Saturday, July 12, 2008

Headache And Red Forehead

G8 The G8 meeting in Genoa

In this post I will talk about the G8 summit in Genoa and what really happened in those days. Mind you, mine will be a detailed account of the events occurred, as there are neither historical nor a journalist but a mere student, however I will try to be as accurate as possible.
The G8 is a forum consisting of the most influential countries of the world that emerged from the major industrial democracies plus Russia in 1973, because of its political and military influence. The countries currently participating in the G8 include the United States, Japan, Germany, UK, France, Italy, Canada and Russia. The G8 was organized in 2001 in Genoa, the forum was divided into four days, from Thursday 19 to Sunday, July 22, along with the meeting of heads of state were peaceful demonstrations organized by anti-globalization groups. The protests were intended to counter the power of a small group of Heads of State and Government, relying on their economic power, political and military, were, according to the protesters, in a position to decide the fate of large portions of humanity . It also challenged the policies and ideologies neoliberal taken by supranational organizations such as the World Trade Organization and the IMF .
On July 19, was held a peaceful demonstration to demand the rights of immigrants and migrants, which was attended by many foreign groups, Genoese citizens, representatives of Rete Lilliput and also, in the rear of the procession, a group of anarchists. It was estimated the presence of 50 000 people. The days of 20 and 21 July had to be the most important moments for the demonstrators were in fact provided demonstrations of many associations in different parts of the city, but from the beginning of the day, groups of anarchists and other groups of extreme left and right were taken to get stones and petrol. The clashes began in the early afternoon by violent demonstrators, that to escape from the charges of police mingled with the crowd of peaceful demonstrators. The police had to go towards Piazza Giusti, where the violent demonstrators were vandalized a few hours against a gas station, supermarket and a bank. The police was coming that should have come away from Ptolemais and then pass under the railway bridge in Via Archimede, then without coming in contact with the peaceful procession, from being directed via Aldo Gastaldi and Ptolemais, and then they had to block groups Piazza Giusti extremists who were meanwhile moving towards the district of Marassi . But, not knowing the city and taking the wrong road, but came away from the parallel Invrea Tomaso Giovanni, and then position before the railway bridge that divide during the course of Sardinia Turin . Here, after a few moments of rest, ostensibly to clear the road and to counter the launch of dense objects that were the target load for a few hundred meters (up to the intersection with Via Caffa) the head of the procession authorized (among the first the group of "Tute Bianche") that was coming. Many protesters and some journalists went away after the first firing of tear gas to try shelter in the side streets, but even so some of them were unable to avoid being involved in the fighting and suffering the beating by the police. The captain of the Carabinieri who had ordered the charges to the process claimed that it was charged "relief", but admitted to not knowing the topography of the area and not to have realized that doing so had locked the emergency exits.
After this initial charge the police began to retreat, to allow the passage of the procession, but in the meantime some peaceful protesters, who had been joined by the violent demonstrators, from the underpass over Sardinia, had assaulted and then set fire to half armored failed. At this point the control station lost radio contact with these men who, having already used all available tear (that is, different agents, although protected by masks, and many of the protesters accused in the years following chronic respiratory problems due to the huge amount of tear used), took up the charges.
During the violent clashes with the demonstrators responded with tear gas and charged the fire to rubbish bins and cars, using them as a barricade, and performing other acts of vandalism. Around 16:00 police officers and police began beating and charges against demonstrators in the square and nearby streets and, with the help of numerous vehicles, managed to take control of the area. A movie taken by camera on the helmet of a policeman, and submitted to the proceedings initiated by the judiciary acts in Genoa in connection with the death of Giuliani, shows a group of policemen beat a protester was isolated and then drag it to the ground like a sack of bloody street Crimea via Ilice and eighty square meters up in Alimonda. On those occasions came in the square, away from Invrea, Defender carrying the then-lieutenant colonel of the carabinieri
John Truglio , commander of the same department to which he belonged Placanica. The protester was injured taken by ambulance to 17:00. Arrived at the crash, the police unable to support the charges of the demonstrators, trying to retreat, then a defender of the police remains blocked by the crowd. One of the attackers picks up a fire extinguisher and threw it at the half. The fire extinguisher hits the boundary of the window of the rear door of the vehicle and is placed between the body and the spare tire: from an occupant hits him with a kick, letting it roll on the ground, in the direction of a protester with the face covered with a hood, later identified in the person of Carlo Giuliani , at that time is several meters by the Defender in the direction of Via Tolemaide.Questi fire extinguisher off the ground and makes for head with the extinguisher lifted, toward the rear of the Defender, but is immediately hit by a gunshot. The policeman
Mario Placanica be declared later responsible for the shooting. Placanica said he fired two shots into the air, one of which hit Giuliani. The other bullet hit the right wall of the church in Piazza Alimonda, leaving a sign identified only after a few months.
