-Caveat Lector-
http://www.davidicke.com/icke/temp/summitviolence.html
----
This letter is from Stefano Agnoletto, the brother of Vittorio, spokesperson
for the Genoa Social Forum.
Dear friends
Now, I was in Genoa, I've seen it. Don't believe the news you've seen in the
press and on TV It was something insane, a massacre.
It is still difficult to tell you what happened between friday and saturday.
To do so, I'll use what I've seen together with my dear friends who were
present in Genoa with me.
I ask you to have the patience to read this message, it really is the
chronicle of a nightmare which probably will not reach the mainstream media.
I arrive to Genoa on thursday, after an immigrant's rights demonstration of
about 50,000 people. There are arrival camps, many, thousands of peaceful
people, a marvellous atmosphere (remember the boy scouts?), we discussed,
sang and just stayed together.
Clergy, activists, volunteers and just normal people, on friday we begin the
issue areas in a blockaed city: The various groups partecipating will
converge in different points of the city to have a carnivalesque "siege"
against the "red area" [The place, in Genoa, where the G8 was held and
demonstrations were not permitted] with street theatre, dancing and slogans.
At this point, from the beach-front members of the now infamous "Black Block"
[supposedly extremist groups blamed for most of the destruction in the city]
arrive. Some are seen chatting with police, others just come out of police
crowds. Most of them speak German.
They start to break everything. Police and Carabinieri [the Italian military
police] just stand there. The black block tries to join in with a group of
COBAS workers [COBAS is the new Italian Trade union unaffiliated with party
politics]. They beat up one of their leaders, the group manages to stay clear
of them with some difficoulty.
Then the Black Block makes head for the first issue area, belonging to the
Italian Social Centers (Centri Sociali. Difficult to translate exactly, call
them Community organizations). They arrive armed to the teeth. The police
goes after them, and demonstrators find themselves attacked first by the
black block and then by the police, which starts to charge violently against
all demonstrators.
The black block leaves suddenly and appears on the square were the Lilliput
network is based (Fair trade, catholic campaign groups ecc). Its members try
to peacefully make them leave. The police follows and charges against
everyone on the square. Truncheons and tear gas are used indiscriminately.
People raise their hands, shout "Peace". The black block leaves the square
and starts to vandalize the city sistematically.
300-400 of the Black Block roam Genoa, and whoever guides them seems to know
the city very well. Their path crosses every issue area, where the campaigns
of our movement are located.
It's incredible. They move with military discipline, infiltrate everywhere,
some leaders shout orders which are promptly followed by the whole group.
And, shortly afterwards, police and Carabinieri make their appearance.
Meanwhile, in the issue area where ARCI, ATTAC etc. ("mainstream" Italian
3rd-world campaigning organizations) are located everything is fine. During
the early afternoon we decide to leave the boundary with the red zone were we
were demonstrating.
People start moving towards Dante square. Suddenly, police launches tear-gas
from behind our march, causing panic everywhere. Hospitals fill with wounded
demonstrators, but many do not go to hospital since police seems to arrest
everyone who turns up there.
Its evening, people are downbeat, many are angry. Suddenly, no trace of the
Black block. At the old city, where the camp of the Genoa social forum is,
there's about 10,000 of us. The news of the dead demonstrator reaches us. We
are scared, tales of extreme police brutality are told by many people. Young
men, nuns start crying. Many people are hurt. One old man is crying with a
bandage on his head. He is a retired metal worker.
There is Don Gallo, of the San Benedetto (catholic) community group. There is
the leader of the mothers of Plaza De Mayo, in Argentina, those women who for
years have been looking for their disappeared children: She says she is
shaken at what she has seen, it's uncomfortably close to Argentina during the
dictatorship. She did not think something similar would happen here.
My brother Vittorio (Spokesman for the Genoa Social Forum), Luca Cesarini
(leader of the Social Centers) and Bertinotti, the only politician with the
courage to come here (the leader of the Italian refounded communist party,
sort of the equivalent of Nader in Italian politics) try to calm everyone:
They tell us not to come out in small groups, not to accept violent
provocations. We decide our answer will be the enormous demonstration the
next day, there'll be many of us, peacefully responding to any provocation,
whether from the black block or the police.
Senator Malabarba tells us he was at the police station. He saw strange
people who dressed like the demonstrators, they spoke German and other foreign
languages. Most of them come out of the station after exchanging a few words
with the police.
