28 March 2012
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GENOA 19/21 July 2001
An Italian
view of "public order policing" Italian style
482 people injured
280 arrests
2,093 people turned back at the borders
Carlo Giuliani shot dead by police
Statewatch bulletin, vol 11 no 3/4,
May-July 2001
It was thought that European public order policing had sunk to
a new low after police opened fire on demonstrators in Gothenburg
in June. However, it reached a new nadir in Genoa on 19-21 July
when, during widespread demonstrations against the G8 summit,
Italian police shot dead Carlo Giuliani. Claims by the Berlusconi
government that it would guarantee the right of peaceful protest
(as well as maintaining public order and security) were swept
aside by practices on the ground. Clashes between the police
and demonstrators resulted in 482 people receiving injuries (of
whom 355 were protestors, 19 journalists and 108 policemen) and
280 arrests (105 from outside Italy); charges were brought against
230 persons. Forty-nine people were reported to be still in prison
[in mid-August]. They have been charged with belonging to "criminal
association aimed destruction and looting" (a charge which
allows the use of legislation against organised crime) and in
some cases of resisting a public official.
On 1 August Interior Minister Claudio Scajola survived a confidence
vote in parliament. A parliamentary inquiry has been set up,
and eight police investigations into the policing of the event
have been ordered. Three have so far been submitted to parliament.
These relate to a raid on two schools hosting protestors and
the independent media centre, allegations of torture at the Bolzaneto
prison complex and to the overall management of public order.
Three police officials have been removed from their posts: Arnaldo
La Barbera, head of Ucigos (special operations, antiterrorist
central office); Ansoino Andreassi (deputy head of police); and
Francesco Colucci (head of Genoa police). A carabiniere conscript,
Mario Placanica, is under investigation for manslaughter for
the death of Carlo Giuliani - the first person to die on a demonstration
in Italy since Giorgiana Masi was shot by police in Rome in 1977.
Security deployment
As the number of demonstrators expected in Genoa grew in the
weeks leading up to the summit, and the Genova Social Forum (GSF)
umbrella organisation gave over 700 organisations a common voice,
security preparations took shape. Concerns over violent protest
and the protection of the G8 meeting, (including secret service
rumours that Osama bin Laden would attempt to kill George Bush),
resulted in unprecedented measures. Clashes during the EU summit
in Gothenburg on 14-16 June and the World Economic Forum in Salzburg
on 1-3 July also caused concern at the European level.
Security arrangements included the hiring of a luxury cruiser
as residential quarters for the G8 leaders, (George Bush stayed
on a US aircraft carrier). Six naval vessels were deployed to
patrol the Porto Vecchio (Old Harbour) area, with the port closed
to non-G8 activities, as was the airport and nearest train stations.
Defences for the summit included batteries of ground-to-air Spada
missiles deployed in the port and airport, 12-ft high barriers
of barbed wire mesh strengthened with metal bars and concrete
bases around the "red zone", and 18,000 law enforcement
officials. These were drawn from:
- the national police (Genoa police, flying squads, riot police
and the interior ministry-run Ucigos and SCO, Central Operative
Service);
- the paramilitary carabinieri (6,300 officers, of whom 27% were
conscripts, from the Genoa provincial command, corps trained
in public order, flying squads and ROS, Reparto Operazioni Speciali,
special operations, anti-terrorist & organised crime section);
- the prison service (GOM, Gruppo Operativo Mobile, prisons flying
squad reporting to the justice ministry set up in 1997);
- and the Corpo Forestale (the Corps of Foresters, on horseback
and on foot, replacing carabinieri on the streets after Giuliani
was shot in the afternoon of 19 July).
Borders
Italy reinstated border controls by suspending provisions in
the Schengen agreement from 14 to 21 July, as Austria had done
for the World Economic Forum meeting in Salzburg on 1-3 July
2001. There were reports that German police on the Swiss border
used a violent offenders database to prevent people from leaving
the country. German lawyers argued that this was an infringement
of the constitutional right to personal freedom. They are looking
to file a test case against the police over the inclusion of
two people on the database who were arrested or identified on
peaceful demonstrations without charges being made against them.
