ROME, July 16 — Amnesty International accused Italy on Tuesday of failing to punish those responsible for police brutality against demonstrators at a violence-ridden summit meeting in Genoa a year ago.

The human rights group said it had received no reply to its call for an independent investigation into the summit, during which an estimated 250,000 demonstrators, some of them violent, flooded the city and one protester was killed by police.
More than 300 people were injured and at least 200 arrested during a two-day orgy of vandalism and fighting on the fringes of the annual meeting of leaders from the Group of Eight, the world's main industrialised powers.
Nerys Lee of Amnesty International in London said the group had had many reports of rights violations including ''arbitrary arrest and detention, and the use of torture and ill-treatment.''
''It is for the courts to establish individual responsibility, but some of these violations were caught on camera and are undeniable,'' she added.
During the summit, rioters caused widespread damage to the city, torching cars, smashing shop windows and raining down bottles and petrol bombs onto ill-prepared police lines.
But according to witness statements gathered by Amnesty, protesters were kicked and beaten by police, deprived of sleep and denied prompt medical treatment.
''EXCESSIVE FORCE''
Female protesters said they had been subjected to psychological abuse and sexual harassment, and television images showed security forces flailing apparently innocent bystanders with batons.
Genoa police chief Gianni De Gennaro was demoted after admitting some of his men might have used ''excessive force.'' But 77 officers are still under investigation, including the one who shot the protester, and no officer has yet lost his job.
Amnesty wants an independent commission to look into events in Genoa.
It wrote to the government before and after the summit urging police to respect human rights and use appropriate force. ''Now a year has passed, we have received no response,'' Lee said.
On Monday Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi told reporters he had no view on Amnesty's recommendations, adding: ''I think people are on the side of those who defend order and citizens. If there was violence, it will be justly dealt with.''
Deputy Prime Minister Gianfranco Fini told reporters there was no question of police having been unduly violent, saying: ''It seems to me that all Italians have understood it was the protesters and not the policemen who were the aggressors.''
But Lee said Italy had a poor track record when it came to training police in the use of force, and that the circumstances surrounding the death of 23-year-old protester Carlo Giuliani underlined how dangerous that lack of training could be.
Giuliani was shot dead by a trainee police officer on the first day of the protests as he and a group of demonstrators attacked a police Land Rover.