Suddenly, there is a fire at a bank close to the old city. For 40 minutes,
helicopters circle us, but no firefighters or police arrive.
At night, one of the camps were we are sleeping, the Carlini, is surrounded
by police: They go in and search, doing what you want. People cry. They ask
that brutality stop. Police enters, but does not find anything in the camp.
Saturday, the demonstration starts, a thousand colors. People from all over
the world, farmers, ONGs, workers, people from Kurdistan... all singing,
dancing, waving all sorts of flags.
On Kennedy Square there is no violence, in fact there is no one there.
Suddenly the Black Block appears. Police, with no warning or reason given,
divides the demonstration in two parts. A real battle begins. Charges
everywhere, people being beaten with truncheons. It seems cops have gone
crazy. Metal workers, the youth wing of Rifondazione (the Italian left wing
party) are charged. Groups of demonstrators flee and are followed by police.
Whoever is isolated is pursued and beaten.
Many people are telling of being beaten only for being recognized as
demonstrators. Even the Italian correspondent of the Sunday Times is beaten
(in today's issue of the paper he tells of his adventure).
In a part of the march which so far was quiet, by the sea, suddenly tear gas
is fired from the roofs. Panic ensues as people cannot breathe.
The Black Block? They appear and disappear, no one stops them. They attack a
youth from Rifondazione, wreck his flag, beat him. They throw stones at the
spokesman of the Genoa Social Forum They wreck stores, set fire to buildings.
Many are armed to the teeth. How on earth they managed to come to Genoa, with
soldiers controlling every car?
At the head of the march, things are still quiet. The Genoa Social Forum
invites everyone to leave calmly, and stay together. We are being led to
Marassi, where there are buses with everyone who arrived this morning.
We stopped there, and could not go further: On Kennedy Square, there is a
war. There are many of us just sitting there. Suddenly, tear gas is used,
panic everywhere. We try to get back to the camp of the Genoa social forum.
Police trucks pass us by, and policemen in them shout: "we'll kill you all".
The second part of the demonstration never arrives to the square. They are
charged by police. Many flee to the small streets, towards the hills, where a
real man-hunt starts.
Saturday night, the demonstration has ended hours ago, the police enters into
the press-center of the Genoa Social Forum. They beat up everyone they
encounter, with shocking brutality. All they seem to be after are documents
(paper, video, pictures ecc.) which tell of what happened in the previous two
days. Many of these documents, computers, disks are simply destroyed.
The lawyer who coordinates the forum's legal team is arrested. Among the
destroyed material, there are the documents this legal team put together as
part of the defense of those arrested. Now, even the motives for their arrest
are not known. During this "search", with no legal mandate, members of
parliament, journalists, lawyers and even doctors are not let in the building.
None of us have ever seen the famous weapons shown at the press conference
yesterday. Police departs, leaving us with only those wounded and arrested.
No one knows what happened to the Black Block.
To sum it up, 2 nightmare days. Both the black block and the Police knew what
they were doing when they committed this violence.
All along, from friday, they insulted and verbally abused us as they did what
they did, someone seems to have brainwashed them.
And today, we look at the TV and read papers. My god, it seems like a
dictatorship. Did everyone miss what we all saw? When I think that many will
read this and say "you violent protesters just talk bullshit", I go mad.
Please, don't let anyone fool you, find the courage to put your faith in our
wonderful police and democratically accountable institutions to question.
What happened in Genoa beggars belief. Some inauguration for the new
governament. Just to give you a flavour of the spin control effort, do you
know what the first version of the official investigation into the death,
before the videos appeared, was? Killed by a stone launched by the
demonstrators.
If you think that many of the documents put together by witnesses have been
destroyed during the "search"... the only version left to the public is that,
"uncontestable", of the police. Please, forward, print, talk about this
document. To everyone, friends, relatives, collegues. The truth has to come
out. I beg you, don't look the other way.
Thank you
Stefano Agnoletto
PS: My brother Vittorio (the spokesperson of the Genoa Social Forum) is
destroyed. He told me: It's crazy, it seems we are in Latin America during
the '70s. Maybe even he did not realize fully with whom are we dealing here.
The truth has to come out.
FROM E-MAIL OF ANDROMEDAN COUNCIL
-ALEX COLLIER WEBSITE-
-----
Aloha, He'Ping,
Om, Shalom, Salaam.
Em Hotep, Peace Be,
All My Relations.
Omnia Bona Bonis,
Adieu, Adios, Aloha.
Amen.
Roads End
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