ECO-CRIMENES
Protestantes en contra del TAV tratados BRUTALMENTE por la policia en Italia
anonymous 11 Dec 2005 01:16 GMT (translated by anonymous)En la protesta de Venaus en Val di Susa, Italia, la noche del 5 de diciembre contra el trazado de rutas de trenes de alta velocidad previstas en la zona para los proximos años, cien personas fueron brutalmente golpeadas por 90 policias. Dos manifestantes fueron heridos de gravedad. La protesta en contra del TAV empezó hace años y en los últimos días muchos vecinos la han apoyado. Las personas que viven en la zona piensan que el proyecto es insostenible. Además están asustados porque la excavación del túnel va a atravesar una capa de amianto. Los vecinos proponen otras formas de apoyar personas y transporte. Miles de personas de todas las edades han participado en los ultimos meses en una acción de continua protesta para parar los trabajos. Los recientes esfuerzos para llegar a un acuerdo con el gobierno local dan esperanzas a un gobierno diferente. La brutalidad del 5 de diciembre muestra otra perspectiva del gobierno que en el 2001 decidió el asalto de la Diaz school durante la cumbre de los G8 en Génova. La protesta empieza a tomar envergadura en toda Italia y el 17 de diciembre se concentra en Turin .
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more info
m 10.Dec.2005 00:32
hi
i do not have the text, but
about 50.000 on 80.000 residents in the valley have been blocking the works
beginning, a few days ago the government decided do sweep their block thru
the night beating common people guarding escavation sites
two days ago people from the valley came back to the sites and regain control
of it, there's been a huge national debate, that the government would have
liked to fix on the presence of unidentified (really not present) "extremist",
but it hasn't succeeded.
it's been a great people's victory, and now politicians offer to dialogue
for the first time, despite years thru which they bipartisanly ignored any
opposition, that's the sense
people has overcomed government's escalation to violence and, for now, won
people win back the valley (Dec. 07, 2005)
anonymous 10.Dec.2005 02:32
People win back the valley
On Wednesday night the Venaus post was cleared by the police. Between 3 and 4 a.m. the cops violently rushed against the demonstrators who were blocking the opening of the TAV yard. Several people have been injured, some of them have been bloodily hit. The minister of the Interior, Pisanu, has warned everybody that in the Valley of Susa there were 'subversive groups': probably he was referring to the thousand cops who attacked and clubbed two-hundred sleeping people. Media and politics have started at once to blather on 'clashes and brawls', but this was a premeditated aggression against harmless people who could not run away. This provocation has had the opposite effect, though, and protests are spreading all over.
The inhabitants of the valley are receiving support from Turin and from every part of Italy, not only through demonstrations in several cities, but also with the stream of tens of thousands of people giving rise on Thursday morning to a massive, extraordinary demonstration in Venaus. The demonstrators, determined to win back the post cleared by the State violence forces, have surrounded the yard, dismantled its structures and erected barricades in order to face the police properly.
History
On the 30th November, CMC, the former left-wing cooperative having specialized in environmental distruction in the Tuscan region of Mugello, started occupying the fields of Venaus, in the Piedmontese Alps, in order to open the yard for a 10 km tunnel, the first step in the contruction of the high-velocity railway called TAV.
On the 29th June and on the 6th-7th October blocks by the people of the valley prevented the CMC technicians, escorted by police forces of alla sorts, from carrying out the seizure. In the face of the umpteenth challenge by the great infrastructure lobby (among its members there is also the Italian minister for infrastructures, Lunardi), the Valsusa population has got ready to resist. Now all people who care for environment and for the defense against capitalist greed, all people determined to win back their lives seized by the EU, and by the Italian state and regions, express solidarity and follow attentively the Valsusa battle.
battle in Venaus (people win back the valley )
aliena 10.Dec.2005 05:20
demonstators against TAV win back the post in Venaus which had been cleared by the police last Wednesday during the night.
On Wednesday night the Venaus post was cleared by the police. Between 3 and 4 a.m. the cops violently rushed against the demonstrators who were blocking the opening of the TAV yard. Several people have been injured, some of them have been bloodily hit.
