G8 Genoa "too much truth" ... "too little truth".

international | crime and justice | other press Wednesday May 04, 2005 11:30 by hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

The trial and thus the courtroom Q&A relating to the death of Carlo Guiliani at the G8 protests in Genoa Italy began on April 6th 2005. As of yet no-one has been charged with his murder or manslaughter or homocide or death.

The police have begun to take the stand.

http://www.unita.it/index.asp?SEZIONE_COD=HP&TOPIC_TIPO=&TOPIC_ID=42403

Mario Placanica, the then police officer who shot Guilliani was dismissed from the force on the 13th of April this year, the police officer who accompanied him that day, the 20th of July 2001, Dario Raffone took the stand yesterday, and will continue to give evidence today.

In the dock are 25 people accused of provoking damage and endangering lives.

here is a special entitled "amnesia - too little truth too much truth" from Rome TV-
http://redazione.romaone.it/4Daction/Web_RubricaNuova?ID=65665&doc=si
http://www.contattoradio.info/dettaglio_news.asp?Id=1091

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Here is the feature complied by Indymedia Genoa-
http://italy.indymedia.org/features/genova/

Here is the call to support with more info-

Three years have passed since july '01 and we haven't forgotten what happened there.

The processes/trials regarding what actually happened there and who is really responsible are still going on. At the moment, nodody is charged with the killing of Carlo Giuliani, nobody is actually responsible for the raid in the Diaz school, even if it's clear that the police deliberately showed false evidance and made untruthful statements.

But now, these processes have come to an important stage.

The preliminary investigations against the 29 cops and officials that are charged with the abuses committed in the Diaz school on july 21, 2001 will start on june 26.
Police officers have been charged with violence, defamation and perjury. The judge for the preliminary audiences will have to decide whether or not this will proceed into a real court trial, and only in this case will there be a verdict.

The victims can have an active role in the audience through the demand of payment of the damages. This is an option not only for the victims but also any of their relatives who can take the role of plaintiff, even if they were not in the Diaz school at that fatal moment.

The Genoa Legal Forum is coordinating the legal action and has offered lawyers for who had need any assistance. (further info at veritagiustizia dot it)

At the same time 25 activists are being charged with destruction and looting. The main proof against them is a dvd, created by mixing images from various traffic control cameras, bank surveillance footage, police cameras, as well from cameras owned by demonstrators. According to the defense, these images have been cut and remixed together, to negatively impress the jury.

The Genoa G8 days was one of the most documented political events, whether through video, photos, written articles or audio recordings. Indymedia was in Genoa. THe history of Genoa, our history, is about to be judged and the evidence are the millions of eyes who were present during those days. Those are not impartial images: the accusatory party is using them for their own means and gains, to prove their own account of the events. The defense lawyers should be able to use the same means.

The Genoa Legal forum has created and is still working on a vast archive of documents which includes audio and video footage, images and texts. This archive must be digitized and updated with all the new information coming from the trials. Indymedia Italy has decided to fully dedicate itself to offering a real tool through this archive, which would also become a systematic denunciation of the violence coming from those in power.

From June till October we will be in Genoa again. Four people will be working non-stop on the G8 archive with the objective of producing a real working tool that will also aid all legal work and which at the same time will be an archive of historical collective memory.

Along with those 4 people, dozens of activists will be contributing from their homes, helping those in Genoa and updating the Genoa Dossier on italy.indymedia.org

We have decided to launch a finance campaign in order to cover the expenses (technical needs, research materials) of the people who will be working in Genoa. This is the first time we are organizing such a campaign and we need everyone's help.

Please, donate to:

Conto don antonio balletto
Banca carige sede centrale
c/c 61359/80
Abi 6175
Cab 1400

swift code CRGEITGG040
Iban IT45 H061 7501 4000 0000 6135 980
for (*it's needed*): sottoscrizione da devolvere alla campagna internazionale indymedia per il genova legal forum
(in support to international indymedia campaign for genoa legal forum)
http://italy.indymedia.org/news/2004/06/576371.php

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For more info there are (I believe) a few copies of the movie "Berlusconi's Mousetrap" knocking around in Ireland, here is one of the times it was shown at TCD-
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=61950

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This remains the worst incident in the immediate modern history of European protests. Many people have watched the video footage of the last moments of the life of the 23year old, Carlo Giuliani, and form opinions based on that. They do not however ask how the situation had escalated to that point before hand, and what preventative or professional action ought to have been taken by the security forces in Genoa that year to avoid such bloodshed.
Everyone who had evidence to present has been asked to in the course of the last years, & I'll write nothing more than neither of those men, Mario Placanica or Carlo Guiliani ought have been in that square under those circumstances that day, it has long been apparant that a decision to provoke full scale rioting was made on the side of the Italian state and the result was a death.

& death even in Italy begets a process of justice and questions, and answers, and amnesia.