(by Massimiliano D'Elia) We cannot forget some of our brothers who lost their lives for duty and attachment to service. With their sacrifice they have consigned to history one of the saddest pages that perhaps not everyone knows. We are talking about the Kindu massacre, where 13 soldiers of the Italian Air Force lost their lives in a plane crash and in an armed conflict. They were brutally slain.
It was the morning of November 11 1961. Two C119 for transport of the 46ª Pisa Aircraft with the UN insignia they land in the tiny airport of Kindu on the border with Katanga, where a bloody civil war is underway. At the end of the unloading of goods for humanitarian aid the two Italian crews head towards the nearby canteen of the UN garrison where, unexpectedly, they are surprised by the Congolese military mutiny. In the attack one of the officers, the doctor, is killed, the others are dragged to the city prison. There they are brutally slain.
Kindu's murder is not only a sad story, he has macabre outlines, the victims were thirteen Italian aviators, their bodies were barbarously made for pieces, for cannibalistic and witchcraft purposes.
slain
Suddenly about sixty soldiers raided, some began to point to the Italians, ordering these words to others "egorgez les cochons ", that is," slaughtered those pigs ".
The thirteen are taken out of the canteen, then slaughtered by kicks and punches, and finally they were bruised with stubble marks in the middle of the street, which became a bloodbath.
The bodies were mutilated because cannibalism was practiced in Congo; in the markets one could buy "white meat" at the cost of ten francs per kilo. Probably other pieces of the body were destined for black magic rituals, finding places in the dawa, that is, bags of talismans for fighters.
The reason they were killed was never entirely clear, the most common hypothesis has always been that of an identity exchange, it was thought that the Italians were Belgians in rivalry with certain factions.
In 1994, the thirteen aviators who were victims of this ignominious massacre were awarded the Gold Medal at the Military Valor, while the victims' families only received compensation in the 2007.
Our brother heroes
Crew of the C-119 India 6002 (Lyra 5 radio station)
Major Pilot Amedeo Parmeggiani 43 years, Bologna
Subordinate pilot Onorio De Luca 25 years, by Treppo Grande (UD)
Tenant doctor Paolo Remotti 29 years, in Rome
Maresciallo motorist Nazzareno Quadrumani 42 years, in Montefalco (PG)
Major Silvestro Sergeant Sergeant Possessed 40 years, by Fabriano (AN)
Electromechanical Sergeant Martano Marcacci 27 years of Collesalvetti (LI)
Marconist sergeant Francesco Paga 31 years of Pietrelcina (BN)
Crew of the C-119 India 6049 (Lyra 33 radio station)
Pilot Captain Giorgio Gonelli 31 years of Ferrara
Subordinate pilot Giulio Garbati 22 years, in Rome
Martial engineer Filippo Di Giovanni 42 years, Palermo
Major Sergeant Nicola Stigliani 30 years, of Potenza
Sergio Maggiore Armando Fabi 30 years of Giuliano of Rome (FR)
Marconi Sergeant Antonio Mamone 28 years old, of Isola di Capo Rizzuto (KR)
The remains were transported to Italy and buried in the Pisa Memorial, dedicated to the «Caduti di Kindu». On the doors there is this inscription: «Fraternity has named this Temple that the Italians built in memory of the thirteen airmen who died in a peace mission, in the slaughter of Kindu, Congo 1961. Here forever returned before the clear sky of Italy, with eternal voice, to the whole world warn. Fraternity».
We will remember you forever!