ABSTRACT: On 12 May 1977 in Rome, the police charged thousands of demonstrators who were participating in a nonviolent demonstration organized by the Radical Party for the collection of signatures on the "8 referendums against the regime" (abrogation of the Concordat, of military courts, of the crimes of opinion contained in the penal Code, of parts of the law on mental institutions, of the law that grants special powers to the police as regards arrests, searches, wiretapping, of the law that allots consistent public funds to the parties, of the "committee of inquiry" - a special "court" formed by parliamentarians for preventive judgment on crimes committed by ministers). A young woman, Giorgiana Masi, is shot dead, and many other demonstrators are injured. The Minister of the Interior denies the police ever made use of firearms, but the Radical Party, thanks to a tape which shows a police officer repeatedly shooting on the crowd and hundreds of photographs showing armed officers "disguised" as extreme Left

extremists, proves that the Minister of the Interior Cossiga was lying.

Through the publication of a "White Paper", which contains the testimonies of all those who witnessed the brutal aggression of the police, the Radical Party was able to prove that there was a deliberate attempt to carry out a massacre, and presses charges.

On 15 January 1979, the Public Prosecutor, Giorgio Santacroce, dismisses the trial for the assassination of Giorgiana Masi on grounds that "the authors of the facts remain unknown".

The following chapter contains a reconstruction of the massacre through the testimonies of journalists, photographers, parliamentarians, passers-by and demonstrators.

(RADICAL PARTY WHITE PAPER ON THE ASSASSINATION OF GIORGIANA MASI AND OF THE EVENTS OF 12 MAY 1977: "Chronicle of a massacre" - edited by the "Centro di iniziativa giuridica Piero Calamadrei" - April 1979)

Adelaide Aglietta

11 May - 22:00: Pannella has just read Cossiga the text of the communiqué whereby the organizations that are promoting the demonstration (the Radical Party, the Radical Group, the Committee for the referendums and Lotta Continua) surrender any political nature of the demonstration, which will take place as a music festival only, without rallies and political speeches. The platform needs to be assembled in Piazza Navona. Gianfranco Spadaccia and myself go to the appointment with the firm we have made arrangements with. There we find a patrol car and a police officer who tells us that the platform cannot be assembled. We ask to speak with an official; the request is forwarded to the police headquarters via radiotelephone. We wait for the official because we mean to parley with the police headquarters on the basis of the communiqué read to Cossiga. In the event that they prevent us from assembling the platform in any case, we decide to disobey the order, try to mount it ourselves and let ourselves be arrested.

Emma Bonino, Paolo Vigevano, Pino Pietrolucci and other party members are with us. Mimmo Pinto, Alex Langer and other leaders of Lotta Continua arrive after a few minutes.

We wait for an answer on the part of policemen of the patrol car, but the answer doesn't come and the official never shows up. The patrol car leaves without any further notifications. We are able to mount the platform, which is ready one and a half hours later. At midnight Gianfranco Spadaccia calls the police headquarters, asks to speak to the commissioner and is passed on to the official on duty, who introduces himself as Mr. De Filippis; Spadaccia asks him to guarantee that the stand won't be touched, and that the people charged with guarding it won't be harassed. Mr. De Filippis guarantees no intervention will be carried out during the night. We all go to bed.

On the following morning in Piazza Navona there are three coaches filled with police officers and a lorry of the carabinieri. It is the first sign of a menacing presence. However, at the presence of one hundred police officers and carabinieri, at 10 o' clock the electricity company hooks up the amplification equipment, and at 11 o' clock the telephone company hooks up a phone for the organizers; the workers and the technicians see to the installation of microphones and loudspeakers.

Only at 13:30 does an official of the 1st district order to remove the amplification equipment. We do not obey. We let ourselves be carried away like a dead weight. The wires are unplugged, the equipment removed. In vain we ask for a statement and a warrant of seizure. Eugenio Rollo starts playing the piano on the platform and around him the others sing. Restaurants and bars are still crowded with people, the square is rather animated. From that moment on, Gianfranco takes over the radio coverage of the events, which had been started in the morning to invite people to participate.

Only at about 2 p.m. are the ways of access to Piazza Navona blocked. From that moment on we are blocked, practically segregated in the square. The only news we receive are brought by the parliamentarians and journalists who are allowed to circulate. The first tear bombs are fired shortly after 14:30. At 15:30 there are 21 plainclothes police officers armed with guns on the square, in the side in the direction of Campo de' Fiori. I ask a TV or movie cameraman to film them.

Among them I recognize the one whose photograph was published on the newspapers on the following days.

Maurizio Della Porta Rodiani, 50 - Banco di S. Spirito

At 8 o' clock of 12 May I was at the bar Domiziano in Piazza Navona. I asked two officers of the police who had come out of two coaches and who had gone to the bar whether they had come to prevent the demonstration of the radicals to take place. The two officers replied, at the presence of the owner of the bar, that they were there on security service only, and that the celebration would have taken place normally.

Adele Faccio

In Rome everyone knows a radical demonstration is a celebration: people gather in the squares, there is singing, music, then maybe there come those nuisances of parliamentarians, the president, the secretary of the party; but all in all their speeches aren't that boring, and they talk in a rather lively manner, unlike Moro, who speaks in such a complicated way you need a dictionary to understand what he's saying. In other words, it is rather pleasant to listen to them. A radical celebration is never prohibited for reasons of public order, especially considering that there had been the celebration of the TV the previous Sunday, and no one had dreamt of prohibiting it.

On the evening of 11 May, Cossiga phones the headquarters of the Radical Party. He says "for your information, I wish to inform you that I continue to prohibit the demonstration". After a few minutes Marco (Pannella) arrives, and Emma (Bonino) informs him of the call. Marco writes a communiqué in which he says we cancel the political rally, and there will only be a musical demonstration to celebrate the 12th of May 1974.

After the ANSA dispatch, Marco picks up the phone and calls Cossiga, and tells him "for your information, we are canceling the political rally but we'll hold the celebration". Cossiga answers "All right, I acknowledge the fact". We then mount the stand in all tranquillity. At a certain point, a police jeep comes along; they ask to see the authorization to assemble the stand, we show them our permanent authorization for Piazza Navona. They say it's O.K., they leave and we finish assembling the platform without any further problems.

