Italy: Carabinieri hold 70 million secret files
01 June 2000
Valerio Mattioli, a 21-year-old carabiniere in the San Giovanni Valdarno barracks in the province of Arezzo has criticised the carabinieri for holding millions of records on individuals associations and parties, businesses and social or research institutes. On 3 1 May, 11 Manifesto reported that he had sent a series of complaints to public prosecutor's offices all over Italy after officials in the carabinieri general command failed to answer his questions about the implementation of data protection legislation. According to one former Defence commission president the files relate to the activities of a shadowy "third secret service", Ucsi. A parliamentary question on the files by Rifondazione Comunista MP Giovanni Russo Spena, who has described the files as part of a "parallel" system forbidden by law, remains unanswered.
Mattioli reported the collection and permanent storage of information about people who have no criminal records as a violation of data protection legislation. Data protection ombudsman Stefano Rodota is still investigating the allegations, over a year after his office was first notified. He explained the delay:
"At the start the allegation was very vague. The requests in May 2000 were very detailed and we started an inquiry. It mentions reference numbers, registers, modules marked with an acronym... they are precise."
These records, marked Unclas riservatissimo (strictly reserved), are kept and maintained permanently in carabinieri barracks. They include information on the personality and character of the subject under scrutiny, such as their beliefs, habits, associates and public standing. Mattioli said that an internal directive states "any other information which is useful to shed light on the subject's personality" should be collected. Falco Accame, former Defence commission president, told La Stampa that the collection of files relates to the activities of Ucsi: "In practice, [Ucsi] constitutes the third Italian secret service, apart from Sisde and Sismi, and...collects information by using the legions of carabinieri from all Italy."
Mattioli supports these claims by noting that there are 58,000 files in the San Giovanni Valdarno barracks, for a town of 18,000 persons. He spoke of 70 million files, stored in 5,000
carabinieri posts around Italy. The ombudsman, although unable to offer an estimate, commented that there had been "an accumulation, in several places, of large quantities of files and there has never been an effective clear-up." Inspections can be carried out, he said, but "there could also be files which are kept in such a way that it is difficult to gain access to them." However, if it should arise that some files exist whose existence had been officially denied... It will be impossible to say that it was a particularly bad police constable because these answers have come from the top.
Giovanni Russo Spena wrote on 2 June in Liberazione that the carabinieri probably have a "parallel" system which is forbidden by Law 121/81, covering databases. He questions the authorities' failure to intervene on the basis of the existence of classified registers and the collection of sensitive information in these files. He says that an investigation three years ago discovered files in Liguria barracks on all policemen expressing sympathy for the then Partito Democratico di Sinistra (now DS, Democratici di Sinistra) and for Rifondazione Comunista:
"We ask (Council) president Amato: if present filing practices do not result from a military control of citizens but are merely a residue from a dark past, why can't a procedure be decided to destroy the files?"
Franco Frattini, head of the parliamentary committee for the control of the secret services, spoke of a conspiracy against the carabinieri. He said that information collection is a "normal activity which the data protection ombudsman has known about for a year", adding that "it isn't a privacy violation, if it refers to informati