Conscience clear over Cutro says coastguard head

(ANSA) - ROME, MAR 31 - The head of the Italian coastguard said Friday his conscience was clear over the February 26 disaster at Cutro in Calabria in which at east 90 people including 35 children were killed as a migrant boat broke up in rough seas after the coastguard failed to go out and rescue it due to the smugglers' successful efforts to evade detection.
    "We have a clear conscience, we did what had to be done. When there is a tragedy one feels close to those who have suffered and Cutro was a great tragedy. We will certainly have to reflect on it and we are sure that the judiciary will shed light on it," said the Commander General of the Coast Guard, Admiral Nicola Carlone, to SkyTg 24, in relation to the shipwreck on the coast near Crotone.
    Carlone also called on the government no to wage war on NGOs after new rules forcing them to carry out just one rescue at a time and go to ports a long way from the rescue site.
    NGO ships 'do rescue, they do their work at sea. There is no war. Of these units, ten have left: only a couple have been stopped, also to safeguard the ship itself," said Carlone.
    The Banksy-funded Louise Michel is the latest of the humanitarian ships for which detention has been ordered. "We," explained Admiral Carlone, "asked to go to the assigned Place of Safety while our units were intervening: there were 45 events at the same time". (ANSA).