martedì

Fascist Legacy part 1. (Ita) - Un'eredità scomoda


"Fascist Legacy" è un documentario prodotto dalla BBC sui crimini di guerra commessi dagli italiani. La RAI acquistò una copia del programma, ma non lo ha mai trasmesso. La7, nel 2004, ne ha trasmesso un'ampia parte. Il documentario è diretto da Ken Kirby, e ricostruisce i fatti criminali che accaddero nel corso della guerra di conquista coloniale in Etiopia e durante l’occupazione nazifascista della Jugoslavia fra il 1941 e il 1943.
Per approfondire leggere: Antonella Randazzo "Roma Predona", Kaos Edizioni, e "L'Africa del Duce", Edizioni Arterigere.

3 commenti:

Arthur ha detto...

Non avevo visto questi filmati e sono davvero molto tristi. Non credevo tanta miseria e crudeltà.
E' davvero vergognoso per la storia dell'Italia.
Ad ogni modo, il fascismo va studiato considerando gli uomini del tempo, all'interno delle congiunture economiche internazionali ed in relazione a quel determinato periodo storico, era un movimento che non sarebbe comunque potuto durare oltre la vita di Mussolini senza trasformarsi in qualche cosa di diverso.
Un documentario del genere senza contradditorio, che comunica un dato pur sapendo che è palesemente sbagliato (500.000 morti) non deve essere preso come metro di misura per giudicare un periodo. Va preso come elemento per poter giudicare.
Sono d'accordo con chi nei commenti di Youtube fa notare che le Nazioni Unite, capitanate dell'Inghilterra ci abbiano giudicato ed inflitto pesanti multe soltanto perchè erano più potenti di noi, perchè quando l'Inghilterra ha fatto cose simili nessuno è mai intervenuto.

Pike Bishop ha detto...

La differenza fra noi e gli Inglesi e che da loro le notizie trapelano. Non che faccia molta differenza, in pratica, ma ne fa moltissima in materia di decenza.

Non hanno bisogno che gli italiani facciano un documentario sulle loro atrocita' che poi qualcuno di loro vedra' magari esclusivamente ad ore impossibili su qualche emittente secondaria o su youtube, ma se li fanno da soli.

Ecco (e mi perdonino i non anglofoni, ma non ho voglia di tradurre ora, posso farlo a richiesta, se qualcuno e' interessato) un brano del fantastico spettacolo "comico" (ormai per le notizie storiche e di attualita' bisogna rivolgersi ai guitti) "Between a Rock and a Hard Place" dei grandi Bremmner, Bird & Fortune, trasmesso per Natale proprio alla vigilia dell'invasione dell'Iraq, quando in Italia nessuno aveva il coraggio di fiatare. Si parla di Storia, di Churchill e della sua posizione sull'uso di gas contro beduini selvaggi a cui le convenzioni di guerra non si applicavano - ma a sentire lui non si applicavano neanche ai tedeschi che, se fossero sbarcati in Inghilterra, sarebbero stati accolti da condutture di gas appositamente predisposte sulle spiaggie (i tubi sono ancora li). Gli inglesi non debbono pero' vergognarsi del loro passato: sono i vincitori.

V/O:
And so it was that the British put Iraq on the Middle Eastern map. This land where ancient tribes have withstood the passage of time, the boundaries between them shifting and evolving over the centuries. Slowly the mighty empire of Mesopotamia, it’s dominions defined over thousands of years, gave way to the might Ottoman Empire of the Turks, whose stewardship passed in turn to the custody of the great colonial nations. Britain, France, Russia. Each mindful of borders etched over time, careful to respect and refine the delicate patchwork of territories and historic boundaries. Aware of how unsettling constant change can be.

Mapping out the future only after the most infinite attention to detail, slowly, subtly, over the course of the century barely perceptible changes were made to accommodate the indigenous population, each serving to add new shades to a land already rich in colour.

RORY STANDUP

RORY:
And so Iraq was created. By us. The trouble was it had never been a country. Just a collection of tribes. Kurds, Marsh Arabs, Shiites, Sunnis, Turcomans, Jews, Assyrians. Mostly they detested each other, so you would think it would be a tough job for Britain to unite them.

JOHN FORTUNE:
But we did it. Less than 3 years after we took over, they all got together to throw us out. That revolt was put down by British troops but the Arab tribesmen and the Kurds kept on causing trouble. How did we deal with that? We all know how Saddam Hussein dealt with it 60 odd years later. He bombed the villages.

