India has asked Italy to send back the two marines charged with the murder of two Kerala fishermen to face trial in India and rejected the explanation offered by Rome to justify its U-turn.
Facing all-round criticism for helping the marines to escape the country, Ministry of External Affairs summoned Italian Ambassador Daniele Mancini to convey India's position on this matter in the "strongest of terms".
"I summoned the Italian Ambassador to my office. Basically, what I told him is that the content of the note which was given to us conveying the position of the Government of Italy regarding the two marines is not acceptable to us.
"There was an offer of discussions which has been made in a note from the Italians on March 6 that is a separate from the assurance given to the Supreme Court," said Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai.
The marines --- Massimiliano lattore and Salvatore Girone --- charged with homicide for killing two fishermen off the Kerala coast in February last year in an anti-piracy operation, were permitted by the apex court last month to go to Italy for four weeks for voting in elections. last time they were allowed to go home for Christmas holidays after which they returned back to India on expiry of their leave.
"Government of India states firmly that it does not agree with the position conveyed by the Italian Government on the return of the two Marines to India," MEA said.
"It was conveyed to him (Mancini) that India expects Republic of Italy as a country that is committed to the rule of law to fulfil the sovereign undertaking given by it to the Supreme Court of India," it added
The Italian Foreign Ministry statement on Monday o said India's decision to hold trial of the marines in that country violated their rights under International law. Italy has argued that the marines should be tried in their home country.
The Italian Government said it was open to arriving at a resolution of the dispute through international arbitration or judicial settlement.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said the issue will be taken up with Italy so that the accused soldiers could be brought back to face trial for alleged murder of two Indian fishermen here. left MPs, who met the Prime Minister, said Singh told them that Italy's decision was "unacceptable".
However, PMO sources said Singh only told the delegations that the matter would be looked into and he will ask External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid to take up the issue with Italy.
Delegations of angry left and Congress-led UDF MPs met Singh separately to express anguish and demand his intervention in the "serious" matter. "We met the Prime Minister and took up the issue of Italian marines. The Prime Minister told us that he came to know about this from newspapers. He assured us that he will ask the External Affairs Minister to look into this issue to intervene in this issue," MP MB Rajesh said. "He (PM) said this is unacceptable to us," Rajesh added. Another party MP P Karunakaran told a press conference separately that Singh "told us that this is not acceptable to us" and assured the delegation that the matter would be taken up "strongly" with the Italian Government.
When pointed out that the PMO said Singh did not say that the decision is "unacceptable", Rajesh remarked, "it is a lie. If he did not say it is 'unacceptable', it means it is acceptable to the government of India."
Khurshid, meanwhile, said the Government was studying Italy's decision, its reasons as also implications. "We will study and take a rightful position... We will take informed position," he told reporters on the issue which has sparked an outrage in Kerala.
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