Anger at quake-hit G8 venue

2009-07-06 10:31

L'Aquila - Earthquake survivors in L'Aquila, central Italy, are none too pleased about playing host to this year's Group of Eight summit as they struggle to rebuild their lives.

"This G8 summit is a huge disturbance for our city, which is divided between those who think it may be a chance for revival and others who are convinced that we'll be forgotten as soon as the meeting is over," said activist Fabrizio Bianchi.

"We all want to take advantage of the summit to voice our opposition to the government's decisions. We are not a political movement, we're not on the left, we just don't approve of what the government has done so far," Bianchi said.

Parliament last month passed a reconstruction spending bill of eight billion euros through 2032, beginning with &eruro;1.15bn this year - an amount considered paltry next to the needs of the disaster zone.

Bianchi belongs to a group of volunteers calling themselves the 3+32 - after the time of night that the earthquake struck on April 6, claiming 299 lives.

They have set up a tent in L'Aquila's city centre, still designated a declared "red zone", to air their grievances.

The anger is palpable among the quake victims, who complain of unkept promises.

"What we don't understand is why with all the preparations for the G8 summit they haven't started rebuilding L'Aquila as well," said Piero De Santis, a community organiser.

An advertising platform

"Our earthquake has only given the government an advertising platform," De Santis said ahead of the summit beginning on Wednesday.

Conservative Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi shifted the G8 venue to the earthquake zone from the Sardinian island of La Maddalena, where summiteers were to have held talks aboard a luxury cruise liner.

Making the surprise announcement some three weeks after the earthquake, Berlusconi said the move would "show solidarity" with the victims of the disaster, which left some 70 000 people homeless.

Staging the meeting at La Maddalena would have cost some €220m, money that could be better spent on rebuilding the L'Aquila region, he argued.

Humble surroundings await the leaders of the world's wealthiest countries, joined by another 30 counterparts from emerging nations, at a military academy in Coppito, a suburb of L'Aquila, where they will discuss the global financial crisis.

The venue, a sprawl of reinforced concrete buildings, is a training school for Italy's militarised revenue police, the Guardia di Finanza.

The G8 delegations - plus those of 14 emerging nations and several international organisations - will be billeted in the academy's barracks for married cadets.

Wave of panic

The April quake, measuring 5.8 on the Richter scale, has been followed by thousands of aftershocks, including a 4.1 tremor as recently as Friday some eight kilometres from the centre of L'Aquila.

There were no casualties or apparent damage, but it caused a wave of panic among residents.

The daily Corriere della Sera said the Coppito barracks were shaken by the tremor, which triggered alarms on cars in the area. Authorities say the venue could stand up to any size tremor.

Berlusconi has hosted two other G8 summits, neither of which carries fond memories for him - the 1994 Naples meeting was clouded by a corruption scandal that soon brought down his first government, while the 2001 Genoa meeting was the scene of massive, violent riots.

Memories from Genoa also spurred the shift as planners reasoned that anti-globalisation activists would think twice before bringing massive protests to a disaster zone.

Antonio Sforna, a 23-year-old student, is sheltering in a tent city near L'Aquila's Collemaggio basilica, a cultural icon that suffered severe damage in the quake.

"We've got the church tent, the management tent, the shop where you can buy shirts or deodorant, the food tent... I'm a bit sick of the tents after three months," Sforna said.

Another citizens' group campaign called "Yes We Camp" wants to make a "protest shout" during the G8 summit over the "prime minister's lies and unkept promises", said member Sara Vergni.

- SAPA