Italy promises secure Turin Olympics

Italy promises secure Turin Olympics{mosimage}ROME – Italy will fight terrorism “with every tool that we have” to ensure the safety of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, the government supervisor for the games said Thursday.

Government officials and Turin organizers unveiled plans for a symbolic “Olympic Truce” for the games next February.

The announcement came a week after bombings killed at least 52 people in London, and two days after Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu said that terrorism is “knocking on Italy’s door.”

Internet threats have mentioned Italy as a possible target for future attacks. Italy was an ally of the United States in the war in Iraq.

“We’re doing everything in our power to ensure that the Turin Games represent a white flag,” said Mario Pescante, a government minister and supervisor of the Turin Games. “The other day I took part in a four-hour meeting on security. We will confront terrorism with every tool that we have.”

Keeping in line with other Italian officials, Pescante refused to divulge details of the security plans for Turin.

“I could say to you that we will have 10,000 (security) agents, but that is not for me to say, and these items should not be divulged in press conferences,” he said.

Valentino Castellani, head of the Turin organizing committee, said, “The safest places in Italy in 2006 will be the Olympic sites.

“They will be protected and checked before by police, (access) will only be by accreditation, and X-ray security checks will be carried out.”
The Olympic truce initiative made no explicit calls to stop any specific wars or conflicts during the games. Instead, an extensive series of interfaith seminars and educational festivals have been arranged.

“The Olympics have often been bloody, such as in Mexico, Munich and Atlanta,” Pescante said. “This is, at least, a symbol, and symbols are necessary. The Olympic flag, with the five circles for the five land masses, is an ideal flag for peace.”

Pescante, who is also an International Olympic Committee member and head of the European Olympic Committees, said the truce appeal was not “explicitly related” to the London attacks.
“This is something more than 2,000 years old,” he said.

Inspired by the cease-fire between warring city-states during the ancient games in Greece, the Olympic truce was reintroduced on a more symbolic level for the 1992 Barcelona Games.

A total of 15 events are planned to promote the Olympic truce for the Turin Games, which will run Feb. 10-26.
The first event will be held on Sept. 11, four years after the terrorist attacks in the United States, with a march for justice and peace in Perugia and Assisi.

A symposium in Turin on Sept. 21 will discuss poverty and development in Africa. A truce appeal will be signed by representatives of various religions in Jerusalem on Sept. 29 or 30.

On Oct. 25-27, a series of initiatives will be made in Sarajevo, site of the 1984 Winter Games. Also, a presentation will be made to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, in November and at the United Nations in New York on Nov. 3.

“I have not seen such an extensive effort for the Olympic Truce at any of the previous Olympics, including Salt Lake City and Athens,” Pescante said. “It is really impressive.”

-The Associated Press