Bruno Loi

Bruno Loi (born August 23, 1941 in Avellino ) is a retired Italian general . In 1992 and 1993 he commanded an Italian association in Somalia within the framework of UNOSOM .

Career

After his training at the military academy in Modena and Turin, Loi became an officer in the Folgore paratrooper brigade . In 1983 he commanded a paratrooper battalion on a peacekeeping mission in Lebanon . In the following years, he completed general staff courses at the Army Command Academy in Civitavecchia , at the French École Militaire in Paris and at the Command Academy of the Italian Armed Forces ( CASD ) in Rome . After serving in the Ministry of Defense , he was Italian military attaché in Paris from 1987 to 1990 and then commander of the "Folgore" paratrooper brigade in Livorno . In 1992 this brigade became the lead unit for an Italian contingent in Somalia .

Somalia

The dispatch of an Italian contingent as part of the US operation "Restore Hope" or UNOSOM I was decided by the parliament in Rome on December 9, 1992 (at the same time another mission in Mozambique as part of ONUMOZ ). 3,000 soldiers under the command of Major General Giampiero Rossi were to begin "Operation Ibis" on January 4, 1993 in Somalia. On December 12, 1993, the contingent set sail on five ships from Livorno and Brindisi . The next day, an Italian advance command arrived in Somalia by air and set up at the Bali Dogle military airfield. On December 15 and 16, Italian paratroopers landed there. a. secured the Italian embassy in the Bondere district. On December 22nd, the Italian naval force arrived in front of Mogadishu , which disembarked the contingent the following day, including marines from the San Marco battalion . The paratroopers who flown in in the following days, under their commander, General Bruno Loi, and others occupied a. Balad , Bardera and Belet Uen . By January 3, 1993, all of the almost 30,000 soldiers of the international troops (UNITAF) had been at their designated locations. They were allowed to enforce their mandate by force of arms, which, however, was interpreted and implemented in quite different ways by the 33 different contingents. The Italian contingent had to control about 70,000 km² (approx. 360 × 200 km) between Mogadishu and Belet Uen and to carry out numerous humanitarian tasks. Starting in February, the Italian and several other contingents were repeatedly targeted by Somali militias, which then led to the establishment of UNOSOM II in March .

On May 4, 1993, the United Nations took over the leadership of the operation in Somalia from the USA . On this occasion, General Bruno Loi took command of the entire Italian contingent. A month later, the Somali National Alliance radio station in Mogadishu was attacked by militias of General Aidid on UN troops, killing 24 Pakistani blue helmets. Members of an Italian special unit together with US soldiers subsequently prevented a bloodbath there. In the following days, Italian troops also took part in the hunt for Aidid, where fierce fighting broke out on June 17th. Due to different interpretations of the UN mandate, tensions had already arisen between Italians and Americans. When US troops operated unauthorizedly in the Italian sector in the pursuit of Aidids on June 22, there were clashes between Loi and the US command.

On July 2, 1993, 500 Italian soldiers, together with 400 officers of the new Somali police in Mogadishu, started an action between the so-called Checkpoints Pasta ( Pastificio ) and Ferro to disarm the warring militias Aidids and Mahdis . General Loi had brought reinforcements from Balad for this dangerous operation. The Italian troops, who for their protection u. a. had tanks and attack helicopters , together with the Somali police, they dug up a number of weapons depots during the operation, which started at 6:00 a.m. local time. At the end of the campaign, one of the two Italian combat groups returned via the checkpoint Ferro to their base at the port ("Alfa"), the other ("Bravo") via the checkpoint Pasta to Balad. At Checkpoint Pasta the retreating Italian soldiers fell in the late morning in an ambush . Protesters and other civilians participated in the fighting by erecting barricades, cutting off an Italian unit. After an Italian officer was hit on his Centauro tank, the paratroopers of the "Bravo" combat group who were already heading to Balad were called back. At the checkpoint they were met by heavy RPG and MG fire. In the ensuing battles, in which three Italian soldiers died and 26 others were wounded, heavy weapons were prohibited for political reasons. The crew of an Agusta A129 attack helicopter initially resisted this order from the higher Italian command posts and fired a rocket, for which a permit was subsequently granted. Something similar happened with the tanks, which gave the (politically motivated) order "No artillery!" had received, but at least resisted this in one case, destroyed at least one barricade and thus slowed the attack of the militias, who mingled with civilians as needed. The militias are said to have lost at least 100 relatives in the fighting at the Pasta checkpoint . After an arrived Italian special unit had secured the retreat area, soldiers and police officers were able to withdraw. This skirmish caused a lasting disruption of the relationship of trust between the Italian contingent in Mogadishu and the local population, which is why the government in Rome announced on July 13 that the Italian troops would be relocated to the northern parts of the country. Meanwhile, on Loi's personal orders, paratroopers had rescued journalist Ilaria Alpi, who, along with other journalists, had been the target of attacks after the US attack on a Somali National Alliance political gathering (Alpi was shot dead in Mogadishu on March 20, 1994) . An attack on Checkpoint Banca failed on July 15, and another on Checkpoint Pasta on August 5 , with a Somali woman fatally wounded during the firefight.

In early September 1993, the Folgore paratrooper brigade returned to Italy after eight months of deployment. She was replaced in Somalia by General Carmine Fiores mechanized infantry brigade "Legnano", which set up its headquarters in Balad and in Belet Uen u. a. worked with the German contingent until it was withdrawn with all other contingents in March 1994. Shortly after their return to Italy, a political campaign began against the "Folgore" and also against their commander Bruno Loi, because pictures of Italian paratroopers showed them mistreating Somali civilians. Because a military unit in Canada had been disbanded because of a similar incident, some political circles in Italy also called for the "Folgore" brigade to be disbanded. Bruno Loi and his successor Carmine Fiore later offered to resign in protest because, according to their conviction and according to the results of a commission of inquiry, only a small minority of Italian paratroopers had participated in the abuse.

General Bruno Loi commanded after his mission in Somalia a. a. the Accademia Militare di Modena and some territorial commands. He resigned from active service on September 30, 2004 as a lieutenant general . A book by him with the title Peace-keeping: pace o guerra? Was published in 2005 about the operation in Somalia, in which a total of eleven Italian soldiers and three Italian civilians were killed . Una risposta italiana: l'operazione Ibis in Somalia .

Web links / sources

• paginedidifesa.it, book presentation (Italian)
• Representation it. Army (english)
• Representation of Carabinieri (Italian)