The minister of the Interior, Pisanu, has warned everybody that in the Valley of Susa there were 'subversive groups': probably he was referring to the thousand cops who attacked and clubbed two-hundred sleeping people. Media and politics have started at once to blather on 'clashes and brawls', but this was a premeditated aggression against harmless people who could not run away. This provocation has had the opposite effect, though, and protests are spreading all over.
The inhabitants of the valley are receiving support from Turin and from every part of Italy, not only through demonstrations in several cities, but also with the stream of tens of thousands of people giving rise on Thursday morning to a massive, extraordinary demonstration in Venaus. The demonstrators, determined to win back the post cleared by the State violence forces, have surrounded the yard, dismantled its structures and erected barricades in order to face the police properly.
On the 30th November, CMC, the former left-wing cooperative having specialized in environmental distruction in the Tuscan region of Mugello, started occupying the fields of Venaus, in the Piedmontese Alps, in order to open the yard for a 10 km tunnel, the first step in the contruction of the high-velocity railway called TAV.
On the 29th June and on the 6th-7th October blocks by the people of the valley prevented the CMC technicians, escorted by police forces of alla sorts, from carrying out the seizure. In the face of the umpteenth challenge by the great infrastructure lobby (among its members there is also the Italian minister for infrastructures, Lunardi), the Valsusa population has got ready to resist.
Now all people who care for environment and for the defense against capitalist greed, all people determined to win back their lives seized by the EU, and by the Italian state and regions, express solidarity and follow attentively the Valsusa battle.
videos:
mix
mix 10.Dec.2005 05:27
venaus
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this is story from Green Party:
this from "news":
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NO TAV - VEANUS OCCUPÉ- AIDEZ NOUS
Depuis 4 jours la ville de Veanus est occupé par les habitants de la val di Susa et par les camarades italiens. Le 30 novembre une manif a vu defiler 10.000 personnes pour demander la fin des travaux que vont creuser un tunnel de 54km dans la montagne. Le tunnel va déverser des million des metres cubes de terre que présentent déjà des fortes trace d’uranium et de l’amiante. Les manifestent ont érige des barricades et empechent les travailleur des sociétés CMC-LTF (Lyon Turin Ferroviaire) de commencer les travaux. La police à cette nuit essayé de forcer et elle est entré dans les champs occupé mais les camarades ont repoussé cette attaque.
Les gens sont dans le froid depuis 4 jour, il faut de l’aide : des personnes pour faire reposer le gens. de la nourriture, couverture du bois beaucoup de bois car ce nuit peut être va neiger.
camardes françaises unissez vous à la lutte merci
No al TAV
IndymediaEH , 18.10.2005 15:28
De nuevo las voces críticas y contrarias al Tren de Alta Velocidad que reclaman su paralización salen a la calle. A lo largo de 9 días grupos de vecinos de pueblos afectados, movimientos sociales, organizaciones sindicales, políticas, la asamblea contra el TAV y organizaciones juveniles desarrollarán diferentes movilizaciones y actividades de denuncia en Gasteiz. Este espacio revindicativo concluirá el 22 de con una manifestación que partirá a las 17:30 desde la Plaza del Sagrado Corazón de Bilbo.
El Tren de Alta Velocidad es una infraestructura gigantesca, destruye la tierra por donde pasa y tiende a concentrar la población en grandes y lejanas ciudades. Cada vez corremos más hacia ninguna parte. El TAV es fruto, necesidad e impulsor del modelo económico desarrollista basado en el crecimiento sin freno del transporte y del despilfarro al servicio de la concentración de riqueza y la extensión de la pobreza. TAV = más velocidad, más coches, más camiones, más autovías. Superpuertos, aeropuertos, puertos secos. Centrales térmicas, centrales eólicas, gaseoductos, lineas de alta tensión despilfarro energético. Pantanos, eurociudades, urbes y metrópolis. Es el mundo de hormigón.
