Press Release
BATTIATO. THE MEMORY OF A BRIDGE FOR:
"IN BAGHDAD WITH US HE DEFIED THE EMBARGO BY BRINGING HIS MUSIC OF PEACE".
Rome, 18 May 2021. "We remember in Franco Battiato a great and brilliant artist but also an extraordinary man of peace who did not hesitate to use his prestige and notoriety to violate the senseless embargo against the Iraqi people. It was 4 December 1992 and Iraq and its people were being put on the Index by the international community. He asked us to collaborate on a dream of his, to hold a concert in Baghdad. It immediately seemed a beautiful idea to us and we put all our contacts and strength into making the concert happen. Without his firm will, we would never have succeeded'. This was stated in a statement by the two national co-presidents of Un Ponte Per Alfio Nicotra and Angelica Romano.
'It was an exciting, beautiful concert,' Nicotra and Romano continue. 'In Italy it was broadcast live from the National Theatre in Baghdad by Videomusic. The notes broke down fences, crossed the wall of hatred, uniting peoples with music."
"Battiato himself," continue the two Un Ponte Per co-presidents, "recalled, not hiding his emotion, the emotion of the Iraqi musicians deprived, due to the embargo, of sheet music, reeds and violin strings. The concert piano itself was tuned to 440 instead of 442 for fear that everything would blow up. Even today when we meet the Iraqi musicians from that concert, they ask us to bring their greetings and thanks to this great maestro."
"His was a special music," Romano and Nicotra conclude, "a bridge between cultures and at the same time mestizo. There was so much Mediterranean and Arab world in his notes'.
Press Release
WAR AND INFORMATION
The role of journalism in conflict reporting
On the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, an online event analyses together with leading figures in the field how the role of journalism in conflict reporting has evolved from the First Gulf War to the present day .
Rome, 30 April 2021 - The First Gulf War in 1991 radically changed the way information is reported from the theatres of conflict and war. The spectacularisation of that time - the 'green' night in Baghdad in the CNN pictures - was followed by the systematisation of embedded information: journalists and news operators always following the occupying armies or stationed in military bases.
Information increasingly 'piloted' from above, which anaesthetises the suffering of those who, in the various conflicts, suffer the bombs and missiles. Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, former Yugoslavia, Libya, Syria, Ukraine, are just a few of the places where the intersection of war and information tends to yield to bellicose propaganda and to narrate fabricated truths.
A tendency that, in recent years, has however been countered by a nascent panorama of independent journalism that has seen a new generation of professionals change the rules of embedded journalism and venture into the theatres of conflict independently, in an attempt to restore a more authentic point of view that is untethered to the power dynamics that revolve around the information system.
Thirty years ago, at the end of the First Gulf War, the Italian pacifist association Un Ponte Per (UPP), which later became an NGO, was founded. In these years of disguised wars, embellished with adjectives such as 'humanitarian wars', 'peace operations' or 'democracy', Un Ponte Per has also chosen to recount the war from the only possible point of view: that of the victims. The truth of events told by refugees, by those who have lost loved ones to bombing or armed reprisals, by those who have had to abandon their homes and their affections to seek a chance of survival elsewhere.
These are disturbing truths, which highlight the hypocrisies and interests of those who unleash wars and then do not want to see the consequences on their own shores and in their own cities.
The criminalisation of independent news operators is there for all to see: they disturb the dominant narrative because they make the faces and voices of the victims visible.
We will talk about all this on 3 May - World Press Freedom Day - starting at 6pm live on Facebook from the Un Ponte Per page, together with our guests: Giuliano Battiston, freelancer and director "Lettera22", Michele Giorgio, correspondent of Il Manifesto from Jerusalem, Sara Lucaroni, freelence contributor of L'Espresso and L'Avvenire, Sara Manisera, freelance reporter and Fada collective,Nancy Porsia, freelancer, consultant and researcher, Cecilia Rinaldini, foreign correspondent of Giornale Radio RAI. With them also Alfio Nicotra, co-president of Un Ponte Per, and Angela Mona, member of the National Committee.
Link to the event: https://fb.me/e/1jQQpQai2
The initiative is part of the cycle of online meetings organised by Un Ponte Per on the occasion of its 30th anniversary.
Press Release
North-East Syria. AICS and UPP still standing by women and children in Raqqa
The "Darna Al-Aman" project, the third phase of the programme financed by the Italian Cooperation and implemented by Un Ponte Per (UPP) to increase access to protection, health and psychophysical wellbeing services for the most vulnerable population in the Raqqa area, is now underway.
