Italy still fighting for 'desaparecidos' justice

Italy is still fighting for justice for thousands of 'desaparecidos' or 'disappeared ones' in the "monstrous atrocities" of past Argentinian regimes, Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi told a conference at the ministry Thursday. Terzi said it was important that Italy was standing as civil plaintiff in the cases involving its citizens and had set up a bilateral panel to review them. "The cruelty of the cases of the desaparecidos makes all the stronger the desire for justice, not to seek vengeance but to restore the truth, punish those guilty of crimes against humanity, keep alive the memory of the victims and facilitate the process of reconciliation," he said. "While many in the world were silent or minimized, 30,000 civilians - and among them at least 1,600 Italian citizens - were tortured, massacred and sometimes thrown alive from planes into the ocean, made to disappear," Terzi said.