In the morning, at about 11 0' clock, while we are all here in Parliament, we receive an urgent telephone call: "Hurry, they've come to seize the amplifiers". Mellini and I hurry to Piazza Navona, Marco and Emma to Parliament. In Piazza Navona the amplifiers had already been seized, and they were about to remove the piano, but Gianfranco Spadaccia was lying across it, so they had to leave it there. There were about 100 of us: we all climbed on the platform and said we wouldn't move an inch.

Mauro Mellini and I hurried to the two opposite corners of the square to see what was going on. I almost stumble on a lieutenant of the carabinieri opposite Via Santa Maria in Agone; with fake kindness he tells me they have simply received the order to create a cordon.

He probably didn't even know all the accesses were closed, he just knew he had to create a cordon there and that's all, because he told me "you can use other accesses". I told the comrades who had gathered outside of the square: "stage a sit-in or find another access, you decide". At that point I left, and I had barely crossed the square half way when I heard the first screams and disorders. I turn around immediately because I know Mellini is on the other side, and I had also seen Magri, Pinto, Milani, Gorla, Corvisieri. There were many of us, so what was the riot about? I get there just in time to see the police beating up Pinto and shoving around Mellini. I find Pinto lying on the ground and the radical comrade Walter Vecellio, editor of Radical News, arrested. I go to the commissioner and ask the reason for the arrest. He doesn't even look at me. I pull out my identification card of member of Parliament and repeat the question; he doesn't answer, instead he tells the police officer driving the car: "take

him to the headquarters, check him out and then let him go". He didn't speak to me, he spoke to the soldier, because he didn't have the courage to tell me directly, but spoke in such a way that I would understand what the situation was. I approach him again with my identification card well in sight and once again ask to know the reason for the arrest. He answers "disobedience, insubordination". There had been no insubordination whatever: many journalists and photographers told me Walter was simply explaining to the police officers that the person they were beating up was Mimmo Pinto, a member of Parliament. He then says: "pass, because you have to pass here, but shut up!". Honestly, the last time someone told me to shut up that way was thirty years ago.

I walk back to the square, where Adelaide Aglietta and all the others were waiting, and then I go out again with Pino, from Radio Radicale. We have a hard time getting past the cordon of police officers, because I am with a journalist equipped with a recorder, but in the end we make it. At that moment the police start firing tear bombs against a group of comrades who, their hands raised as if handcuffed, shout "freedom, freedom, we are without violence and we can do without the police". Therefore they weren't even shouting offensive slogans. Many took shelter under the arches to protect themselves, but the police were firing tear bombs continously, followed by one of those police officers with light blue trousers and a blue jacket and a cap, about 40 or 50, who at the appropriate moment said "enough", and they stopped shooting.

Luigi Irdi - "Il Corriere della Sera"

I was in Piazza Navona throughout the first part of the accidents of Thursday 12 May, roughly from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. At about that hour I returned to the offices of "Il Corriere" to start writing articles for the following day. Therefore I cannot offer a direct testimony as far as the clashes of Ponte Garibaldi are concerned, whereby Giorgiana Masi was killed. In Piazza Navona in the early afternoon, the atmosphere was still rather calm, despite the fact that the carabinieri and the police had dismounted the amplification equipment which the radicals had installed on the stand, and everyone had understood that the demonstration would't take place. The first remark concerns the attitude of the police and of the carabinieri. Every access to Piazza Navona was blocked by rigid cordons, which could hardly be overcome. Personally speaking I had trouble getting to the square only once. An officer of the carabinieri started to question the validity of my professional identification card (which I hadn't validated for

1977).

The attitude of the security forces was really heavy and violent (at that hour only verbally) and menacing. It was obvious that the orders received had been explicit: no demonstration, intervene with force without that many scruples. And that was exactly what happened.

The first beating I witnessed occurred in front of the entry of Palazzo Madama. A number of radical militants were targeted by the police. I personally saw security officers beat them up with clubs and gunstocks with extreme and unjustified violence. The police beat up everyone, Mimmo Pinto, the journalists, the photographers. I saw a young man wearing glasses raised bodily by three police officers and deliberately thrown onto the ground; as he tried to recover his spectacles, he was raised once more and hurled onto the ground. Mimmo Pinto, furious, addressed a police officer and shouted: "don't you realize you're being used as cannon fodder?" Obviously the police officer hasn't understood the sense of Pinto's question, because he reacted by insulting him, and repeatedly telling him "you make me sick".

The police officer was in plain clothes.

Things start to calm down only later, in front of the Senate, when I hear rumours that there are clashes under way in Piazza della Cancelleria. I hurry there with a colleague and a photographer. The police is barricaded in Piazza San Pantaleo, they are firing tear bombs. The demonstrators are farther away. Among the police officers I saw several plainclothesmen (they too policemen) clutching sticks, pieces of metal, a few stones as well as guns, obviously. During the battle, so to say, the police circulated rumours. "They're shooting, they're shooting" many police officers and officials said. I don't know whether the demonstrators fired any shots (whereas the police certainly did); passing behind piazza Campo de' Fiori I reached Piazza Farnese, where all the demonstrators (about 100) had barricaded themselves. I saw neither firearms nor Molotov cocktails. Throughout the entire afternoon I saw one of them explode. From Campo de' Fiori the young people threw stones, metal balls, empty bottles. They also threw

back the police's tear bombs, and were helped thereat by the wind, which blew the smoke back.

Fabrizio Carbone - "La Stampa"

I am referring to the first three hours (14:30 - 17:30) of the accidents occurred on 12 May. First of all, a remark on the difficulty for us journalists to overcome the cordons of police and carabinieri. At 14:30, when the seven entries to Piazza Navona were blocked, I made for one of such blocks and showed by professional identification card to an official who perused it for a long time and then said I could go. Five meters away I was stopped by an officer who shoved me against the wall, with my hands raised, and searched me with brusque manners and then let me go. After that, each time I needed to pass other blocks for professional reasons (even when the area of the accidents was very distant) I continued to be searched. I distinctly heard a public security officer tell a colleague: "we'll take care of the journalists".