JOHN BIRD:
So what did we do? We bombed the villages. The RAF had a big airbase at Habbaniya, outside Baghdad, from where they sent lumbering Handley-Page biplanes to blitz them at the first sign of trouble. In fact there didn’t need to be any trouble at all before a place was bombed. Perfectly peaceful villages got the treatment if the tribesmen were thought to be to slow paying their taxes.

JOHN FORTUNE:
This was the first systematic bombing of civilians in history. Another gift to a grateful world.

RORY:
The man behind this policy was the Colonial Secretary, Winston Churchill.

CHURCHILL:
I look forward to the country being in the condition of an independent native state, friendly to Great Britain, favourable to her commercial interests, and costing hardly any burden on her Exchequer.

RORY:
That last bit was certainly true as the Iraqis were made to pay for the RAF’s operations, and indeed for all the administrative costs in the country. But as for the policy itself even the Secretary of State for War had his doubts.

SIR LAMING WORTHINGTON-EVANS:
If the Arab population realised that the peaceful control of Mesopotamia ultimately depends on our intention of bombing women and children, I’m very doubtful if we shall gain that acquiescence of the fathers and husbands of Mesopotamia to which the Secretary of State for the Colonies looks forward.

RORY:
Now I know what you’re thinking. But Sir Laming Worthington-Evans was actually a real person, and a real Secretary of State for War. Though with wishy washy liberal views like that, it’s not surprising he’s vanished into history.

JOHN FORTUNE:
But the natives were still pretty uppity. Particularly the Kurds.

TONY BLAIR:
Look I’ll tell you this, you know, we have to look after the Kurds in Iraq, because if we don’t look after them over there, then they’ll come over here, and I’ll tell you, we’re not going to look after them over here.

JOHN FORTUNE:
What is it about Kurds? They were still giving trouble to Saddam in the eighties. He gassed them. Where could he have got that idea?

CAPTION: SECRET 29 MARCH 1919

JOHN BIRD
Secret. Dated 29th of March 1919. “Gas bombs are required by the 31st Wing for use against recalcitrant Arabs, the suggestion being concurred in by General Staff Baghdad.

RORY:
At the Air Ministry Lieutenant Colonel Gossage worried about the effects of gas on the innocent. But those qualms were not shared by the then Secretary of State for War and Air, the future Colonial Secretary, Prime Minister and Greatest Briton of All Time.

CHURCHILL:
“I do not understand this squeamishness about the use of gas. I am strongly in favour of using poison gas against uncivilised tribes”.


JOHN FORTUNE:
Churchill felt that what was required was to arouse in the local population, what he called, “a lively terror”. Which is a neat phrase, bearing in mind that we’re now busily fighting a war against terror. But there were still worries at the Air Ministry.

JOHN BIRD:
“I understand that the Secretary of State has approved the general policy of using poisonous gas on uncivilised tribes. So far although considerable time and trouble was expended on research during the war, we have not yet evolved suitable and practical gas bombs for use from aircraft”.

JOHN FORTUNE:
So there we are, another good idea goes down the tube. Not because we didn’t have the heart, but because we didn’t have the technology.

RORY:
But it does mean that the next time you’re asked the question:

TARRANT:
He he, who was it who first bombed the Kurds? Was it A, the Iranians? Was it B, Saddam Hussein? Was it C, the Turks? Or was it D, Winston Churchill? You won’t need to phone a friend.

AngelaCorrias ha detto...

Questa è una bruttissima pagina della storia italiana e qualunque giornalista degno di questo nome dovrebbe sempre denunciare torture del genere. Solo che non capisco perché la BBC non abbia mandato in onda un servizio sul massacro che l'esercito Americano ha perpetrato a Falluja nel 2004 con il fosforo bianco. E questo è solo uno degli esempi di torture, portate avanti da USA e anche dalla stessa Inghilterra, che la BBC non denuncia.
Vivo a Londra da più di un anno e sinceramente sta diventando molto spiacevole assistere a una costante campagna mediatica contro l'Italia. L'Italia ha tantissimi difetti e io sono la prima a criticarli, ma per amor di cronaca si dovrebbe anche riportare le notizie che fanno apparire il paese in una luce positiva, perché tali notizie ci sono.