ITALY and Albania last night exchanged bitter accusations following a weekend sea tragedy in which as many as 80 Albanian boat people might have drowned following a collision in the Otranto Strait between an Albanian navy patrol vessel and a Italian navy corvette.
The precise cause of the collision late on Friday night between the Italian corvette Sibilla and the Albanian navy patrol vessel Kater 1 Rades remains a matter of bitter dispute. Albanian radio, survivors of the tragedy and the Albanian ambassador in Italy, Mr Pandeli Pasko, have all claimed that the Italian corvette deliberately rammed the Albanian boat twice, causing it to sink with heavy loss of life. It is believed that most of the dead were women and children who had been travelling below deck on the Kater 1 Rades.
Italian government and navy sources completely reject the Albanian version of events, arguing that the Albanian vessel had several times been ordered to turn back but refused, opting instead to make a hazardous manoeuvre pulling across the prow of the Sibilla and causing the collision. The two ships were of radically different dimensions, with the 40 year old Albanian boat weighing 40 tonnes as opposed to the 1,200 tonnes of the four times longer Italian corvette.
Both Albanian radio and Italian navy sources yesterday claimed that the Kater 1 Rades had been dangerously overloaded. Survivors' testimony broadcast on Albanian radio indicated that there were at least 110 people on the patrol boat, a vessel designed to carry a crew of just eight.
While the Italian Prime Minister, Mr Romano Prodi, promised a full inquiry into the tragedy, the Italian Foreign Office angrily rejected allegations that the sinking was a consequence of the tougher line taken by Italy last week in dissuading clandestine immigration from Albania. Although Italy initially accepted Albanian boat people fleeing to its Puglia ports, that policy was modified last week when the country made it clear that it no longer regarded the boat people as refugees but rather as economic immigrants.
Consequently, Italian policy is now to stage a naval blockade in the Otranto Strait between Italy and Albania in an attempt to prevent boatloads of Albanians landing in Italy.
The Italian Junior Foreign Minister, Mr Piero Fassino, said: "The truth is that responsibility for this tragedy lies with those [illegal traffickers] who for £400 or so per passenger load up their unseaworthy boats and then go and collide with Italian navy vessels."
Mr Prodi argued yesterday that the most urgent requirement was for the United Nations approved "International Protection Force" to leave for Albania as soon as possible. "The most important thing at the moment is to clarify how things stand in Albania and to try and normalise things there," he said. "Italy is still willing to respond to the new Albanian government's request that we organise an international humanitarian relief mission."
The immediate future of that UN sponsored and Italian led international mission was in doubt last night, given the call from some of the rebel committees in southern Albania for it to be blocked until such time as the truth about this weekend's tragedy has emerged. Italian military sources are clearly concerned that, in the wake of the drowning tragedy, the 2,500 Italian soldiers due to lead the mission will become targets for dissident Albanians. Other countries to send soldiers include Austria, France, Greece, Hungary, Slovenia and Turkey. Spain and Portugal are also considering taking part.
According to the wording of last week's UN approval of the force's aim, the soldiers would spend three months in Albania, where they would "facilitate" the distribution of humanitarian aid and create a "climate of security".