Europe

Home page

Europe

Naples calms after garbage clashes

26 October 2010 02:26 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. Three men were arrested for assaulting officers in Naples, Italy, police said Monday, but the city remained mostly calm after weekend protests, APA reports quoting CNN.
The attack on the undercover police Sunday came a day after angry demonstrations over garbage collection and disposal left six police officers injured.
A large group of young men assaulted the unmarked police car with iron sticks, firecrackers and rocks when they found out officers were in it, police said.
One officer was injured in the eye. The men in custody are 18 to 24 years old and do not have previous police records.
But it appeared to be an isolated incident on the heels of a protest the night before. There were no clashes in Terzigno, the town closest to a planned new landfill at the center of the controversy.
The Italian government said before Saturday’s clashes it would halt the construction of the controversial landfill near Naples, but the assurance was not enough for protesters.
Residents were protesting not only the building of a new landfill, but the conditions of an existing landfill, which they said pose an environmental and health hazard.
Guido Bertolaso, the chief of Italy’s civil protection agency, was named by the government to deal with the issue.
He told reporters that the government would put the second landfill on hold and the current landfill will be analyzed for any dangers to people or natural resources.
But protesters were wary of the government’s promise and went ahead with their demonstration.
Some 500 protesters blocked the road that leads to the landfill, though police estimated that only 20 or 30 people were involved in the clashes with police.
Some speculated that those involved were not even involved in the protest, but were hooligans looking to start trouble.
Protesters hurled rocks, firecrackers and Molotov cocktails at police.
Bertolaso met Sunday with the mayors of the towns in the landfill area around Naples to restate the government’s position.
The mayors have not agreed to Bertolaso’s proposed compromise.
Another meeting has been scheduled for Tuesday.
"We are going to continue these battles and I believe that we’ll obtain what we want," said Domenico Auricchio, mayor of Terzigno.
"I only ask my citizens to have faith in the local institutions. We’ll continue to battle to the end, but now I ask that these acts of vandalism stop because they don’t bring any thing good to any one," he said.
Another nearby mayor, Gennaro Langella of Boscoreale, said, "Our citizens have asked for a bigger guarantee that a second landfill would not be open. It has not been possible to obtain that and therefore we don’t think we can sign the document."
Despite the lack of agreement, Bertolaso said the government will move forward unilaterally with its proposals. He also said that garbage in Naples, which has been piling up on streets, will be cleared within four days.
Last week, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi promised that "within 10 days, the situation should be brought to normality."
He said the current landfill poses no risk to the residents.