Out of Sight

Strange motives, odd methods

Repeatedly, the male voice crackled over the telephone lines. On each occasion the message was as unequivocal as it was unusual. Emanuela Orlandi, a 15-year-old girl who was kidnaped last month in Rome, would be freed if Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turk who is serving a life sentence for trying to assassinate Pope John Paul II in 1981, was released. The girl's captors threatened to kill her unless their demands were met by midnight last Wednesday. But after the deadline passed the kidnapers remained out of touch, and Emanuela out of sight. The abductors' approach has been decidedly bizarre. After Agca told reporters that he was happy to remain in jail, his apparent benefactors issued an almost incoherent communique dismissing his statement as "irrelevant." They have consistently refused to provide conclusive proof that Emanuela, the daughter of a Vatican City messenger, is still alive. In addition, they have addressed most of their demands to the Vatican even though, as one official there conceded, the Holy See "is powerless to meet their demands." Having "sincerely pardoned" Agca after the shooting, the Pope has called five times for Emanuela's release.

Legally, John Paul can do nothing. Only Italian President Alessandro Pertini can order Agca's release, but the Italian government observes a strict policy of not negotiating with kidnapers. The motives remain as mysterious as the method. The kidnapers have not demanded money, nor have they spiced their messages with ideological rantings or political rationales. Instead, they have identified themselves only as "people who are interested in Agca's liberation." Some Romans speculate that they may be agents from Bulgaria or even the Soviet Union, the countries Agca has implicated in the papal assassination attempt. The kidnapers' shadowy maneuvers have caused widespread concern and confusion. After four newspapers carried a rambling communique from Emanuela's abductors, a Roman magistrate took the unprecedented measure of forbidding newspapers to print such missives. Following an outcry from the press, that order was modified within 24 hours. Meanwhile, two Italian citizens have reportedly offered themselves as hostages in exchange for the captured girl. Emanuela's family has hired a lawyer to deal directly with her captors, and at the abductors' request, the Vatican's Secretary of State, Agostino Cardinal Casaroli, sits by a special telephone, awaiting further messages. - This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.