Probe of Police Violence Expands

ROME —  Twenty police officers who took part in a midnight attack on demonstrators during last month’s Group of 8 summit in Genoa have been placed under criminal investigation in a widening probe of the police violence that stirred angry anti-Italian protests across Europe.

The officers, including Arnaldo La Barbera, then head of Italy’s anti-terrorism department, were part of a 140-member force that raided a Genoa school in the early hours of July 22 in the most controversial episode of the riot-marred summit of leading industrialized nations.

Videotape of the raid, aired on Italian television, has left little doubt that police used excessive force. Many of the 93 young people arrested were beaten bloody after being dragged from their beds at the school, which served as a press center and dormitory for protest organizers. Some of those arrested were carried out on stretchers; 60 were hospitalized.

The attack followed two days of rioting by small groups of anarchists that drew police into clashes with about 100,000 mostly peaceful demonstrators who had come to the port city to advocate for a wide range of environmental and humanitarian causes. The violence left one protester dead and caused $20 million in property damage; 279 demonstrators from 23 countries were arrested.

A month later, Italy’s leaders are still enduring criticism from abroad and recriminations at home. They are worried about a repeat of the disorder at a Sept. 26-27 summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Naples and at the U.N. World Food Summit, scheduled to be held Nov. 5-9 in Rome.

Demonstrations against Italian police brutality have erupted in more than a dozen European cities, including a protest this week in Bremen, Germany. The president of Germany’s Parliament, Wolfgang Thierse, appealed Thursday for the release of 15 young Germans arrested in Genoa on charges of provoking violence.

Germany also has protested the five-year entry bans that Italy imposed on about 50 Germans who were arrested during the summit and deported.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has defended the police and challenged prosecutors to crack down on violent organizations “instead of putting the police on trial.” The center-left opposition has neither the votes to bring down Berlusconi’s conservative government nor the credibility to capitalize on problems at a summit it had helped plan before losing elections in May.

Interior Minister Claudio Scajola has survived demands for his resignation after reassigning La Barbera, as well as Genoa’s police chief and a third officer who was in overall charge of summit security.

But with at least 10 inquiries by prosecutors and Parliament underway, the Genoa strife is likely to remain a divisive issue in Italian politics for months. The investigation of the 20 officers for the school raid opened only this week; Genoa prosecutors said others who took part might be drawn in later.

It was the second action by prosecutors against the police violence in Genoa. A manslaughter charge was filed last month against a 20-year-old police conscript in the shooting death of a 23-year-old demonstrator.

Oronzo Cosi, head of an Italian police officers union, said the latest inquiry is damaging morale. “What will happen in the future when police have to control disorderly crowds?” he said in an interview with the Roman newspaper La Repubblica. “How will those officers react if they get orders to fire tear gas or charge a crowd of hooligans?”

Eager to avoid a sequel to Genoa, Berlusconi has proposed moving the World Food Summit to Africa. “I don’t want to see our cities smashed and burned, and in such circumstances I tend to behave like a good father to his family,” he said this week.

The November summit is expected to draw not only dozens of heads of state and government but also large groups of protesting environmentalists. They oppose the use of genetically modified foods to alleviate hunger in the developing world--a policy endorsed by the summit’s host, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.

Berlusconi’s suggestion has dismayed U.N. officials and Italy’s European partners. “One cannot leave to protesters the possibility of deciding if, how and when a conference will be held,” German Interior Minister Otto Schily said during a recent visit to Italy.

Four African nations have offered to host the summit, but the U.N. agency says Italy has not formally given it up. The Italian government is divided; Foreign Minister Renato Ruggiero wants to keep the meeting in Rome for the sake of Italy’s credibility abroad. A decision is expected next week.

Berlusconi reportedly wanted to ask another NATO member to relieve Italy of the burden of hosting next month’s meeting of alliance defense ministers. Thousands of protesters are expected because a controversial U.S. missile defense proposal is on the agenda.

But Italian Defense Minister Antonio Martino pleaded for courage, saying cancellation of the meeting would be “certifiable surrender on the part of Italy.” The meeting is now expected to be moved from the center of Naples to a secure air force academy in nearby Pozzuoli.