Italy shocked by Rome riots but minister defends police action

Dec 15, 2010, 11:38 GMT

Rome - Italy's interior minister on Wednesday defended the conduct of law enforcement officers a day after riots in Rome's historical centre shocked Italy and brought back memories of street violence during the 2001 Group of Eight summit in Genoa.

Scores of cars were set alight, shop windows were smashed and around 100 people were injured in clashes between demonstrators and police. Over 40 people were detained.

The violence erupted close to parliament buildings where a key confidence vote on Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's government was being held. The government eventually won by just three votes.

In one photograph published in many Italian newspapers, a group of demonstrators, some of them armed with wooden planks, surround a policeman who they have apparently shoved to the ground.

The policeman is seen clutching his pistol - finger on the trigger.

The image has prompted comparisons with the killing of Carlo Giuliani a 19-year-old anti-globalisation demonstrator during the G8 in Genoa.

Giuliani who was shot in the head by a policeman as he attempted to throw a fire-extinguisher at the policeman's car. Supporters cite the incident as an example of police incompetence and brutality

But for Interior Minister Roberto Maroni police in Rome showed the necessary restraint needed to contain the violence.

'I can say that in the end things went well,' Maroni said in an interview with the Corriere della Sera newspaper.

'Someone could have been killed,' Maroni said, blaming the riots on several hundred leftists extremists who he said had infiltrated an authorised march organised by student activists to protest government cuts to the education budget.

Police had implemented a plan aimed at keeping the demonstrators away from parliament buildings, Maroni said.

'According to the information we received beforehand, more than 1,000 people were ready to storm the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate in an attempt disrupt the government confidence vote,' he told Corriere della Sera.

But critics said that by concentrating their efforts on protecting state and government buildings, police had allowed the demonstrators to rampage through other parts of the city, a charge also made during the Genoa G8.

In Rome the riots were concentrated around the main Via del Corso street and the central Piazza del Popolo and Piazza Venezia squares that are normally filled with tourists, and at this time of the year, also Christmas shoppers.

'What could we have done? As an alternative should we have sent in tanks?, Maroni said, pointing out that no one was seriously hurt in Tuesday's clashes.

The main opposition centre-left Democratic Party (PD) has asked Maroni to brief parliament on the riots and how a peaceful protest march could have been infiltrated by group of violent agitators.

'Who sent them? Who is paying them? What do they want to provoke? We ask on Maroni to come and explain this in parliament,' said PD Senator Anna Finocchiaro.

Read more about Italy Demos

Read more about Politics