PALERMO – At the time Nicola Mancino was minister of internal affairs. He is the only politician who has ever mentioned a “negotiation” that “someone” wanted to carry through with the mafia. He is the only politician to have explained why that “negotiation” was rejected “even if it was only meant to lighten the price to be payed to the State”. Seventeen years after the sicilian massacres, and two months after his first declarations with regards to the tragedies that took place in the summer of 1992, Nicola Mancino, vice president of the Superior Council of Magistrates, stands before the magistrates of Palermo and Caltanissetta as a witness.
A three hour, face to face interrogation in Rome in front of prosecutors Messineo and Lari as well as Di Matteo and Gozzo. The interrogation was meant to establish who sat at the negotiation table, what it was they were aiming at and who from inside the State refused to accept Cosa Nostra’s blackmail. In Caltanisetta, investigations involve the sicilian massacres of Capaci and D’Amelio street that took place in the spring-summer period of 1992. The Public Prosecutor’s Offices of Florence and Milan investigate on the attacks that took place in 1993 with refferal to the bombs in Georgofili street and in San Giorgio al Velabro, in Palestro street. On the other hand, in Palermo, investigations necessarly look at the mafia State “negotiation”. This inquiry is relevant to the ones taking place on the massacres of 1992-93 and was opened a few years ago because of a specific happening – the failure to capture Bernardo Provenzano on October 31st 1995 saw general Mario Mori of the carabinieri (italian military police force) and colonel Mauro Obinu accused of aiding and abetting Provenzano. This is the root of all the other investigations, which will allow the law to establish what took place in Sicily before and after Falcone and Borsellino’s assassinations.
Over the last few months, the inquiry in Palermo revealed that the “negotiations” which took place were two and not one. The first is dated between Falcone and Borsellino’s death. Provenzano and “an important exponent of the emerging political force” planned the second one after Riina had been captured. At least two repetants and Massimo Ciancimino declare that the political party in question is Forza Italia (Berlusconi’s party) and the intermediary was Marcello Dell’Utri. The first and the second “negotiation” are related to one another: investigations show that they are linked by the failure to capture Provenzano. This failure was the “consequence” of the agreement made between parts of the State and mafia. Today, prosecutors are certain that the “negotiation” (or the “negotiations”) between Corleonesi and institutions lasted more than just a few months, they went on for at least three years, until the last months of 1995.
Nicola Mancino is not the only politician to have testified with regards to the mafia’s attempts to “come into contact”. In the middle of July, after seventeen years of silence, Luciano Violante (ex president of the parlamentery antimafia commission) tells of three episodes in which he came into contact with general Mori. Mori had proposed a “private” meeting with Vito Ciancimino. Violante refused and asked the police official if judiciary authorities had been informed of Ciancimino’s desire to speak. Mori answered that this was “a political matter”.
The ex mayor’s son Massimo Ciancimino testified on this account over the past few months. Ciancimino helped magistrates find parts of a series of letters addressed to Berlusconi between 1991 and 1994. Apparently the letters were from Provenzano. They contained subtle threats and expressed Provenzano’s wish to “contribute politically” within an “emerging political force”. The proceedings and records of interrogations were to be included in the trial that took place yesterday against Marcello Dell’Utri. A trial in which senator Dell’Utri is accused of association with mafia. However, the Court rejected the prosecutor’s request since “the examination of the content of the records of interrogation of Massimo Ciancimino draw a confusing and contradictory picture of the scene”.
La Repubblica, 18 Settembre 2009
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