European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - March 9, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse Tuesday March 9, 1993 world the stars Ano stripes Page 9scandal shakes italian apathy pervasive corruption brings Calls for Reform Rome apr a spreading Kickback scandal and a government proposal to let implicated politicians off the Hook has average italians wondering How much they Are to blame for letting corruption become so pervasive a and accepted. For More than a year a corruption probe known As operation clean hands has toppled leading lawmakers across Italy tainted virtually All political parties and sent Heads rolling in some of the country a biggest businesses. Scores of business leaders and politicians have been hauled off to jail or notified that they Are under investigation in connection with millions of dollars in kickbacks paid to politicians and parties for government contracts. The scandal has reached so far and wide that it has shaken even a people traditionally cynical to the Point of apathy about government. Italians Are coming to realize that if Italy a attitude that corruption is part of doing business is going to change they will have to Start changing their own nonchalant attitude toward bending the rules. To create a different society built on civic conscience and respect italians would have to forget All their old habits that have ruined Italy above All silently accept giving things up a Graziella do Nuncio 28, an elementary schoolteacher in Rome said Over the weekend. The sacrifices de Nuncio spoke of would require a More serious regard for the Law in the Only industrialized country where corruption is so blatant a Way of life. Politicians May flout the Law but everyday people Don t think much about rules either and the guiding principle is a you scratch my Back ill scratch a Drivers Aren t deterred by red lights sidewalks Are piled with cars and people commonly seek Saccoman Davioni a a Good word from a Friend in a powerful place to obtain a Job or Speed the Workings of a lumbering bureaucracy. De Nuncio was one of Many italians enraged by a set of Cabinet decrees that would keep Many of those arrested in the scandal out of jail. The decrees approved last it week by socialist prime minister Giuliano Amato seeks to decriminalize All past present and future violations of party finance Laws. Environment minister Carlo Ripa do Meana resigned sunday in outrage Over the decrees which president Oscar Luigi Scalfaro has so far refused to sign. The very idea of an amnesty for those involved in the scandal Shook italians out of their apathy. People in Genoa who customarily would spend sunday afternoon taking the ritual passeggiata or stroll instead passed out petitions asking the president to kill the measures in Rome Giuseppe Brunetti deplored the decrees As an invitation to crime. A when dishonesty in t punished its easy to be dishonest a said Brunetti 63, As he cleaned fishing rods in his store near the pantheon. Quot even honest people can easily become dishonest if they know they wont be a Survey published monday in the newsweekly Panorama found that two out of three people polled said they think that in Light of the scandal citizens must be held to stricter ethical standards. Fifty three percent blamed Italy a social breakdown on a the sparse sense of civic duty on the part of the Survey was based on Telephone Calls to 1,000 people in the first three Days of March. Its margin for error was 3 percent. Cinzia Mancinelli who works in a government office in Rome said the Anglo Saxon idea of sacrificing for the common Good just never took Root in Italy. 14 arrested in Sicily on charges of hiding mafia Leader for years Palermo Sicily apr police rounded up 14 people sunday accused of helping Salvatore Quot Toto Riina the Cosa Nostra s reputed Quot Boss of Bosses a elude capture for 23 years. A thanks to them Riina was Able to live while on the run said Rai the government run television reporting the arrests in the Palermo area. Riina 62, was. Riina arrested Jan. Is As he was being driven on a Palermo thoroughfare during morning Rush hour. Until then he was Italy a most wanted fugitive convicted in absent a of heroin trafficking and ordering murders. He is suspected of ordering the bombings last year that killed Italy Stop two anti mafia fighters prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino. Investigators told a news conference in the sicilian capital that the 14 suspects were largely i a unknown to men of Honor a As mafiosi Call themselves Rai said. None had police records. Among them were four Brothers of the Driver of Riina a car when the alleged a Boss of Bosses was arrested the italian news Agency Ansa quoted investigators As saying. Rai said a pc Tito of mafioso Tum cd informant had identified Many of the 14 for investigators about a year ago. But investigators were sceptical because no other pc Tito had heard of the names. Investigation after Riina a arrest convinced them the 14 were indeed Riina aides who helped him elude Anest since 1969. Investigators believe Riina spent much of his time As a fugitive in Palermo. A there its divine Providence a or a the italian just thinks of himself a said Mancinelli. 