At 3 o'clock in front of the Senate, while a dozen radicals were standing in Corso Rinascimento and a few public security officials wanted to stop one of them who had his hands raised (and was therefore demonstrating) - and this is the reason of the protests of parliamentarians Mellini, Pinto and Corvisieri - the carabinieri intervened using their rifles as truncheons. All in all they dispersed about fifty people: radicals with their hands raised, parliamentarians, journalists and photographers. On that occasion I saw police officers who were absolutely infuriated, lose their nerve, insult, shout and cause a commotion whereas it was their duty to calm things down and keep under control a situation which was still rather manageable.

Shortly after that, the first radicals were taken away on board patrol cars, under arrest.

When the first tear bombs were fired, and later on several other occasions, I heard plainclothesmen who moved near the cordons of police and carabinieri circulate alarmist and false facts: "they're shooting, they're shooting, a few officers are already wounded".

As far as the presence of armed plainclothes police officers is concerned, I had noticed them from the beginning, and I had talked about it with some colleagues. Later on, near Campo de' Fiori, I saw a young man with a stick in his hand and a gun in his belt advance amid the smoke of the tear bombs. But he wasn't a demonstrator, since he was speaking with officers in uniform. A second remark: this isn't the first time, in street demonstrations, that after the launching of tear bombs in an area, strange-looking armed individuals appear amid the smoke and firearm shots are heard. Third remark: in many cases, the sound of the rifles that fire tear bombs is mistaken for firearm shots. This is why alarmist, inaccurate information is circulated in the area to increase tension and create an atmosphere of fear.

As regards the episode of violence suffered by myself on the part of a police officer I was showing my professional identification card to (I was far away from the accidents and was trying to pass a police block), I will not explain the episode in detail as it is part of the objective difficulties of a journalist at work, but I would like to underline the following facts: 1) The ANSA agency said I had gone to the hospital to be treated. 2) The television (TG-1) simply said I had been injured, without specifying where, how, when, why and by whom. In the first case the information was false; in the second incomplete. The above sources of information, which did not consider it their duty to verify the news, but which broadcast as they had received it, are the same sources which are given credit as regards episodes where there can be no direct witnesses. (In the case of 12 May, it was impossible to be at the right moment in all the "hot" spots of the centre).

Walter Vecellio

It's 14:30. Piazza Navona is already completely surrounded and the ways of access are blocked by cordons of carabinieri and police officers. I try getting through and reaching the others from Piazza delle Cinque Lune. I'm stopped by a group of carabinieri, who surround the headquarters of the newspaper of the DC, "Il Popolo". They say I can't go. I ask why. Off-limits area, they say. I smile, I tell them t's not a military zone. The carabiniere lacks any sense of humour and asks to see my documents. I give him my identification card which testifies my belonging to the association of journalists. My aim is getting through and reaching Piazza Navona; I tell him "I have to go there for professional reasons, let me by".

No way, answers the carabiniere. I invoke professional rights, I try to parley. I go so far as telling him "you're preventing me from working!".

It's all in vain; it seems all they're interested in is copying my personal data on a piece of paper. They consider me only when it comes to asking me where I live. I ask to speak with an official, I ask to have an explanation. The carabinieri say there is no official. I ask the carabiniere to identify himself; "I'm in uniform", he answers. Obviously he considers this to be enough, because when I ask him to show me his registration number he answers "I'm not a horse". I barely have the time to say that I never said a carabiniere was a horse that a colleague of the man in front of me pokes me violently with his gunstock. I fall over and shout "what the hell's going on, are we crazy or something?" (I include myself in the category of madmen, because there are no witnesses, and I don't want to be accused of having called anyone a madman). The only answer I get is that they start to push me toward the colonnade by the legs, so that no one will see me. One carabiniere goes right with my leg, the other goes left.

My balls in the middle. I try to underline I can't follow them any more. They order "don't try to resist!"

Finally another one comes along, he must be an officer because as soon as they see him the two carabinieri let go and salute him. "What's going on here?" he asks. "The gentleman here wants to get by and it's forbidden!" they answer. He takes a look at my documents. "Are you a journalist?" "Yes, I need to get by for professional reasons, please, let's try to be reasonable, let me go!"

"No, it's impossible!" I had forgotten I was dealing with carabinieri. Not far from them Via Agonale is presided by police officers. I show them my identification card. They let me go. Later on, at about 15:30, Mauro Mellini, having been informed that people were not allowed to get by, decides to walk up and down in the blocked areas, counting on the fact that no one can touch a member of Parliament (at least, this was what he thought, but Pinto will prove it is not true). Thus, with Mellini and Adele Faccio, and then also Pinto, Gorla and Magri (the latter only for a couple of minutes, he disappears as soon as the accidents start), plus about thirty journalists and twenty radicals, we gather in front of Via Agonale, with our backs to the Senate. In front and beside us, cordons of police officers with all their paraphernalia: rifles, tear bombs, truncheons, helmets, etc. A table for the collection of signatures on the eight referendums is brought. I barely see it because it is immediately destroyed by the po

licemen. They are commanded by a plainclothesman with truncheon and helmet (the same man who arrests me later). The tables is smashed to pieces. The three cordons of public security start to make for the centre. There is turmoil, photographers and journalists are in the middle of the commotion, the parliamentarians and the radicals raise their hands to the sky.

The second charge comes form the right, with the Senate to your back. They stamp on everything they find, kick people, strike them with their batons. Among those who are beaten there is Angelo Tempestini. I know he has just been dismissed from hospital, pneumonia or something; he lies on the ground, crying, trying to protect himself from the blows. I try placing my body between him and the truncheons, while others drag Angelo aside. I receive a blow behind the head. While I'm still trying to figure out what it is that hit me I receive a kick in the abdomen, one of those mean, professional kicks: the pain will linger on the whole afternoon. I bend because of the pain, and a few police officers take advantage of this to bash me up, and ruin my leather jacket and trousers completely. Then, thanks to my eighty kilograms of weight, they realize I'm heavy and after landing me on the ground they leave me there for a moment. In the meanwhile someone stops shouting "police union" (in any case they had sent all the po

licemen who are not part of the union), and shouts "sit on the ground, all of you". I was already sitting on the ground, taking stock of all the bashings I had received, these ones and the one in Piazza Cinque Lune.

The plainclothesman, who later turns out to be a police commissioner, comes along. He shoves people around, shouts, strikes, he is red in the face. My glasses fall on the ground. A police officer in uniform wants to see what happens if he kicks them. With a jerk I manage to save them and thus receive the kick on my body (I really needed it!).

