Italy: Who should be afraid of whom? by Yasha Maccanico
01 July 2008
A proliferation of racist attacks over the summer, as complaints against police and security personnel increase and the authorities appear to minimise the problem
A series of recent incidents involving violence against foreigners (homosexuals and left-wingers have also suffered attacks) have exemplified a growing intolerance that coincides with the coming into power of a right-wing coalition that has been overtly targeting migrants. After the approval of the so-called “security package”, which treated migrants as the source of the feeling of insecurity felt by many citizens, the issue of the migrants’ own security has come to the fore after seven murders in a single week in mid-September, and almost daily reports of attacks against them. Moreover, the problem has expanded from merely concerning the limited milieu of neo-fascists, to shopkeepers, organised crime, police officers and children. The backdrop for these events has been an ongoing effort by the government to deny that its measures are racist in any way or that racism is gaining ground in Italian society (with the exception of Gianfranco Fini, the deputy prime minister and leader of
Alleanza Nazionale, AN) - so much so that the PM Silvio Berlusconi himself appeared on Italy’s leading political chat show,
Porta a Porta, assuring the public that a bar owner and his son, who killed a teenager from Burkina Faso who had Italian citizenship by striking him repeatedly with a metal bar while shouting “dirty negro”, allegedly as a result of him stealing some biscuits, had not acted out of racism, a theory with which investigators agreed by ruling out any racist intent in connection with the crime.
There were also statements by authorities including the mayor of Rome, Gianni Alemanno, who, in an interview in early September, explained his view that fascism was not the “ultimate evil” that his party leader Fini had described it to be, but a more “complex phenomenon” which “many people adhered to in good faith”, with positive as well as negative aspects, limited to the racial laws approved in 1938/9 and to joining Hitler in the Second World War.
Meanwhile, developments in the legislative field saw post-electoral plans for the wholesale criminalisation of undocumented migrants
per se limited to the aggravating circumstance involving a one-third increase of prison sentences passed against people found guilty who are also “irregular” migrants (
see Statewatch vol. 18 no. 2). Restrictive law decrees on asylum and family reunification have also been approved, while plans for migrants to attend separate school classes that are only for foreigners received initial approval in parliament before drawing criticism that may undermine their passage through the senate, the upper house. Other mooted proposals included that by the
Lega Nord (LN, Northern League) to have residence permits with a points system similar to that used for driving licenses, which would strengthen the notion of migrants’ presence in Italy only being allowed in a situation of permanent probation, whereby loss of the points in question would result in expulsion from the country. It is also noteworthy that in spite of the succession of attacks against foreigners, the series of “emergencies” that the government has used to introduce repressive measures and the increased deployment of personnel to guarantee security appears not to include the issue of racist attacks.
Intolerance spreading: an array of incidents
In the early morning on 14 September 2008, Abdul Guibre, a 19-year-old from Burkina Faso with Italian citizenship who had lived in Italy since the age of three, was killed in Milan by two men, the owner of a bar van from which he is alleged to have stolen some biscuits and his son, who beat him, also on his head, with a metal bar while shouting “dirty negro, we’ll kill you”. He died hours later in hospital. The two accused of the murder, Fausto and Daniele Cristofoli, will not face the aggravating circumstance of racism in connection with the attack, as the prosecuting magistrate accused them of voluntary homicide for futile motives, as was also argued by the head of the Milan flying squad: “With regards to the investigations carried out so far, the origins of this incident have not ascertained any xenophobic aspect”. The friends of Abdul (aka Abba) told the police that “There was no theft, it’s a lie. A dirty lie that those two will have invented, maybe to find a justification”, and his sister noted the shift that the murder has caused: “Today I have understood, we have understood what it means to be black. This is why they killed my brother. Today, for the first time, I feel black”.
Abba’s killing was only one of a number of incidents that marred the summer of 2008. Incidents that hit the media headlines included beatings by groups of underage boys in the suburban Roman neighbourhood of
Tor Bella Monaca, such as that of a 36-year-old Chinese man who was waiting for a bus and ended up in hospital with injuries to his head and face, including a broken nose, after being attacked by five boys on 2 October 2008. Alemanno, the city’s mayor, offered Rome’s apology to the Chinese man, called for exemplary punishment, and criticised the youths for tainting the city’s name.
