Giuliana Sgrena, correspondent of the Italian newspaper 'il Manifesto', has been kidnapped on the morning of Friday 4th  in Baghdad, in the area of Baghdad University. Italian and international civil society are appealing for her release.


Biography, activities and recent articles by Giuliana Sgrena and appeals for her release

The video produced by il Manifesto and aired by Al Jazeera (italian language)

The video (arabic language)


Here's a portrait of Giuliana and her activities by her colleagues of  'il Manifesto'.
Giuliana Sgrena works for the Manifesto since 1988. She has always dealt with foreign affairs as an expert in middle eastern affairs, the Horn of Africa and the Magreb. She wrote for our newspaper on the war in Afghanistan and the current Iraqi conflict.
Giuliana was in Baghdad in february 2003 together with the non governmental organization “A bridge for..” . She insisted on remaining in the city during the bombardment in march 2003. She has returned frequently since then intent on describing the daily life of Iraqis  and documenting in a professional manner the violence caused by the occupation of that country.

The resistence.  In June of 2003 the revolt of Fallujah takes place. Giuliana is there. She is one of the first journalists to use the term “resistance”. She writes: “What caused Falloujah to become the symbol of the resistance to the american occupation ?... What made famous the city of the mosques and especially it’s religious tradition and it’s sunnite madrasa from which so many diverse religious leaders emerged?... The arrival of the americans overthrew this rigid and conservative world and western arrogance did the rest. ...Our contacts deny that there is one  religious or political organization leading these actions: they are groups that self organize themselves autonomously, even though the level of attacks - with bazookas, machineguns and grenades indicate some form of organization (...) Some sustain that this resistance is the work of ex supporters of Saddam Hussein and that Fallouja was a base of action for the ex dictator. Our interlocutors deny this.”

Denouncing torture. The scandal of Abu Ghraib explodes in the spring of 2004. Giuliana writes about the horrors suffered by Mithal, a woman detained for 80 days in the prison of torture and who recognized her torturers on the internet. From Giuliana’s article : “ They brought me into a freezing room, my teeth were chattering from the cold, in full view all the torture tools, then they put adhesive tape on my eyes and together with eighteen men loaded me onto a helicopter. The flight was brief, less than an hour...The destination was Abu Ghraib”. The terrible story of Mithal concludes: “ The United States occupied our country, we have a right to defend ourselves. The resistance is selfdefence.”

The American quagmire.  At the end of 2004, the international conference on Iraq takes place in Sharm el-Sheikh. Giuliana writes: “Colin Powell couldn’t avoid ending his career with a lie: “No delegation suggested a delay in the elkections that will take place in January in Iraq”. After having shown to the Security Council of the United Nations the false documentation  concerning the arms of mass destruction in the hands of Saddam Hussein, this last lie is after all a venial lie”

Militarized information.  “Don’t go to Iraq” said Chirac to his french journalists. From Rome Fini echoes the French President.... The ulterior deterioration of the iraqi situation has rendered even more difficult the work of informing readers and viewers. Journalists are essentially hostages of the perverse effects created by the occupation and by the privatization of the war. The hostility of iraqis towards the occupation has extended itself to the point of involving all foreigners: contractors, journalists or humanitarian workers(...) Reacting and rebelling angainst this scheme of thigs is risky, but it is a risk one must take in order to inform, to make known a situation that without this refusal would be seen only through the official war press releases or through official propaganda pamphlets”.

Giuliana Sgrena was born on the 20th of December 1948 in the town Masera in the state of Piedmont. Studied in Milan. In the early ’80 she worked for “Pace e Guerra”, a weekly edited by Michelangelo Notarianni. She has worked with the Manifesto since 1988.
Together with her journalistic activity she has also been involved in political causes. She is among the founders of the peace movement in Italy in the 80s.
She left for Baghdad on the 23 of January 2005. Giuliana was kidnapped while on her way to to the Al Mustafah mosque to interview refugee families evacuated from Falloujah.