Naples, Italy Abandoned shacks, some still smouldering, were
all that remained Wednesday of a Roma camp in Naples which was
attacked by locals incensed by the alleged attempt by a Roma girl to
kidnap a baby.
Police completed the camp's evacuation shortly after midnight when
they escorted some 100 Roma out of the settlement situated in Naples'
low-income Ponticelli district.
On Tuesday afternoon during a protest staged by Ponticelli
residents against the camp, several molotov cocktails were hurled at
the shacks setting them on fire.
Police had to intervene to separate the crowd, some of them
shouting: 'Out with the thieves of children!' as they confronted the
Roma community.
Authorities then began to move the camp's inhabitants to other
Roma settlements in Naples.
Sentiments against the Roma have run high in Ponticelli since
Saturday, when according to news reports, police prevented a mob from
lynching a 17-year-old Roma girl accused of kidnapping a baby.
According to the baby's mother, the Roma girl had entered their
house while the door was unlocked, picked up the child and tried to
escape, but was subsequently caught.
The Roma girl is being held in custody on charges of attempted
abduction and housebreaking.
The incident is the latest of a series of high profile cases
involving Italy's Roma community - many of whom are of Romanian
nationality.
The newly-elected, centre-right government of Prime Minister
Silvio Berlusconi on Tuesday unveiled a set of five points to
safeguard security, including the expulsion of immigrants who are not
gainfully employed.
Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said the government intends to
dismantle Roma camps which are present in and around many of Italy's
major cities.
Late last year the previous centre-left government expelled over
200 Romanian nationals with criminal records, in the wake of the
murder, allegedly by a Roma man of Romanian origin, of a housewife in
Rome.
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