Otranto shipwreck

Place of misfortune

F 558 Sibilla, photo from 2001

In the Otranto shipwreck on March 28, 1997, the motorboat Katër i Radës sank in Albanian waters after a collision with the Italian warship Sibilla (1,285 tons), which tried to stop the boat overcrowded with migrants .

background

In the spring of 1997, the lottery riot broke out in Albania . This led to civil war-like conditions, so that many people wanted to escape from the port city of Vlora over the sea. At the same time, the Italian Navy was accused in the media of not acting effectively enough against illegal crossings . The media spoke of an "invasion of illegals" (La Repubblica).

In this heated situation, the Italian Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini offered the Albanian government help on March 25 to stop illegal emigration and to direct the refugee boats back. The Albanian interim government under Bashkim Fino accepted the offer in order to secure financial, police and humanitarian aid. As part of Operation White Flag , Rome effectively ordered a naval blockade and the Italian Navy monitored the Strait of Otranto with several warships . The secret travelers should be stopped in Albanian and international waters.

Fall of the Katër i Radës

On March 28, 1997, about 120 people left the Albanian port city of Vlora with the Katër i Radës for Italy. On the Albanian island of Sazan , the Italian corvette F 577 Zeffiro tried to move the motorboat to turn around, as the passengers would be illegal migrants ( clandestini ). When the hurrying F 558 Sibilla also tried to stop and inspect the Katër i Radës , it collided with it. The Katër i Radës capsized and sank. The Sibilla allegedly left the scene of the accident and returned after about 20 minutes.

Seven months later, the sunken boat was lifted in Albanian territorial waters ten miles offshore. 57 bodies were recovered, 24 people are missing.

Work-up

Legal

In the first-instance criminal proceedings (1999 to 2005 in Brindisi ), the public prosecutor complained about the poor cooperation of the Italian Navy, which did not hand over possible evidence such as recordings of radio messages. It would therefore not have been possible to unequivocally clarify the responsibility of the responsible admirals Alfeo Battelli and Umberto Guarino in the Taranto Naval Command and the headquarters in Rome. The skipper of the Katër i Radës, Namik Xhaferi, was sentenced to four years 'imprisonment and the Italian captain to three years' imprisonment for causing a shipwreck and multiple negligent homicide . The Court of Appeal in Lecce upheld the judgment in 2011. It was not possible for the prosecutors to prove beyond any doubt that the Admiralty in Taranto had given specific instructions on how the Katër i Radës should be intimidated and persuaded to turn back.

Proceedings before the European Court of Human Rights (Xhavara vs. Italy and Albania) were rejected because Italy had jurisdiction over the case and a trial had meanwhile taken place.

memory

Memorial in the port of Otranto

In the port of Otranto , a memorial by the Greek artist Costas Varotsos commemorates the accident.

literature

• Maurizio Albahari: Death and the Modern State: Making Borders and Sovereignty at the Southern Edges of Europe . University of California, San Diego 2006, (pdf; 891 kB).
• Maurizio Albahari: Crimes of Peace: Mediterranean Migrations at the World's Deadliest Border . University of Pennsylvania Press 2015, ISBN 978-0-8122-4747-3 .
• Daniele Salerno: Memorializing Boat Tragedies in the Mediterranean - The Case of the Katër i Radës . In: Migration by Boat: Discourses of Trauma, Exclusion and Survival. Ed .: Lynda Mannik, Berghahn Books 2016, ISBN 978-1-78533-102-2 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Maurizio Albahari: Crimes of Peace: Mediterranean Migrations at the World's Deadliest Border . P. 64 f.
2. ^ Maurizio Albahari: Crimes of Peace: Mediterranean Migrations at the World's Deadliest Border . P. 66.
3. ^ Maurizio Albahari: Crimes of Peace: Mediterranean Migrations at the World's Deadliest Border . P. 67.
4. ^ Maurizio Albahari: Crimes of Peace: Mediterranean Migrations at the World's Deadliest Border. P. 68 f.
5. ↑ Thomas Gammeltoft-Hansen: Growing Barriers: International Refugee Law. In: Universal Human Rights and Extraterritorial Obligations . Ed .: Gibney and Skogly, University of Pennsylvania 2010, ISBN 978-0-8122-4215-7 , p. 72.
6. ↑ Information Note No. 26 on the case-law of the Court. (PDF) European Court of Human Rights, January 2001, p. 4 , accessed on October 22, 2019 (English). 
7. ^ Otranto's memorial . EU Information Center, October 8, 2015, accessed September 15, 2019.