Father Carlo D’Antoni of the Bosco Minniti parish church in Siracusa (Sicily), issued a statement expressing his concern following an incident on the night between 26 and 27 July, in which Africans who were received in the parish and slept in the open in its courtyard were targeted by missiles thrown from outside, which included “around ten 66cl. beer bottles, 19 stones the size of a fist and around ten wooden boxes of the kind used in the sale of fruit”, fortunately without causing any serious injuries. The priest related the incident to “a growing climate of ‘annoyance’ and a spreading racism”, which can be felt in the city and which, although it affects people who are “morally and intellectually poorer”, is spreading and “fostered by the attitudes and words that would not be expected from those who... have institutional responsibilities at various levels: from the highest to the local ones”.
At 4.30 in the morning on 30 August, four left-wing activists were attacked by a group of around ten fascists armed with knives near to the Schuster park in central Rome, as they picked up their car after an anniversary event to commemorate the death of Renato Biagetti. One of the people attacked suffered three knife wounds to his thigh. Biagetti was stabbed by a group of fascists following a reggae concert on the coast near Fiumicino two years earlier.
On 9 September, two 28-year-old gay men were insulted, spat at and had bottles and stones thrown at them by a group of ten children, because they were walking hand-in-hand, as was stressed by Fabrizio Marrazzo, the president of Arcigay Roma, adding that it is “yet another example of intolerance towards gay people and homosexual love”.
On 9 October, a 16-year-old Moroccan girl was beaten by a group of children of a similar age (including a girl who was a former classmate) who followed her after she left school, and had her nose broken in full daylight in the area of the market in Varese, without anyone intervening. She had apparently had a scuffle (insults, shoving and scratches) with a girl on a bus on the previous day after refusing to give up her seat to a boy who had told her to leave him the seat and insulted her. The girl with whom she struggled was a friend of this boy. On 22 October, an Albanian man was beaten with a truncheon in Genoa by a man who he had already reported previously to the carabinieri for issuing “racial threats” against him, and shouted “dirty Albanian” at him during the attack. The 19-year-old went into a coma.
On 18 September, organised crime also joined the fray. Hitmen from the
Camorra shot and killed six Africans (Ghanaians, one Liberian, and a Togolese) in Castelvolturno (Caserta), in an incident that was quickly dismissed as a war between groups for control of the drugs trade in the area, between the established home-grown criminal organisation from Campania and the African upstarts. It was only after a revolt by Africans from the area that involved a degree of vandalism, that their voices were heard, and they claimed that extortion by the
Camorra, which was having greater difficulty than in the past extorting money for protection from Italians, had turned to blackmailing migrant workers with threats of violence if they didn’t pay up, which they executed with tragic consequences. The government’s response was to send in the army to counter the influence of the Casalesi (
Camorra clan that has been in the media spotlight since its activities and influence were described in Roberto Saviano’s book, “Gomorra”, which has been shot as a film and has been nominated for an Oscar).
Cases involving police officers
Incidents involving police officers and members of the state security apparatus are also coming to light. One of the most recent and prominent cases occurred on 29 September 2008 in Parma, where
vigili urbani (local police officers) beat up and arrested a Ghanaian student, Emmanuel Bonsu, on suspicion of drug dealing in an incident witnessed by a number of people. This case was particularly striking in that it affected a man who was legally resident, had not committed any offence and was well documented, particularly as the injuries he suffered resulted in him having to be undergo surgery on his disfigured eye. Bonsu claims he was chased, floored, held on the ground, had a gun pointed at his face and was later beaten during a five-hour stay in police custody. He was violently forced to sign some papers before his release, was told that another person held in the station had identified him and confessed, and left the station with a notification that he would face charges for “resistance” and an envelope containing his belongings on which “Emmanuel negro” was written, rather than his surname. Three witnesses of the arrest called in to a
RAI television programme to tell their versions of what they saw. Francesca Zara, from the city’s female basketball team, said she saw an arrest, “and then I saw a black youth, Emmanuel, on the ground. He shouted, scared. Around him there were three persons... beating him. One of them also held a gun”. Asked whether he had also been beaten, she answered, “They did kick him a few times”. It is also worth noting that this incident came to light thanks to Bonsu’s position as a “legal immigrant” and his courage in reporting it. It also drew the spotlight to the zero tolerance policies that are being implemented in the city of Parma, where a shocking picture of a half-naked and handcuffed black prostitute on the floor of a cell after being held by the
vigili urbani had been published a couple of weeks earlier.
