Minister quits as row over ’quake engulfs Govt

Press, 28 November 1980, Page 6

Minister quits as row over ’quake engulfs Govt

NZPA-Reuter Rome The Italian Minister of the Interior (Mr Virginio Rognoni) has resigned.- after President Sandro Pertini lashed the Government for its response to. Sunday’s earthquake, which devastated 100 towns and villages in the south.. Mr Rognoni, who had been the Interior Minister since March, 1978, said he was resigning with a clear conscience. There has been mounting criticism of what many said was the Government’s slow reaction to the catastrophe, in which at least 3000 people were killed, s The criticism boiled over yesterday when President Pertini bitterly accused the Government of failing to bring speedy and adequate relief to victims.

“There- have been grave shortcomings, and those who have failed must be punished. like the Prefect of Avellino, who was justly dismissed today,” he said. His attack .came shortly after the Government had announced an allocation equivalent to $1.4 billion to help families of the dead and homeless, who number at least 200,000.

Mr Pertini, who spent two days among the survivors, said people had needlessly died because no rescue had arrived in many places for more than 48 hours. “In 1970 Parliament voted laws on natural calamities. I now discover they have never been put into effect,” the 84-year-old President told the nation on television, his voice trembling with suppressed anger.

He recalled the 1968 Belice earthquake in Sicily, from which 35,000 survivors are still living in temporary housing. The money to rehouse them had been allocated, but it had never, reached them.

“Who speculated on this : disaster, and are they in prison as they should be?” ■ Mr Pertini asked. His words received im- • mediate backing from Oppo- ; sition leaders. "It is the most authoritative confirmation of grave delays and inadmissible I omissions,” said the Communist leader. Enrico Beri linguer. Lucio Magri. leader of the small, far-Left P.D.U.P. Party, said Mr Pertini had expressed “the general revulsion of the nation against a corrupt and inefficient system of power.” Right-wing parties joined the chorus and even the junior partners in the fourparty ruling coalition echoed Mr Pertini’s condemnation. “There have been delavs and a grave lack of organisation, and we must find the cause and the responsibility,” said Bettino Craxi, leader of the Socialist Party upon which the dominant Christian Democrats chiefly depend. The Communist and Socialist parties, as well as several main Italian newspapers, had alleged that the Government was late delivering food, tents and other aid. Critics also said that scores of lives were lost because rescue teams did not have enough bulldozers, cranes or other mechanical equipment to remove concrete, rubble and stones trapping victims. Relief officials said fog had slowed rescue work and it was difficult or impossible to drive trucks or other heavy vehicles up the narrow roads in the mountainous, ’quake-stricken zone. Every family which lost its breadwinner in the earthquake would receive an immediate grant of $11,495, the Government said earlier vesterdav.

Families who lost any other relative would receive $4598 and those who lost their possessions, $3448.The Special Relief Commissioner, Giuseppe Zamberletti, was given overriding powers to requisition houses or to buy caravans and prefabricated buildings for those who had lost their homes. Some specific criticisms of the Government’s handling of the rescue effort have been: —ltaly’s most recent national seismic map is a military chart drawn up between the First and Second World Wars: —Thousands of State employees have deserted their jobs in southern Italy and the Government has not moved to order them back: ' —The Army allowed too many soldiers Sunday leave and was only able to begin relief work late Monday morning. Only 400 were on the scene on Sunday night: —Government and local authorities allowed . houses to be built without adequate seismic protection in areas which have been shaking for the last'2ooo years:

—The Prime Minister (Mr Arnoldo Forlani) did not interrupt his dinner with the British Prime Minister (Mrs Thatcher) to take command of rescue work. Mr Forlani retorted that he left the table several times: and. —The ruling Christian Democrats took advantage of . the earthquake to postpone a probe into an oil kick-back and bribery scandal which has tainted present and former Ministers.

Also many countries offering aid did not hide their displeasure at the Italian disorganisation. United States officials said they offered helicopters and funds 48 hours before they were accepted. Two Swiss planes filled with medicine were held on a Geneva airport runway waiting for Italian approvals to proceed. The West German Government offered its help and had 28 doctors and nurses ready, but received no reply to its offer. . “Speeches and polemics are not only useless but they make ’the disaster even worse’’ Mr Forlani responded. “The Government will not neglect anything it can possibly do.” Replying on behalf of the Government, the secretary of the Christian Democrat Party, Flaminio Piccoli, noted that the earthquake struck an extensive zone of Italy. “You must realise,” he said, "that we are talking about 28,000 sq km, which means nearly 9 per cent of the national territory. There’s never been something quite so vast.” The earthquake also damaged the ancient ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum, the National Museum of Naples, and other artworks and historical monuments in the Naples area.