Italy: Secret police raids in Genoa
01 January 1991
Italy: Secret police raids in Genoa
artdoc May=1994
Police raids in Genoa, following anti-immigrant riots there (see
Bulletin no 5), are reported to be occurring at the rate of three
to four a day. The police action takes the form of dawn raids on
old warehouses transformed by migrants into dormitory-style
housing. The evicted are then taken to barracks at Bozanato where
those without a residence permit are served with deportation
orders, and those with a permit are provided with council
accommodation for six days. The raids were preceded by much
agitation from the `Genoa City Centre Citizens Committee' who
called for more mass identity checks, evictions and deportations.
Stefano Kovac of the Dar Cooperative says that as the police
operations take place `in secret', nobody knows the true figures
of deportees (Il Manifesto 26.8.93).
Senegalese launch hunger strike after police evictions
In the village of Montesilvano near Pescara, an Adriatic coastal
city in central Italy, 150 Senegalese have been evicted from
rented accommodation in dawn raids involving 130 police officers,
drafted in from as far away as Naples and Florence. The
Senegalese have now launched a hunger strike to draw attention
to the local authority's breach of promise. It seems that the
mayor of the village had promised to find them alternative
accommodation (Il Manifesto 22.9.93).
Padua: Roma child killed in police custody
A public inquiry has been launched after an 11-year-old Roma
child, Tarzan Sulic, was shot dead by police whilst allegedly
trying to escape from a police barrack near Padua. His 13-year
old cousin Mira Djunic was also injured in the shooting. The
police arrested the children after arriving at a flat in Padua
and allegedly finding the children in possession of stolen goods.
Although they were too young to be arrested, they were taken to
the barracks and locked in a cell, unaccompanied by any adult.
The police's version of the events that led to the shooting the
subject of an internal police investigation -is as follows.
When a young caribinieri entered the cell to explain to the
children that they would only be released when they identified
themselves and the whereabouts of their parents, Tarzan, with
`the skill of a true pickpocket', spirited the caribinieri's
pistol from its holster. When a struggle ensued, the pistol
accidentally went off and the caribinieri was left in a state of
shock.
Following the killing the police dispersed Gypsies who attempted
to protest outside the barracks. Flavio Bado of the Gypsy
solidarity organisation Opera Nomadi said: `Honestly, I just
cannot believe it happened like that' (Il Manifesto 24.9.93).
More anti-Gypsy feeling in Florence
The mayor of Florence has announced his intention to use the
police to expel `1,000 nomads' from the city. 500 travellers will
be allowed to stay in one or two communal camps, which means
that, as there are an estimated 1,500 travellers in the city,
1,000 will have to leave (Il Manifesto 15.9. 93).
Witnesses come forward to denounce police beating
A phone call to Milan's `Radio Popolare', and the statements of
two other key eye-witnesses, have led a magistrate to throw out
charges against two north African men in their early twenties
accused, amongst other things, of resisting arrest, insulting a
public official and attempting to crash the car they were driving
into a police car.
Initially, a man phoned Radio Popolare to report a police
beating of the two north Africans, Sfouli Salim and Chanouf
Mahrez. According to the caller, whose radio statement was
confirmed by two other men in court, at one point about twenty
police officers took it in turns to punch and kick the two
immigrants who were on their knees, their hands hand-cuffed
behind their backs. When an ambulance arrived (probably called
by onlookers), the police calmed down. The ambulance crew,
however, after talking to the poli