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Special service by AGI on behalf of the Italian Prime Minister's office
(AGI) - Rome, Italy, Nov.1 - "The technicians occupying the terrains where coring activities are to begin in absence of the owners, protected by the police, is a serious, illegal action, worthy of a Police State. Ministers Lunardi and Pisanu must report in Parliament on the absurd and unprecedented methods used. This raid took place overnight, deceiving the local people, and despite the agreements with the local mayors, who all oppose the project, which will devastate a vast area and squander public resources" said Green Party secretary Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio. "These irresponsable actions - he said - allow to believe that Transport Minister Lunardi wants to fuel tension right now that more dialogue is needed. The Green Party will submit an urgent parliamentary question to shed light on the issue. Fortunately, the protest in Val di Susa is a peaceful, non-violent one, despite the Police State measure ordered by Lunardi. The situation remained under control thanks to the sense of duty of the mayors and the demonstrators".(AGI) -
011848 NOV 05
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TAV, GIANNI LETTA: I HOPE COMMON SENSE WILL PREVAIL
(AGI) - Turin, Nov.29 - "I hope common sense will prevail, in the interest of Turin and the Winter Games" said Cabinet Undersecretary Gianni Letta, commenting the issue of the Lyon-Turin TAV (high-speed train) rail and relevant protest in Val di Susa. "There has been a commitment on EU funds, and the government took on its responsibilities. I hope that will be so for all".(AGI) -
291851 NOV 05
COPYRIGHTS 2002-2005 AGI S.p.A.
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15.11.2005: Subsonica in Susa für "no tav"!
Morgen findet im Valle di Susa (Piemont) ein Generalstreik statt, mit dem die Einwohner der Provinz ein Zeichen gegen die geplanten Projekte tav und tac setzen wollen. Diese sehen den Bau einer weiteren Eisenbahnlinie für Schnellzüge und den Ausbau eines bereits bestehenden Autobahntunnels vor. Beide Projekte stellen einen unverantwortlichen Eingriff in die Natur des Valle di Susa und eine nicht zu unterschätzende gesundheitliche Gefahr für die dort ansässige Bevölkerung dar. Deshalb soll morgen (16.11.2005) ein Protestmarsch stattfinden, der um 10 Uhr in Bussoleno (Piazza Cavalieri di Vittorio Veneto) beginnt und in Susa (piazza d’Armi) endet. Dort finden dann ab 15 Uhr weitere Informations- und Protestveranstaltungen sowie Konzerte statt. Mit dabei sind neben lokalen Bands wie Statuto und Fratelli Sberlicchio auch Subsonica, die mit ihrer Anwesenheit die Aktion "no tav" unterstützen wollen, da sie es wichtig finden, für die Heimatwürde und den Schutz der eigenen Umwelt zu kämpfen. Die fünf werden allerdings nicht zusammen, sondern einzeln auftreten, da ihr Equipment schon auf dem Weg nach Rastignano ist, dem ersten Stop ihrer "Be Human Club Tour". Erst wird es einen Akustik-Gig mit Samuel und C-max geben, und danach legen Boosta, Samuel und Ninja dann noch als DJs auf.
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"The greatest conspiracy against anarchists in the second half of the century"
Betuwelijn - TAV :
Solidarity with Italian anarchists
Since 1996, the Italian anarchists/squatter movement has suffered a wide repression under Judge Marini's commands following the struggle against the TAV (Treno Alta Velocita). Like the Betuwelijn, the TAV is part of the European Community of Railways, a wide project that aims at improving the ways of fast communication between the various countries of the EU and accelerates the transnationalization process that remains very interesting for several industrials as it's gonna improve their commercial exchanges with the rest of the EU and companies such as Fiat, Banca di Roma, Banca di Napoli, Oil National Company, Credit Lyonnais, SNCF, or even the Torinese council participates in the financing of this project. Huge investments are made to build the service Lyon-Torino that will go through the Alpes by a tunnel of 54 km long, destroying on its way the wonderful Val de Susa in the Plemont region. Even before the beginning of the construction of this tunnel, the companies that support/finance this project are targeted and suffer various attacks. Some anti-TAV militants glue posters mentionning : "The TAV sums up itself a global conception of the world : the one that wants our lives, our areas and our time swallowed as merchandises. Striking today the masters of our lives means as well striking the masters of the TAV". On 23rd August 1996, the first direct action (throw of molotov cocktails) takes place against the TAV, followed by an intense Christmas night and an action on 26th January 97 that, causing several millions of Lires of damages, will be the starting point of the repression against anarchists, then pointed out as the main suspects.
