Wednesday, September 1

Controversy over Enzo's death

It's painful writing about this, but here is a quick update on developments with regard to Enzo: (1) The Italian media had been saying that the video submitted to Al-Jazera featured a violent execution, however the station has denied this and said that the 15 seconds of footage only had "one scene showing ... the body partly hidden in sand, with only the face, neck and part of the shoulder visible." (2) The fact that the video was taken in daylight implies that his death happened before the 48 hr deadline expired. (3) There have been commemoration in various parts of Italy but no news yet about whether Enzo's body can be obtained for decent burial. (4) There has been considable controversy over the first video announcing his captivity. His image was clearly pasted onto the background and this coupled with the fact that he appeared relaxed and uninjured from the explosion has lead to suggestions that he may already already dead at the time of the first video, which may have been created using old footage created by Enzo himself found on his computer or camera. The Italian Red Cross delegate in Iraq Giuseppe De Santis claims that he did not witness anything that may have looked like an assault.

Update from Palestine: Ghareeb's and my friend Ewa is still being held prisoner in an Israeli detention centre and may be deported after her appeal hearing today, here is a statement by her on Electronic Intifada. Another friend Keith, an English Jewish peace activist, has just arrived in the region and has a blog during his stay.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

An interview to the wife of Enzo Baldoni appeared on Repubblica today at:
http://www.repubblica.it/2004/h/sezioni/cronaca/enzobaldoni/parlamoglie/parlamoglie.html

In it there is some more details about Giuseppe De Santis' (Italian Red Cross) account of the attack to the convoy when Baldoni was kidnapped.

The web site of "Il diario" also has announced yesterday a detailed reconstruction of the whole story, in the newstands this coming friday.