July
20th-22nd 2001 has seen the worst police brutality on peaceful demonstrators
in the European Union this century.
It happened on Live Television, was reported by Independent and Mainstream
media, and many eye-witness accounts describe the incidents which took
place. The killing of Carlo Giuliani on the streets of Genoa, Italy, was
the most "newsworthy" story of protestor injury, however events
unfolded which left many many other peaceful protestors and reporters
seriously injured.
HERE
is a copy of a story from a Sunday Times reporter who was present at the
Genoa demonstration which verifies the police brutality served out
to non-resistant non-violent protestors before and after they were held
in police custody.
HERE
is another diary of a protestor caught in the violence at the Genoa demonstrations
from The Guardian (UK moderate left broadsheet.)
I have compiled various short lived headlines on one particularly brutal attack on the Headquarters of the [linknowdead]Genoa Social Forum[/linknowdead], the umbrella group in charge of peaceful demonstration at the Genoa summit.
This
attack came in the dead of night, and consisted of a raid on the Independent
Media Centre, the G.S.F. and a related building (an old school which was
empty and undergoing building work and which was granted for use by the
peaceful protestors with whom the G.S.F. associate.)
HERE
you will find a recording the the Live Webcast of GAP Radio taking place
at the time of the police raid on the Independent Media Centre. Whilst
at the centre police confiscated and destroyed electronic and video evidence
of activities at the protests.
The school across the road was raided shortly after the police entered the Independent Media Centre. Police severely beat around 50 of the sleeping peaceful protestors after lining them up, and the walls and floors were covered in blood after the incident. Most were hospitalised, and some have not come out of coma at the time of compiling this page (23rd July 2001). Two of the people beaten at the school were members of the non-violent group "Globalise Resistance", and the are described thus:
Eye witness accounts of the raid were available at many mainstream media sites as well as alternative sources.
Reports:
Indymedia
story of the raid
Yahoo
story on the raid
BBC
World Service Story about the raid on IMC/GSF/School (mp3 audio)
[linknowdead]Real
Audio report hosted by BBC[/linknowdead]
Bill
Hayton`s eyewitness account (HTML)
The Guardian Reports on the incident: "Police hit hard at core of dissent" "Riots force a review of summits"
The
raid on the Genoa Social Forum and surrounding buildings is believed to
have been a response by police to reports that various groups were in
possession of documentary evidence of "infiltrators" and
undercover police being the cause of some of the troubles in Genoa.
Owing to the intimidation and physical condition of the reporters and
protestors and confiscation and destruction of much of this evidence,
little of the information has emerged so far.
Essential resource:
Genoa, 21-22 july
2001- dossier about violations of civil and human rights
Other resources of interest:
Account by Starhawk
(personal description of the first day of protest)
Editorial
from the New York Times: "What the protestors in Genoa want"
Posted by cruntUK 24/07/01.
Updated 1st December 2007 specifying dead links cruntUK@braindamage.org.uk
Date: Boxing Day (26th December) 2008
Updated on this incident this year.
The
Guardian reports: "When 200,000 anti-globalisation protesters
converged on the Italian city hosting the G8 summit in 2001, all but a
handful came to demonstrate peacefully. Instead, many were beaten to a
pulp by seemingly out-of-control riot police. But was there something
more sinister at play? And will the victims ever see proper justice?"
This page linked from The Labour Party member's blog: Starting
from scratch by Brian Moylan, Secretary, Vale
of Clwyd Constituency Labour Party, 25 Kimnel Street, Rhyl.
Merry Christmas fellow human beings of Italy.