Rome, 8 April 2021 - "Darna Al-Aman" (Our Protected Home), the third phase of the protection, psychophysical health, women's empowerment and child protection programme financed by the Italian Cooperation and implemented by the Italian NGO Un Ponte Per (UPP), together with local partners Doz and the Kurdish Red Crescent (KRC) in north-east Syria, is now underway. Following the end of Daesh (so-called ISIS) control in Raqqa Governorate, the programme had been launched in 2018 to address the needs of the population.
The aim of these years was to restore primary health services in the western part of Raqqa, ensure first aid and safe return to the city for families after liberation from Daesh (Islamic State). Today, the whole area is still struggling with a slow and complex process of returning to normalcy.
The specific aim of this third phase will be to further improve access to integrated protection and health services as well as to set up services for the prevention of and response to gender-based violence and violence against children.
In particular, the intervention will focus on setting up two 'Safe Spaces' in the Raqqa area
- a 'Space for women and girls' with a women's empowerment approach where they can access information on rights and health and rebuild through social activities a network of mutual support, after years of war where the role of women has been confined to the private and family sphere. Here, social workers will provide psychosocial support and integrated, non-stigmatising individual services for women and girls who are survivors of gender-based violence;
- a 'Child Friendly Space', where children and their families can receive protection and education on rights and health, develop self-esteem, creative and social skills, and have fun and play in complete safety. In addition, adolescents will participate in the activities of the Doz community centre and social workers will ensure the management of the most vulnerable cases among children who have experienced violence, abuse and neglect to support their resilience in a protracted emergency context.
Reproductive health, paediatrics and newborn health activities in the Raqqa hospital already provided by Un Ponte Per and the Kurdish Red Crescent will be increased, as well as those of the mobile reproductive health units, ensuring free pre/postnatal visits to mothers and postnatal visits to newborns.
The intervention, lasting a total of one year, is expected to reach a total of more than 20,000 people. Among them, almost 12,000 women, girls and minors will have access to health services; more than 4,000 women and girls will have access to information services on rights, prevention of gender-based violence and reproductive health at the space dedicated to them; more than 2,000 children will have access to psycho-social support, and play-recreational activities at the 'Child Friendly Space'. 100 of them will receive services to deal with the most vulnerable cases including gender-based violence, violence and abuse, and child exploitation.
"Darna Al-Aman" is part of a broader framework of interventions that UPP, thanks to the valuable support of the Italian Cooperation, has been carrying out in north-east Syria, and in particular in the Governorate of Raqqa, since the beginning of the humanitarian emergency in 2015.
Press Release
Libya - Un Ponte Per: "Draghi's serious words on migrants.
Support the peace process by abandoning policies of war".
Rome, 7/04/2021 - Prime Minister Draghi's words of thanks to Libyan Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dabaiba over the "rescues of migrants at sea" are disconcerting. These are not "rescues" but real rejections at sea that Libya is carrying out on behalf of the EU, then sending the "rescued" to concentration camps and prisons, in contempt of human rights and international conventions. According to Un Ponte Per - "Draghi insists on the line of previous governments that have turned the Mediterranean into the largest cemetery of contemporary times".
"We certainly ask Italy to support the process of reconciliation and peace in Libya," say Un Ponte Per's co-presidents Alfio Nicotra and Angelica Romano, "but this must be done by supporting the disarmament of the factions, the withdrawal of the thousands of mercenaries sent by foreign powers to fight on Libyan soil, and making the arms embargo decided by the UN effective.
"Even on the fate of energy resources and investments," continue the two co-presidents, "it must be clear that a large part of the proceeds must remain in Libya, also as compensation for the war waged by NATO against that people. They must be used for the reconstruction of the infrastructures destroyed by the conflict, starting with schools, hospitals and houses for those who were forced to abandon them because of the war events'.
For Un Ponte Per to continue to delegate to the Libyans the "containment by all means" of the flow of migrants would be extremely serious.
On the contrary, it would be legitimate to expect from the Draghi government an effective follow up to the words pronounced by the Prime Minister himself in support "of humanitarian corridors to allow legal migration and to take these people away from human trafficking".
Press release
Iraq. AICS and UPP alongside the people of Mosul and Nineveh
The third phase of the "Salamtak" programme, financed by theItalian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS ) and implemented by Un Ponte Per (UPP) to ensure access to mental health, psychosocial support and maternal and child health services to families and women in the Nineveh Plain,is now underway.
