I was totally unaware that this kind of tension among various nationalities existed in Milan of all places, and in Italy in general. TGO
Refer to story below. Source: Associated Press
ROME (AFP) – Police in Milan are holding four Egyptians suspected of taking part in a rampage after the fatal stabbing of a compatriot in a suburb of the northern Italian city, news reports said Sunday.
The four were among 36 Egyptians and one Ivorian national who were detained following the rampage by around 100 North Africans after the killing blamed on Peruvian and Ecuadorian youths late Saturday.
The rioters damaged 17 cars including nine that were overturned, and they vandalised five shops, most of them owned by South Americans, the ANSA news agency reported.
The unrest took place in a northeastern section of Milan that is home to many immigrants, the majority from Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and other South American countries.
Milan’s deputy mayor, Riccardo De Corato, called the area a “Far West between north African and South American gangs.”
At a press conference Sunday, police sought to play down the unrest, saying a description of the neighbourhood as a “powderkeg” was inaccurate.
On Saturday, a resident told ANSA: “There’s a climate of racial hatred here now, and I’m afraid about what might happen in the next few days.”
Another resident said: “This is no life. Drug dealing goes on all the time, all day long, and the few Italians left just hole up at home.”
In Cairo, the Egyptian foreign ministry identified the slain youth as Hamed Mahmoud Abdel Aziz Essayyed Abdou.
The murder unleashed a war of words between the ruling centre-right coalition and the left.
Roberto Calderoli, a minister of the anti-immigration Northern League, said the incident “confirmed that we are paying for a mistaken ideology of the past… the policy of open doors for all.”
Calderoli, calling for “zero tolerance” towards illegal immigrants, warned of a situation similar to unrest that has plagued French suburbs for years.
The coalition government of conservative Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s People of Freedom party and the Northern League “has succeeded in preventing illegal immigrants from entering or leaving for our country,” he said.
“Now we must deal with all the illegals who, thanks to the (previous centre-left government) are unfortunately already here,” he said.
Opposition Democratic Party’s Senate leader Anna Finocchiaro slammed the remarks, saying: “You can’t resolve issues like immigration with mere propaganda… Milan shows that the right’s immigration policies are totally lacking.”
