Loss of NATO ministers' summit
provokes mixed reaction at Agnano
By Ward Sanderson,
Naples bureau
NAPLES, Italy — The typical morning traffic jam may be the most-riling kind of
cluster Neapolitans will face this week.
Following NATO’s announcement that its defense ministers’ meeting will be
held in Belgium and not Italy, worries over protests and violence have mostly dissipated.
The informal ministers’ summit, until recently scheduled for Wednesday and
Thursday in the Naples suburb of Pozzuoli, will now be a one-day meeting elsewhere.
A NATO spokeswoman confirmed this week that the conference will go on, but for
Wednesday only and in Brussels.
In Naples, scheduled closures of the Navy’s Agnano facility — including
hospital, grocery store, exchange, furniture store, fast-food joints — are now
history too.
Agnano will stay in business as usual.
"The Agnano retail complex, to include the hospital, will be in operation under
their normal hours," said Chief Petty Officer Dan Smithyman, a base spokesman.
NATO’s secretary general, Lord George Robertson, announced the change of summit
venue on Friday. The change was a response to the terrorist attacks in the United States.
"Ministers in North America and Europe face a completely different security
situation," Robertson said in a prepared statement. "NATO has declared that if
the terrorist attacks on the United States are found to have been launched from abroad,
this will be an attack against all Allied Countries under Article 5 of the Washington
Treaty. Ministers still need to meet but their agenda is also changed. The time available
for discussion is now inevitably shorter than before this crisis."
Robertson said the alliance could not run a meeting outside NATO headquarters at the
same time it managed the terrorism crisis.
"The Italian authorities have reiterated that they would be delighted to host the
meeting in Naples," Robertson continued. "All the necessary arrangements are
well in hand. Reluctantly, however, I have decided that it would be impossible for me and
my staff to be away from Brussels at this time."
The North Atlantic Council then thanked Italian authorities for their patience.
The event was to be a big one, particularly in the minds of military and civic leaders.
They feared anti-globalization activists would swarm the city with 50,000 protesters.
The mayor of Naples complained; Italy moved the meeting to Pozzuoli’s Italian air
base. The city ambitiously paved a long-neglected road and swept trash clean. The city
council met several times to discuss security and road closures. Anarchists threatened the
life of Pozzuoli’s mayor.
Now, with the show gone elsewhere, a sense both of relief and disappointment remains.
Business owners and many military members say they’re happy protesters are not en
route to rip up their sleepy seaside burg. Local politicians say they feel they spent a
lot of time preparing for nothing.
"The feeling is very, very, very bad," councilman Alfonso Trincone said.
"Everyone wanted this meeting … This will eliminate many problems for the town.
But, of course, with all the international events, I don’t know what to say.
"I personally feel it’s a loss."
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