Rome, 25 March 2021 - The third phase of "Salamtak" (Your Health), a mental health, psychosocial support and maternal and child health programme-funded by theItalian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS) and implemented by the Italian NGO Un Ponte Per (UPP)-launched in 2018 to respond to the needs of the Iraqi population of the Nineveh Plain and in particular the city of Mosul, Iraq, is now underway.
The aim of the work over these years has been to guarantee access to the health system, protect the mental and reproductive health of Iraqi families and women in the area long occupied by Daesh (Islamic State) and still struggling with a slow and complex process of reconstruction and return to normality.
Between November 2019 and December 2020, thanks to Phase II of the project, 3012 women and girls accessed the services offered, with as many as 1938 psychosocial support sessions and 6290 people in total reached by our outreach campaigns.
The specific aim of this third phase will be to further improve access to primary and secondary health services for communities in the area, while continuing to support the national health system with a view to strengthening it.
In particular, the intervention will focus in the city of Mosul, where a department for mental health and psychosocial support services will be built inside the Al Salam hospital (East Mosul), and in the Primary Health Centres of Hermat and Nimrod, where gynaecological examinations and mental health services for women will be guaranteed. In addition, the support that AICS and UPP have been guaranteeing for years to the Ma'an Na'ud Multipurpose Health Centre in Bashiqa will continue, where specific paediatric services will be added this year to the reproductive health services already guaranteed, as requested by the population.
The 10-month intervention is expected to reach a total of more than 7,760 people. Among them, almost 3,000 women and adolescents will have access to reproductive health services and specific paediatric counselling for their children. More than 1,200 individual and collective advanced psychosocial support sessions will also be provided.
"Salamtak III" is part of a broader framework of interventions that UPP, thanks to the valuable support of AICS, has been carrying out in Iraq, and in particular in the Nineveh Plain and Mosul, since the beginning of the humanitarian emergency in 2014.
Press release
Iraq. Un Ponte Per: "From Pope Francis a message of courage and hope".
Rome, 3 March 2021 - "The visit of Pope Francis to the Plain of Nineveh, a place where Daesh has been guilty of horrific crimes against humanity, is extremely important. It is a particularly courageous choice, not only to stand by the Christian communities, which have historical roots here, but to launch an extraordinary message of hope, brotherhood and inter-community and inter-religious dialogue. It will be an encouragement not only for Iraq, but for the entire Middle East'.
These are the words of Alfio Nicotra and Angelica Romano, co-presidents of Un Ponte Per (UPP), an Italian organisation that has been present in Iraq for 30 years, and in particular in the Nineveh Plain, with peace building and social cohesion programmes active in each of the areas that the Holy Father will visit.
"Iraq is emerging with difficulty from almost four decades of war. The year 2021 will mark the sad anniversary of the First Gulf War, which our association tried to stop as part of the peace movement of the time, and which has left terrible and still present traces in Iraq,' Nicotra and Romano continue.
"That war, as well as the following ones, had the effect of exploding that multi-ethnic and multi-religious mosaic that had been Iraq's strength for millennia. They filled the wells of hatred, exacerbated ethnic contrasts, and strengthened religious fundamentalism. Daesh is a child of this situation and, even if defeated militarily, its influence remains alive,' they add.
"This is why it is particularly important that Pope Francis has chosen to visit those very lands that have paid the highest price for Daesh's occupation, with the persecutions inflicted on the Christian and Ezid communities, rooted for millennia in that territory," they stress.
Among the most important programmes of Un Ponte Per, concentrated precisely in the area of the Nineveh Plain, is that for social cohesion and peace building, through which the organisation supports reconciliation and dialogue between Iraqi ethnic-religious communities.
"Among the stops of Pope Francis that are most dear to us is the one planned in Qaraqosh on Sunday 7 March," Nicotra and Romano explain. "Here, in the Church of the Immaculate Conception, the Holy Father will celebrate Mass. In that destroyed church we were among the first to return after the liberation of the area from Daesh, together with the communities returning to their homes. It was May 2017 and it was a very emotional moment. To see it come back to life together with the city and its people was beautiful," they recall.
UPP was in fact working in the area even before Daesh arrived. That is why, when it was liberated, it was the first to return together with the communities, distributing humanitarian aid and working on reconstruction. In recent years it has helped to rebuild schools, support anti-violence and health centres, build youth centres, and organise events to encourage inter-religious dialogue.
