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Detailed press coverage of Italy Indymedia, Genoa Social Forum raid brutality.

by Amazed.
Here are a pair of UK Guardian articles detailing July 22, 2001 Italy Indymedia and Genoa Social Forum raid, brutality, injuries, torture, arrest numbers, world outrage, names, political responses, etc.. The second article has additional information in the middle of the article. Both are some of the fairest mainstream press coverage yet.


Is the Guardian non-profit like the BBC? Please comment. I am astounded by such good mainstream reporting. Maybe when Britain\'s young people are getting the crap beat out of them and left unconscious, their parents in the media finally give a damn about justice?

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Police hit hard at core of dissent
http://www.guardian.co.uk/globalisation/story/0,7369,525872,00.html

Demonstrators denounce violent raid on protest nerve centre

Special report: globalisation

John Vidal in Genoa
Monday July 23, 2001
The Guardian

The police raid began at midnight on Saturday with the city of Genoa calm, the streets clear of protesters, and the barricades and burnt out cars cleared away. An estimated 200 police in 40 vans blocked off Cesari Battisti Street. One group headed for the Diaz secondary school which had been loaned to the Genoa Social Forum, organisers of the protest, and was being used as a dormitory by about 50 people. The other group headed for the building opposite - the forum\'s headquarters and administrative centre.

Markus, a 25-year-old social worker from near Berlin, was asleep on the floor of the school. He woke, he says, to shouts and screams, doors being broken down and the police charging in. \"There were no anarchists there. We were all peaceful and non-violent.

\"They burst into the room wearing black masks, started throwing things at us. They smashed computers and started beating people in their bags. Five of us rushed upstairs and climbed out of a window and then down a drainpipe. But the police were there.

\"They told us to lie on the ground and then they started beating us with truncheons and kicking. Three of them beat me for two, perhaps three, minutes. I though they were going to kill us. Two of my friends were very badly hurt in the head; there was blood everywhere.\"

Fifty-one people, none of them police, were injured, 31 were taken to hospital, and three required surgery.

Amnesty


Yesterday morning, as Amnesty International agreed to investigate, the school had pools of dried blood over its floors and walls.

Within an hour of the raid, leaders of the Genoa Social Forum, MPs, lawyers and doctors had gathered outside the building.

\"We saw people being led out with broken legs, arms and noses. There was blood everywhere. One man was lying on the ground in a pool of it. The protesters, just kids, were trembling in fear\", said Francesco Martones, Green Party senator for Genoa.

Vittorio Agnoletto, leader of the Social Forum, said: \"They refused everybody access. They didn\'t want us to see what was happening. They refused to show us their legal authorisation to enter the building. There was no one in authority to talk to. They beat us, too.

\"We went to the hospital. I am a doctor. I saw injuries consistent with intent to administer as much pain as possible. The director said that the police had taken it [the hospital] over. He said two people had traumas and compression, one man was paralysed down one side of his body and two men were still unconscious. The nurses, everyone, were very scared.\"

Meanwhile, on the other side of the street, dozens of policemen had gone into the Social Forum\'s headquarters. \"There were not many people there,\" said Francis, an Englishman. \"They came in swearing, broke computers. We put our hands up and tried to hide.\"

Brutality


A spokesman for the Social Forum said: \"They took away documents, witness statements of police brutality, lists of lawyers, video evidence collected against people for the violence in the past few days.\"

Yesterday the police claimed that the school building had been occupied by the \"black block\" of protesters known to have caused much of the damage in Genoa for the past three days. But at an impromptu press conference they refused to answer allegations of brutality or illegality. \"We have no comment\", a spokesman said.

Mr Agnoletto said: \"We believe that this was a well organised attempt to discredit the protests against world leaders. There were clearly two operations - one to suggest to the public that they were trying to crack down on the black block, the other to make sure they took away incriminating evidence against themselves.\"

Yesterday protesters still in town were furious. \"Why did the police not go to the places everybody knew the black block was camping? They could have come into either of our buildings peacefully and without problem, yet they chose not to go after the perpetrators of real violence. This is not my country. I don\'t want to see this,\" said Maria, an Italian student at Rome university. \"I am ashamed of what has happened.\"

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Riots force review of summits
http://www.guardian.co.uk/globalisation/story/0,7369,526082,00.html

Rioting forces summit review

Ewen MacAskill, John Vidal and Rory O\'Carroll in Genoa
Monday July 23, 2001
The Guardian

The era of grand-scale summit jamborees effectively ended yesterday when a meeting of the world\'s richest nations closed after three days of bloody clashes between the Italian police and anti-capitalist protesters and without having achieved significant progress on key issues.

In spite of a passionate plea by Tony Blair that democracy should not be allowed to be undermined by the rioters, other leaders conceded that such summits, which have been held annually for three decades, cannot continue in their present form.

About 500 people were injured during the summit, and one protester was shot dead by police.

The only positive note to come out of the G8 summit was a surprise agreement between the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and George Bush to tie America\'s national missile defence system to a reduction in their stockpiles of offensive strategic missiles.

Mr Bush\'s national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, will travel to Moscow tomorrow to discuss details. She said: \"We expect to move quickly.\"

Mr Putin has previously refused to discuss US plans for its \"son of star wars\" missile defence system.

In the final hours of the Genoa summit, after two days of running battles, details filtered into the Red Zone, the world leaders\' security complex, of a fresh bout of violence in the early hours of yesterday morning.

About 200 police officers in 40 vans blocked off a school and another building being used as a headquarters by the Genoa Social Forum, an umbrella group for the peaceful protesters. According to witnesses, the police waded into sleeping protesters. The walls were yesterday smeared with blood and about 35 people were last night being detained in hospital.

Police named five Britons arrested during the raid: Nicola Anne Doherty, 26, originally from Elgin, Moray; Jonathan Norman Blair, 38, from Newport; Richard Robert Moth, 32, Daniel McQuallan, 35, and Mark William Covell, 33. Mr Covell, an activist and freelance journalist known as Sky, was last night in a serious condition in hospital with head wounds, broken ribs and internal bleeding. His video tapes of riots were seized.

The other four Britons were told they would be charged with public disorder and were held in custody after being treated for minor injuries.

Another Briton arrested earlier was named as John Colin Blair, 19.

The intensity of the beatings made the raid a cause c
by Chris How (chrishow [at] mac.com)
The Guardian is profit making, but it is not owned by a media magnate. It is owned and run by a trust - The Scott Trust.
The editorial policy is 100% in support of Tony Blair; several left wing columnists have recently been sacked because they were critical of (right winger) Blair.
The Guardian allows its reporters to report what they see, but editorial comment and analysis must be rigidly Blairite. This often leads to the the comment and analysis being completely at odds with the reports from which the analysis is drawn.
My advice is to read Guardian stories (http://www.guardian.co.uk ), but to eschew the editorial ;-)
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