By Kidane Alemayehu
Auguest 17, 2015
INTRODUCTION
Rodolfo Graziani was one of Fascist Italy’s top military leaders during Benito Mussolini’s rule of that country. Although Graziani had important military roles in Italy, Libya and the Italo-Turkish wars, this article is, on the main, focused on his devastating war crimes in Ethiopia. The war was part of Fascist Italy’s “civilizing mission to Ethiopia”, resulting in the massacre of hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians, including 30,000 people killed within only three days in Addis Ababa during February 19-21, 1937 as well as over 2,000 monks and parishioners at the Debre Libanos Monastery. Graziani was not prosecuted at an international court despite Ethiopia’s attempt to bring him to justice under the United Nations war tribunal. He was later prosecuted for his crimes in Italy and sentenced to 19 years imprisonment but was released after only two years (some say four months) of incarceration. Despite the legal action taken against him in Italy, Graziani was virtually raised to the status of a hero as a mausoleum was inaugurated for him in August 2012 at an Italian town called Affile in the presence of a Vatican representative2. ….Read more —–