At that point, a number of comrades try to drag me away and to subtract me to the fury of the plainclothesman, who is in fact a commissioner. But there is little hope to get away: they have surrounded us on all sides, many policemen are aligned along the wall of the Senate, with their arms raised. At this point, in that confusion and mess, the commissioner "hears" that I've called him a bastard twice. This is outrage to a public officer in the performance of his duty (the officer never identified himself, but obviously he believes a police officer can be recognized by his face). If this weren't enough, as he canes me into following him to the first police station and I resist, he adds "resistance" to the list of offences. In other words, he arrests me. He puts a pair of handcuffs on my wrists; he hands me over to a couple of men at his orders, they too in plain clothes, and takes me to the first police station. By now it is 15:45.

Domenico Pinto, M.P.

At 15:20 I made for Corso Rinascimento, opposite the entrance of the Senate.

I was with my colleagues Corvisieri, Gorla and Mellini to coordinate the outflow of the young people who were arriving for the celebration, possibly with the police officials. Despite our attempts, we did not manage to talk with any official in charge of the public order to avoid accidents.

At about 15:30, a few youngsters who were in the same spot where I was started to raise their hands to prove their absolutely nonviolent and peaceful intentions. Despite this behaviour, the police shoved them around and charged them. Some of these young people, their arms still raised, sat on the ground, thinking that this way they would avoid the police's charges. Ignoring this peaceful attitude, the police, obviously at the orders of their superiors, charged any person to be found in the area.

While my colleague Mellini, he too with his arms raised, tried to shield the group of young people with his body, I, all the while clearly exhibiting my identification card of member of Parliament, was violently pushed and then beaten up by a few plainclothes police officers. I was thrown on the ground and beaten up also by carabinieri in uniform.

Only thanks to the intervention of my colleague Mellini, a carabiniere who was striking me with his gunstock desisted from hitting me in the head. Four carabinieri raised me bodily and threw me with violence three metres away. While this was going on, a journalist intervened in my defence, screaming "stop, it's the member of Parliament Mimmo Pinto!". He too was brutally pushed away, while a young man who was shouting "don't hit him" was arrested.

At the end of such violences, I heard a number of police and carabinieri officers address themselves to us saying "look at what disgusting people represent us in Parliament". I also remember that, before the violences, I identified myself to officials and officers by showing my identification card, and they told me "why don't you go and work!" or "here comes this asshole again, we'll make him pay for it!".

At about 15:40 my colleague Pannella came, and invited the demonstrators not to react to the police's provocations, and then asked in vain to talk to the people in charge of the public order. As he did not manage to obtain this he entered the Senate.

I didn't manage to get into the Senate because the door was immediately closed. At that moment, a plainclothes police officer told a colleague: "why didn't you kick that asshole?", referring to Pannella. I intervened calmly, telling them "why are you behaving this way, don't you realize they're using you like cannon fodder?". One of the two officers insulted me, telling me I made them sick, and speaking to his colleagues he instigated them against me saying I had offended and insulted them.

Carlo Rivolta - "La Repubblica"

I got to Piazza Navona more or less at 3 o' clock. I encountered many difficulties in passing the police block behind Palazzo Braschi, despite the fact that I identified myself. An officer of the flying squad told me "we couldn't give a damn about journalists, no one can pass here, and that's all". I managed to get by, amid insults and threats, only thanks to the intervention of an official. The officers were very jerky, and were obviously a prey to a tension which is very rare in similar circumstances.

At about a quarter past 3 (but I'm not sure about the time) I moved toward the Senate, There I witnessed the beating of a couple of young people, who were first shoved around and then, having fallen on the ground, were kicked. The parliamentarian Mimmo Pinto was also beaten up, despite the fact that he had identified himself. Shortly before that he had been repeatedly insulted: a police officer had told him "why don't you go to work", others had repeated "we couldn't give a shit that you're a member of Parliament".

The vice police commissioner Squicquero witnessed the whole scene without moving a finger. Asked who was in command in the square he refused to answer. The vice commissioner Cioppa was the most active one in charging defenceless people. Threats were also directed against member of parliament Gorla. At a certain point Pinto said "Rivolta, you've heard what they just said, write it in your newspaper" (he was referring to the sentence "you make me sick", quoted in the press, which, in truth, may have proffered by an officer and not by an official). A carabiniere nearby said "write it down my foot, you can't do anything about it". Other officers expressed insulting judgements on Parliament: several of them, at the presence of officials, said parliamentarians were "loafers". Immediately after the first launching of tear bombs I headed for Piazza San Pantaleo. A police official talked to me about Molotov cocktails and pointed to fragments of glass. I looked at them attentively: there were no traces of gasoline, th

ey were simply bottles of "oransoda" or "lemonsoda", which, for their very size, were unlikely to have been used as Molotov cocktails. In any case, I can confirm that were no traces of gasoline, burnt or not, in the spot where the officials claimed the Molotov cocktails had been launched.

Leandro Turriani - "Il Messaggero"

15:30 - A young man walks in front of the Senate with his hands on his head, followed by member of Parliament Pinto. An official of the police headquarters (short of stature) and a captain address the parliamentarian: "Mind about doing your own job". With ever greater arrogance, while Pinto holds his identification card on his forehead, plainclothes officers address him with these words: "You make me sick".

Pinto reacts by telling them "don't you realize they're using you as cannon fodder?". The officers surround him, shoving him, bullying him with their protruded chests, addressing him coarsely. The captain and the official are red in the face, they scream and start to give orders to the carabinieri to close the ranks around the group of radicals and about fifteen photographers and journalists, including Isman, Gaita and myself.

The carabinieri shove people around, and Pinto falls on the ground. No more than a metre away, while the carabinieri kick Pinto, I invite the police official not to beat him up. "He's Pinto, a member of Parliament, don't beat him up". The official pushes me further away, "you're meddling with politics, go away". "I'm a journalist", I say, with my identification card clearly visible in my hands. The official summons two carabinieri: "take him into the police van, away". The two grab me from behind and hit me in the head, causing my glasses to fall on the ground. I start screaming, and call out to my colleague Zaccaria for help. The latter, together with other colleagues, manages to drag me away from the carabinieri. Mellini and Pannella arrive. They too, as before Gorla, are insulted and shoved around.

