Controversial Security for Genoa G-8 Summit

Italian security forces and anti-globalization demonstrators are at odds over extensive security precautions surrounding this month's G-8 economic summit in Genoa. Eight heads of state, including President Bush (news - web sites), are planning to be there.

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Italian security forces are preparing extensive, controversial restrictions surrounding the Group of Eight economic summit in Genoa in anticipation of massive protests and challenges by anarchist groups later this month.

Eight heads of state, including President Bush, and thousands of officials, reporters and security personnel plan to congregate at the 13th-century Palazzo Ducale for the meeting of major industrialized nations.

Greeting them in the ancient northwestern Italian port city of pre-Roman origin are expected to be tens of thousands of 21st-century demonstrators, including at least one anarchist group, White Overalls, that has vowed to shut the conference down.

Italian police and special security forces are hoping to keep those groups at a safe distance. But they'll be facing quite a challenge.

"Italian authorities are going to have problems, given the fact that Genoa is very concentrated," says Vince Cannistraro, a specialist in international security issues. "It's difficult to put a security perimeter around it."

Extensive Precautions

To make the job easier, Italian authorities are declaring large areas around the conference off limits from July 18 through July 22, when they will close the historic city center, various tourist sites, and surrounding areas to protesters and the public.

The center will be zoned into red and yellow sectors. Public access to the red zone around the palace will be restricted to residents and to those who work or perform useful public services, such as doctors. Demonstrations, bill posting, leaflet distribution and peddlers will be strictly prohibited.

Demonstrations and occupation of public grounds also will be prohibited in the outer yellow zone. A subway line, the elevated highway, highway entrances and exits, the Cristoforo Colombo airport, and access to the port all will be closed to the general public.

"These measures are in accordance with those adopted by other cities that have hosted international political events of such high importance," according to a statement issued by city organizers.

"They're trying to learn from some of the experiences other countries have had from hosting economic conferences," said Cannistraro, a former CIA (news - web sites) counterterrorism chief. "The idea is to provide 'no-go zones,' and that way you can just concentrate the security on those, access to the delegates, to the conference venues," he says.

"But it probably isn't going to work," he said, citing anarchist groups determined to breach the zones. "There are enough access points to Genoa to make it difficult to close down."

Security Clampdown Draws Protests

In an extraordinary move, the Italian government has said it will temporarily suspend the Schengen treaty it signed in 1997, which guarantees open borders with most western European countries, including France and Germany. Papers and perhaps vehicles once again will be checked at the borders.

That announcement, and the recent arrest of a handful of journalists, have prompted some 60 Italian members of parliament from all political camps except the majority coalition to unite and express concern about tactics surrounding the event, and to urge a curbing of arrests. The ministers of parliament plan on creating a group of lawyers to defend arrested protesters.

One of the arrested journalists, Pulika Calzini, belongs to the Genoa Social Forum, a network of 700 anti-globalization groups planning to stage peaceful protests at the summit. The forum has complained it is difficult to get press credentials from the Foreign Ministry to cover the event and that press access to the conference is heavily restricted.

"Genoa is not, and will not be an accessible city. It will not be easy to get access to documents and to shoot videos if accredited journalists are restricted to one area," says the group in a statement.

The group also argues the yellow zone restrictions are too excessive: "Government can't keep such an extended power in the Yellow Zone, hugely enlarged, where citizens can [enter but be] detained at the smallest sign of criticism."

Mayor Giuseppe Pericu has called Genoa a "City of Dialogue," and promised to "open a dialogue with the movements that intend to demonstrate peacefully during the G-8 Summit."

"Genoa will be an open city for these protesters," he has said.

Taking No Chances

Italian authorities are preparing for violent confrontation. Four specialized Italian antiterrorist units will be deployed to protect participants, and intelligence information will be provided by both the Italian military and domestic secret services, the Sismi and the Sisde, according to Rome ANSA, the state news agency.

All units have been specifically trained in high-risk antiterrorist intervention, including freeing hostages and patrolling underwater, according to ANSA.

In accordance with standard procedure, the U.S. Secret Service will be responsible for protecting Bush while he's in attendance.

The U.S. State Department last week issued a public announcement cautioning Americans against traveling to Genoa during the conference.

"As at past international meetings it is likely that some of the demonstrators will become disorderly or violent. If that occurs, clashes could result in injuries and/or arrests," it said.

The department urged Americans not participating in the conference activities to avoid the city. "Those who must travel to Genoa, should exercise caution, avoid any crowds or demonstrations, and monitor the local media to keep informed."

Large crowds demonstrating a grab bag of global issues have become common sights at annual global financial and economic summits since street clashes derailed trade talks in Seattle in December 1999. Often authorities have responded using tear gas and batons and making arrests.

At the April 20 Summit of the Americas meeting in Quebec, hundreds of Canadian police manning a chain link fence encircling the city's historic center drove back protesters with tear gas and pepper spray. Violence also plagued the recent European Union (news - web sites) summit in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Disagreements Over Agenda

The G-8 members are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States. The EU president also will be at the conference.

Two of the main topics of discussion will be slower growth in the world economy and strengthening international financial institutions, U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill said last week at a preperatory meeting in Rome.

Other subjects could include the prevention of conflicts and disarmament, non-proliferation and arms control, according to Italian officials. Italy also is planning to propose a declaration by the G-8 in favor of a concrete follow-up to the U.N. Conference on the illegal trafficking of light weapons this week in New York.

Protest groups think the G-8 has been failing to address important issues. The Genoa Social Forum, in a statement, said it would like to have other issues up for discussion:

"They can't forget what we want to say about how northern world industrial countries deal with many different themes," it said, listing: dropping poorest-nation debt, adoption of the Kyoto clean air protocols, World Bank (news - web sites) and IMF (news - web sites) poverty reduction programs, corporate politics in health and environmental issues, and citizens', workers' and consumers rights.

"Regarding all these questions, the opinion of civil society is in open conflict with neo-liberalist dominant thought," it said.

Sister Patrizia Pasini, a 60-year-old Catholic nun and one of the organizers of an association representing 100,000 nuns, has vowed a hunger strike in protest of globalization.

In response, Italian Foreign Minister Renato Ruggiero has defended the aims of the summit, saying the G-8 leaders, "all democratically elected by millions of free citizens," would be meeting with five leaders of developing nations to discuss problems of poor nations and include them in the globilization process.

White Overalls, meanwhile, in an open letter to Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi last week said its goal is to "block your anti-democratic and damaging summit," through "civil disobendience" and breaking the red zone.

"From the anarchists' point of view, the purpose of protests is not to provide constructive criticism and to channel the G-8 economic efforts in a certain direction. It's to disrupt it and destroy it," said Cannistraro. "They'll attempt to get arrested, they'll attempt to disrupt, they'll be very vocal. And they will try to drag the mainline protesters along with them."

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