Police officers used considerable violence against a demonstration by African migrants (many of them refugees and asylum seekers) in Naples on 28 July 2008. They were occupying the Duomo, the city’s cathedral and demanded adequate housing, after their eviction a few days earlier from a building in poor conditions in Pianura, where over 100 of them, as well as some Italian families, had been living. The possibility of them moving to the temporary alternative housing that had been arranged, in a former school in the Spanish Quarters, was prevented by a demonstration by dozens of people headed by a local representative of the far right
Forza Nuova party. After a night spent in the open, they demonstrated in the Duomo, where a large police presence was deployed and activists also showed up to support them. Shortly after midday, the police intervened, arresting some of the migrants, one of whom was violently beaten as he was forced into a police van.
Towards the end of August in Rimini, one of Italy’s most popular beach resorts on the Adriatic coast, a small market in which African hawkers sold products on the beach, was the site of a protest by onlookers after two men had beaten and dragged an African in the sand, handcuffed him and sat on top of him. When people gathered around the men involved, they reassured everyone by saying “don’t worry, we’re policemen”. The next day’s local newspaper’s headline read “African beast attacks officers on the beach”, calling for exemplary punishment against him.
On 5 September 2008 in Bussolengo (Verona), three Roma families that had parked in a lot and were preparing lunch were approached by a
vigili urbani patrol that told them to leave. They answered that they would have their lunch and then leave. A
carabinieri patrol arrived a few minutes later, and ordered them to leave immediately, starting to strike the people concerned, including minors. They were all taken to the
carabinieri station for over six hours, where further abuses took place, involving beatings, one child being beaten so badly that he lost three teeth, and an 11-year-old having his head submerged in a bucket full of water and even being humiliated by being invited to perform a sexual act. Everyone was subsequently released except for Angelo and Sonia Campos, and Denis Rossetto, all of whom were accused of “obstructing” a public officer, as reported by the Brescia-based association
Nevo Gipen, which is helping the Roma people involved in the case to file a lawsuit. Sonia Campos was found guilty and received a six-month suspended sentence on 23 September.
Authorities in denial
The government appears to be unable to adapt to its role as the guarantor of security for everyone. In response to a report by the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, Thomas Hammarberg, which was published in July and was based his visit to Italy on 19 and 20 June 2008, and claimed that “Measures now being taken in Italy lack human rights and humanitarian principles and may spur further xenopohobia”, the interior minister Roberto Maroni criticised the report as ill-informed and offensive towards Italy’s police forces due to its claims that raids involving ill-treatment of people were carried out against Roma. Thus further scrutiny of the report’s content, which included concerns such as the expulsion of people to countries that practise torture, measures included in the “security package” and the modification of anti-racism legislation in February 2006 that “seriously reduced the sentences” for racist propaganda, instigating or committing discriminatory or racist acts, was curtailed.
