including in post-conflict areas such as Iraq or Afghanistan - and which returns, at a cost of 65,000 euros of public money, an aerial map showing the new areas and which, without specific data or in-depth analysis become the guidelines of the Interinstitutional Table that in October 2023 approves the new location in San Piero a Grado (still in the province of Pisa), specifying that the funds will be taken from the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport and promising that there will be compensatory works in the territories of Coltano and Pontedera. And above all, guaranteeing a transparent process going forward: 'The various planning phases will be carefully shared with all the bodies involved, and all the procedures envisaged by the regulations in force will obviously be respected, also taking into account the park's management plan,' reads the minutes signed by the mayor of Pisa Michele Conti (centre-right area), the president of the Tuscany Region Eugenio Giani (centre-left area) and the president of the Park Authority Lorenzo Bani (one of the first to propose the park as a potential site for the military base). Another promise that turned out to be in vain, because from the institutions - from the local to the national ones - silence fell, even blatantly refusing to answer the explicit requests for information from ordinary citizens and those regularly elected.
At the end of June 2024, the military base surreptitiously returned to the omnibus decree (also including the 'Ponte', the Mattei plan and much more) known as the 'Infrastrutture' decree brought forward by all the ministers of the Meloni government, but without the signature of the person directly concerned, 'Defence Minister Crosetto'. By now it is well established: the work that will serve to train and house the special corps of the Carabinieri, those that operate mainly abroad in conflict situations, the always active units that prepare Italian military interventions in war scenarios, are bureaucratically framed as a 'public security garrison'. For this reason, the base will be financed, outside the explicit military expenditure, with the money allocated in the budget for Public Buildings and taken from the Fund for Social Cohesion and Development. Specifically, in the decree, which was converted with a vote of confidence as early as August 2024, 20 million euros are taken from what were the reserves set aside to cope with increases in the cost of materials following the crisis in Ukraine and the pandemic-health crisis, and are used to open a special account, aimed at starting work on the construction site as soon as possible.
In the folds of the government papers, the No Base Movement discovers much more, details once again known to all political forces in Parliament, but concealed from media attention. The total cost of the work has risen from 190 million to 520 million (half a billion euros). The planned surface area doubles from the 70 hectares initially planned at Coltano to the total 140 spread between San Piero a Grado and the municipality of Pontedera. At least in part, what should be the compensatory works are unveiled, which in reality do not compensate for anything at all. In Tenuta Isabella, another predominantly green area and unfortunately also at hydrogeological risk in Valdera, an open-air firing range and a training track are planned: facilities built for the military and which it is said 'will also be available to civilians'. In Coltano, the reclamation of some historic buildings is included, but more than compensation it seems to be a matter of bonuses for the complicit local institutions: the Villa Medicea, currently managed by the local Proloco and owned by the municipality of Pisa; the abandoned Buontalenti stables, owned by the Region of Tuscany; the former Marconi Radio Station, owned by the State Property Office but in concession to the municipality of Pisa, which had casually regularised the contracts a few months before the decree. There is talk of reclamation, but it is not specified either what the new destinations will be, or with what participatory process the citizenship will be involved in deciding the future of these places, the reclamation of which has already been planned for over thirty years, regardless of any military works. Among the compensations in San Piero a Grado there is also the restructuring of the Bigattiera building, owned by the University of Pisa, which has been trying - unsuccessfully - to sell it off for over 15 years: it should be noted that the University of Pisa has not taken part in any discussions, nor does it have any role, except for the fact that it owns most of the land surrounding the area earmarked for the new war infrastructure. Another hoax that is told by government propaganda is that 120 million will be allocated to the reclamation of the area, but it is not said that this reclamation was already planned, as expressly stated in the Court of Auditors' resolution 'The reclamation of the Defence Sector' no. 14 of June 2022 regarding Cisam: 'The subsequent decommissioning activities are currently planned according to a financial line already outlined that foresees, as of today, a conclusion of the activities by 2032'. Lastly, there is talk of compensating for the cutting of thousands of centuries-old trees, recognised as part of Unesco's natural heritage such as the Tuscan Coastal Forest, and for this reason protected by special regulations and safeguards, with new plantings that, in actual fact, will take decades to recover the defence and ecosystem regulation function they have today. Not to mention that one of the riches of the nature reserve is its biodiversity, with particular regard to the reproduction of some rare bird species, which would be irremediably compromised both by the felling of the tall trees and by thehigh impact of human activity associated with the new armed settlement.
The Meloni government therefore continues to be determined to push ahead with this umpteenth military infrastructure, within the general framework of strengthening Tuscany as a nerve centre of global war logistics, and seeks ways to make the public accept this both with the farce of compensation and with a longer-term action, which has cultural roots in propagandising the culture of defence, the need for security, and thus to make the taxpaying public accept further military spending. In the meantime, the No Base Movement continues to curate counter-information to dispel the false myths promoted by the mainstream media and to animate the social and political forces that oppose the construction of this work. The movement's method continues to be based on openness and participation in activities that are mainly study and in-depth and that have led to significant protests in the last two years. In June 2022, tens of thousands of people marched under the scorching sun in the then little-known Coltano countryside and then, in October 2023, just a few days after the ratification of the new decision, thousands of people lined kilometres of barbed wire in the pouring rain, from the nearby huge American military base of Camp Darby to the Cisam nets, where a gap was symbolically opened to demonstrate the protesters' determination not to cede their territory to the war economy. Meanwhile, in June of this year, on the Tre Pini path, which separates the Avanzi centre (the centre of research on sustainable development at the University of Pisa) from the militarised area, the No Base Movement inaugurated a permanent peace garrison, aimed at the care, knowledge and monitoring of the projects underway and the defence of the territory.
In the future scenario, the challenge is to block the financing of the new military infrastructure, and therefore, looking at the 2024 budget, the No Base Movement has called for a new meeting in the square, on 13 September, under the Pisa City Hall, where political, trade union and social forces, both local and national, are called upon to take sides openly: are they on the side of the economy of peace or the economy of war? What could be done that is really useful for the social and human security of the people with 520 million euro as an alternative to a new Special Intervention Group headquarters? At stake is not only the specific issue of the base, but a radically different idea of local territorial development and approach to international conflict resolution. In order to reduce violence and the risk of armed conflict, is it necessary, as the government says, to invest in defence systems and the military sector, strengthening existing war logistics hubs and subtracting funds from social spending, or is it preferable to invest in reducing social and economic inequalities, financing cooperation and civil peacebuilding interventions?
The answer cannot be rhetorical, but must be collective and increasingly shared.
