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South Tyrol Subversive Organizations

Trentino-Alto Adige is one of Italy s five special charter regions. It became an integral part of Italian territory in 1918, following World War I, Italy's fourth and final War of Independence against Austria. South Tyrol, whose population is predominantly of German ethnic origin, corresponds to the Alto Adige area of the region. The special charter was granted in 1948 in deference to the Germanic elements of the population and calls for the application of the principles of ethnic proportionality and bilingualism. While the full implementation of the special charter suffered delays, the predominantly German-ethnic province of Bolzano nevertheless enjoyed a great degree of autonomy. The other province of the region is Trento, and its ethnic stock is predominadtly Italian.

From time to time, Germanic elements desirous of complete independence, reunification with Austria, or a merger with the Austrian-held portion of Tyrol as a first step toward formation of an all Tyrolean state, resorted to terrorist practices. Particularly violent was the period 1956-67. The separatists' actions entailed over 300 bombings of power lines, railroad stations and tracks, newly built low-income housing, army installations, and patriotic monuments commemorative of World War l, as well as some 30 fire engagements with police and military units.

The total number of casualties during the ll-year period amounts to 22 victims. Responsibility for most of these actions was claimed by all organization by the name of Befreiungsausschuss Suedtirol.

The recrudescence of the terrorist phenomenon had been registered since the fall of 1978; however, its more recent proportions did not compare to the period 1956-67, since no fatalities had been recorded. Paternity for the new bombing attacks has been claimed by an organization called Tirol. This organization enjoyed the moral and, by many accounts, the material support of Heimatbund, a league founded by Germanic extremists who served terms in Italian prisons, because of crimes committed during the earlier period of terrorist violence.

In addition to the same type of facilities selected earlier on by Befreiungsausschuss Sued tirol, Tirol targeted private vehicles belonging to police personnel and immigrant workers from southern Italy. In some of the leaflets claiming responsibility for these actions, the separatists compared their status to that of the Palestinians. Whereas during the period' 1956-67 a few South Tyrol-related actions were carried out in Rome by terrorist elements, the later violent protest appeared to be restricted to the local area. Moreover, while foreign Germanic elements were suspected of perpetrating part of the crimes of the earlier era, the few dozens carried out between 1978 and 1982 were believed to be the exclusive work of local German ethnics.

According to a 1979 census, the ratio batween the two ethnic groups in the area roughly amounts to 250,000 German speakers as opposed to 140,000 Italian speakers. The figures of a late 1982 census are expected to show an increase of approximately 5 percent in favor of the German ethnics.

South Tyrolean Germanic extremists active in Trentino-Alto Adige traditionally enjoyed the support of kindred elements in Austria and Bavaria. To date, this support entailed safehaven, when tracked by the Italian police authorities, and logistical support in the form of explosive devices and propaganda material printed in German, particularly in Gothic letters.

Reportedly, Italian intelligence retaliated with clandestine explosions in Vienna and Innsbruck during the earlier South Tyrolean terrorist phase. But there were problems between Italy, on the one hand, and Austria and the Federal Republic of Germany on the other, because of non-recognition of Italian sentences against terrorists who had escaped to, or resided in those countries.

Yet, the most disquieting external interference with the South Tyrolean ethnic problem took place in the early 1960's when Czech intelligence, as reported by defector Josef Frolik, surreptitiously supported violent Germanic separatist aspirations by conducting through its own agents dynamite attacks in the area against Italian power lines. The actual purpose was to create ill feelings between Italy and Austria, both of whom were West-oriented.