We ask several officials who is in charge. No one answers. Together with my colleague Piergiorgio Maoloni we manage to get to Piazza Navona, where slightly after 4 o' clock we hear tear bombs explode in the direction of Piazza San Pantaleo.

At the far end of the square we notice a dozen plainclothes officers wearing guns and dressed in such a way as to look like demonstrators. I recognize almost all of them, because I have seen them other times at the central police headquarters. At 17:05 I made for via della Scrofa to buy film for my camera. I noticed a few young people who were running, while tear bombs are fired against them.

I reach Piazza della Cancelleria, where I see several police cars and plainclothes officers. The demonstrators are in Campo de' Fiori and shout slogans. More tear bombs are fired, and four officers hide behind the cars at the beginning of Piazza della Cancelleria. Some of them start firing point blank. The first charge starts. Mr. Carnevali, a black automatic gun in his hand, reaches the middle of the street, followed by plainclothes officers, they too with guns in their hands. The demonstrators back, then advance and throw stones. A number of tear gas bombs land into the cars, whence they are removed are thrown against the police.

The police back and advance several times.

Angelo Tempestini

At about three o' clock I had reached Piazza Navona with a group of fellow party members. The police had blocked all the entries. We stopped in front of the parking lot, near the Senate, and together with another comrade, Giampiero Davì, I tried to set up the table to collect signatures. A group of carabinieri armed with rifles and headed by the police commissioner of the political office in plain clothes (whom I recognized because he always comes at out demonstrations) grabbed Giampiero and threw him on the ground, threw the table on the ground and smashed it to pieces by jumping onto it. The commissioner started to shove and push several comrades, then grabbed me by the neck and I stopped. At that point, Pinto intervened. I raised my arms and started walking up and down. Then we realized the police and the carabinieri had blocked Corso Rinascimento on both sides. I remained in the middle with Pinto, Gorla, Mellini and others. As we walked, Pinto was forced to take out his identification card every other mi

nute to identify himself, because the officers shoved him around violently. Gorla, despite his identification card, was also pushed around. About a quarter of an hour later, plainclothes officials ordered a unit of carabinieri to advance from corsia Agonale, armed with rifles. They had no tear gas bombs. In the meanwhile, the carabinieri in front of Corsia Agonale put on their helmets, rubber gloves and started pulling out their batons. We sat on the ground in front of Corsia Agonale. At that point they were ordered to charge us, and started advancing, clutching the gunstocks and kicking us. I had sat on the ground thinking they would have arrested me and taken me with them: then I realized they had no intention of arresting us, but wanted to beat the shit out of us. They kicked us repeatedly and pushed us toward the police officers who were blocking the street. At that point I yelled for help, and Walter Vecellio, who was later arrested, used his body to shelter me from the carabinieri. Mellini grabbed me b

y an arm while the carabinieri continued to push me.

With the help of a comrade from the CISA I managed to get up on my feet, but was confronted by the police officers with raised batons, who shouted to get out of there. I was then pushed along the wall, on the right of the Senate entrance. In the meanwhile, the commissioner had put on a helmet and grabbed a baton, and started to beat Vecellio up. With a group of comrades I moved past the entrance of the Senate, on the left. We were frightened, we were crying. At a certain point we were isolated amid the carabinieri who were in front of the Senate and at the end of Corso Rinascimento. They all had rifles, no tear bombs. A quarter of an hour later we made for Corso Rinascimento, and there they let us go by. Along the curve that leads to the bridge we saw men of the flying squad wearing camouflaged clothing. We were discussing when we saw a group of carabinieri block the entrance of Piazza Navona and push people toward the square, then the flying squad attacked, and people started to run. I reached the party hea

dquarters in Via Torre Argentina. Down in the street, carabinieri were firing tear bombs at the entrance and on the windows".

Daniela Gara

On 12 May at about three o'clock I was at the exit of Piazza Navona opposite Largo Zanardelli, and I was approached by a slovenly looking individual wearing a red foulard. I thought he was a comrade, but after two or three verbal provocations on his part I asked him "who are you?" He said he was a radical. Considerations on radio programs and on people working at the radio enabled me to ascertain that he didn't even know the names of the conductors of the programs, and I therefore contradicted him. At this point he left the group. Later, during one of the first charges of the police, I saw the same individual approach a police jeep and take out a truncheon; the police officers did not react in any way.

Giovanna De Pietri, Marco Sappia

We were making for Piazza Navona, it was about three in the afternoon. The square was already completely controlled by the police and the carabinieri. We started to circle the square from the outside, passing by Corso Rinascimento, and stopped in front of the Senate, face to the entrance of Piazza Navona.

We were about twenty comrades, a great number of journalists, and the carabinieri forced us to move laterally. We saw them seize a knapsack from one person without any reason. After a few minutes Angelo Tempestini and other comrades came along, bringing the table to collect signatures, but they barely had the time to open it because the carabinieri smashed it with their feet.

Then, screaming, they started to violently shove around Angelo, who held his arms above his head. In the meantime a few parliamentarians from Democrazia Proletaria came along, among whom we recognized Mimmo Pinto, who started to talk to the police after having identified themselves.

In the meanwhile we had all raised our arms above our heads like Angelo, and had returned toward the entrance of Piazza Navona, singing slogans against the prohibition to demonstrate; at that moment about forty carabinieri came from Piazza Navona, blocked us from the two sides of Corso Rinascimento. We were surrounded: with us, Mimmo Pinto, Mauro Mellini and the other parliamentarians. Suddenly the carabinieri started to advance, we sat on the ground and were all beaten up severely with batons and gunstocks. We saw Pinto, who had always exhibited his parliamentary identification card, being violently thrown on the ground. At that moment Marco was pushed against a car and beaten up by four carabinieri with batons, despite the fact that he did not resist. I tried to get closer but was harshly beaten up and thrown on the ground. Marco was taken away with a police car.

I wa pushed against the wall of the Senate building, kept still with a hand and once again beaten up by a carabiniere, who shouted insults and sentences such as "if you don't keep still I'll give you a couple of blows and kill you". These sentences were heard by the other comrades who had been pushed against the wall of the Senate.