On 23 July Interior Minister Scajola revealed that 2,093 people
were refused entry into Italy. Some protestors, such as Britons
Richard Byrne, John Harper and Julie Quinn, were refused entry
and deported by Italian authorities on the basis of information
supplied by police in the UK. The three had been arrested during
anti-Trident demonstrations in Faslane naval base in Scotland,
although only Harper was charged with a standard public order
offence. They were denied access to lawyers, were held in a so-called
"immigration zone" (or "sterile zone" in
the words of the Italian embassy in London) where: "They
told us that, as we were no longer on Italian soil, our right
to a lawyer didn't exist", Byrne said. UK police officers
on the spot told Mr Byrne that in the "immigration zone"
the right to see a lawyer was a "utopian" idea.
In some cases where information was not available to the Italian
police, this did not stop them from refusing entry. When a ferry
carrying several coachloads of Greek demonstrators docked in
the Adriatic port of Ancona on the east coast of Italy on 18
July, Italian police carried out identity checks and refused
entry to 150 people. Ancona's chief of police said "We received
detailed information and they have been sent back to Greece because
they were considered dangerous for public order". Greek
authorities denied this, and foreign minister Panos Beglitis
expressed "strong regret for the brutal behaviour of the
Italian police". Scajola later accepted that no information
had been received and explained that they were sent back "for
belonging to organisations". The head of the Greek section
of Amnesty International was among those injured in clashes in
the port of Ancona, and was not allowed into the country.
Others were refused entry at the Italian/French border in Ventimiglia,
where a demonstration for open borders was held by Italian and
French groups on 14 July, and the Italian/Swiss border at Como
(Italy)/Chiasso (Switzerland), where clashes were reported on
16 July (see Statewatch news online, July 2001). Despite these
attempts to deter protestors over 200,000 arrived in Genoa over
the ensuing days.
Preventative raids and clashes
Dawn raids of campsites and buildings in which demonstrators
were staying started on 18 July and continued through to the
early morning of 21 July. These started with a search of the
Carlini stadium hosting the "disobedient block". Its
members included the Tute Bianche (White Overalls) whose objective
was to use peaceful disobedience to advance and breach the red
zone. Other camps, as well as the Pinelli social centre, which
offered hospitality to anarchists, were searched in dawn raids,
and the occupants' identities were recorded. Raids without warrants
using anti-terrorist legislation in social centres around Italy
in the weeks preceding the summit intensified as it approached,
under the pretext of seeking weapons (see Statewatch news online,
July 2001).
The first demonstration took place in the afternoon of 19 July
when 50,000 people joined a march against racism and in defence
of migrants' rights.
On 20 July several marches, including a trade unions march, a
Genoa Social Forum march and the civil disobedience block march
(which had been banned) headed for the "red zone".
Clashes had begun at the edges of the "yellow zone"
(a buffer area outside the "red zone") and around the
civil disobedience march. Police used a water cannon after demonstrators
attacked a petrol station and property in Piazza Manin, anarchists
then laid seige to Marassi prison where police fired teargas.
An authorised march by the "Disobedient bloc" was attacked
by police as it headed down via Tolemaide leading to violent
confrontation as protestors fought back. Further clashes developed
near to Brignole station in Piazza Tommaseo and Piazza Alimonda
where twenty-year-old Carlo Giuliani was shot in the head by
Mario Placanica, a carabiniere conscript, as he approached the
jeep with a fire extinguisher during clashes on the margins of
the "yellow zone".
Luca Casarini, spokesperson for the Tute Bianche, who wanted
to enter the "red zone" through peaceful civil disobedience,
by padding their bodies, holding shields and passing through
the sheer weight of numbers said they took part in the clashes
in self-defence after being attacked by carabinieri.
Clashes also occurred where the bulk of the demonstration congregated
on the southern edge of the "red zone" in Piazza De
Novi, where members of the black block were accused of destroying
property and offices. Stones were thrown at police who fired
teargas before charging and blocking off exits, so that peaceful
protestors found themselves trapped and beaten. Witnesses claimed
that isolated protesters, "including thirteen-year-olds"
were also beaten. Allegations were made by the GSF and political
parties that police used neo-fascist infiltrators as agents provocateurs.
