[Imc-newsroom] Italy police chief says police used excessive force at Genoa

[Molly Stentz]

Italy police chief says police used excessive
  force at Genoa

  Thursday, August 09, 2001
  By Reuters


  ROME  Italy's top police official admitted Wednesday that police used
  excessive force during the Group of Eight summit in Genoa, when three
days of
  violence left a protester dead and the city in tatters.

  Giving evidence to a parliamentary inquiry, national police chief Gianni
De
  Gennaro said police officers did occasionally use excessive force but
only when
  they were provoked. Incidents of brutality would be probed, he said.

  "The guerrillalike conditions created by violent and criminal
instigators in some
  cases provoked an excessive use of force by police units, that may be
true," he
  said in a written statement. "And in some other very isolated cases,
there was
  (unprovoked) unlawful conduct, which will be rigorously looked into."

  There has been a flood of allegations of police brutality since the
summit, with
  many protesters saying they were beaten while lying defensively on the
ground
  or when they were clearly standing apart from the core of violent
  demonstrations.

  On the first day of the July 20-to-22 meeting, a 23-year-old protester,
one of
  about 20 who were attacking a police vehicle, was shot dead by a young
  paramilitary police officer.

  Other concerns have focused on the nature of a midnight raid on a school
that
  was acting as a headquarters for protester groups, in which 62 people
were
  injured and 90 arrested. Many demonstrators were carried out of the
school on
  stretchers, blood pouring from their faces. Shortly afterward, reporters
saw
  bloodstains on the walls and teeth scattered on the school floor. At
least one
  protester has since undergone brain surgery.

  Three top police officials have now been transferred to more low-profile
  positions by the interior minister, who has faced calls for his own
resignation.

  While allowing that the police had been excessive, De Gennaro said in
his
  statement that people needed to be aware that security forces were
facing a
  new and dangerous threat from well-organized, extremist protest groups.
  "Genoa clearly showed the arrival on the international scene of a new
  movement that tries to blend peaceful and genuine protest with some
extremist
  components and others that are completely subversive," he said.

  De Gennaro's statement came on the second day of testimony in the
  parliamentary hearings, set up last week to try to shed some light on
the Genoa
  summit that is becoming an increasing embarrassment to the government as
  details emerge.

  Tuesday, Genoa's center-left mayor blasted Prime Minister Silvio
Berlusconi's
  center-right government for denying any responsibility for the violence.
  Berlusconi has said his center-left predecessors are entirely
responsible for
  organizing the event and for its subsequent failures.

  Copyright 2001, Reuters
  All Rights Reserved

--