Free Trieste

(DE)MILITARIZATION OF THE FREE TERRITORY OF TRIESTE

(DE)MILITARIZATION OF THE FREE TERRITORY OF TRIESTE

November 5th, 2014: Italian aircraft carrier Cavour in the Port of Trieste for the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the beginning of the temporary “civil” administration of Trieste.

The Free Territory of Trieste an independent, sovereign State under a provisional regime of Government and under the UNSC’s own protection.

The 1947 Italian Peace Treaty establishes Trieste’s “Demilitarisation and Neutrality” (Art. 3, Annex VI):

1. The Free Territory shall be demilitarised and declared neutral.

2. No armed forces, except upon direction of the Security Council, shall be allowed in the Free Territory.

3. No para-military formations, exercises or activities shall be permitted within the Free Territory.

4. The Government of the Free Territory shall not make or discuss any military arrangements or undertakings with any State

At art. 48, sub-paragraph 5, the same Treaty:

5. In a coastal area 15 kilometers deep, stretching from the frontier between Italy and Yugoslavia and between Italy and the Free Territory of Trieste to the latitude of 440 50′ N. and in the islands adjacent to this coast, Italy shall not establish any new, nor expand any existing, naval bases or permanent naval installations.

This does not prohibit minor alterations to, nor the maintenance in good repair of, existing naval installations and bases provided that their overall capacity will not thereby be increased.

Finally, at Annex XIII, point D:

For the purpose of the present Treaty the terms “demilitarisation” and “demilitarised” shall be deemed to prohibit, in the territory and territorial waters concerned, all naval, military and military air installations, fortifications and their armaments; artificial military, naval and air obstacles;

the basing or the permanent or temporary stationing of military, naval and military air units; military training in any form; and the production of war material.

This does not prohibit internal security personnel restricted in number to meeting tasks of an internal character and equipped with weapons which can be carried and operated by one person, and the necessary military training of such personnel..

It is clear: in the Free Territory, under the UNSC’s own responsibility, only civil police authorities can grant law and order.

This is the perspective to consider NATO’a role; the Italian Government, entrusted with Trieste’s temporary civil administration, acts on behalf of NATO. Then why does it deploy troops as if re-enacting Trieste’s 1918 military occupation by the Kingdom of Italy?

Taking advantage of its role in the NATO is an Italian specialty (as explained very well in this article published on investigative newspaper La Voce di Trieste: Why does corrupt Italy attempt to weaken Egypt?) however, doing that to simulate sovereignty over another State is very dangerous.

Indeed, NATO can justify its defensive role in the Free Territory of Trieste; but can the Italian Republic do the same?

It is inconvenient questions, but asked standing with the law: for instance, can the Italian Republic prove that forcing the citizens of the Free Territory of Trieste to serve in the Italian Army, including by falsifying their voluntary service requests, was necessary action to defend them? Or that it wasn’t just like the military celebrations, one more propaganda trick to take their very human rights away, only because they are the citizens of a Stat regarded as “inconvenient” by Italian nationalists?

And can the Italian Government explain why, despite its mandate of temporary civil administration, the present-day FTT is full of Italian military bases, arms depots, fuel depots, training centers, and facilities for interceptions and cyber warfare?

Not to mention the international Free Port of Trieste, State corporation of the Free Territory. Nuclear-powered ships or transporting nuclear weapons can transit here, but only as long as they belong to NATO.

And it is only as part of NATO that Italian Armed Forces can enjoy  exclusive “military areas” controlled by the Marina Militare (the Italian navy) or other military forces like the Guardia di Finanza, or the Carabinieri. But, again, are they using their NATO authority to protect Trieste, or to illegally simulate Italian sovereignty over it along with the local nationalistic “camorra”?

In this dangerous and ambiguous misuse of international alliances (another long-lasting Italian tradition), and waiting for the UNSC or Trieste’s primary administering Governments (those of the United Kingdom and of the United States) act to end to the crimes committed against the forgotten people of the Free Territory by a “democratic” western nation, the Italian frecce tricolori are free to fly over Trieste’s “neutral” skies.

Translated from blog “Ambiente e Legalità” – “Environment and Legality” by Roberto Giurastante