EIGHTEEN YEARS after they were both killed by Cosa Nostra, Sicilian anti-Mafia investigators Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino still upset some people in Palermo. Or so it would seem, given that last Saturday sculptures of the investigators, placed in central Viale Della Liberta, were vandalised.
Today marks the 18th anniversary of the Via D’Amelio bomb explosion in Palermo in which Paolo Borsellino and five members of his escort were assassinated.
To mark the occasion, artist Tommaso Domina had created two lifesize plaster sculptures of Borsellino and his close friend Falcone, placing them on and beside a park bench in central Viale Della Liberta. However, within hours of being put in place by the Falcone-Borsellino association, both sculptures were knocked to the ground, in the process being damaged. The incident prompted an anti-Mafia activist and Sicilian politician Rita Borsellino, sister of the late Paolo, to comment: “There are people in Palermo who are frightened even of two statues and, what is more, there are still people in Palermo who don’t have the gift of speech . . .”
This latter remark was a reference to the fact that, even though the incident happened in the centre of Palermo, admittedly probably at night, no one has come forward with information that might help police enquiries. State president Giorgio Napolitano expressed his “profound indignation” while sculptor Domina promised to repair the works.
Remarkably, only about 100 people attended a march through Palermo centre yesterday by the People of the Red Diary, organised by Salvatore Borsellino, brother of Paolo. The red diary is a reference to a diary kept by the late Mafia investigator which, inexplicably, vanished within minutes of the explosion that killed him.
Members of both the Borsellino and Falcone families as well as of the Falcone-Borsellino association have long argued that Italian secret services were involved in both 1992 killings, a point underlined by Salvatore Borsellino at a meeting outside the Palermo courthouse on Saturday: “. . .state forces along with the Mafia stopped Paolo from continuing his work. But we’re gathered here today to express our support for the magistrates . . .”
He continued: “On Monday we will gather at Via D’Amelio to celebrate our own form of state funeral for Paolo and we don’t want to see unworthy politicians and state representatives in attendance . . .”