However it has to be clear that the struggle against the TAV remains basically a struggle of the local population from the Val De Susa who defends her living area. Unlike media, judges, journalists and politicians who want to attribute these actions/ assaults to an avant-guardist group cut off from the people's claims, this struggle constitutes a gathering of local people and and of all those who wanna support it with a revolutionnary perspective. It is true that some actions have taken place and claimed by "The Grey Wolves" but these actions ("Grey Wolves, solidarity against the TAV, taxes, churches, capital/consumerism, prisons, schools, etc") and represent only a minority of all the actions that have taken place against the construction of the railway and those who hold interests in it.
Still, the actions claimed under this name are gonna become the basis of investigations against anarchists accused of "eco-terrorism".
On 20th January 1998, some documents are stolen at the city hall of Capris that afterwards is set on fire, followed by the explosion of the garage. Three anarchists from Torino are directly suspected for this one action, only action attributed to them before their arrest. 5th March, Silvano Pelissero, Soledad Rosas and Edo Massari, accused of belonging to the Grey Wolves are arrested during a spectacular force operation of "Carabinieri" who attack the squatt of Collegno in Torino and evict it right after the operation. Finding an ending oil lamp and some bottles of oil, the Carabinieri speak highly of having proves for the fabrication of artisanal bombs. A wide media operation of criminalization starts then in collaboration with the Italian authorities, spreading slogans such as "squatters = terrorists" to weaken the anarchist/squatter movement within this period of intense confrontation. On the same day, cops invade and evict the Asilo while their attempt on the Alcova fails thanx to the resistance of the inhabitants.
A wave of protests and demonstrations takes place in Torino and Bologna following these operations that wanna be justified by a wide media conspiracy. A serie of 13 bomb attacks are attributed to the 3 anarchists, while the accusation is about arsons...
On 27th March, though it recognizes that they have nothing to do with these attacks, the Chamber of Accusation confirms their detention till... 28th March : Edo is found dead in his cell, "hung up" according to warders. The rage and the hatred then explode and this period is marked by numerous confrontations, riots, protests and solidarity actions all over Italy among them a demo of 10 000 people who smashed the Justice Court with 10 000 stones, while in Athens and in the Basque Country, Italian interests and representations are targeted. About this "suicide" and before the same thing happens to her on July, Soledad declares in a letter : "The hatred dominates me at this moment. I've always thought that each of us is responsible for his/her acts. But this time, there are guilty people and I wanna say very load who killed Edo : the State, judges, persecutors, journalists, the TAV, the police, jails, laws, rules and this subjected society who accepts this system.
We've always fought against these compulsory things and that's why we are now in jail. Jail is a place where you're tortured physically and mentally; definitely nothing is available. You cannot decide when you wanna stand up, what to eat, who to talk with, to meet and on what time you wanna see the sun. For everything you must make a demand, even to read a book. Noises of keys, of iron gates that close up and shut down, voices that say nothing (...), a flashlight that controls your sleep, your mail checked, the ban to speak...
All is chaos, all is Hell, all is death. It's on this way that they kill you slowly everyday, so that you suffer even more. Edo wanted to end up immediately with unstandable torture. He offered himself at least a last gest of freedom, the one to decide, himself, when to end up with this torture".
In the same time, some assassination attempts claimed by the Red Brigades and other guerilla groups give a good pretext to the State to persue its persecution of anarchists and squatters. Bologna is now the target of investigations and thanx to the article 41bis, squatts are carried out a search without any mandate and 18 people are arrested for "association eventually terrorist" among them one will be sentenced to 6 months imprisonment. Hundreds of arrests take place all over Italy thanx to this article-law. State intervention and anti-terrorist commandos are operating these search that have no other goal than to keep rising this wide conspiracy against anarchists, pretending looking for weapons and self-made bombs, without any result.
