by Elena Barlozzari – 01/03/2019

Source: Il Giornale

 

Julian-Dalmatian exiles report to the prosecutor's office the denialist post that appeared on the Facebook page of the ANPI of Rovigo

 

“It would be nice to explain to middle school students that the foibe were invented by the fascists, both as a system to make Yugoslav partisans disappear and as a historical invention.

Like the shameful nonsense about the Basovizza foiba." That post , which appeared last January on the Facebook page of the Rovigo National Association of Italian Partisans (ANPI) , written with the presumption of someone who thinks he has the truth, ultimately backfired. While until a few years ago, mystifying, minimizing, watering down, and even denying the martyrdom of thousands of our fellow citizens killed in the foiba was a common and tolerated practice, today this is no longer the case.

And so we must be accountable for the words spoken, or written. Not only to the public, but also to a judge, because—it's time everyone realized—even denying the foibe is a crime. It's called "propaganda and incitement to crime based on racial, ethnic, and religious discrimination." This is why the president of the Federation of Associations of Istrian, Fiumani, and Dalmatian Exiles, Antonio Ballarin , and the president of the National Association of Venezia Giulia and Dalmatia, Renzo Codarin , have decided to report the author of that post. The alleged crime formulated in the document filed by lawyer Luca Tirapelle with the Rovigo prosecutor's office, which IlGiornale.it has had exclusive access to, is that provided for by the third paragraph of Article 604-bis of the Criminal Code. The provision in question, in fact, punishes anyone responsible for propaganda based in whole or in part on the denial of crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes, which certainly include the Foibe massacres. "Simply reading the reported post," the complaint states, "is absolutely eloquent because, on the one hand, it claims the non-existence of the Foibe (calling the Basovizza Foibe a 'shameful lie') while, on the other, it incites middle school teachers to spread such theories among students."

“The denialist tone” is therefore “obvious”, and the danger that these ideas could take hold is “concrete”, considering “the very rapid diffusion of messages that are conveyed through social networks”. There is then another reasoning to be made, and that is the one regarding “the quality of the source of the message”. Not just any source, but the Anpi. An association that has been recognized as a moral entity, that has more than 120 thousand members and, by virtue of a protocol signed with the Miur, also promotes numerous initiatives in schools. “Criminal responsibility – Tirapelle recalls – is personal therefore, if the public prosecutor supports the content of the complaint, the first step will be to identify the person responsible for the post, but it is not excluded that profiles of civil responsibility on the part of the association emerge”.

“What we would expect from an institution like the Anpi – explains Ballarin – is that it participates in the construction of a shared memory that transfers positive values ​​within society, without denying the atrocities that were committed on both sides”. In short, suggests the number one of FederEsuli, “let’s tone down all verbal violence and sit around a table, together with historians of proven caliber, and let’s write that historical period together because the truth doesn’t scare us”.