On 21 July the GSF called for a peaceful march to protest against
third world debt and commemorate Carlo's death. Over 200,000
people took part, flowers were left on the spot where Giuliani
died the day before and chants of "murderers" were
directed at the police. A police attempt to divert the march
along the route resulted in more teargas, police charges and
running battles.
After the demonstrations were over, at around 3 am at night on
21 July police raided the Armando Diaz and Sandro Pertini schools.
The GSF had moved its headquarters into the Armando Diaz school,
and an independent media centre was upstairs. Police attacked
people, left a room drenched in blood and destroyed computer
hard discs, camera film and videotape evidence that lawyers for
the GSF intended to use to in lawsuits against police officers.
Some material was confiscated. An English freelance web designer,
Mark Covell, was hospitalised with fractured ribs and a pierced
lung. He gave a graphic description of the beatings he suffered,
claiming that he pretended to be dead in order to save his life.
Vittorio Agnoletto, the GSF spokesman with whom the government
negotiated before the summit, was manhandled and struck as he
tried to find out what was going on in the school, as were lawyers.
Ninety-three people were arrested, most of whom were quickly
released; sixty-three people were injured (see Statewatch News
online, August 2001).
Abuse in detention
A member of Bolzaneto police flying squad said in an interview
with Repubblica newspaper that members of GOM, the prison service
flying squad, were responsible for systematic beatings and torture
in the Bolzaneto prison complex, which they transformed in preparation
for the summit. The policeman says that both the raid on 20 July
and subsequent detention in Bolzaneto reflected "a suspension
of rights, a void in the Constitution. I tried to speak to some
colleagues, do you know what they answered: that...we shouldn't
be afraid, because we're covered." He alleges that people
were made to stand against a wall without moving for hours on
end, women were threatened with being raped with truncheons,
while other detainees were beaten for refusing to sing a fascist
hymn. They were denied access to toilets, and some were even
urinated on. GOM refuted the allegations, and another officer
blamed the riot police. The reports of brutality, if not the
identity of the perpetrators, were confirmed by accounts from
the detainees. A man who only has one leg confirmed that he was
made to stand until he collapsed. Simonetta Crisci, a lawyer
who is defending protestors, says that charges will be brought
over threats that women received in prison and carabinieri barracks
which, she says, fall under "sexual violence" legislation.
Crisci is part of a network of lawyers, the Genova Legal Forum,
which is acting on behalf of demonstrators who have been charged
with offences or are looking to file lawsuits against the police.
The aftermath - collective responsibility
Claudio Scajola addressed the Chamber of Deputies (lower house
of parliament) on 23 July as demonstrators gathered to protest
outside. He blamed the previous government for choosing Genoa
as the venue for the summit and spoke of the overall success
of the policing operation. "In Genoa, [there were no] difficulties
in carrying out proceedings at the summit, as had been the case
in Seattle, Nice and Gothenburg, where there were only 10 or
20,000 protestors, and violent factions of a few thousand persons.
Here there were 200,000 demonstrators, and a few thousand violent
extremists."
He tried to justify the raid on the GSF as being necessary to
prevent clashes on the following day, although no demonstrations
were planned and many protestors had already left Genoa. Scajola
alleged that the GSF had connived with the black block and failed
to isolate violent protesters. "It was clear that... even
among the ranks of the GSF there substantial groups nesting which,
behind the general idea of civil disobedience were nonetheless
intending to infringe the law." He said that numerous weapons,
including two molotov cocktails, had been retrieved during the
raid, although a GSF spokesperson said that they were taken from
a building site within the Sandro Pertini school opposite, which
was also raided. As evidence of collusion with the black block,
he added that a number of black tops had been found.
The government backed Scajola and the law enforcement agencies'
role during the G8 summit, accusing the opposition of turning
police from being the victims into the perpetrators. Gianfranco
Fini went further, hinting at the possibility that there may
have been connivance between people sitting on the opposition
benches in parliament and the violent demonstrators on the streets.
He was answering accusations by former prime minister and DS
(Democratic Left) MP Massimo D'Alema who suggested that law enforcement
agencies may have acted as they did because they felt they had
political protection. He added, "In a democracy one can't
mistake the rights of the winner of an election with the use
of part of the [state] apparatus."
