Posted on 05/11/2004 9:00:06 AM PDT by areafiftyone
ROME, May 11 (Reuters) - Opposition leaders pressed Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on Tuesday to withdraw Italian troops from Iraq following a prisoner abuse scandal that has rocked the U.S. and British governments.
Berlusconi is due to meet U.S. President George W. Bush in Washington next week and centre-left opponents said he should use the visit to demand publicly the resignation of U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
"Our troops shouldn't stay a week more if the prime minister does not get Bush to sack Rumsfeld," said Francesco Rutelli, a close ally of Berlusconi's long-standing rival, European Commission President Romano Prodi.
"If our country wants to have a crumb of international credibility and dignity it has to make an official request for the dismissal of (Rumsfeld)," the centre-left leader said in an interview with la Repubblica newspaper.
Bush gave his defence secretary resounding support on Monday and Rumsfeld himself has made clear he will not quit despite evidence of abuse of Iraqi detainees by U.S soldiers that has enraged the Arab world and embarrassed Washington's allies.
Bush is due to visit Italy on June 4 to mark the 60th anniversary of the Allied liberation of Rome in World War Two and left-wing groups are already preparing mass protest rallies.
Italy has sent some 2,700 troops to Iraq -- the third largest foreign presence after U.S. and British forces -- and the centre-right government has promised they will remain there despite the abuse crisis.
The deployment split opposition ranks, with hardliners calling for the immediate withdrawal of the contingent but moderates like Rutelli arguing that this would hamper efforts at restoring peace to Iraq.
GALVANISING THE LEFT
The release of photographs depicting the humiliation of Iraqi prisoners has helped unite the opposition.
"The main thing that we can't let happen is to see Italy become an accomplice of a country that uses torture," Piero Fassino, head of the largest opposition party, the Democrats of the Left, was quoted as saying on Tuesday.
"We will be burdened by those photographs for years," Italian media quoted him as telling a party meeting on Tuesday.
Berlusconi has proved one of Bush's most fervent European supporters and next week's visit was seen as a further affirmation of their friendship. But the prisoner row looks likely to cast a shadow over the meeting.
In a statement on Monday, Berlusconi said the abuse had complicated the task of bringing peace to Iraq.
"These are acts that offend the dignity of the victims and represent an obstacle to the pacification of that country," he said, while reaffirming that Italian troops would stay put.
Italian policy has been complicated by the kidnap last month of four Italians working for a U.S. security firm in Iraq. One was almost immediately executed when Berlusconi rejected demands to remove Italian troops and the other three are still missing.
Amnesty International's Italian office issued a statement on Tuesday urging Italian forces in Iraq not to hand over any detainees to other coalition forces until guarantees were in place that they would not be tortured.
A: Five, one forward and four reverse.
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