Besides, only one guy is still held by the jail industry for the struggle against the TAV :
Silvano Pelissero. Basically isolated in the high-security prison of Cuneo, he was finally assignated to residence after 2 hunger strike sand a lot of protests outside, on the international level. But in Italy, assignation to residence means imprisonment in a special department of the jail and Silvano has now remained for almost 2 years already behind the bars for accusations he has always denied and from which he was proved and recognized innocent by "Justice" itself.
But Justice needs someone to lay its vengence on and Silvano is now accused of 18 bombs attacks, his trials take place on the same way as 30 years ago for the Red Brigades, with search and identification at the entrance and 80 journalists aiming at him with their cameras like if his face of "criminal" had to be watched by the all country to show people and anarchists in particular what a State vengence means. His origins from the Val De Susa morover don't help his case for that, and the fact that he was a very active anarchist militant for a long time either. Lately, the prosecutor required 7 years of imprisonment against him. The last audience focused on the defence took place on 21st January. More infos about this case in the first ABC-Utrecht bulletin. Contact us to receive it and follow the case. We also distribute a flyer "Writing to prisoners" that will advise you if wanna write to him and also some lists of prisoners if you're interested in different kind of cases.
Note: The Italian "Grey Wolves" have NOTHING to do with the Turkish "Grey Wolves".
Anarchist Black Cross
Benefit Volxkeuken & Kafee
Zonder Alcohol & Vegan !!!
alle laatste vrijdag van de maand
met infotable en kassa voor gevangenen
op Daalstraat 3 bis - Andere Keuken Benefit
Welkom op vrijdag !!!
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Sadness and Rage in Italy
The Italian city of Turin, having put forward its candidature for the Olympic Games in 2006, along with local businessmen and various police authorities, has initiated a systematic purification of all possible opposition to its Olympic prospects - local squatters and anarchists being the first targets.
On the nights of both March 5th and 6th, the police launched an operation in Turin to reclaim three squatted houses: L'Alcova, La Casa, and L'Asilo (the eviction of L'Asilo being particularly violent, with police going even as far as urinating on the occupants beds). However, on Friday, March 6th, L'Asilo was reoccupied.
As a result of these evictions, three people from La Casa were arrested on warrants that accused them of "criminal association with terrorist aims" as the police thoroughly ransacked the building for "arms and other explosive devices" which were thought to be stored. They only found a smoke bomb. However, since then three occupants of La Casa - Edoardo Massari, Silvano Pelissero and Maria Soledad Rosas - have been kept in custody accused, without proof, of being members of a terrorist group.
On March 28th, Edoardo Massari was found hung in his prison cell. As a result of this tragedy, a protest of over 6000 people, consisting of many anarchists and Italian, French and Swiss squatters, along with the Italian Anarchist Federation, filled the streets of Turin on Saturday, April 4th. This demonstration was organized by 12 squatted social canters which called for the immediate release of Sole and Silvano along with an explanation of how Edoardo met his death in prison. The demonstration, which took place under heavy police presence, erupted into violent street fighting. Police were attacked with rocks and other projectiles, windows were smashed, shops were vandalized, and a number of abandoned public buildings were seized and occupied and made into makeshift squatted social centres. Smaller protests also broke out in many other Italian cities.
Italy's Prime Minister Romano Prodi publicly expressed his concern over the events by stating, "These types of problems reveal areas of deep discontent which can only worry the government."
Soledad is dead
Soledad hanged herself (we don't have any reason to doubt it) on Friday night (between July 10 and 11, 1998) in Benevagienna (Italy), where she was living under house arrest in the community "Sotto i ponti". Her body has been taken to the hospital of Mondova, as required by a magistrate who was very upset because of the unexpected interruption of his fishing-day. Actually we don't even know his name. Many journalists, as usual, arrived immediately but they were chased away.
Soledad was an anarchists 22 years old and she was Argentinian. She was in Italy since September, 1997. During the investigations on the sabotages against the High Speed Train Project (TAV) in Val Susa, she was accused of being a member of an armed organization called "Lupi Grigi" (Grey Wolves) which claimed itself as responsible of only one such sabotage (there have been a dozen of them and almost all happened before Summer 1997). She was arrested with other two anarchists, Silvano Pelissero and Edoardo Massari at the beginning of March, 1998. The charges were reduced after the suicide in jail of Edoardo Massari.
