News Analysis: Italy's Milan mourns, condemns no-Expo damage

Dozens of torched cars, smashed banks, sacked shops and devastated roads was the heavy toll suffered by Italy's Milan which woke up on Saturday amid joy for the successful start of Expo Milano 2015 and sorrow for what violent demonstrators did to the city.

Security had been tightened for the risk of terrorist or anti-expo attacks ahead of the world exposition's opening on Friday. But the reinforced clubs, gas masks and pickaxes seized by police during searches in the city had not boded well for Milan.

A May Day rally organized by Italy's largest labor union CGIL with other labor federations took place peacefully on Friday morning. But violent people dressed in the fashion of Black-Block anti-globalization demonstrators joined a No Expo march organized by other associations later in the day.

"A few dishonorable people decided to transform Milan into a battlefield," Graziano Gorla, the head of Milan CGIL, told Xinhua.

"This kind of people have nothing to do with the peaceful rally that we had organized to drive attention on a theme which is of fundamental importance but is not considered by the expo, the labor market. We strongly condemn these attacks," he stressed.

Protesters with masked faces threw a large quantity of Molotov cocktails, stones, paper bombs and incendiary objects at police who responded with water cannons and tear gas not far from Duomo Square, the heart of Milan. Some policemen were injured and many tourists fled in panic, but only a few protesters were detained.

The local press said there were a total of around 500 violent protestors, including many from other European countries, who had planned the attacks for long and were lodging in the suburbs of Milan.

How was it possible that a few people devastated an entire central zone of the Italian business capital? Chief of Italian Police Alessandro Pansa explained in an interview with Rai State television that police did not intervene in front of certain attacks on purpose, to avoid the risk of much bigger damage.

"We knew thanks to our intelligence activity that violent protestors wanted to reach Duomo Square and opera house La Scala, and destroy the symbols of Expo Milano 2015 across the city," Pansa said.

By intervening more often, for example with the view of cars set on fire, police would have failed into the trap set by protestors, who would have been able to reach such objectives, he said.

Observers complained, however, that the same thing often happens in Italy when big events take place.

"The problem is there is always an emergency that the country is not able to cope with, and not because of police, who acted very well," Fiorenza Sarzanini, a columnist of Milan-based Corriere della Sera newspaper, said.

In her view, tougher measures should be adopted to prevent these facts from continuing to happen in Italy, also in collaboration with European authorities.

Roberto Maroni, President of Lombardy region of which Milan is the capital, said following a meeting attended by the city's top police authorities on Saturday that his government will arrange a 1.5-million-euro (1.7 million U.S. dollars) fund to compensate citizens for damage.

But the announcement was not enough to comfort the many residents who were hit by the unconceivable violence, such as Marco Giunti, the owner of a car that was set on fire.

"I witnesses the crime from my window, but could not go downstairs. There were hundreds of people throwing all kinds of objects in the street. What is most sad is that we had not been apprised of what could happen here," he added.

Italian and international authorities strongly condemned the attacks.

"I wish that those responsible for the violences will be brought to justice as soon as possible," Italian President Sergio Mattarella said.

"The opening ceremony was fantastic and this barbarity has not impacted anything" was the comment of Secretary General of the International Exhibitions Bureau (BIE) Vicente Gonzalez Loscertales.

Meanwhile dozens of residents have organized themselves in grassroots initiatives to clean up their city at the weekend with the support of the local administration.

But there is also concern that similar episodes could repeat in the near future in Milan as other anti-expo demonstrations have been planned during the six-month event. Endit