I could see Walter Vecellio with a bleeding mouth and Mimmo Pinto again pushed by the carabinieri.

Then finally someone recognized Mimmo, who asked what the security limits were, whether we should leave Rome in order not to be beaten up. The more we withdrew the more the carabinieri fired tear gas bombs and followed us, in the surrounding streets I never saw anyone do anything against the carabinieri or launch anything.

With difficulty we reached the Radical Party and shut ourselves in there for hours and hours; at the corner of Largo Argentina there were two carabinieri who fired tear gas bombs on anyone approaching the party's door and on the windows when we opened them; I clearly saw two or three armed men on the roof of the Teatro Argentina. At about midnight I left the headquarters after receiving the news that Giorgiana had been killed at Ponte Garibaldi.

Marco was released about eight hours after his arrest.

From the very beginning we had the impression that everything was part of a pre-established plan. We are equally certain that the comrades committed no provocative actions but simply defensive ones.

Luca Del Re

At about three o'clock, in the area of Piazza San Pantaleo, I witnessed the following scene which, as far as I am concerned, can be considered the first demonstration of the provocative attitude of the police forces on the 12th of May. The first charge carried out by the police in Piazza San Pantaleo occurred after a discussion between a commissioner, who had penetrated among the comrades who were in the area at the moment, and some of these; at the commissioner's order "guards to me", a group of twenty men of the flying squad made for the comrades, dispersing them with the use of batons and gunstocks. In any case, I saw many of these policemen aim with their rifles and shoot against the people who were fleeing. Episodes such as this occurred several times during the subsequent clashes in the area of Campo de' Fiori.

With other comrades present in the area I distinctly saw officers of the flying squad and plainclothes police officers fire with rifles and guns, and I can prove what I'm saying because the holes of the bullets are still visible on the shutters of many shops in the area.

Another episode: a machine gun was fired from one of the ambulances which systematically (every 10-15 minutes) patrolled the area of the clashes with screaming sirens.

This ambulance, that was driving along Corso Vittorio, once it reached one of the alleys parallel to via dei Baullari, slowed down noticeably and a machine gun was fired from one of the windows in the direction of the group of comrades.

As far as the use of tear bombs is concerned, dozens and dozens of these were fired by the police against the comrades gathered in Piazza della Cancelleria, via dei Baullari and neighbouring streets, distinctly and point blank, hitting several people in the legs, the body and the head. As far as I'm concerned, I can guarantee that no Molotov cocktails or firearms were used against the police during the first three hours of clashes.

Marco Pannella

I arrived in front of the Senate at 15:35, after having passed four police blocks. I immediately noticed an aggressive and literally provocative attitude on the part of young carabinieri, officials and officers. Here and there, along a 200-metre stretch of Corso Rinascimento, mostly young citizens, isolated, couples or at the most groups of ten people, silent and flabbergasted: no more than forty or fifty in total.

They had just finished beating up Pinto, who was raising himself from the ground. They had already arrested Vecellio, Marco, two girls were screaming desperately. I shouted to them to calm down, and I saw two photographers beaten up by an official, a few carabinieri and an officer, because they were taking pictures of the scene. I then immediately asked, first in a low voice to officials and officers and then screaming so that everyone could hear and record, "I ask to know who is in charge of the service in this sector; we must know how to organize the outflow of blocked passers-by, tourists, and the people who will come".

In vain: the answer was that they had no intention of telling me, and to mind my own business. I confirmed the urgency of foreseeing the predictable concentration of passers-by as well as of those who were coming for the signatures and the concert to the two commissioner of the 1st police station, whom I knew. Both were in plain clothes and one was clutching his baton. It was 15:45. I heard a series of explosions toward S. Andrea della Valle and immediately after clouds of smoke. I asked them whether they were insane. The commissioner with the baton answered with a sympathetic smile: "it's not for you, we know you, but the others are shooting against us, police officers have been injured". This news had already been circulated among all the men of the police forces.

I ran inside the Senate, asking whether President Fanfani or the secretary general were there, and then called President Ingrao who advised me to get in touch at once with the minister of the Interior. I answered that Cossiga was nowhere to be found, and that he had even refused to receive or talk to the chairman of the socialist group, Balzamo, and to be informed of the invitation of the Secretaries general of the union.

Since a session was scheduled to begin at 4 o'clock at the Chamber, I ran to Montecitorio again. At 16:05 I asked that the Minister come to refer; the Presidency of the Chamber in vain asked the Minister of the Interior whether he intended to inform Parliament, until 20:00. We intervened constantly in Parliament and at the Presidency, pointing out was was happening.

Mario Ludovico

At about 15:35 I was with three other friends, Emilia Cazzani, Vittoria and her boyfriend in via S. Maria dell'Anima. Despite the fact that there was no one around, the police started firing tear gas bombs from Largo Pasquino. We therefore made for Largo di Tor Sanguigna to distribute flowers to the police officers who were blocking via Agonale. We were confronted by a marshal and by several police officers who obviously did not appreciate our initiative. Only the intervention of a captain of the police saved us from being beaten up.

Giovanna Tatò - Agenzia Italia

At about half past three I saw a number of young people sitting on the ground, in front of a police block in Via Agonale, who held their hands raised. A patrol car drove by at full speed, grazing them and almost running them over, without slowing down.

After that I met two young people, Mario Ludovico and Emilia Cazzani, who told me they had distributed flowers to the police officers who were blocking the access to Piazza Navona. In particular, in Largo Zanardelli a group of policemen felt provoked by this initiative and was about to attack the two young people. Only the intervention of the captain, who said "what the fuck are you doing!" enabled the two to continue.

Rolando Parachini

At 15:45, as I was trying to reach Piazza Navona passing by via della Dogana Vecchia, together with Davide Pallicca, a radio in my hand, I was summoned by a carabiniere who was blocking the street that lead to Corso Rinascimento together with other carabinieri. I pretended not to hear the menacing request, and tried to go back. Two carabinieri left the group and, dragging me by the arms, took me to the middle of the group. The carabiniere who had summoned me snatched the radio from my hands, breaking the antenna, and shouted "these guys are like the ones of Radio Alice: they give orders to each other by radio".

I protested for this illegitimate behaviour and the answer was a series of kicks in the legs.

