Anti-militarist demonstration, on 18 July, in front of the Court of Cagliari, where the hearing of the trial against the generals on the alleged environmental disaster within the Teulada firing range is scheduled. The A Foras committee has issued a note communicating the reasons for the demonstration.

Below is the full note.

The hearing of the trial which aims to identify those responsible for the environmental disaster which occurred in the Teulada Military Range will be held on 18 July at the Court of Cagliari.

The defendants in the trial are four generals, former chiefs of staff of the Italian Army, who are accused of negligent environmental disaster. The fifth accused, General Graziano, committed suicide on 17 June 2024.

The investigations covered a period of time up to 2016 but in the indictment the conduct is contested only up to 1 September 2014, in clear contrast with what was ascertained by the Prosecutor's Office itself. With the investigations it was ascertained that, despite the PIA (Integrated Environmental Intervention Plan) having been activated, from 2008 to 2016 exercises were carried out in the Delta peninsula and in 2016 no. 4 lunettes contaminated with Thorium and in 2018 n. 9 Milan missile engines.

The pollutants released into the territory have the ability to permeate the earth for tens of meters, reach the aquifers, move through the air for kilometers and spread in the sea waters for distances that are difficult to calculate. These substances enter the food chain, polluting fishing, livestock, agriculture and derived products (e.g. bread, pasta, cheeses, wines, etc.). The toxicity of materials and their diffusion is the basis of numerous pathologies that affect animals, plants and humans, such as leukemia, solid tumors, neonatal malformations, intoxication by specific agents.

There is scientific evidence of the causal link between these pollutants and the reported pathologies, although, to date, serious epidemiological research has never been carried out that sheds light on the real situation near the shooting ranges.

State silence

The investigation was born in 2012 when around twenty residents had presented some complaints reporting the onset of some pathologies such as lymphomas and various neoplasms attributable to the war activities carried out on the range.

In reality, the part linked to the hypothesis of manslaughter was removed almost immediately and archived due to the impossibility of demonstrating, as the Public Prosecutor claims, a causal link between deaths and the presence of the range. In reality, the causal link between pollutants produced by military exercises and the onset of these pathologies is widely demonstrated and documented by international scientific literature. What is missing is an accurate epidemiological study that demonstrates the increased incidence of these pathologies in the vicinity of the shooting ranges, but this type of study can only be conducted by Sardinian or Italian institutions which have so far failed to do so.

The trial is already shaping up as yet another absolution of the State towards itself.

In fact, the Public Prosecutor, while admitting that an environmental disaster occurred at the Teulada shooting range, continues to ask for the acquittal of all the accused. This happened already at the end of the preliminary investigations, which lasted seven years, but on that occasion the GIP Alessandra Tedde and the GUP Giuseppe Pintori respectively ordered the forced indictment of the alleged perpetrators and subsequently sent all the accused to trial.

It is likely that the acquittal could be decided already at the hearing on 18 July, without starting the trial.

Beyond the verdict, the hearing could demonstrate more clearly the levels of environmental pollution, the relationships with the pathologies that afflict the population and the ways in which the exercises caused the environmental disaster. Studies could be carried out and documents produced which would better explain what happened and what the risks deriving from these activities are still today.

Furthermore, a public debate would probably develop which would provide more information on what is happening in the territories surrounding the firing ranges.

The objective seems to be that of not wanting to give any answers on what happens in the military ranges nor to find political and criminal responsibility. For this reason they ask for the acquittal of all the generals of the very serious charges.

Two weights and two measures

According to the investigating judiciary, keeping the generals on trial would be inappropriate harassment towards them, who would have to endure the accusation of being responsible for the negligent disaster for a long time to come.

Here the Italian justice system demonstrates that it uses double standards: while the above-mentioned generals are asked to be acquitted of charges of negligent environmental disaster, the defendants for Operation Lynx have not received the same treatment, but will have to endure for many more years an absurd accusation of terrorism. The more than forty people involved, almost all under the age of forty, will not be able to participate in public competitions, be hired in public employment, or access grants and funding as they are under investigation for crimes against the State. This is not the place where we believe we have to defend ourselves, but we just want to expose, once again, the lie that justice is the same for everyone.

The charges relating to Operation Lince include unauthorized demonstration, perhaps having torn down already broken networks, resistance and the like. The sum of all these has meant that the main accusation is the crime of association with the aim of subverting the established order, therefore terrorism. On the other hand, making a part of Sardinia unbonableable is, for the Italian State, a crime that has no culprits and it would not be worth starting the trial.

The silence of politics and the struggle of A Foras

We do not accept that the next generations of Sardinians should be responsible for this environmental devastation, forced to live on an island exploited and defaced like a colony.

We demand answers for all the people, civilian or military, who have fallen ill or who have died; we want justice for their families; we expect the new regional council to take action

position, rather than fantasizing about green drills. We ask for the closure of all shooting ranges, the reclamation and restitution of occupied territories and to be able to live in a land of peace.

We will therefore see you on July 18th at 9am in front of the Court of Cagliari, to affirm that in our opinion the Italian State and the Ministry of Defense are guilty of all this.

We will all wait together for the judges' decision, to shout again that the fight does not stop.

(Unioneonline/E.Fr.)

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