Giuliani fell to the ground dying (according to the autopsy and based on the movies that show the
blood gushing died several minutes later) and was hit twice by the medium that had managed to leave and moved away from putting in place unless the police: the first time in reverse, the second forward movement. When, after about half an hour, the medical staff of an ambulance came to the rescue, Giuliani was already dead, without having received any help from the police that immediately after his fall to the ground reoccupied the square and surrounded him. The event, documented in several movies and numerous photographs, was broadcast by many TV stations around the world, making them aware of the dramatic level of violence reached the clashes in Genoa. The first press reports, not denied by official sources, reported the death of a English boy, hit by a stone. Probably could
now go back to the identity of the boy (whose lifeless body on someone, after fleeing demonstrators, procured a large wound with force likely to be infected with a stone), because the police were found the
phone that in his pocket.
Around 21.00, worried by the news of the death of a young protester, Carlo Giuliani called the sister of his brother on the phone, in possession of the investigators. A person whose identity remains unknown, answered the call, and after being asked who he was, he declared to be a friend of Giuliani and reassured about the health of his brother. Only later did the authorities feel the family of the death of Carlo Giuliani.
The tension was high in Piazza Alimonda. The photojournalist Paoni Eligio, who photographed the body of Giuliani before the arrival of police, was beaten up (head injuries and a broken hand), the camera was destroyed and was forced to deliver a film that tried to hide. The priest of the Church of Our Lady of Remedy, who tried to bless the body of Giuliani did not come closer.
About half an hour after the death of Giuliani, some journalists
Free filmed the then assistant chief Adriano Lauro chasing for a few meters one protester, yelling at him - in front of the cameras Mediaset promptly arrived on the spot with Renato Farina - Giuliani had killed with a stone.
Photographs taken by a resident of the area and widespread in
2004 shows a heated argument between a policeman and a police officer. It also speaks Skilled Bruno, a French freelance photographer in this Alimonda Square, in an interview to ' ANSA of July 21 2001 . Someone - while the areas around the body of the young man killed was completely surrounded and occupied by the police, as evidenced by a sequence of photographs - would put a stone on the side of the head of Giuliani and brought a deep wound on his forehead so as to think of a stone .. In support of this view some photos show the first stone a few yards and then left the body near the head on the right side, where before there was only a lighter white.
The role of the police in the death of Giuliani becomes apparent to the 21 with the dissemination of images taken by a Reuters photographer
. Relatives of Carlo Giuliani were alerted to the 22 television stations and transmit the name of the victim. The following day continued
riots with hundreds injured and dozens of arrests. This is what happened during the days of the event but there is in fact precisely the Diaz school was granted by the city of Genoa Genoa Social Forum, at first as the seat of their media center, then as dormitories. According to the testimonies of the demonstrators the area had become a meeting point for many of the protesters, especially those who are not familiar with the city, being busy during the three days even among those who were not allowed to sleep in the building. Also according to reports by the protesters and the staff of the associations that were established in the pasture there were particular situations of tension in the two buildings.
Around 21 of the Saturday evening (about two hours before the raid and a half hour before the alleged aggression to the police) some people report the presence in the area (via I try, square and Via Cesare Battisti Merani of demonstrators intent to place the bins in the street and intent to get rid of some helmets and sticks. A police car sent to verify the presence of took over a hundred people in front of the Diaz school, without being able to check if they were those reported by phone or if they were really moving the bins into the street.
After reporting an attack on a police patrol port the decision by the police, a raid at the Diaz school (and officially by mistake, the pastures nearby school) where people are sleeping 93 boys and journalists mostly foreigners (most of which are accredited ). The police report speaks of a "search" because it was suspected the presence of violent demonstrators. But despite everything, is still no official reason for the use of riot gear for making an alleged search.
