Residents of another outlying Rome
district protested against the presence of Roma in local council
houses Monday after a near-riot led to 60 or so Roma being moved
from the Torre Mauro district last week.
"We don't want the gypsies here, that house should have gone
to an Italian," said residents of Casal Bruciato.
One of the residents, Nunzia, told reporters: "That house has
now been occupied by a girl with a six-month-old baby, she was
sleeping in her car".
"Better an Italian than the Roma...the Roma had better not
return or we'll block everything".
An 85-year-old resident, Antonietta, told protesters "you are
bloody fascists, you make me sick".
Rome prosecutors last week opened an investigation into the
violent protests that took place in the Torre Maura district of
the capital on Tuesday against the transfer of a group of around
60 Roma people to a reception centre there.
The probe is into the crimes of criminal damage and threats
with racial hatred an aggravating factor.
Around 200 local people, supported by militants of the
far-right CasaPound party, took to the streets in the protest,
which saw trash canisters turned over and set alight, and bread
trampled on.
The city council said that 60-odd people would be moved to
other facilities in the Rome area.
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