by: Fausto Biloslavo
The caretaker of the cemetery where lie 6,500 Italians resisted well to the expulsion of 1970: "And I will not go even now"
Tripoli - The Sheltering Sky with Gaddafi American bombs in the bunker of the colonel, the revolt against the regime are just some of the adventures of Bruno Dalmasso, one of the last Italian Tripoli. At 77 years, with a blue cap and the four stars of Italy's world champion, Dalmasso welcomed us to the cemetery, which is the custodian, which houses the remains of the 6499 nationals. A small oasis in the Libyan capital, where young patriots rest massacred by the Ottomans, princesses of the past and common people from the colonial period to today. In a crypt remains intact the historic plaque in the air marshal "Italo Balbo Quadrumvirate Governor General of Libya." Shot down, officially by mistake, "in the sky Tobruch 06/28/1940," as stated on the white marble. Dalmasso was born in Bordighera, but loves to remember that he was "conceived in Eritrea 'to colonial times. In East Africa we would stay forever if Mengistu Haile Mariam, had not taken power in a coup. "I knew him well, but it's water under the bridge," said Dalmasso, that it was from the Abyssinian dictator in person has caught a hail of kicks, after being thrown in jail because Eritrean wire and then sent back to Italy. Dalmasso resists in Italy two months and the pain of Africa led him to Libya to head a construction site in Bengum, the antechamber of 'hell in the desert: "The Libyans call it" the place of the wind "and there are still remains a strong Italian in 1913. " One day there comes a young officer at the wheel of a Beetle. "It was Colonel Gaddafi - Libya says the veteran of the-We got to get a chai (tea) in the desert. He was young, jovial, laughing. I think that his country has done a lot. I saw as Libya has grown and developed. " Dalmasso and speaks It is as if the story ran. In 1986, when U.S. President Ronald Reagan ordered the bombing of Qaddafi's reign he lives 600 meters from the Bab Aziza, the fortified citadel of Colonel in the heart of Tripoli. "On 15 April, at two o'clock at night, squadrons came from the sea. The sky was red for the anti-aircraft tracers - Dalmasso remembers - The first bombs burned the house of Abu Nidal (the principal Palestinian terrorist from the 1985 massacre of Fiumicino and other bloody attacks nda). Then came the bunker Gaddafi. "A single bomb, said a ton, has fallen down like a bang followed by a roar and a strong light, like a giant flash in the dark the night. " In those years Dalmasso often goes to the cemetery, half left after the expulsion of the Italians in 1970, to read the tombstones buried by weeds. The place is called Hammangi, which means turkish bath. With his partner Ethiopian Abersah tegu Mari, she begins to revive and categorize countrymen buried in Tripoli and the rest of Libya. The remains of 28 thousand soldiers and Gaddafi did not want, including 5 thousand Eritrean askari who fought on our side, were transferred to the shrine of Bari military overseas
For his efforts he was named Knight Dalmasso of the Republic and even in the days of the revolt left the Italian cemetery: "With the graves helped us the Egyptian laborers, but they fled when the rebellion began, regrets the fellow-On February 17, the consulate has advised us to stay close at home, but nobody expected such an uprising. " Even Dalmasso, like many of the Libyan capital, is angry with the media: "When I heard that they were bombing the center of the capital, I took a shot: I went in the car right where there should have been the massacre, but there was one sign of the intervention plane. It was a lie. " In the days of the revolt in Tripoli, the Libyan friends 'stock' in the cemetery.
His plate has the number 15, the Italians and some rowdy could throw stones. "You are right Mr Maroni: the Americans are out - blurts Dalmasso - If NATO or the United States there is a risk involved another Afghanistan. They have to resolve among Libyans. Basically no one agrees secession, with the gas and oil to the west to the east. " The avalanche danger is real immigration: "There are hundreds of thousands of African immigrants fleeing Libya with the lure of Italy." Dalmasso with a stick between the graves. The remains of the 6499 Italian rest in niches divided by letter of the alphabet with a number engraved on the marble. The number corresponds to the name shown on large transparent plates on the wall. Quaglio Maria, Patanè Bruno, Country Carmela says discovering that the first Italian merchants in this slice of Africa in 1831 were buried. Gaston Land was a patriot anti turkish than twenty years' massacred by the Ottomans June 21, 1908. Earlier, in 1879, Princess De Zenaide Goyzueta, daughter of the Marquis of Toverena died just 10 years, 3 months and 20 days. His father, a Neapolitan nobleman, was consul of King Umberto I of Italy. The mother's name Livia Rimsky-Korsakov, sister of the great Russian composer. Balbo's body was reported at home and buried in Orbetello, but Tripoli is jealously guards the plaque. The last grave is Italian in 2008. On the white marble reads: Anna Buzzi, Milan. From the history of the cemetery italianosalta out an incredible story, that of an Italian Hannibal the cannibal, because it never identified with other fellow cast, which used human flesh in sausages. In the crypt of the chapel is also buried Innocent Halima, a nun who was the first Muslim. The regime has done to raise the Christ of the great iron crocein entrance to the cemetery because it hits the Islamic beliefs.
Dalmasso had the opportunity to leave Libya in revolt in 1400 with the evacuation of other nationals. "I said no. Libya is my country - he explains - I have accepted and respected for 36 years. Does not seem right to abandon the Libyans in time of danger. If the situation precipitated will share their fate. In 77 years I am not afraid of anything. " www.faustobiloslavo.eu
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