Italian police clash with anti-train protesters

The Italian government said on Dec. 10 that it would carry out a study on the environmental impact of a planned high-speed railway line in a bid to end protests by local communities, but insisted the project would go ahead. The protests developed into a national discussion after dozens were hurt in clashes between demonstrators and police in Val di Susa, near Turin. Thousands of people have marched against the line, which will require building a tunnel more than 31 miles long under the Alps. Protesters also blocked roads and railway tracks, including a motorway connecting Turin with France. A group of Val di Susa residents camped in the village of Venaus for eight days, preventing work starting on the line that would link two of Europe's biggest economies. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's top aide, ministers and leaders of the Alpine valley communities agreed to have emergency talks in Rome on the need to restore calm in the area and strengthen consultations between the two sides, a government statement said. It said drilling of a tunnel under the Alps for the high-speed train, which protesters fear could release dangerous asbestos and uranium, would not start until the environmental study was completed. A government press officer said that did not mean the works would be suspended or delayed, however. Protesters said the government proposal might not be enough to stop their demonstrations. In recent weeks tens of thousands of people living in Val di Susa in the Italian Alps have kept up a series of protests against the scheme which would not be completed until 2020. About 30 people, including police officers, were injured in clashes on Dec. 6 when police attacked and evacuated a protest camp blockading construction work on the line. Protesters said police hit them with truncheons and that about 15 people were slightly injured. The Turin police headquarters said 12 policemen and two photographers were hurt. Local unions called a strike in response to the evacuation and asked members to gather in a nearby village to protest, despite police having blocked the roads to Venaus. Later, a group of activists temporarily blocked Turin's Porta Nuova train station, and hundreds of protesters gathered in one of the city's main squares, Piazza Castello, in front of the central police station. Buildings in Turin's historical center, recently scrubbed clean for the 2006 Winter Olympics which the city will host in February, were covered in graffiti saying "Hands off Val di Susa" and "No to the high-speed train, No to the Olympics." On Dec. 8 protesters overwhelmed police cordons to invade the engineering works at Venaus, the entrance to the planned tunnel, smashing construction equipment and huts. The Italian government blamed anarchists and far-left groups for violence at some of the protests. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said "extreme left-wing groups, from antagonistic and anarchic-insurrectionist wings are trying to extend the unrest from Val di Susa to Turin, Rome, Milan and various other cities." Without proof, Berlusconi suggested that the demonstrators had been infiltrated by "at least a thousand subversive hard-line anarchists" from Italy and other parts of Europe.