http://www.guardian.co.uk/globalisation/story/0,7369,529187,00.html
Italy in the dock,Our Government stands accused, too

Special report: globalisation

Leader
Sunday July 29, 2001
The Observer

More than 1.8 million people are expected to
leave Britain this weekend for a variety of foreign
destinations, some of which have better human
rights records than others. None will anticipate a
confrontation with the host country's legal system
or police force. If they think of it at all, they will
doubtless feel confident that the British consulate
or embassy would, at the very least, protect their
basic rights under international conventions.

The events of last weekend at the G8 summit in
Genoa, and the scandalous story of five British
citizens beaten and held by police for four days
without access to family or lawyers, should make
them think again. As the story has unfolded of the
brutality meted out to unarmed (some sleeping)
protesters at the Genoa Social Forum
headquarters, public outrage at the terror
inflicted by the police has been matched by
disbelief at the complacency and inaction of the
British authorities.

As The Observer reveals today, friends and
relatives of the British citizens held
incommunicado in Genoa had to discover the
whereabouts of the detainees themselves.
Consulate staff met the detainees only after they
were released and the Foreign Office has yet to
seek statements from the four who have returned
home.

Italy faces a prolonged period of political
recrimination and investigation into a brutal
police attack that has shamed one of the world's
major democracies. But we, too, should be
concerned for our democracy. This is a
government quick to condemn and slow to
understand dissent in any form. Both the Prime
Minister and Foreign Secretary found it far easier
to understand the reaction of the Italian police and
said so with indecent haste. As late as Friday, Jack
Straw was saying that he was looking to see
whether there were grounds 'for making a
complaint with a capital C'.

He should not be surprised that people are
beginning to express their anger - with a capital A.