An plainclothes officer continued the provocation, maintaining that they could do "whatever they wanted to" and, without identifying himself, searched my bag.

The comrades who witnessed the scene urged the intervention of the vice mayor, Alberto Benzoni, who was passing by via della Dogana Vecchia at that moment. As soon as they saw the vice mayor the carabinieri let me go.

Sandro Talone

Having finished my work (collector), I directed my steps toward Piazza Navona at about a quarter past three. I stopped in Piazza S.Pantaleo to hear a conversation between two men: one of them was saying that if there had been a minimum concentration of people he would have ordered to charge without warning. This occurred immediately after. I moved toward the "new church" at the beginning of Via dei Leutari and saw a young man hit by a tear gas bomb at the shoulder and fall on the ground. Immediately after the police reached him and beat him up, clubbing and kicking him. Two traffic policemen came out of a shop and dragged the injured man inside. I also went into the shop to see if I could help him.

Andrea Bises

At a quarter to four I reached Piazza Navona to enter via Agonale. There was a police block preventing access to the square. I therefore tried to reach the northern access of the square, in Via Zanardelli, but there too a police block prevented anyone from getting in. I then stopped with a group of comrades, and we saw the police cordon advance; we drew back. An officer came over and signalled to go away. Together with a group of about a hundred people we drew back, walking with our arms raised, and shouting slogans. A few metres later a police vehicle arrived: officers in camouflaged outfit came out of it with batons and helmets and started to beat up several comrades. At that point I reached the party headquarters: it was under siege, with police officers shooting against the windows.

Francesco Cossiga, Minister of the Interior

At about a quarter to four, with a sudden action, about three hundred demonstrators attacked the police forces in Piazza S. Pantaleo, launching Molotov cocktails and stones. The police were forced to resort to tear gas bombs. After that, in the same square, the police were again attacked with Molotov cocktails hurled by the demonstrators.. The latter, in order to escape the police forces, sought shelter in the alleys in the neighbouring area of Campo de' Fiori, trying to attract the public force into it, as on other occasions, with the well-known technique of urban guerrilla warfare, already experimented in that area. Shortly after, other groups of demonstrators, who also launched Molotov cocktails, were confronted by the police units in Largo Argentina, but were dispersed along Corso Vittorio Emanuele. In parallel, other police units were the object of aggressions on the part of the demonstrators in the area of Piazza delle Cinque Lune and Piazza Tor Sanguigna (Chamber, 13 May 1977).

Renato Gaita - "Il Messaggero"

Unlike what Cossiga states, the accidents of Piazza S. Pantaleo originated as follows. It is approximately a quarter to four. At the far end of Piazza S. Pantaleo, under Palazzo Braschi, several units of the flying squad are set in a semicircle, with armoured vans and a few plainclothes officers. On the other side of the square, at the beginning of Via dei Baullari and on the sidewalk in front of the bar, no more than 200 young people, in silence, who comment on the events. In the middle there is a sidewalk dividing the two lanes with a traffic light. On it, among students and passers-by, a police official, Mr. Luongo, who suddenly grasps a young man together with another plainclothes official to place him under arrest. Many youngsters start to protest, a couple of them whistle, another two grab the youth and pull him on their side, some asks explanations to Mr. Luongo. The latter releases the young man and signals to the police to charge. Immediately, the officers of the flying squad charge, firing tear gas

bombs almost immediately at point-blank. It is only then that a couple of youths throw empty bottles taken outside of the bar and a few stones.

The young people run toward via dei Baullari. In the riot, ten or fifteen girls fall on the ground, among them a woman, a passer-by of about fifty years of age. The group is surrounded by twenty officers of the flying squad, who club and kick them, and strike the women, including the 50-year old one, with their gunstocks for several minutes.

One of the most significant episodes of the policemens' frame of mind is the one I witnessed in Piazza della Cancelleria. A column of the flying squad, preceded by two armoured vans scours Corso Vittorio with a screaming siren, and launches several tear gas bombs to disperse groups of people, among whom passers-by and onlookers. Then they stop launching tear gas bombs. The column advances. On the sidewalk there is an isolated youth. The column passes in front of him. From the last jeep an officer raises the cover, another deliberately aims at the youth with a rifle containing a tear gas bomb and fires. The bomb hits the youth full on the back, a few metres from the jeep, and causes him to hit the ground after several metres. While the column stops, three or four officers come out of the jeep, surround the youth and beat him with their batons all over the body, while another one kicks him full on the face. Then the officers mount on the jeep, the column advances and the youth is left on the ground, bleeding a

ll over. An important thing is that when the episode started, the whole of Corso Vittorio was deserted and there was dead calm.

Two cars were part of the column. On an Alfa Romeo Giulia of the police there was the vice commissioner Corrias. On a beige Alfetta Mr. Improta, an official of the headquarter's political office.

Plainclothes officers started to appear already at three o'clock (fifteen in all, as far as I can tell). They were all dressed in such a way as to be mistaken for demonstrators, except a couple who wore jackets and one with a blue suit and a tie. Some of them exhibited cudgels and iron clubs. Others wore big guns ostentatiously. Already at about four o'clock, at the beginning of the accidents in Piazza S. Pantaleo, some of them were among the flying squad and repeatedly attacked photographers and TV cameramen shouting that they were not allowed to film anything. A couple of them had guns in their hands.

When one of the several charges of the police started in Piazza della Cancelleria, with an armoured jeep in front and about fifteen plainclothes officers, some of them with guns, they advanced protecting themselves behind the jeep and the parked cars. They then moved, completely isolated, at the crossing with via dei Baullari, obviously seeking a direct clash with the demonstrators who had backed in the meanwhile. Later on, another charge of the police, both in Piazza della Cancelleria and along Via dei Baullari. At the crossing between Via dei Baullari and Piazza della Cancelleria, a number of officers of the flying squad in uniform fired tear gas bombs against three or four youths who were squatting behind a parked car, about thirty metres away. Then, one of them quickly took out his gun and fired three shots point-blank against the young people, missing them. Immediately after the same officer replaced the gun in its holster, crouching down, as if he wanted to avoid anyone from seeing that he had used his

gun. Immediately after the officers return to the group of police officers that had remained in Via dei Baullari, ten metres away.

