Thousands protest US base in Italy
Tens of thousands of Italians gathered peacefully under heavy police guard on Feb. 17 to protest against the expansion of a US military base that has aroused strong opposition and divided the government.
Prime Minister Romano Prodi authorized the expansion of the base in the northern city of Vicenza, saying he did not want to change Washington's "defense policy of the past 50 years." The decision angered some of his own ministers and many left-wing and pacifist voters who elected him last year.
The demonstration has served as a lightning rod for anti-US sentiment in a country where judges have ordered CIA agents and a US soldier to stand trial for kidnapping and murder.
"I don't want any more Americans here and I don't want a new base. They should just leave us alone," said Pucci Mori, a resident of Vicenza, who lives near the proposed base expansion. "Wherever they go in the world, Americans cause trouble."
The Pentagon wants to double the size of the base to unite its 173rd Airborne Brigade and expand its 2,750 military personnel to 4,500.
At present, the rapid reaction unit is divided among the base at Vicenza and bases at Bamburg and Schweinfurt in Germany.
The new barracks would be on the other side of the city of 115,000 people from the existing one. That has raised worries about new roads to handle military traffic linking the two parts, loss of green space and strains on public services.
Residents fear it could even put Vicenza in danger.
"The people of Vicenza are concerned. The base would be in the heart of the city and in the case of a military conflict it could become a target," said Nobel literature laureate Dario Fo, who has organized a play about the US base.
Protest organizers said 120,000 people attended. Police estimates pegged the crowd at 50-80,000 people, a turnout that Environment Minister Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio, of the Greens Party, said was a resounding "referendum against doubling the US base."
Marchers carried banners reading "America, No Thanks" and "Yankees go Home" and waved rainbow-colored peace flags.
"There is no reason to have this base here," said Antonio Faitta, who traveled from Genoa for the protest.
Special trains and buses from various parts of Italy arrived in Vicenza for the march. Many of them had been chartered by leftist parties and the Greens, members of Prodi's ruling coalition, although the prime minister had banned ministers from attending the march.
A group of US citizens ignored a warning by the US Embassy to avoid Vicenza and joined the protest behind a banner reading "Not in our name," cheered by passing Italians who shook their hands and snapped their photos.
"The US should not build military bases, the US should think of its domestic problems," said John Gilbert, a US citizen living in Italy for the past 25 years who was in a group of about 20 like himself who had traveled from Rome and Florence.
David Bustamente, a spokesman at the US Consulate in Milan, felt the protest was moot. "I think it is a done deal. I don't think there is any turning back. This is what Prodi has said and what the local authorities have said," he said. "This demonstration is about process."
Construction is scheduled to begin later this year and is to be completed by 2011 at a total cost of $576 million. Before construction begins, a task force run by Italians has been set up to hear community concerns and make adjustments to the plans where possible.