Letter to President Napolitano on the “Cavour promotional campaign”

Ngo Association Link 2007 – Cooperating in Network, adheres to the letter addressed by a broad grouping of civil society organizations to the Italian President Napolitano, expressing displeasure and opposition to the Ministry of Defence’ decision to use the Cavour aircraft carrier in a five months promotional campaign of the Italian arms industry, along with other commercial, military and humanitarian activities.

In particular, LINK2007 opposes the inappropriate involvement on the humanitarian aid, that based on precise codes of conduct and international constraints must be neutral, independent and distant from any exploitation for economic purposes, including the field of armaments as in this case.

Moreover, some of the countries that the Cavour tour will visit are affected by serious tensions and worrying setbacks in terms of human rights and internal democracy. Given these facts, the initiative appears even more inappropriate: based on a logic of promoting Italy abroad, it may end up feeding strong criticism against our country.

In all cases, to promote Italy abroad the Government can’t make an instrumental and subordinate use of humanitarian aid, contravening those codes that have been endorsed at international level.

www.link2007.org

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