Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, has once again caused offence through his jokes, this time mocking Argentines thrown to their deaths out of planes in The Dirty War.
“They were beautiful journeys,” he remarked, “they made them fall from the sky.”
The Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo were extremely upset by his words. “We are offended, because for Argentines there has always been a great relationship with Italy. Berlusconi has this clown-like tendency to make ironic comments, often very offensive.”
A written copy of the infamous was speech was received by The Grandmothers over the weekend. There is however no recording of Berlusconi’s comments, made at a political meeting in Sardinia, which leaves the Italian prime minister likely to deny what he said.
Estela de Carlotto, president of the Grandmothers, will complain to the human rights secretary, chancellor, and the Italian embassy in Argentina.
“We will ask him to clarify or rectify his statements. If he doesn’t, he will become a victim of our hate.”
During the military dicatorship between 1976 and 1983, over 30,000 Argentines were ‘disappeared’. People with political views against those of the government were kidnapped, never to be seen again. The vast majority of them are believed to have been killed, although their remains have never been found. A method used by the military to dispose of their victims was to fly them, drugged, out over the Río de la Plata and drop them into the river.
Berlusconi has got himself into trouble several times with his sarcastic tongue. He once referred to US president, Barack Obama, as “tanned”, and claimed that “the only repression by Mussolini [Italian dictator during World War II] was to send opposition leaders on holidays to various islands”.