The
Independent,
By
Peter Popham in
Friday, 16 May 2008
In cruel and
unusual concert,
Yesterday Pope
Benedict XVI and a small number of left-wingers raised lonely voices in central
But what will
remain scorched in the nation
Residents of the
former communist stronghold on the northern outskirts of
The first Molotov
cocktails descended on the improvised huts and cabins on Tuesday evening, after
which the 800-odd inhabitants began moving out of the area in groups. On
Wednesday the fire-raisers, said to belong to the Camorra, the Neapolitan
equivalent of the Mafia, burnt the camp in earnest, watched by applauding local
people and unchallenged by the police. When firefighters showed up to douse the
blaze, local people taunted and whistled at them. The last Roma moved out under
police protection.
Only then did
local politicians shed a few crocodile tears: Antonio Bassolino,
governor of the
But the first act
of ( illegal immigrant -crime prone )cleansing in
the new
Roma have been
living in
The forces of law
and order took part of a crackdown on illegal immigration which resulted in
more than 400 arrests nationwide.
Meanwhile, the
government announced that its new diktat on security is almost ready and will
be approved at its first cabinet meeting in
The "decree
law", which will have immediate effect, is expected to make illegal immigration a criminal offence,
punishable by up to four years in prison. The discussion of
the draft of the law and the announcement that there will be no more amnesties
have thrown the hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants who work informally
as nurses and old people