Soledad then obtained house arrest in Benevagenna; Silvano was moved instead to the high security prison of Novara. At the moment he is at his 20th day of hunger-strike asking for house arrest and in order to know the date of his trial. The magistrate who holds the inquiry about the sabotages against TAV (the inquiry was supposed to finish on May, 7th) is Maurizio Laudi.
The famous "arsenal" found in the cellar of the Casa Occupata in Collegno (Turin), where Silvano, Soledad and Edoardo lived, has been never showed to the public and any expert evidence has been never presented. The Media are working to construct a part for Silvano, describing him as an agent provocateur.
Right now there are no public manifestations scheduled, and we hope there won't be, given the results of the mass demonstration held on April, 4th: just a sort of exorcism after which nothing really meaningful happened. Let's leave apart any mere conventional form act. Anyone wanting to express his thoughts and sentiments and rage should simply do it, in the place and the situation where one lives, by one's own times and ways.
There is nothing to add and nothing to be shouted out. Move.
(think globally and act locally)
El Paso Occupato
centro sociale... squat
Via Passo Buole 47
10127 - Torino - Italy
tel. 0039-11-317.41.07
- The A-Infos News Service
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Globe" 30/11/05
Pan-European high-speed train line draws fire from environmentalists
By Elisabeth Rosenthal, International Herald Tribune | November 30, 2005
VENAUS, Italy -- Along the crumbling road leading into this remote Alpine village stands a crude wooden shack whose purp
ose is announced by hand-scrawled signs that cover its walls: ''Help, the police are killing our valley" and ''Resist to exist." Another sign displays a charging locomotive obliterated by a big red X.
Volunteers at this makeshift guard post serve as an early-warning system charged with detecting the arrival of railroad construction crews for a pan-European high-speed freight line, a project that environmental groups and residents say will bring unfathomable environmental damage here.
''We can assemble hundreds of people in 10 minutes," said one of the men in the shack, who gave his name only as Baggio. ''We intend to try to stop this."
Venaus lies at a crucial link in a long-planned freight transport system that is intended to connect Western Europe and Eastern Europe. A line stretching from Barcelona to Kiev is to be the latest axis in Europe's high-speed rail network, known in Italian as the TAV, or treno ad alta velocit. To realize the pan-European dream, two big tunnels -- the longer one nearly 35 miles long -- are to be blasted into the mountains on either side of tiny Venaus, which sits in a narrow valley. They are to be connected ultimately with a viaduct to carry freight trains overhead.
After decades of planning, construction is to start today.
Far away in Brussels and Rome, officials view the transport route as a bold strategic project that will help move goods across a newly united Europe. They see the project as eco-friendly to boot, because freight will move in trains rather than, as it often does now, in trucks, which cause more pollution.
''This construction will bring huge environmental benefits: a sustainable transport system linking the two sides of the Alps," said Stefaan De Rynck, transportation spokesman at the European Commission in Brussels. ''You have to look at the big picture."
But here in Italy's northwest Piedmont region, which includes Turin and a large swath of Alpine valleys, the TAV is widely regarded as an environmental and public health disaster. Last month, 50,000 of the 70,000 inhabitants in the Susa valley, just a short distance from Venaus, joined a major protest.
''For 15 to 20 years, this will be a construction site, with stones, trucks, pollution, dust, and all the environmental issues," said Guido Fissori, 60, a retiree at the watch post. ''There is a uranium in the mountains on one side and asbestos on the other. Everyone is protesting."
Last month protesters prevented Italian police from taking possession of land designated as the construction site for the first tunnel, up a winding road on Mount Rocciamelone, a place of cascading waterfalls and hiking trails.
Since then, teams of police officers, including members of Italy's elite antiterrorist squad, have huddled against the cold at checkpoints along the mountain, screening visitors.
''From Barcelona to Kiev, no one else is protesting, except here," said Alessandro Meneghini, the police colonel in charge of guarding the hill.
In official circles, the protesters are regarded as spoilers, and the residents of these Alpine valleys are mostly resigned that, with powerful political forces against them, the $20 billion project will go forward.
