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From "Ya basta!" <yabasta@tin.it>
Date Mon, 27 Sep 1999 20:32:22 +0200
Subject globe_l: Via Corelli: the Prefettura bans entry, using helmets and shields; we enter in spite of this. 

DOC.1

Press Release

Via Corelli - the Prefettura denies access: is there something they want to
hide?

The participants at the meeting ěIllegal Aliensí Conferenceî wish to state
their intention to check on conditions inside the temporary detention centre
in Via Corelli.
Ever since it was built, we have declared the impossibility for this centre,
like the others set up by European agreements, to offer minimum guarantees
on the respect of human dignity and rights.
Over the last few months, working from both inside and outside the camp, we
have collected and spread information regarding the impossibility of life in
the centre, inside containers closed behind iron bars.
Self-inflicted bodily harm, suicide attempts, revolts, fights, deportation
under the effect of drugs, rape: despite the veil that is intended to keep
the prison camp concealed, we have made these accusations public, never
obtaining an official declaration on the position of the authorities
responsible.
We applied for access to Via Corelli, in order to check on the reassuring
statements made on conditions inside the centre, statements that conflict
with the serious episodes that took place only a few days ago.  Now the
media speak of rape and of bloody fights between police and prisoners (13
arrests, Red Cross workers taken to hospital, an unknown number of migrant
casualties).
The silence on the part of the Prefettura contradicts the sirens of the
ambulances leaving Via Corelli after this skirmish.
Now the Prefettura has announced yet another refusal of access to the
centre, without stating the reason for this.
The Via Corelli prison camp is a disgrace - uncivilised and illegal - just
as the refusal of access to observe conditions inside it is disgraceful,
uncivilised and illegal.
It is unacceptable for an invisible and inaccessible piece of territory to
exist.  On Sunday we shall refuse to accept the ban on entry.
All those women and men who refuse to believe in a future made up of cages,
bars and borders are invited to join us on Sunday 26 September, from 4 p.m.
onwards at the Via Corelli centre.
DOC.2

Via Corelli: the Prefettura bans entry, using helmets and shields; we enter
in spite of this.

A few minutes ago  the group of observers exited from the Via Corelli
centre, having managed to get behind the curtain of darkness behind which
the authorities wish to conceal it.
The Prefettura had refused the observers access, on the illegitimate grounds
of unjustified internal regulations which render impenetrable the prison
camp situated in the eastern suburbs of the city of Milan.
That part of Milan which rejects the Schengen prison camps had gathered for
a sit-in, subsequently approaching the camp, preceded by a group  in white
overalls who, for protection against possible retaliation by the police,
wore helmets and shielded themselves with barriers covered by a banner
reading ěWe are all Clandestineî.
On reaching the police barriers, the group shouted slogans and demonstrated
their firm intention to enter the camp.  Thanks to this determination,
access was possible for Salvatore Palidda, an activist from the Ya Basta
Association and the Leoncavallo Social Centre - a sociologist and
participant at the meeting ěIllegal Aliensí Conferenceî -  together with two
journalists from newspapers that had never managed to obtain permission to
enter the camp, despite numerous applications - the Manifesto and Popolare
Network.
The members of the delegation burned their identity documents as a symbol of
their choice to remain clandestine.
They got behind the curtain and non-aligned media were able to report from
inside on what is going on in the Milan prison camp.
The delegation came out pale-faced and shocked, moved to a sense of despair,
anger and powerlessness but also with fresh determination to close the
centre.  They declared that ěin those kind of conditions, revolts inside the
centre are unavoidableî.  With the agreement of participants at the sit-in,
they all confirmed their involvement in the effort to close all the prison
camps of Fortress Europe.
The first appointment is for the international day against deportation and
against Fortress Europe on 15 October, at the same time as the Tampere
summit on immigration and security.

Signed: The participants at the conference ěIllegal Aliensí Conferenceî and
at the sit-in in Via Corelli.






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