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G8 Protesters Mourn Victim in New Show of Rage

[7/21/01 Reuters] GENOA (Reuters) - Riots raged for a second straight day in Genoa on Saturday as anti-capitalist protesters torched cars and shops, smashed windows and hurled rocks at Italian police, who responded with tear gas.

Violent protests have dogged international summits for the past two years but claimed their first fatality in Genoa on Friday when a paramilitary policemen shot a young man dead as activists stormed a police jeep during a Group of Eight leaders' meeting.

Anti-globalization demonstrators returned to the streets on Saturday. Most marched peacefully through the port city in a crowd of at least 50,000.

But demonstrators at the back of the procession, many wearing helmets and masks, resumed their running battles with some 20,000 police and troops defending barricades around the city's center.

One group set fire to cars and smashed the windows of a Fiat car showroom before throwing shards of glass toward the police ranks. Others lit bonfires and hurled rocks.

Riot police with helmets and shields fired volley after volley of tear gas at the demonstrators, then charged with batons to drive them away from the fortified heart of the city.

Television showed plainclothes police chasing down protesters to detain them. Some resisted arrest and received truncheon blows.

"We tried to have a peaceful demonstration yesterday and today," a woman from Bari named Francesa said. "We danced, we sang, it was wonderful. But the police were aggressive and scared."

Protesters see the G8 as a rich man's club that creates and profits from world poverty. "Money is everything (for them). Workers' rights and human rights don't count for anything," said a demonstrator named Joachim, a German who now lives in Greece.

By early evening most of the protesters had dispersed, leaving several thousand facing off against police who were blocked a tunnel leading toward the fortified "red zone" protecting G8 leaders.

A core of hard-core protesters set a car and several garbage dumpsters on fire at the entrance to the tunnel, sending a cloud of black smoke into the bright blue sky.

Authorities said up to 70 people were injured in the day's clashes, well down from the 184 on Friday during rioting that left a section of the ancient city charred and littered with broken glass.

Police said several dozen people were detained on Saturday, compared to 67 on Friday.

"YOU CAN'T KILL US ALL"

The fatal police shooting on Friday of Carlo Giuliani, a 23-year-old Italian, cast a pall over the summit and the city.

On Saturday, the words "You can't kill us all" were scrawled on the side of a metal container blocking a street.

Demonstrators repeatedly chanted "Assassins" at police.

Residents hung a large white sheet outside one apartment building in honor of the dead man.

"Carletto, Victim of a Servant of the State, Victim of a Killer State," it said.

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only.

[posted 7/21/01]


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