A-Infos (en) Italy, Sicilia Libertaria #460: Giving meaning to the words Truth and Justice. (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

"You didn't kill them, your ideas will walk on our legs," read a banner 
in the aftermath of the 1992 massacres. It was a time of pain but also 
of civil reaction. In those years I was in Pisa, studying Computer 
Science and was active in the student movement La Pantera. Meanwhile, in 
Milazzo, my "adoptive" city in the province of Messina, an intense 
political season was taking place. Participation was not just an 
aspiration, but a daily fact. It was in that context that I met Santina 
Latella. A profound human and political exchange, from which in 1994 not 
only a great friendship was born but also the Rita Atria Anti-Mafia 
Association.

At the beginning they gave us a few months to live. Young, 
inexperienced, idealistic: life and its hard trials would have made us 
change our path... and then "in Milazzo the mafia does not exist" and 
"you do not give the name of a mafioso's daughter to an association". We 
did not listen to them because thirty-one years later, we are still 
here. And today we are a reality that has left its mark on a national level.

The choice of the name was not accidental. Rita Atria, a very young 
witness of justice, had written words that struck us deeply: "to make 
the kids who live among the mafia aware that outside there is another 
world made of simple, but beautiful, pure things". A world where people 
count, not surnames or recommendations. A simple, but radical message. 
That phrase guided us then, and still guides us today: to offer an 
alternative, to ignite a civil conscience, to transform memory into 
commitment.

Today the association is present in various Italian regions. It 
collaborates with schools, civic committees, institutional bodies. Our 
work revolves around promoting social justice, denouncing violations of 
rights, building a concrete, non-celebratory anti-mafia culture.

We have chosen to stay away from the spotlight. We are not interested in 
sterile visibility, nor in the weight of official liturgies. You will 
hardly find us waving flags at ritual demonstrations. We prefer 
classrooms, squares, courts. That is where lasting change is built. Over 
time we have produced dossiers, supported witnesses, filed complaints, 
written legislative proposals.

Among the stages that we remember most strongly is the presentation, in 
1997 at the Viminale, of the first dossier on violations of the rights 
of witnesses of justice. Then the actions on the Ustica case, alongside 
Captain Mario Ciancarella, struck off with a false signature of the 
President of the Republic Pertini and Minister Spadolini (they never 
reinstated the Captain and never opened a political investigation. 
Nobody. All the "colors" of parliament silent for three legislatures). 
The battles for the truth about the murder of Graziella Campagna. The 
proposed laws for the protection of those who report. And also the 
requests to reopen the investigations into the death of Lieutenant 
Colonel Sandro Marcucci and Marshal Mario Alberto Dettori, the latter 
found hanged on a shore in 1987. Two cases over which the shadow of 
Ustica still looms. Requests for truth that, after years, were accepted 
and then archived. How? There is no space to write about it.

In 2022, from the journalistic and documentary work of myself, Giovanna 
Cucé and Graziella Proto, the investigative book Io sono Rita was born. 
From that work came an official request to reopen the investigations 
into the death of Rita Atria, presented by the lawyer Goffredo D'Antona 
on behalf of the association and Rita's sister, Anna Maria Atria. The 
investigative work continued even after the publication of the book, and 
will be explored in depth in the new edition currently being prepared.

We have never stopped. We have promoted training activities on gender 
violence, LGBTQIA rights, racism, corruption. We have established a 
documentation center. Our statute provides for the possibility of 
constituting ourselves as a civil party in trials for mafia, 
environmental crimes, femicide, racial hatred... and, most importantly: 
in our Statute we have written in clear letters that we are ANTIFASCISTS.

In 2021 we contributed to the recovery of the audio of Matteo Messina 
Denaro, as part of the documentation work started for the book. Before 
and after, many other actions: from the Marcucci and Lorenzini case to 
the fight against the militarization of the territories and, since 2011, 
against the installation of the MUOS in Niscemi.

There has been no shortage of difficulties. We have experienced forms of 
marginalization. The most paradoxical case was perhaps the deletion of 
our entry from Wikipedia, three times, with the motivation of 
"irrelevance". An episode that we denounced as an indication of a 
cultural short-sightedness towards independent, uncomfortable, but real 
experiences. Someone, in the most "free" encyclopedia in the world, 
doesn't want us.

Today, the Rita Atria Anti-Mafia Association continues its work with the 
same determination as always. But with a more conscious look. Also 
towards those who, taking advantage of our thirst for justice, have 
betrayed the fight against the mafia. We don't want to create icons, nor 
be celebrated. We simply want to give meaning to the words Truth and 
Justice.

Nadia Furnari
Vice President of the Rita Atria Anti-Mafia Association

https://www.sicilialibertaria.it/
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