Italy violated rules, will face consequences: PM Manmohan Singh - Times of India

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday warned Italy there will be consequences for its bilateral ties with New Delhi if two Italian marines charged with murder of Indian fishermen do not return to face trial in India. Under fire from the Opposition for the government offering concessions to Italy that allowed the marines to slip out of the clutches of Indian l aw, Singh told Parliament that Rome is guilty of violating every rule of diplomatic discourse. Singh said Italy's decision not send the marines back after they were granted a four-week furlough to vote in that country's national election is a breach of "solemn commitments" offered by the Italian ambassador to the Supreme Court. With BJP leader Jaswant Singh and CPM's Basudeb Acharya referring to Bofors fugitive Ottavio Quattrocchi slipping away in the past and lingering on the theme of an "Italian job", Singh strongly countered the charge that his government's is complicit in the marines' not returning to India. References to Quattrocchi by BJP leaders like Arun Jaitley were clearly intended to embarrass Congress given the fugitive's Gandhi connection. In Lok Sabha, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi heard the PM's tough t alk attentively amid Opposition protests. Keen to contain the damage due to the Italian government's brazen act, Singh sat through the Opposition attacks with a five paragraph statement clipped on to a board before him, waiting to address the House. "This cannot, by any standards, be in the interests of any bilateral relationship that has to function on the basis of trust. If they do not keep their word, there will be consequences for our relations with Italy," he told the House. As MPs shouted "girafdar karo", demanding the arrest of Italian ambassador Daniele Mancini, Singh said his government had already "made it clear" that Rome's refusal to "respect" the undertaking it gave to Supreme Court is simply "not acceptable". Italians seemed unfazed though. A defiant Mancini, who had given an undertaking in Supreme Court assuring the return of the marines, said India can't look at a affidavit given in court in isolation and that there is a need to discus s diplomatically the "controversy" that relates to UNCLOS. "I am not retracting from any assurance...you can't consider the affidavit separated by all the orders, suggestions, proposals and ideas that we have been conveyed to Indian interlocutors and this is the part of process," said Mancini, even as he expressed confidence that the issue will be resolved. The Indian government does have options like expressing displeasure or sending Mancini home. But these measures may not persuade the Italian government to send back the marines. "We have been consistent since day one, supremacy of the international law to be re-assessed, in last few days we tried and put several proposals to Indian government and want this to be to resolve by consensual meanings," Mancini said, inaugurating the ASSOCHAM India Entrepreneurship summit. Justifying its decision, the Italian embassy also released a statement that a ruling by the Supreme Court on January 18 denied Italia n jurisdiction on the case and invited both countries to engage in a common effort based upon Article 100 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. The statement said that Italy had done everything to find an acceptable solution to the case. "Since there has been no reaction from India in this regard we have come to the conclusion that it is appropriate to solve the legal dispute according to the international law," it said. While conveying formally to India that there is a controversy concerning provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Laws of the Seas of 1982 - as also general principles of international law applicable to the Kerala incident - the Italians requested the Indian government to set up a meeting at the diplomatic level to find a solution. Indian response has been that the request is still being examined. The government is also finding it hard to explain why it had not moved to set up a special court following the SC order that Kera la courts were not competent to try the matter. The Italian decision not to send its marines back to India virtually amounts to "enemy action", said Jaitley. Referring to Quattrocchi and the ongoing VVIP helicopter bribery scandal, he said this was the third such "extreme case" of "state-sponsored deception" and "outright fraud". "Once it happens is chance, twice is a coincidence, three times is enemy action," said Jaitley, quoting James Bond. The BJP leader demanded action against Mancini, who gave an undertaking in the apex court that the marines would return to India after voting in Italy's national elections last month. Jaswant Singh said the Vienna convention could not take precedence over the constitutional law of the land. CPM leader Sitaram Yechury asked whether inmates of Tihar Jail will be allowed to leave prison to vote or celebrate Holi as the marines had been previously allowed to go home for Christmas. Senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Pras ad said there are 2020 foreign convicts in jails across India and 3601 foreigners undergoing trial but allowing any of them to go home for festivals is unheard of. He warned the government from using the standoff to claim that Italian authorities are not sharing information on the Agusta-Westland deal. via Top Stories - Google News http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNFD3JzAM3K15vX6wsM9ASqDRky4kQ&url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Italy-violated-rules-will-face-consequences-PM-Manmohan-Singh/articleshow/18962052.cms

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