"This visit by Pope Francis will be greeted with great emotion by the Iraqi people. It will be a message of extraordinary courage and hope,' Nicotra and Romano conclude.
Press Release
Iraq. Missiles on Erbil military base, Un Ponte Per: 'Foreign powers and sectarian militias destabilise the country'
Rome, 16/02/2021 - The national co-presidents of the NGO Un Ponte Per (UPP) operating in Iraq for over 30 years, Alfio Nicotra and Angelica Romano, issued the following statement:
Un Ponte Per expresses its concern about the attack on the international coalition military base in Erbil, claimed by a pro-Iranian militia, which left one victim and at least 9 wounded.
We would like to recall that unfortunately Iraq and the Iraqi Kurdistan region have been destabilised in recent months by various actors: operations by foreign powers such as Turkey against the Kurds, with bombings and mass arrests also in Iraq; resurgence between US troops and pro-Iranian militias heightened after the killing on 3 January 2020 of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani at Baghdad International Airport; the resumption of initiatives by Daesh militias and several attacks against civilians such as the particularly bloody one last month in a market in the Iraqi capital.
The resurgence of these conflicts poses a threat to the civilian population and to the country's reconstruction process, and they are intended to take away the voice of the Iraqi social movements that have mobilised against sectarian drift, corruption and violent extremism over the past two years.
There is a strong fear that these actions could affect the possibility of holding free general elections, set for October 2021 and an important outcome of the civil revolution that began in October 2019.
Pope Francis' visit to Iraq, awaited not only by the Christian population but also by a large part of civil society,becomes even more important in these circumstances, as it represents an exceptional opportunity to turn the spotlight back on this country, its search for a just peace and a political balance not determined by foreign powers.
Press release
Iraq. 30 years ago with Operation Desert Storm the First Gulf War began
On the night of 16-17 January 1991, a US-led coalition launched bombing raids on Baghdad. A war began whose consequences are still tangible and in the course of which the NGO "Un Ponte Per" was founded. A streaming event retraces the season of opposition to the war that developed in Italy with its protagonists.
Rome, 14 January 2021 - At 2:38 a.m. on the night between 16 and 17 January 1991, just 18 hours and 38 minutes after the expiry of the ultimatum sanctioned by the United Nations, OperationDesert Storm, the most impressive Allied military action since 1945, began.
In what would be the first conflict in history to be televised live, 90,000 tons of bombs would be dropped, marking a new point of no return to what was considered acceptable by global public opinion. The imagery that that war helped to create would lay the foundations for the long series of Western military interventions in the Middle East in the years that followed.
A Middle East in which, in the years to come, the voices and stories of the thousands of civilians affected - women, children, the elderly - would find no place. But how many were the victims of those 40 days in which more bombs fell on Iraq than in the entire Second World War? Estimates speak of around 200,000 people, but the long-term consequences would have affected many more. Among the most serious were the illnesses caused among children by the use of chemical weapons, the effects of which would be felt for years.
It was in those terrible days that the Italian pacifist association Un Ponte Per (UPP) was founded, which later also became an NGO, thanks to the voluntary initiative of women and men who chose not to give in to complicit silence in the face of the havoc that was being committed, also due to the Italian military contribution.
Started as a campaign of solidarity towards the stricken population, with some initiatives of civil disobedience - such as the illegal import of Iraqi dates in violation of the embargo declared on Iraq - UPP would later be structured as a non-governmental organisation, continuing to operate and remain at the side of the Iraqi people for the next 30 years.
Today, UPP continues to work in solidarity, cooperation, development and peace building in a country that still bears the scars of that war on its skin.
Thirty years after that dramatic night, what are the still tangible consequences in a country like Iraq, which has continued to face seasons of war, violence, terrorism? How many of those long-term effects continue to leave their mark in a Middle East that seems to know no peace?
This and much more will be discussed in a series of events that Un Ponte Per has organised to commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of its birth, but above all to celebrate the strength and courage of those peoples tried by wars alongside whom it has walked in these decades.
A series of public events, online and live, will start on 16 January, with a streaming event entitled "The watershed. Reflections on a war that refounded the world", in which we will look back at the season of opposition to that war with some of the protagonists of the peace movement of the time.
Guests include Chiara Ingrao, Giuiana Sgrena, Domenico Gallo, Raniero Lavalle, Luisa Morgantini, Don Renato Sacco, together with Fabio Alberti and Alfio Nicotra of Un Ponte Per.
Link to the event: https://www.facebook.com/events/2843775075835558/
