General said to be facing ‘people’s trial’

Press, 21 December 1981, Page 9

General said to be facing ‘people’s trial’

NZPA-Reuter Rome Brigadier-General James Dozier, vilified as a “Yankee pig” by the Italian Red Brigades- guerrillas holding him hostage, was probably undergoing a “people’s trial” aimed at extracting N.A.T.O. military secrets, security sources said. The guerrillas, who snatched the general from his home in Verona on Friday, have so far scrupulously followed the practice of their past political kidnappings. The sources said they thought General Dozier was facing fierce interrogation about his post as deputy chief of staff for logistics and administration at N.A.T.O’s Southern Europe Land Forces headquarters in Verona. The guerrillas issued their first communique early yesterday. They made no ransom demands, but called the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation an occupation army and said the general was

being held in a “people’s prison.” In previous political abductions, the Brigades have issued up to 20 communiques, giving details of their hostages’ answers under interrogation and often setting harsh conditions for their release. President Ronald Reagan, who called Italy’s most feared guerrillas “cowardly bums,” has sent six experts to liaise with the. Italian police and counter-espionage - agents trying to track down . the kidnappers. > Italian State television. said three of the Americans were Central Intelligence Agency agents with know-J ledge of European guerrilla; movements. It said theyf went straight to Verona. r General Dozier’s wife, jjidJ. ith. made a tearful broadcast," on Saturday appealing to the; brigades to free her.husband,’ a highly-decorated Vietnam. War veteran. j “This is a man who loves’., and cares for others. He has i

nt ver hurt anybody,” she sz' id. I Mrs Dozier's face was still bruised from her desperate efforts to raise the alarm after she was left bound and Ragged by the kidnappers. /] There was also concern .( jibout General Dozier’s condi■iion. He was clubbed with a pistol butt and then drugged toy the gang of at least eight mien who tricked their way ■into his unprotected flat. , ’Unofficial reports said traces "4 of his blood were found out- ? | side. . i Despite a huge police i dragnet in northern Italy, no , arrests have been made, al- ; though police sources said ■; that three or four fringe I brigade supporters had been ;■ identified. >. The police have never yet i succeeded in disrupting a brigades operation and the fact that the communique was left in Rome, more than j! 480 km from Verona, was ; proof of the guerrillas mobil- ! ity.