I happened to be
travelling with the VolxTheaterKarawane from Genova and ended up in a terrifying
situation. At a meetingpoint outside Genova we were stopped by civil police
and Carabinieri and kept for hours on the road while the vehicles where
thoroughly searched.
This is where the
terror started. Alternatingly standing and sitting in the hot sun we had
the feeling of beeing in an executing situation, machine guns pointed at
us the whole time and policemen making sure we wouldn4t speak or move.
We would get no information about what was happening, apart from what we
could see with our own eyes, the vehicles being emptied on personal belongings
and theaterprops.
As our passports
had been brutally taken away from us we had nothing more than to wait.
After hours we startet
to read out from the policemens conversations that we would be taken back
to Genova for, as they falsly daimed, taking our photos to verify our passports.
This was a frightening turn of the situation, knowing that Genova now was
a dangerous place where the police were hunting for anybody to blaim for
the destructions in the town.
This is what indeed
happened. As soon as we entered the Carabinieristation San Guiliani we
were announced as the Black Block, raising a wave of hate in the eyes of
policemen waiting there. And this turned out to have physical implications.
The procedure at the Carabinieristation included a medical examination,
a strip search and getting photos and unlike what we had been told, fingerprint
taken. Any protest against this illegal action, as we were not yet under
arrest, were met by beatings and threats. We also soon understood that
the medical examination was to check for bruses and wounds, which were
taken as signs of earlier confrontation with police and used as another
reason for violent mistreatment.
But at this point
not much was needed to cause violence from the police. A simple question
from one of the men about why we were being kept there resulted in a blue
eye. The men where beaten for just being in the same room as policemen,
under the messages that we will kill you, we will break you hits
on the legs and ribbs, kicks on the balls and back. the police was also
careful how to do the beating to, as they said: leave them white. Humilation
was used as another mean of torture. Some men had to clean one of the rooms
at the station, being hit the whole time.
Women going to the
toilet had to undress in front of open doors and male guards.
During the stripsearch,
where we naked had to sit and stand up repeatedly, the men against the
wass, being beaten from the back, they would throw away personal belongings
and rings, piercings etc which weren4t removed by the policemen. They even
cut the hair of one person, after beating him badly.
The policemen used
black gloves for the search and beatings, a frightening image and during
the night they would put them on and off, never knowing what4s going to
happen next, hearing screams and shouts from behind the doors.
The terror in the
corridor, where we were kept the whole night sitting close to the wall,
not allowed to speak or more, included as well policemen telling about
their naszist fascist identities, underlined by shouts like Heil Hitler,
Sieg Heil, Viva Mussolini, la Duce with addition We4re nazists and
we kill people like you. One policemen showed a Swastika tatoo in his
hand.
He was also the
policemen who was most been to ask the women to suck my dick and Fuck
me, which was only one part of sexual intimidation used against the women,
ranging from sexual nises and signals to threat of rape.
The things which
happened at the station carried on in an atmosphere of systematic terror,
some being beaten badly and some left with a feeling of guilt for being
treated less bad. There were also a few policemen distancing themselves
from what was happening to us that night.
Before leaving the
Carabinieristation the groups of men and women, now seperated, where kept
in a small cold cell with no bankets and windows open. Early in the morning
where they had to stand with their hands up in a painful position causing
cramps, before they werehandcuffed and taken away in chains, which were
used to strain the handcuffs even more. Someone complained the handcuffs
were too tight, where by the police pu them even tighter.
The feeling in the
group was now we are going to hell this was just the beginning. The
women were taken away some hours later, not knowing what happened to the
men.
In prison Alessandria
the men where questioned and had to sleep the ground before put in cells.
The women where taken to prison in Voghera. On this followed three weeks
of untearaies and lack of information as well as violation of rights to
visits and phonecalls during the first two weeks. Thursday, four days after
we had been detained, to fall even lower when it was decided we would be
kept longer, not knowing for how long.
Apart from the political
aspects of the arrest and charges, being held in prison for three weeks
not knowing for how long or what will happen, has psychological implications
and this is just another way of trying to prevent people to take action
and stand up for their believes.
BUT THE CARAWAN
GOES ON!!!