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The INTERVIEW/ After the visit of Of Alema in the United States, Baraldini speaks from her jail cell:

New York- ".Alema does well to refuse the offers because my case and the tragedy of the Cermis are two events completely unrelated.  The families of the victims of the funivia tragedy expect justice and it would be terrible betray them, forgiving the Americans in return for my extradition.

My problem  can be resolved only because, after 17 years from jail,  it is old."  On the telephone  the woman's prison in Danbury, wher she is serving a punishment of 43 years for being associated with persons who have been convicted under the anti-terrorism laws,  the voice of Silvia Baraldini is happy and ringing, despite it being only six in the morning. "The fact that Of Alema, last Friday, has introduced  my case into the officials themes of the summit with Bill Clinton at the White House is avery important fact- explains the prisoner- in addition, for the first time, the Americansstate officially they want to resolve the my problem.

And for the first time there has been put forward a concrete proposal ,  not just words." I am optimistic,  in short, but with caution. I have been burnt too many times in the past so  prudence is a form of self-defence."

The American insistance on  guarantees from the government that she serve the whole sentence in Italy is viewed as an interference in the judicial system of a sovereign Country. "It (serving the whole sentence) is not a problem that concerns me.  My only objective is repatriation, even if that means to serve the rest of the sentence in an Italian jail. I want to be near  my mother who is 82 years old and is sick. I haven't seen her since  September 1998. After she broken her leg, her mobility is much reduced and it is  more and more difficult do the trans-Atlantic crossing to visit me.

To be continued when time allows complete translation...

The rest only self." Quite he/she/it/you yesterday has ended the process with six sentences to the life sentence against the responsible [libici] of the attack to the airplane of the company French Uta, [esploso] in the desert of the Ciad in Africa, in the 1989. He/she/it/you in that attack found the death, together with many other [passengeri], also his Sea sister. Like do you/he/she/it remember it? "I am missing so much, she thinks about each day. From small we had had big personal misunderstandings but in the five years before his death was become the my better friend. Stayed E' she to begin the country international for [scarcerarmi]. We without my small little sister would not be here to speak today." If do you/he/she/it dream it never at night? "I would not know, visa that I don't ever remember my dreams. The friends have me recommended of hold notebook and pen close to the bed, for stimulate the flow of the early-morning memoirs. But I am missing the discipline, as the unconscious a mystery stays." How does the health in the last times go? "After 10 years from the his rise up, the medical of the jail tell that the my tumor has recovered. But they don't visit me for two years and when I have asked a test, in the 1998, they have answered me that he/she/it/you was not necessary. The problem of the sanitary cares in the Americans jails stay serious. Read the relationship of Amnesty International." True E' that in the last times has begun to work? "To tell the truth I have not ever stopped. In federal jails whoever refuses of work finishes in cell of punishment. I have done of all. Worker of factory, [lavapavimenti] in hospital, [cuoca] to the cafeteria. But I sole me now they have finally allowed to teach, like I dreamed for a long time. I hold courses of history, English and one of prevention on the Aids. He/she/it/you gives me an enormous satisfaction help the friends. The my good friends lately if any I/they have gone all, after have stopped to discount the punishment. Unfortunately we one he/she/it/you loses of sight, he/she/it/you is a part of the natural rhythm of the life." Many held in jail discovers God. It is not my case. Agnostic rest like when I/they have entered. I find impossible flirt with the type of ultraconservative Christianity and [antifemminista] preached from the missionaries that enters jails of the United States for make publicizes against the abortion and the laws of the homosexuals. I/they am fanatical without reservedness." Does he/she/it/you have thought about adopt a child never, if will he/she/it/you return in liberty? "permitted E' to my age in Italy? Do they have perhaps changed the law? I would prefer continue to cultivate the relationships that I already have with the children of the my I/you/he/she/it better friends." Ready E' to return his 17 years in a Country deeply changed in the of absence? When they come to find me in jail my Italian friends don't have need of interpreters. The only thing to me alien some are characters: actors, singers, [showgirl]. But we for the rest speak the same language political and of values. I/they am certain of find me well in Italy, apart from the normal problems of [reinserimento] post-jail what find house and job. The experience of the others teaches me that for do us it he/she/it/you serves the famous 'rete of [solidarietà']. That I, fortunately, already have." He/she/it/you is not afraid of being [strumentalizzata] from groups and parties that they will look for of appropriate of his image for their ends? "No. I For the future don't see neither I want a political organized career. Not it is my personal inclination; I don't have ambitions of power. However I will fight always for defend the human laws, against the Aids, the racism and the punishment of death." What would he/she/it/you do of different if could he/she/it/you return back? "E' a question that I don't set me [perchè controproducente], visa that the past could not change. Happened E' what he/she/it/you has happened and you/he/she/it seem me more useful accept my actions and my choices. I since the beginning have follows the philosophy of an italo-American prisoner that I met in the Californian jail of Pleasanton: 'Sconta your punishment but not [diventarne] [schiavo']. The main point is have an objective clear and of long duration that I/you/he/she/it transform the hell of the jail in an acceptable purgatory to the individual." Could he/she/it/you be loved and be [riamati] between that thread boned? "Yes, but I have preferred assemble me on the friendship. An affective choice but also social and politics, that has allowed me to be more to contact with the outside and of have focused on an objective precise: the after. The sex and the love risks of project you all inside the jail, makes you [ancor] enslaved in jail. When there has entered, I/you/he/she/it don't forget it, I had lived already two lives." Also she has known the upsetting love, therefore? "E' a made deprived. I can only tell that a person was completely intellectual and cultured which not I [ricongiungerò] anymore. Because ours lives have taken roads too much he/she/it/you diverged. The world in these 17 years is not been certainly stopped."