The use of the word “raids” was misinterpreted, as the English term tends to be used in Italy to describe attacks, whereas it can equally apply to operations in which police suddenly descend in numbers on a site or establishment to carry out arrests, searches or evictions. Hammarberg spoke of complaints of ill-treatment of Roma during raids, inadequate protection when camps suffered attacks and being responsible for “violent raids” itself (points 32 and 50 of the report), yet this, allegations of discrimination and the fact that the report speaks out against the proposal to criminalise illegal immigrants wholesale, which was repeatedly mooted but has now been shelved, resulted in an angry response by Maroni and a diplomatic row. “These are all falsehoods, the country is in a state of emergency dictated by exceptional pressure”, he remarked, adding that the allegations against the police were insulting, “a complete falsehood, the police have never committed violent acts”. Hammarberg’s spokesman clarified that there must have been a misunderstanding about the word “raid”: “The Commissioner does not state that the police carried out raids with molotov cocktails or against the Roma, the report refers to a series of episodes of forced evictions about which the Commisioner is rather concerned”.
The government’s state of denial, on both matters of discrimination and police conduct, was later highlighted in a letter to the Rome
prefetto (police chief, granted special powers in relation to the “roma emergency”) Carlo Mosca, written by Italian Red Cross volunteers who were involved in the controversial identification of Roma living in camps in Rome between June and October 2008. They claimed that “since the second week of October, many of the same settlements that had been visited weeks earlier by the Italian Red Cross, received unexpected visits from mixed units prevalently comprising young soldiers from the
Folgore [a special forces unit] in camouflage gear, generally led by at least one policeman from the river police force”. They reportedly asked who was there and who wasn’t, and checked everyone’s documents, effectively carrying out a “parallel and unreported census”. Moreover, police officers and soldiers (now deployed on the streets in Rome) later appeared in camps, “threatening people and destroying shacks and furniture, sometimes beating the men”. Mosca, who also received photographs to document the claims, has claimed that the matter will be investigated.
Moreover, Maroni reacted to the first racist attacks after he became minister by claiming that criminals among the immigrant population had their share of responsibility for the incidents, and took things further by acting to discourage criticism of police interventions. Amina Sheikh Said, a 51-year-old Somali woman who is married to an Italian and is hence a legal resident, filed a lawsuit concerning the humiliating treatment she claims she was subjected to by
Polaria (air border police) officers in Ciampino airport on 21 July 2008. Held on suspicion of kidnapping, drug trafficking and illegal immigration on her return from a trip to London with four nephews (the suspicion of kidnapping arose from the fact they did not have her surname), and made to strip to be searched, she had comments directed at her such as “This negress is crazy, I’ll have her shut up in a mental hygiene centre”. Maroni threatened to sue her for damages in relation to her claims that, he said, amounted to defamation against the officers, as he assured that everything they did was legal, prior to any investigation. This was in addition to the charges she was already set to face for resistance to the public officers. A court dismissed her allegations, with the comments directed at her deemed to result from “bad education” rather than racism, as well as charged of “resistance” levelled at her.
AGI news, 24.10.2008; Corriere della Sera, 30.7, 7.9, 2.10.2008; Il Giornale, 30.7.2008; Il manifesto, 12.9.2008; Liberazione, 30.8.2008; Repubblica, 9.9, 30.9, 13.10.2008.
Global Project, 28.7.2008, http://www.meltingpot.org/articolo13132.html
Carta 15.10.2008, http://www.carta.org/campagne/migranti/15386
Statement by Padre Carlo D’Antoni, Siracusa, 30.7.2008, http://www.meltingpot.org/articolo13157.html
Sucardrom, 8.9.2008, the Bussolengo incident, http://sucardrom.blogspot.com/2008/09/bussolengo-vr-picchiati-e-umiliati-dai.html
Pestati dalle forze dell’ordine due giovani camerunesi, Melting Pot, 7.10.2008, http://www.meltingpot.org/articolo13440.html
Luca Bertolino of Razzismo Stop speaks of the incident in Padua, http://www.meltingpot.org/IMG/mp3/bertolino_2_.mp3
Frank, one of the victims, speaks of the incident in Padua, http://www.meltingpot.org/IMG/mp3/Frank.mp3
Memorandum by Thomas Hammarberg, Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, 28 July 2008,
http://www.poptel.org.uk/statewatch/news/2008/jul/coe-report-italy-roma.pdf
More information: www.meltingpot.org (Melting Pot Project) and http://www.osservatoriorepressione.org (Osservatorio sulla repressione).