PALERMO: Italian premier Mario Monti called for a "fight without mercy against all mafias" Wednesday, as thousands massed in Sicily to mark 20 years since the murder of top judge Giovanni Falcone.
"The whole country has to commit to the fight against the mafia, without deluding themselves that they are immune," Monti told crowds of relatives of victims and students gathered in Palermo to mark the anniversary.
Falcone's assassination in a bomb attack by the Sicilian Mafia shocked the nation and while Cosa Nostra's grip has been weakened in the two decades since, it is still far from a spent force.
"We came so we won't forget," said a banner carried by national anti-mafia prosecutor Piero Grasso and Education Minister Francesco Profumo, who travelled to Sicily on boats along with thousands of school pupils and students.
On the road into Palermo city centre, a tall red monument commemorates the attack with a 500-kilogram (1,100 pound) bomb attack on a motorcade which killed Falcone, his wife Francesca Morvillo and three bodyguards on May 23, 1992.
On a hillside to the right stands a small outbuilding with the words 'No Mafia' painted in huge blue letters, from where Giovanni Brusca detonated ther bomb on orders from the then head of the Mafia, Toto Riina.
Both men are now serving life sentences.
In pouring rain, Monti unveiled a black marble plaque with the names of more than 200 victims, placed in a "memory garden" built on land confiscated from gangster Michele Greco, a leading member of the Mafia, who died in 2008.
"I'm happy to see that more young people come each year. Everything changed, after the massacre, it was a turning point. Civil society called on the state to clean up our squares," said Maria Falcone, sister of the murdered judge.
Several ceremonies were set to take place throughout the day to mark the death of Falcone and -- just two months later -- of fellow anti-Mafia magistrate Paolo Borsellino, who was killed in a car bomb.
Thousands of people walked the streets between the site where Borsellino died to Falcone's house, pinning messages and photographs on trees to commemorate the judges' heroic fight against the deadly criminal organisation.
Ministers and anti-mafia campaigners also gathered in the bunker-courthouse in the Ucciardone prison where a huge trial took place between 1986 and 1987 which revolutionised the fight against the Sicilian Mafia clans.
More than 450 mafiosi went on trial and 360 were finally convicted thanks to crucial information provided by Falcone and Borsellino on how the Mafia functioned.
Their deaths sparked not only public outrage against organised crime, but were also shrouded in mystery, with lingering suspicions over the possible role the state may have played in their assassinations.
"There is no reason of state that can justify the delays in establishing the facts and those responsible," said Monti.
Journalists and prosecutors have been investigating for years a possible "state plot" to eliminate Falcone and Borsellino because their inquiries were destabilising political power.
"We need those who know, and who have not already told us all they know, to collaborate," said prosecutor Grasso, who leads the fight against criminal organisations throughout Italy.
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