25. The Magazine Survey found that 71 percent of those queried think that zipping through red lights and parking on sidewalks a a clashes strongly with civic duty. Those apparently were naughtier habits than asking for a Saccoman Dazion 59 percent or refusing to wait in line 58 percent. Asked what they would give up so peo ple could live together better 81 percent said they would be willing to keep their cars off sidewalks compared with 76 percent who would renounce seeking a me comand Zionc. Chances arc however that City folks going to work Wilt continue zigzagging their Way around cars on the sidewalk and Hope no car will run a red Light while they Are crossing. They have to hurry to find their Friend behind the clerks cat s meow fortunate icing for pets by mail Tokyo apr in Japan where amenities for pampered pets include waterbeds and flush toilets pet owners can seek Doggy divination and canine counsel from a fortuneteller. A Tokyo based advertising Agency called Astra offers pet fortunes for the equivalent of $43. Clients Send data including birth Date sex and blood Type a their own and their pets a plus photos. About two weeks later they re mailed a message tape recorded by a professional fortuneteller. Typical questions from pet owners include whether their cats will get smarter whether a cat and a dog will learn to get along and whether a dog can truly share its owners feelings said spokesman Futoshi Ogi. Astra has offered pet fortunes since it opened four years ago but in the last year and a half it has gained a steady clientele Ogi said. He said about 60 percent of the business came from women in their late teens and 20s who Are worried about their cats health and happiness. But lately with Japan brooding Over its business slump the advice seekers Are getting More pragmatic. Ogi said a Dairy farm association in Northern Japan was asking about the cows productivity rates for the coming fiscal year. A the cows did no to have names but our fortuneteller could handle it As we knew exactly when they were born a he said despite cold War s end Sweden still haunted by mystery intruders by Richard w. Stevenson the new York times Stockholm a the cold War is Over but one of its mysteries endures off Sweden a coast where the Navy detected foreign submarines prowling its Waters at least three times last year. The incursions fit into a dec Adelong pattern and officials in Sweden said they had no reason to believe that the incursions had stopped. The Navy now is equipping its anti submarine Fleet with More advanced torpedoes and has Given it additional Freedom to fire on intruders without warning. Few government or military officials doubt that the submarines came from the ports of the former soviet Union across the Baltic sea which would have been a crucial staging ground for the soviet Navy in the event of War in the North Atlantic. But the officials have gathered Little firm evidence and with the exception of the grounding of a soviet submarine near a swedish naval base in 1981, Stockholm has not formally accused Moscow. Even those officials who Are most hawkish on the Issue admit to being perplexed Over Why the russians if they Are indeed the culprits would continue to provoke Sweden and risk even a minor military confrontation. A during the cold War you could at least provide a probable explanation a said Lars Christiansson the spokesman for prime minister Carl Bildt. A now its harder to find a Good reason Why this is going Sweden has edged away from its tradition of Neutral Ity Over the last two years but has not totally abandoned its policy of military no alignment seeking to take advantage of russians eagerness to improve relations and expand Trade Bildt brought up the Issue of the submarines with president Boris n. Yeltsin on a trip to Moscow in Early february. In what Sweden regarded As a breakthrough Yeltsin acknowledged intrusions into swedish Waters by a underwater vehicles Quot though he stopped Short of admitting that the subs were russian. In a communique the two nations said russian and swedish analysts would continue a joint study of sonar recordings and other evidence of intrusions to clarify a this problem and increase Security in the Baltic. A this was important a Christiansson said Quot because its a change in the soviet and russian attitudes that there had not been any intrusions and that Sweden was suffering from Periscope swedish officials said the russians still appeared to use the coast As a training and testing ground for submarines among them vessels with Crews of Only one or two and vehicles capable of crawling along the sea floor. The seas off Sweden a Eastern coast have layers with different temperatures and different concentrations of Salt which makes spotting and tracking submarines particularly Tricky. But some people familiar with military policy a including at least one member of Bildt Scenter right coalition government a said privately that despite Yeltsin s statements they believe the Navy is chasing apparitions at least in some cases. A
