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The journey to death in Otranto/ The witness tells how the "Kateri i Rada" was hit by the Italian ship

2023-04-12 22:03:56Aktualitet SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
The journey to death in Otranto/ The witness tells how the "Kateri i
The witness tells how the "Kateri i Rada" was hit by the Italian ship

"Kateri i Rada" left for Italy, a week after the agreement was signed. It was 4:40 pm on a sunny afternoon.

Soon, the journey of hope would turn into the last journey for the vast majority of passengers.

Proud Xhavara boarded this ship with his wife and 6-month-old daughter. His brother Vironi was also on this trip, along with his wife and three children. The two men stayed on the ship's deck, while the wives went down to the cabin to protect the children from the cold.

The two brothers managed to escape, but both lost their families. Proud, even today after 26 years, he cannot forget any detail from that unfortunate trip where two families lost his heart.

He confesses that just a few minutes after the departure, near "Sazan" they were spotted by the corvette "Zeffiro" which had also participated in the war in the Persian Gulf. This ship followed them in Albanian waters for about an hour and a half, while there was also a helicopter patrolling the air and letting out its lights.

"She was calling us with a megaphone: "Clandestine, go back." We did not consider ourselves as clandestine and we were over 100 people, when the international law says that over 100 people judge the demands on the land once and then make the decision to return it," said the survivor "Kateri I Radës", Krenar Xhavara.

Referring to the investigative file of the Italian authorities, the ship was spotted by the Italian corvette around 17:15 in the vicinity of Sazan. "Zeffiro" at that time was engaged in the joint operation "White Flags" between Albania and Italy.

After the migrants' refusal to turn back, the "Zeffiro" alerted the Italian Coast Guard. "Kateri i Rada" would be followed by the military corvette "Sibila", about 87 meters long and 11 meters high.

The orders were clear: "Harassment" which means to use the protocol of breaking the embargo. The Albanian ship should be followed for an indefinite period of time and returned to the Albanian shores at any cost.

The Sibila was a real war machine, moving at a speed of about 50 km/h and equipped with radars and technology that filmed everything, while the Albanian ship had a speed of only 19 km/h.

At 18:45, when it was in the middle of the Otranto channel, despite having raised the white flag and having children on deck, the vessel was hit by the military corvette "Sibila".

"This premonition that we were going to be hit and they were going to commit a crime? We didn't even think about it at all. They fought with the children, drowned the children, while it was holy Friday for those who consider themselves to be believers," Xhavara said.

Initially, it approached up to 7 meters to the Albanian ship, which looked like a paper boat in front of the monster "Sibila". The goal was to create waves and force the Albanian ship to turn back or sink. The Italian military ship was 5 times longer than the "Kateri i Rada". Due to the violation of the safety distance, the head of "Sibila" badly hit the kitch of "Kateri Rada".

That was the first blow. Then it was rubbed along the Albanian ship making a hole with a diameter of about 40 cm on the side. The third blow was fatal. The bow of the Italian corvette hit the control tower of the small Albanian ship, riding on top of it. 4 immigrants were crushed in the control tower. The Albanian ship capsized and sank within 8 minutes, causing a tragedy of great proportions.

The bodies of 24 of them were never found. 34 people managed to survive.

Xhavara, who was up on the deck, saw the whole event. He also accurately states the time when they received the fatal blow, as the hands of the clock stopped when he fell into the water.

"At 6:50 p.m., when my watch got stuck in the water, they came from behind in an insidious, completely criminal way. And with their tip like the Titanic, they hit the Albanian ship. They hit it on the control tower and made a "hole in the side about 40-50 cm with the bulb that the ship has and above the cabin of our ship, they got on top of it...pamm and the ship capsized and stayed upside down for 8 minutes". said survivor Xhavara.

How the ship "Sibila" abandoned Albanian women and children

The most inhumane thing in this whole story is the fact that after the incident, the corvette "Sibila" left, leaving the people to drown.

The Italian ship returned only after half an hour, but the time was enough for dozens of men, women and children to drown.

"Near me was a girl from the villages of Fier who asked me for help and I dragged her to the Italian ship that returned after 30 minutes because she wanted to leave us. I saw dead bodies. They had drunk water. They were swollen", said Krenari.

