Sous une pluie battante, les manifestants, regroupés derrière des banderoles dénonçant le "biocide" en cours dans les environs de Naples, ont réclamé que terrains et eaux souillées soient assainis. Brandissant pour certains des photos de leurs proches décédés du cancer, les manifestants ont crié "non à la Camorra", la mafia napolitaine, à l'origine de ces enfouissements massifs. Une minute de silence a été observée à la mémoire des enfants "morts trop tôt". En tête de la manifestation, le père Maurizio Patriciello, l'un des premiers à dénoncer le scandale, et le chanteur napolitain Nino d'Angelo.
Le mouvement, qui se veut comme "un fleuve en crue" que rien ne pourra arrêter, entend dénoncer la nocivité des fumées toxiques issues de l'incendie des déchets, qui ont conduit les habitants à surnommer cette zone, située entre Naples et Caserta, "la terre des feux" ou "le triangle de la mort".
De nombreux élus locaux, dont le maire de Naples Luigi di Magistris, ont participé à la manifestation, ainsi que des associations de défense de l'environnement. Selon l'association Legambiente, en vingt-deux ans, plus de 440 entreprises, situées essentiellement dans le centre et le nord du pays, ont enterré quelque 10 millions de tonnes de déchets industriels à cet endroit.
http://www.lemonde.fr/europe/article/2013/11/16/naples-des-milliers-de-personnes-contre-la-pollution-des-terres-par-la-mafia_3515146_3214.html#xtor=RSS-3208
16/11/13
The Mafia's Deadly Garbage: Italy's Growing Toxic Waste Scandal...
ReplyDeleteFor decades, the Mafia has been dumping toxic waste illegally in the region north of Naples. Recently declassified testimony shows that leading politicians have known about the problem for years, yet done nothing about it -- even as the death toll climbs.
Carmine Schiavone has been baptized twice. The first time was as a newborn, by the priest. The second was by the godfather himself, Luciano Liggio, a leading figure in the Sicilian Mafia.
"The second baptism went like this," says Schiavone. "An icon was placed in my hand and a drop of blood was dribbled onto it. Then, the icon was burned and the following was recited: 'You shall burn like this saint if you betray the brothers or the allies of the Cosa Nostra.'"
Schiavone gave his vow, committed himself to the cause -- and nevertheless went on to betray it in the end. After years as a leader in the notorious Casalesi clan, part of the Mafia network around Naples, he changed sides in 1993 and became a key witness in legal proceedings against his associates. He testified against Casalesi heavies with nicknames such as Sandokan, Midnight Fatty, Baby and others.
When the so-called "Spartacus Trial" finally ended in 2010, members of the Campania clan received up to 16 consecutive life sentences, thanks not least to the testimony provided by Schiavone. His reward has been a new life under police protection in which he had to constantly remain on the move. On this morning, too, he has a fake ID in his pocket just in case, complete with an alias and a birthplace in Libya.
Sitting in front of an open fireplace in a countryside villa, a cat dozing on his lap, he looks like someone who has made his peace with the world. But the bucolic scene is misleading; the guilt from his previous life weighs heavily on Schiavone. "I participated in about 50 murders, some of them I ordered myself. I knew about an additional 400 to 500."
The ex-Mafioso has spent roughly half of his 70 years in jail or under house arrest. From a legal point of view, he has paid for his crimes. Yet these days, Schiavone is once again the center of attention, due to testimony that he delivered on Oct. 7, 1997 before a parliamentary investigative committee in Rome. His statement was so expansive that it was kept secret -- until the Italian parliament relented to public pressure at the end of October last year and lifted its classification.
'Millions of Tons'
The 1997 hearing was not focused on the kind of killing that Schiavone played a role in during the gang warfare in the Neapolitan hinterlands. Rather, it centered on negligent homicide -- the product of contaminated soil and groundwater from highly toxic waste that, as is now known, was for years illegally and profitably dumped, primarily by the Casalesi clan..................http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/anger-rises-in-italy-over-toxic-waste-dumps-from-the-mafia-a-943630.html
16/1/14