''If you want a single European market and you want goods to move efficiently, you have to invest in new infrastructure," De Rynck said.
The European Commission is predicting a 50 percent increase in freight traffic by 2020, he said, adding that if Europe continued to rely primarily on trucks to transport goods, the societal costs would be unbearable. Air and noise pollution are already a serious problem along major routes, De Rynck said, and accidents in overcrowded tunnels are common.
Still, local politicians and environmental groups feel passionately that this land is being ravaged unnecessarily for Europe's vainglory. Freight projections are probably exaggerated, they say, and existing track and tunnels could be renovated to meet the demand.
''This valley is already choked with infrastructure: a highway, a rail line, two state roads, not do mention a river, which floods regularly," said Vanda Bonardo, director of Legambiente in Piemonte, Italy's largest environmental group. To build the tunnels, she said construction crews will have to remove ''a mountain" of rock, releasing pollutants into groundwater.
Then there is the issue of how to handle the asbestos and uranium, which are known to exist in these mountains.
European and Italian officials say that all required environmental-impact studies were completed and that there are construction methods that can keep residents safe from asbestos, for example.
But many here are unconvinced.
''There were mountains of environmental-impact documents and studies, but they were never really considered," said Nilo Durbiano, the mayor of Venaus. ''The answer is always: 'This project is strategic. Technology will solve these problems.' "
© Copyright 2005 Globe Newspaper Company.
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Alpine valley shuts down for rail protest
Jane Barrett in Susa
Thursday November 17, 2005
The Guardian
An entire Alpine valley shut down its shops and schools yesterday so that thousands of residents could march in protest against plans to build a high-speed train line linking Turin, in Italy, with Lyon.
Police estimated that about 20,000 people marched the five-mile route in the Susa valley, between Turin and the French border, waving white flags, singing alongside brass bands and trucks playing rap music with environmentalist lyrics.
Schoolchildren marched behind a banner chanting: "Don't steal our futures. Keep the valley clean."
"There are so many reasons we don't think this train line should be built but nobody has listened," said Nicoletta Motta, 28. "As well as defending our valley, we're here to defend democracy."
The train, known as the TAV, would cut the trip between Turin and Lyon to less than half the present journey time of four hours.
As a freight train carrying cars and containers snaked its way along an old train line on the hillside, villagers of the Val de Susa listed their objections.
One of their main concerns is the asbestos that has been found in the mountains around Susa. Villagers also worry that the snow-capped slopes above the valley may hide deposits of uranium.
"What's going to happen when they drill through the mountains? Where's it all going to go?" asked Fabrizio Remolif, a forest ranger.
In recent weeks protesters blocked the passenger train line which runs through the Susa valley, one of the main routes to mountain sites scheduled for the Olympic winter games in February.
The government has sent in extra troops to guard the area where the new line is due to be built, angering some residents in the valley.
"The government is so desperate to build the train they have turned the valley into a military zone," said resident Rita De Mita. She suggested that the money should be used instead to improve health services in the valley where she fears that the asbestos is behind a rise in throat problems.
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incompréhensible
martin 13.Dec.2005 18:25
on ne comprend rien à cette info ! où ça s'est passé ? quand ? de quoi s'agit-il ?
à quoi correspond ce titre idiot ? pourquoi les liens renvoient-ils sur des erreurs 404 ?
y en a qui feraient mieux de tourner leur clavier 7 fois avant de poster.
???
common 14.Dec.2005 01:14
Le liens marche, justement les ouvert sans problèmes,
tourne ton klavier sept fois avant de poster un 'comment'.
Film on Venaus
Salome Jashi 20.Dec.2005 23:41
Hello,
salomejashi@yahoo.com
I plan to make a short documentary about Venaus, people living their and the enviornmental damage TAV threatens with.
It would be very helpful if somebody could tell me about some hints that may be interresting for the film and for my work. I would also be glad if somebody could tell me if there is a cheep hotel or a place to stay in Venaus. It would also be great if someone could tell who I can contact in Venaus, a person who can show me the place and people. My E-mail is
I would very much appreciate help.
Salome Jashi