On March 28, 1997, at 15:00, the old ship Kater i Radës left the harbor of Vlora carrying 115 emigrants in the direction of Italy.
Precisely that morning, the Italian television announced that the agreement between Italy and Albania regarding the naval blockade was anticonstitutional. Since a week, Italy had sent its naval fleet to the Otranto Canal to stop Albanians that were escaping their country, which was immersed in a civil war.
At 17:15, the ship Zeffiro of the Italian navy discovered the Albanian Kater. It notified admiral Alfei Batteli, coordinator for the naval patrols on the Adriatic Sea and admiral Umberto Guardineri, commander of the navy. After several attempts to turn the Kater back to Albanian waters, the Zeffiro withdrew and the operation was transferred to the ship Sibilla.
The Sibilla got increasinly closer to the Albanian boat, so much so that the passengers on the Kater saw two men on the bridge of the Sibilla. One of them pointed a machine gun, while the other made photos. Above their heads there was a helicopter of the Italian navy, with the pilot filming from above. Later searchlights were directed to the boat, lighting everything up.
At 18:45 the helicopter left, and the Albanians on board of the Kater saw at a distance the lights of the Zeffiro. The Sibilla seemed to have disappeared, when unexpectedly it was seen coming in their direction with high speed and its lights switched off. Someone thought it was some trailer, and started to scream from joy. The illusion was short-lived, when a voice in a megaphone repeated the words “Turn back.”
“They are crushing us,” someone shouted from the deck of the ship as the bow of the Sibilla hit the Albanian boat, making it tumble around. Many people came out, some other fell into the water. The Kater got back up and then sank.
The Kater was hit twice by the Italian ship and sank completely. Some passengers fell into the sea, while the Sibilla turned back and left. Some of the Albanians who didn’t know how to swim tried to get back onto the boat, while women and children drowned because they couldn’t leave the lower decks.
At 19:03, the Kater had disappeared. Some good swimmers, all from Vlora, swam in the darkness for 20 minutes in the direction of the Sibilla. The Italian boat only threw one rescue boat into the sea, with which it gathered four drowned people and helped several survivors. The Sibilla didn’t send any other rubber boat to save the people in open sea. As soon those who were rescued arrived in Brindisi, the police took them and didn’t allow any journalist to talk to them.
The trial
During the trial, which the family members of the Albanian victims called unfair, the two main responsible functionaries, admirals Alfeo Battelli and Umberto Guarino, were left outside the trial, holding only the two captains of the Albanian and Italian ship responsible.
In April 1998, deputy prosecutor Leonard Leone Castri sought to suspend the case, declaring that he didn’t receive enough evidence to verify the relation between the orders of the two captains of the Zeffiro and Sibilla and the commanders in Italy.
He says that the photographic evidence has been falsified and that the video made from the Zeffiro is inexplicably interrupted precisely at the moment that the Sibilla hits the Albanian ship, raising many doubts.
The registration of radio communication between the two ships and the commanders on March 28, 17:19, the moment the Kater sank, are unlistenable and refer to a time period different from those of the impact. Those registrations have not been handed over to the prosecution.
The verdict to suspend the case was taken after the proofs investigated by the deputy prosecutor didn’t show any relation between the orders given by the naval command on the shore and the actions of the captain of the Sibilla.
The reconstruction of the information exchange between the shore and the water, between the admirals and the commanders of the Sibilla and Zeffiro was made by means of the declaration of Captain Angelo Luca Fusco, employee of the operational office of the navy of Taranto, charged with maintaining the communication lines between the ships at sea.
He was the person who transmitted the order to the commanders of the Zeffiro that they needed to undertake a strong action “up to touching the object,” an order that was executed by the Sibilla. After receiving the order, the captain of the ship said that he began an “aggressive pursuit of the Albanian object.” In support of the Zeffiro, Admiral Batteli order the dispatch of the Sibilla.
The execution of this order caused the tragedy. From the 115 Albanians on board of the Kater, 81 lost their lives, 24 were lost, and 34 others survived.
The majority of the victims were women and children, which were in the lower part of the ship and didn’t have the possibility to leave. Several lost their lives because they didn’t know how to swim while others died from the cold.
The actions of the ships’ captains were qualified as actions falling with the “rules of engagement,” a military term used by the NATO, which allows violent acts, naval practices used during the Cold War between ships. This case is a clear violation of the International Convention approved on December 10, 1982, which prohibits the naval blockade and stopping a civilian ship on international water, as well as a violation of art. 13 of the Convention of Human Rights, approved on December 10, 1948
Even today, after 20 years, the families of the victims still seek justice. They don’t seek compensation, but only the punishment of the culprits who caused this tragedy.
The events of the sad year of 1997 didn’t prevent the Albanians from emigrating. The continue to leave country in droves, even 20 years later. The only difference is the way in which they leave.
This article is based on a text by Maria Pace Ottieri, written on March 14, 2003.
