Petition to the Italian Embassy in Washington DC

Richard Pankhurst and Rita Pankhurst
Addis Ababa

We would like to add our names to the thousands of Italians, Ethiopians and others who have protested against the public honouring of one of Fascist Italy’s principal War Criminals.

We would emphasize that this is not an anti-Italian protest. On the contrary, we pay homage to Italians who resisted Mussolini, often at great cost, such as Professor Carlo Rosselli editor of Giustizia e Liberta, who was assassinated for opposing fascism. We also honour historians such as Professor Angelo del Boca, who exposed many Italian War Crimes in Libya and Ethiopia, which were assiduously concealed from the Italian public.

It is well known that, already in the 1920s Rodolfo Graziani, committed atrocities in Italian-occupied Libya, earning him the title of Hyena of Libya and Butcher of Fezzan.

He subsequently played a major role in 1935-6 as commander of the Fascist armies which invaded Ethiopia from the South. As such he was responsible for the use of Poison Gas, banned by international convention, as well as for a policy of terrorism against the so-called “native” population. He also ordered the execution without trial of Ethiopian Prisoners of War. For these and other crimes he was later to be officially listed by the Ethiopian Government as a War Criminal.

After the Fascist occupation of Addis Ababa in 1935 Graziani was appointed Italian Viceroy of Ethiopia. Two years later, following the attempt on his life on 19 February 1937, he was responsible for the infamous three-day Addis Ababa Massacre forever associated with his name.

In this Massacre innumerable innocent Ethiopian citizens including women and children, were mercilessly gunned down, beaten to death, or prevented from escaping from their homes which were then torched. In the absence of any official count, estimates of those killed varied greatly, but certainly comprised many thousands. The British Legation alone was reported to “know the names of over 2,000 Ethiopian victims”. The contemporary historian, Ian Campell, who has carried out considerable research on the matter, estimates that 10,000 citizens lost their lives in Addis Ababa during the three day Massacre.

Graziani also ordered reprisals at the Monastery of Debra Libanos, where, on 20 May, all the 297 monks and 129 deacons were murdered.

Shortly after these events Graziani gave instructions that Ethiopian nobles and army officers, who had surrendered “be shot immediately. … A better opportunity could not be found to get rid of them”. If these were not crimes, what are crimes?

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At the close of World War II the United Nations set up a War Crimes Commission, of which Ethiopia was a member. The Ethiopian Government officially listed Graziani, as well as Pietro Badoglio, the Fascist Commander of the Ethiopian Northern Front, as Fascist Italy’s principal War Criminals. Among other crimes, they had sanctioned the use of Poison Gas during the invasion and occupation.

The voice of Ethiopia was however ignored. The British Government wanted to see Badoglio as Prime Minister of post-war Italy, while racists in various parts of the British Empire, notably South Africa, were reluctant to see Graziani – a White Man – punished for crimes committed against Natives, or Blacks. The United Nations War Crimes Commission was therefore deliberately sabotaged – with the result that not a single Italian Fascist was ever tried for the many crimes committed in Ethiopia. Graziani was indicted only for crimes committed in collaboration with the Germans in Italy.

And now, in 2012, the Mayor of Affile, the place where Graziani was born, has dedicated a mausoleum and park to his memory.

The honouring of Graziani, against which we protest, may conceivably have been carried out by persons who knew little of his actual role in history; however, the Vatican, whose representative attended the ceremony, should have known better, which makes these events all the more alarming.

The naming of a War Criminal as a Cultural Hero must not be allowed to pass unchallenged. Let us make no bones about it: Graziani is not simply to be numbered as one of the Fascist invaders who committed war crimes in Africa, not even as one of the principal ones: he was, without a doubt, the most criminal one. Those who, for one reason or another, condone his deeds, are all the more guilty.

Is it too much to demand that the Italian government and the Vatican disassociate themselves publicly from the Mayor of Affile’s preposterous action?

Richard Pankhurst and Rita Pankhurst