'Nazi methods' for immigrants
2007-12-05 09:06
Rome - A right-wing Italian politician on Tuesday urged the use of "Nazi methods" to keep immigrants in line, a newspaper in northern Treviso reported on Tuesday.
"To make immigrants understand how they should behave it would be right to use the same methods as the Nazis," said Northern League municipal councillor Giorgio Bettio, according to the newspaper La Tribuna.
"For each citizen of Treviso who is harmed or annoyed, 10 non-EU citizens should be punished," Bettio told the city council, referring to Hitler's order to execute 10 prisoners for each of 33 German soldiers killed in a resistance bomb attack in Italy in March 1944.
Bettio went on to suggest that non-EU citizens with work permits who want permanent residency status in Treviso should be placed under surveillance for six months and that information about them should be collected from their neighbours.
"After the six months, if they have behave well, the immigrants can stay. If not, they should be watched for another three months and then expelled," he said.
"It's not possible for immigrants to come and live in our buildings and behave like gang leaders or terrorists. They should respect the rules," La Tribuna quoted Bettio as saying.
In the 1944 Adreatine Caves massacre, one of the bloodiest war crimes committed in Italy during World War II, 335 civilians including 75 Jews were systematically shot dead in reprisal for the resistance attack that killed 33 German soldiers.
Three weeks ago in nearby Padua, another Northern League politician who is a former Italian deputy education minister offended Muslims by parading a pig over the site of a future mosque. Islam considers pigs unclean.