posted 07-23-2001 12:17 AM            

THE GENOA RIOTS----WHAT YOU WON'T FIND IN THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA

The source for this article comes from an eye-witness report by Vincent Pang of Indy Media, U.K.
This report deals with a very small portion of the Genoa G8 Conference, a time period of only a few hours, but it portrays the general climate, and the attitude of the police force (termed the 'carbinereraie' in Italian), which led to the murder of Carlo Juliani.
The scene is a group of buildings used by the Indy Media Center (IMC), the Genoa Social Forum (GSF) as well as a variety of local and international protesters. It also served as the information center for the 'counter conference' and the solidarity marches. The school opposite was the place where a diverse group of people ate, slept and used the facilities, including computers for communication. Among this group were pacifists from Zaragoza, of whose members eight wound up in the hospital, and many were detained.
On the evening in question the police pulled up in five vans about 300 meters down from the group of buildings, got out and started "jogging down the street in riot gear and batons". Seeing this the protesters and press members tried to get inside the buildings, but before they could, the police reached them and started to arbitrarily beat anyone within reach. After this they(the police) entered the buildings from the side doors, as they had been left unlocked by the unsuspecting protesters. No one was prepared for what followed.
People were lined up against the wall, spreadeagled for a period of thirty minutes, while the 'carabineraie' wandered in and out of rooms, collecting "incriminating evidence", such as mini disks, videos, some cutlery (weapons no doubt) and a couple of gas masks. They also searched people's bags confiscating passports, wallets and diaries. They tried to arrest an IMC member, but were stopped by a journalist with G8 accreditation, but not before a scuffle. At that point a woman M.P. came in who had the power to get the police to leave, due to the fact that the detainees were accredited members of the international 'journo/press'. The GSF Lawyers' office had been ransacked, computers destroyed, hard drives taken and phones smashed. The computers had contained all pertinent data relating to legal aid etc…, and it was obvious that the raid had this intention from the beginning.
The people next door were not quite so lucky. Many were already asleep when the police broke in, and the "mass beatings" started. "Tears and shouts of 'assinos' followed the police, who for another half hour or so were still blocking off exits". People outside were chanting 'let them free' and watched in disbelief as stretcher after stretcher of young men and women were carried out. "One of the first to be beaten was a U.K. reporter who was smashed repeatedly by a group of [police]. One held him by the neck while the others beat him with clubs. Unconscious, he was left in the street in a pool of blood". According to witnesses when the police entered the building, the people inside raised their hands in surrender, but to no avail. One group managed to escape out of an upper window and down the scaffolding, but the ones inside were not so lucky. "They were beaten everywhere, the obvious intention being to cause as much injury as possible. At least five were unconscious when brought out".
After more arrests were made and the police and fleet of ambulances left, those remaining took stock of the carnage. A sickening sight greeted them as they entered the building. "There was thick blood all up and down the walls, over the floor and at the bottom of the stairs". The blood patterns showed that several people must have been beaten while lying on the floor. The scene was so horrible even the ambulance drivers were in shock.
As the building had been under repair, there was a section that had been blocked off, with building materials such as pipes, etc…strewn around, which were immediately classified as 'weapons', along with various kitchen utensils such as knives and forks.
The local media made this raid out to be a search for weapons and drugs, but to anyone who was there, and judging by the number of injured, the intentions were clear. The blood on the street and inside the buildings tells the true story.
As I said this is a very small glimpse of the atmosphere surrounding this exercise of 'demockracy' in action. Even the G8 leaders were shocked. Unfortunately they weren't shocked at the carnage that had taken place, but rather the audacity of those hundreds of thousands (not tens, as reported by your local media)of ' hooligans' who dared to disrupt the meeting of the eight richest nation's leaders as they were busy deciding the fate of this planet.(So magnanimously dealing out pittances for AIDS---a disease which they started in the first place)
On Saturday, July 21, there were spontaneous gatherings world wide at Italian Embassies protesting what could only be termed as the 'cold blooded murder' on the streets of Genoa, of Carlo Juliani,-- including one here in Vancouver. Hundreds showed up bearing placards and candles, wearing the by now familiar masks of those who dare show their opposition to this kind of desecration. It was heartening to see the size of the response, with only one day's notice, in a city characterized as 'laid back' here in 'Beautiful Lala Land'. The police kept their distance as we marched on the streets surrounding the embassy, shouting "The People United Cannot Be Defeated". The local media showed up in full force and appeared to show a lot of interest in the proceedings as speaker after speaker stood up to say their piece. Later I looked for the report on the evening news---and there it was---- all thirty seconds of it.

Peace to all
DF