All occupants were arrested and beaten up the most, although they had not opposed any resistance. Journalists rushed to the school Diaz saw dozens of people moved out in
stretcher . The police spokesman, said at a news conference that 63 of them had previous injuries and bruises, and shows the material seized, but no answers to the questions of stampa.Uno of those arrested remain in a coma for two days. The footage shows images of walls and floors stained with blood. In none of those arrested is reported to be under arrest, neither of which would be charged with crimes. Many of them find only in the hospital (sometimes in the newspapers) that they were arrested for conspiracy to the devastation and looting (those arrested but did not know each other), resistance and aggravated firearms. Of the 63 injured, three will prognosis private: twenty-eight German student of archeology Jonasch Melanie (who had cranial cerebral trauma with fracture of the left petrous bone, several cranial hematoma, multiple contusions to the back, shoulder and right arm, fracture of the left mastoid, bruising his back and buttocks) , the German Karl Wolfgang Baro (which had a head injury with venous bleeding) and the British journalist Mark Covell (who had perforation of the lung, trauma hemithorax, shoulder and upper arm and head injuries, in addition to the loss of 10 teeth, and whose beating, occurred midway between the two schools, was included in a video)
The official version of the state police
argues that the assault was motivated by a stone-throwing from the school to a police patrol that was passing in the street at about 21:30 (though in some reports initially indicated the time was 22:30). The assistant chief Massimiliano Di Bernardini, in the mobile service in Rome and in those days aggregate in Genoa, in the first instance, report that he passed "at a crawl" (due to some cars in the very narrow street) in front of school with four cars. He also stated that the school grounds and sidewalks in the street "were occupied by a large group, about 200 people, many of them donning of black clothes, similar to that typically used by violent groups "and that these targets had the means" a large flying objects and stones against the quota, trying to attack the cars, "but then they were able to walk away" by turning the signals of emergency "despite the inseguisse crowd them .. The police, however, will not be able to provide specific information about the vehicles involved, nor about who guided them and the evidence on the presence of hundreds of extremists will not be confirmed by other sources, and thereafter not to admit Di Bernardini having participated in the events, but only reported what he had reported to it by others. Shortly after the three officers will argue that a large stone had smashed a glass of their armored van (a single half, compared with four reported in the first place) and that the medium was then taken to a police garage for repairs. The episode, however, not clear from the minutes of the above, drawn up after the raid, which instead show a dense stone-throwing, nor will it be possible to identify the vehicle that was involved. Subsequent evidence of other officers, made during the investigation, will argue the contrary, the launch of a bolt (where the event would not have seen above) and a bottle of beer, launched in the direction of four police cars, one of which one protester had clung. Some journalists and tell on the outside of the pasture instead of seeing only a steering wheel Police in line with other cars behind a bus (who had stopped in the street to pick up the protesters at the train station), which arrived at the two schools, accelerated suddenly " scoured, the result of which was thrown a bottle (which broke ground several meters away from the car away now) version confirmed in part by other witnesses in the building (who claim to have heard the noise strong acceleration followed moments later by some screaming and the thud of a broken glass). These conflicting versions in different times and dates, have raised strong doubts on the actual occurrence of the fact put forward because the raid. Another
throwing stones towards the police, once they had gathered outside the building - always claimed the raid because the school in order to bring to justice those suspected of violent protesters - has been excluded during Process analysis of available movies by
RIS .
The mass arrests without warrant of arrest was justified by the challenge of the only offense of the Italian law (except in cases of flagrante delicto), which provides that the crime of possession of weapons in a closed environment: after the search, the police showed reporters the objects found, including metal bars, which will prove to come from the yard to restructure the school, and two Molotov cocktails, you'll discover by chance he was kidnapped the same day in a completely different place and brought into the building by the same forces order to create false evidence (a video of the local
Primocanale , viewed at one year of the facts, it shows the bag with petrol bombs in the hands of police officers outside the school and the discovery This video will lead to the confession of an agent, who admit they have been ordered to bring to school).
In the same operation is searched (by mistake, according to testimonies of officials during the process) the adjacent school Pascoli, which housed the infirmary, the media center and the legal department of the Genoa Social Forum, which some complain about the disappearance of computer disks and storage media containing material on demonstrations and clashes in addition to the testimonies of many of the protesters about the facts of the previous days (both on computer and paper). Some of the computers that had been given on loan to Genoa Social Forum by the City and County of laptops and some journalists and lawyers present will be destroyed during the search. Just hours before the attack, in a press release from the Genoa Legal Forum, stated that the next day complaint was lodged against the police for what happened in those days, making use of this material. The
National Press Federation it will be a civil process against the raid. All those arrested
the Diaz school and school Pastures were later released, some on the same evening, others on subsequent days. Over time, all charges will fall to the demonstrators for the stabbing of an agent, that is refuted by the experts of the RIS that the cuts would have been specially procured (the official version on the event, however, will change several times).
The persons apprehended and arrested during day of the event were largely conducted in the barracks in Genoa
Bolzaneto , which had been prepared as a center for the identification of those arrested. Will then be transferred in several Italian prisons. According to the report of the inspector Montanaro, the result of a survey conducted a few days after the summit, during the event passed through the barracks for 240 people (of which 184 under arrest, detained five and 14 reported in the state of freedom), but according to other reports of arrests and simple agents identifications were many more, nearly 500 ] .
In many cases, the accused arrested law enforcement personnel of physical and psychological violence, and failure to respect the legal rights of the accused (no possibility to be assisted by a lawyer or to inform someone of their detention): the detainees say they were forced to spend hours standing, with hands up, without having the chance to go to the bathroom, changing position or receive medical treatment. They also report a climate of euphoria among law enforcement for the chance to rage against the demonstrators, and reported also appeals to dictators and dictatorial ideologies array
fascist, Nazi and racist and sexual threats against some protesters.
The judges released in the following days, all the protesters, for the absence of allegations that had resulted in the arrest.

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