Even after the ship returned, the crew's treatment of the Albanians was cruel. They have even threatened immigrants who dared to accuse them of causing that crime against vulnerable children.

"After half an hour, "Sibila" came again, divided us into two groups. 23 in a corridor, he brought us a cup of tea and one of our friends told him what did you do, criminal, you killed us: "Stay wise" he said, I threw you into the sea too. He was a sworn criminal against Albanians".

Who wouldn't cringe just reading the names and birthdays of these dreamers who were trying to leave the country, after the anarchy that engulfed it from the bankrupt pyramid schemes.

How the Italian side manipulated the investigations

The bodies of the drowned were retrieved 8 months later, from a depth of 823 meters, after a four-day operation.

Inside the ship "Kateri i Rada" 57 bodies were found, mostly women and children, who during the fatal moment were locked inside, without any possibility of escape.

In addition to a painful process, the family members accuse that even when the ship with the dead bodies was taken out, there were attempts at manipulation by the Italians, as they wanted as few victims as possible.

In this ceremony, there was no representative or official of the Italian side, but only a long line of clothes and personal belongings, where family members went one by one to identify their loved ones.

"They pretended to be Castile when they were filming, but I knew where my family was, at the command inside, that they were filming Castile and my family was not visible, and I said: I will take you as in the movie, "The general of the dead army, "I was very revolted".

The process of verifying the bodies was a dramatic moment for the family members. They report that the bodies were not decomposed at all and were easily identifiable, except for the minor children.

The pride has still not been able to forget the sight of his little girl, who stayed at the bottom of the sea longer than she stayed in life. But it took another 6 months for their dead bodies to come to rest in their land, in 1998.

Along with the "Cater of Rada", two strong pieces of evidence came to the surface: two sinkholes caused by the "Sibila" that were denied by the Italian authorities, but every witness insisted that they had been hit.

This is the memorial of innocent victims that did not cause a war, but the justification of an agreement to maintain maritime borders at the expense of vulnerable human lives.

Entire families extinguished…. young people whose dreams were left forever in the waters of Otranto and hundreds of family members who have not been able to find either peace or justice for their relatives.

Dean of the Faculty of Law: The action of the Italian ship, criminal

For 26 years, "Kateri i Rada" has sunk hundreds of times in a judicial process that did not give justice.

It dragged on with slow procedures for 17 years in a row, or sudden rushes, which took out of the scene the leadership cupola of the Italian Navy.

Admiral Alfio Batelli and Admiral Umberto Guarino, who are believed to be the two principals responsible for giving the orders, were excluded from the investigation a year after the sinking of the Rada Cutter. Responsibility for the sinking was investigated as an individual, only among the two ship captains.

Xenofon Krisafi, expert in international law, also Dean of the Faculty of Law and Human Sciences at the Mediterranean University, says that the event is in excess of the norms of international law.

"If we were to judge that these people, who took a ship under certain circumstances and embarked them to flee from their country, where they could not find what they were looking for and which they thought they would find in a foreign country, in Italy . Perhaps the action from a purely formal point of view would be wrong, not very fair, but still the punishment they received is extremely disproportionate, excessive, criminal in the full sense of the word", said the Dean of the Faculty of Law, Xenofon Krisafi.

What happened to the judicial process of "Kateri Rada"?

The absurdity is that those who caused the tragedy, i.e. the Italian side, carried out both the investigation and the trial of the case.

"Our event should not have been led by Italy, because Italy shot us, killed us. How can a court order to kill you? The murderer both kills and judges you. We were abandoned at that time and now, a pronounced anti-Albanianism", said survivor Krenar Xhavara.

In that dark period, where Albanians were dragged through endless procedures to obtain a visa, the families of the victims were left alone by the Albanian state. No representative of the Albanian state has accompanied or facilitated the family members in following the legal procedures for the trials. No relief came even from the Italian side as the defendant in this trial. On the contrary!

The Italian Navy launched an internal investigation, one day after the tragedy, precisely on March 29, 1997. The investigation concluded that one of the causes of the sinking was the contact between the ships "Sibila" and "Kateri i Rada", which had come as a result of a maneuver dangerous from "Kateri" and its inclination.

 


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