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Italian defense ministry denounces prisoner exchange

The Italian defense ministry fears that a "dangerous precedent" was set when journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo was freed in exchange for five Taliban fighters, press reports said on Wednesday.

While Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi warmly thanked the humanitarian agency Emergency for its efforts in obtaining Mastrogiacomo's release, Defense Minister Arturo Parisi was less sanguine, according to the daily Corriere della Sera.

Parisi said that "entrusting the negotiations to [Emergency founder] Gino Strada was a serious mistake," Corriere reported citing an unnamed source close to the minister.

A defense ministry communique on the episode, issued 24 hours after Mastrogiacomo's release on Monday, did not even refer to Emergency.

Corriere said Parisi felt "the political price that we have already paid could be much higher in the future" in Afghanistan, where Italy has some 2,000 troops deployed in NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

The economic daily Il Sole-24 Ore said the defense minister feared the prisoner exchange may have set "a dangerous precedent."

Strada's request that Italian secret service operatives stay away from the negotiations "damaged the state's image and sent a dangerous message to the terrorists: `Let's kidnap an Italian and our demands will be met,'" Corriere said of Parisi's concern.

"After what happened, I wonder what spirit we will be able to operate in," Parisi said, according to Corriere.

For his part Italian Infrastructure Minister Antonio di Pietro lamented "the humiliation that we had to endure," calling for "precise rules, to avoid submitting to unacceptable blackmail that threatens to compromise international credibility."

People should be aware "that when you go to places where the risk is high, you endanger not only your own life but that of those who later have to intervene," Di Pietro said, according to the ANSA news agency.

The daily La Stampa said Parisi felt that accepting the Taliban's conditions "made all Italians a priority target for the warlords of Kabul."

Mastrogiacomo told a news conference on Wednesday: "What was done did not violate the independence or sovereignty" of Afghanistan.

The Afghan president's office admitted that it released some Taliban prisoners, without stating how many.

Taliban commander Mullah Dadullah told an Afghan news agency on Monday that he freed the Italian after receiving five Taliban prisoners, including a "culture officer," a former spokesman and two commanders.

Meanwhile, Mastrogiacomo detailed his two-week ordeal in a lengthy article in La Repubblica on Wednesday, calling his Taliban captors "without culture or human experience."

They tried several times "sincerely" to convince him to convert to Islam, he wrote.

"They have no salary and do everything for free. They just like and enjoy fighting for their cause," he wrote.

Mastrogiacomo was kidnapped March 4 with his Afghan driver and interpreter, said on Monday that he had witnessed the beheading of the driver.
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