However, the repression against the anti-globalisation movement
in Italy was not a new phenomenon. Police brutality and fascist
sympathies among law enforcement officers had already been highlighted
during demonstrations against the Global Forum in Naples on 17
March this year.
In the wake of events in Naples, sociologist Salvatore Palidda
commented that "The facts which were explained in detail
by the victims and numerous witnesses, as well as available footage,
show that the brutal violence with which many officers from the
police forces assaulted demonstrators in Naples was organised
thuggery, sometimes overtly fascist." He claims that behind
ideas such as "zero tolerance" the "social construction
of a new violent [form] of social control is taking place"
to impose social discipline. In an article for Il manifesto following
the summit, Palidda implied that the violence was premeditated:
"For weeks people in Genoa had often heard police officers
promising to deliver beatings and brutal "lessons"".
This view was confirmed in a letter by three activists from Paci
Paciana social centre in Bergamo who were arrested in Genoa on
18 June, and claimed that a police officer attacked one of them
and issued threats about what would happen in Genoa (see Statewatch
news online, July 2001).
International condemnation
As wounded demonstrators began to return home, having been denied
access to lawyers and consular staff for 48 hours, international
condemnation concerning policing at the summit increased. German
Green MP Hans Christian Stroebele evoked South American dictatorships
to describe events in Genoa. The Berlin police force commissioner
stated that no one from his force would have shot a protestor
in similar circumstances. The Austrian spokesman for the European
Green MEPs Johannes Voggenhuber was told by female Austrian detainees
that they were made to strip and suffered sexual harassment in
detention. The Austrian foreign minister Benita Ferrero Waldner
was particularly critical of the failure by Italian authorities
to free sixteen members of the noborder VolxTheatreKarawane,
a theatre company which has been touring border camp initiatives
around Europe (see Statewatch News online, August 2001).
Stephen Jakobi, director of Fair Trials Abroad, an organisation
concerned with the fair treatment of people in foreign jurisdictions
said: "Consular access in defiance of international law
was denied to hospitalised and imprisoned Britons for at least
48 hours" adding that "the proper investigation of
complaints and fair judicial treatment of the large number of
Europeans arrested ... will be a test that will determine the
way that cooperation in judicial affairs proceeds within Europe
from now on". Amnesty International said Italian authorities
"should institute a thorough review of the current training
and deployment of law enforcement officers involved in crowd
control and take all necessary measures to ensure that officers
are adequately equipped and trained to employ non-lethal methods
of crowd control, and that no more force than usual is used to
control disturbances". AI also asked for an independent
inquiry to be established.
A backlash in public order policing was expected after clashes
in Gothenburg during the EU summit on 15 June (see Statewatch
news online, June 2001). In Gothenburg the escalation was marked
by the shooting of three demonstrators, including Hannes Westberg,
who was in a coma for several weeks. EU governments praised the
police, and regret for the shooting was overshadowed by the clamour
for measures to prevent the protesters from leaving their countries
to join protests in another.
After Genoa, the Italian government accepted the police practice
whereby peaceful and direct action non-violent protestors were
considered legitimate targets simply because they were on the
streets while violence was taking place. Evidence of abuse and
international criticism resulted in the removal of high-ranking
police officers as a face-saving measures but leaves the responsibility
of the government, ministers and other police bodies unanswered.
The behaviour of the law enforcement agencies in Genoa fits a
pattern of the increasing criminalisation of protest and social
milieus (particularly in Italy) - but have the Italian police
gone too far this time or will this be the pattern for future
protests across the EU?
Sources: Urgent information from the government
on the serious incidents which occurred in Genoa on occasion
of the G8 summit - Interior Minister's statement in the chamber
of deputies (23.7.2001) (www.camera.it); Statewatch news online,
June & July 2001; Fair Trials Abroad press release 25.7.01;
Amnesty international press release EUR 30/004/2001 22.7.01;
Corriere della sera 15.7.01-8.8.01; Repubblica 8.5.01 & 15.7.01-8.8.01;
Il manifesto 23.7.01; Times 17.7.01, 20.7.01, 24.7.01, 28.7.01;
Guardian 20.7.01, 24.7.01, 27.7.01; Independent 20.7.01; Salvatore
Palidda "Vecchi e nuovi tipi di violenza dell'ordine liberista",
24.7.01; www.mininterno.it
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