Widow of hero slain in Iraq seeks 'justice' from voters

Nicola Calipari's widow Rosa Calipari.Picture / Reuters

ROME - The widow of Italian secret agent Nicola Calipari insists she is not on a "vendetta". But after a frustrating, year-old crusade for justice since United States troops killed her husband in Iraq on March 4, 2005, she is turning to voters to launch a political career - as a foe of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Rosa Calipari, 47, is running for the Senate in April's general election with the Democrats of the Left, Italy's largest opposition party which, like most Italians, opposed Berlusconi's decision to send troops to Iraq after the fall of Baghdad.

"I found myself on the evening of March 4, my children and I, practically catapulted into the public view with our pain," Calipari said.

"I asked myself, what can I do, what should I do ... One way to give meaning to that death was my work, which has become a broader effort, a political effort ...

"It's not a vendetta."

Nicola Calipari became a national hero for securing the release of kidnapped Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena, only to die shielding her from US gunfire at a checkpoint outside Baghdad airport as he was escorting her to freedom.

The Calipari case has been troublesome to Berlusconi, whose Iraq policy is one reason he is trailing in opinion polls before the April 9-10 elections.

Rosa Calipari has denounced the US decision to exonerate the US troops who killed her husband, and says Berlusconi's Government should have done more to seek "truth and justice", something she intends to pursue broadly if she is elected.

After Rome and Washington failed to agree on a joint report over his death, the Italian Government issued its own findings, criticising the US military for placing inexperienced troops at a poorly executed roadblock.

However, Rome agreed with the Pentagon that the killing was nonetheless an accident and has closed the case. Italy's independent magistrates think otherwise and are pursuing a criminal probe against the soldier who pulled the trigger.

"There has been too much silence," said Rosa Calipari, a non-partisan civil servant at the Prime Minister's office.

Sitting beside Rosa Calipari at a recent political rally is a friend, holding a small, hand-sized Sony video camera, which he is using to make a campaign DVD.

With her light-brown hair, and generous smile, Calipari is a photogenic candidate. But she is also a relative political novice compared with centre-left giants seated nearby - including opposition leader Romano Prodi, favoured to oust Berlusconi.

As Calipari's wife she was told to keep quiet about politics - a hard task, she said, considering she came from a political family. Her grandfather was a socialist leader who helped write Italy's constitution.

But Nicola, a former police chief who moved into the Sismi military intelligence agency, felt her political involvement would send mixed messages about his service to the state.

Her campaign is kicking off oddly - with a media blackout, running from the weekend until tomorrow, the days when many will pause to remember the death of her husband.

Calipari is afraid her Senate bid may be misread as a sign of irreverence for a man whose name alone evokes patriotism.

But avoiding overlap may be impossible. The run-up to the elections are filled with significant dates about the life and death of Nicola Calipari.

They met on March 3, 1984, and their wedding anniversary is April 7 - the last day of the official election campaign. Even the day he died, March 4, is her son Filippo's 13th birthday.

"There are so many coincidences," she says, eyes welling up. "I can tell you that it's not easy."

- REUTERS