A political storm erupted on Monday over the worst riots in Rome for years, with the government accused of failing to prevent well-organized and violent groups infiltrating one of many global protests against the financial system.
While politicians from the fragile government of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi used the riots as a stick with which to beat the center-left opposition, accusing them of fomenting discontent, Italian Minister of the Interior Roberto Maroni came under fire from all sides for failing to prevent the violence.
The Rome demonstration was the only one to turn violent in an international “day of rage” on Saturday against bankers and governments blamed for the world economic downturn.
Riot police were outflanked and overwhelmed by hundreds of masked and helmeted demonstrators using rocks, Molotov cocktails and clubs previously hidden along the route.
Only 12 rioters were arrested though police were studying video footage to try to identify about 100 others. Outraged demonstrators from the peaceful march and other Romans handed photographs and videos to the police. Some of them had fought the rioters.
Police carried out raids in several cities during the day and searched youth centers known to have leftist and anarchist sympathizers, officials said.
A van carrying young people was stopped along a highway in central Italy and gas masks and other objects were found that police suspect were used during the Rome riots, the Italian news agency Agi reported.
Damage from attacks on banks, shops, government buildings and churches was estimated at least 2.5 million euros (US$3.4 million). Rioters used street signs as battering rams to smash windows.
Several of Berlusconi’s key allies sought to exploit the violence to bolster the center-right coalition. However, opposition politicians said Italy’s secret service had warned well ahead of time that anarchists and other radicals from the so-called “black bloc” movement were targeting a demonstration by tens of thousands of “indignant” protesters.
They demanded to know why the rioters, many from outside Rome, were allowed to get near the demonstration where they caught police unaware, using rapid movement and tactics including two “columns” and staging a diversionary feint.
The black bloc radicals, named for the helmets and face masks they wear, first emerged in Italy at violent demonstrations against a G8 meeting in Genoa a decade ago when one was killed by police. Like protesters elsewhere they use social media and e-mail to organize.
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