Subsequently, in Piazza della Cancelleria, during another police charge, in which plainclothes officers also participated, one of the latter, having reached the centre of the square with his colleagues, aimed and fired point-blank against the two young men at the end of the square, no more than thirty metres away, and who were throwing only tins and stones at that moment.

During the first two or three hours of clashes in Piazza della Cancelleria and Campo de' Fiori, the demonstrators only launched stones, and no Molotov cocktails, which they did not have. Only later, after the repeated charges of the police and when the clashes had been going on for at least three hours, did the first Molotov cocktails start to appear among the young people. In the meantime, the police had already used firearms several times, firing several shots.

Anna Couvert

At about 15:40 I was walking along Via Zanardelli toward Piazza Navona. At the end of Via Zanardelli a platoon of carabinieri blocked the access. As I was talking with my daughter Susanna, 13 years old, in order to decide what to do, a non-commissioned officer of the carabinieri brusquely invited me to go away. My daughter and I turned round and started to walk away. The same officer caught up with me and after having cudgeled me in the back told me "go home and knit!".

Daniela Contino

At about 15:40 I was in Piazza S. Pantaleo, at the end of the street that leads to the square from Piazza Pasquino. Suddenly, without noticing any provocation or use of Molotov cocktails, the police started firing tear gas bombs against small groups of people who were stationing around Campo de' Fiori. After the first discharge of tear gas bombs I asked a young man who was near the police the reason for this unjustified behaviour, thinking he was a comrade. This young man was about 1.80 cm. tall and wore a light coloured jacket. When he turned round to answer me I noticed a machine gun in his left hand. He shouted to go away.

Sandro Silvestri

I was behind the police cordon, in the alley before Palazzo Braschi, where I had parked my car. I had not put reverse gear, so I started to move the car by pushing it. Through the window I saw a plainclothes officer with a helmet open his jacket, take out his gun, aim and fire. I was bending down, and the bullet hit a street signal.

Filomena Levato

At about a quarter to four I was in the surroundings of Piazza S. Pantaleo. At that moment, the police, which were in front of Palazzo Braschi, charged the people on the sidewalk without any reason. I sought shelter in a doorway near Piazza S. Pantaleo. After about ten minutes a couple of photographers dragged the photographer from "Il Tempo" inside the courtyard: the latter had passed out after being beaten up by the police. The photographers shot pictures at their colleague, saying "this time we'll make you pay for it". However, I never saw those pictures published on any newspaper.

A number of young men, from Piazza Campo de' Fiori toward Piazza della Cancelleria, shouted slogans and in some cases threw small empty bottles, pieces of wood and tins. The police moved at brief intervals from Piazza S. Pantaleo to Piazza della Cancelleria, whence they fired tear bombs.

Silvia Iannarelli

At 15:35 I went inside the shop "Il Bagno" in Corso Vittorio 189 (between Piazza S. Pantaleo and Via della Cancelleria). After about ten minutes I saw the police in Piazza S. Pantaleo launch tear bombs against the young people gathered on the opposite side of Corso Vittorio.

After about five minutes of calm I came out of the shop to go to Piazza Pasquino to fetch my son. In Piazza S. Pantaleo, passing near a group of police officers, I heard a police official tell his men "as soon as another group forms we'll shoot", a fact which occurred after a few minutes.

Roberto Della Rovere - "Momento Sera"

At half past three I was in Piazza Navona and was on my way to Palazzo Braschi whence I heard the first shots. I saw a public security officer who was seizing a camera from a young man. I came closer and protested for this illegitimate behaviour. The same officer asked me to identify myself. I showed him by identification card. Despite the fact that I identified myself the officer pointed his machine gun at me, rested it on my stomach and shouted to mind my own business. At my protest, despite the fact that I had raised my hands, he continued to threaten me, telling me "now I've scared the shit out of you, finally". Following the intervention of a non-commissioned officer the officer lowered the machine gun and walked away.

Carlo Rivolta - "La Repubblica"

After having reached Piazza della Cancelleria after an inspection of the area on my motorcycle, I saw a group of people which I thought might be demonstrators, surrounded by the police. Drawing closer, I realized that this group, which stationed on the left corner of the square (with one's back to Palazzo Braschi) could be nothing but police officers. Several of them wore coloured scarves at the neck, others ostentatiously clutched clubs, sticks and guns. When the first charge of the flying squad started (a group of officers in front, followed at some distance by armoured jeeps), these plainclothes officers joined the police and charged, shooting and rotating their clubs. Then they hid in the alleys and behind the cars.

After a while Mr. Improta came along; I asked him to lower the window of the car to talk, but he refused. I pointed to the plainclothesmen and he did not answer. After a while, officers and armoured vehicles withdrew, without an apparent reason, but several of these plainclothesmen remained in the alleys. My impression was that several of them did not join the rest.

Subsequently, the group that had remained with the flying squad fired again during the clashes. Periodically, officials and officers approached us journalists, saying "careful, they're shooting", but no firearm was ever used on the part of the demonstrators. The only shots I heard were those fired by the plainclothes officer and by a non-commissioned officer of the flying squad, who had hidden behind the corner between Corso Vittorio and Piazza della Cancelleria. In the "back-lines" these officers exhibited guns of different calibre and types (some of them were automatic) other than those used by the police. Behind Piazza S. Pantaleo a FIAT 127 of the police blocked the street.

Marisa Poliani

I live in Via del Governo Vecchio 11. I can testify that the events of 12 May 1977 were mystified both by the television and by the press. On the 12th of May I found myself in the impossibility of leaving my home for at least three hours, because a group of policemen wearing bulletproof outfits and anti-gas masks were stationed at the corner of the street between Corso Vittorio and Vicolo del Governo Vecchio and fired point blank against anyone moving in the surroundings.

From the window, which is a few metres away from the place where these policemen played guerrilla warfare, I saw them fire tear bombs against the newsstand in front of the street and against a child who was close to the stand. Moreover, there were two policemen armed with guns and disguised as ordinary looking young people (T-shirt and jeans) who incited the policemen in uniform to shoot in all directions. Several times they signalled me to back away from the window I was looking from. Twice they pointed a rifle with a gas bomb until I closed the window. Obviously they didn't want any witnesses. When they finally moved away I went into the street and was able to ascertain the curfew atmosphere also in the surrounding streets. I can state that the people who were searched by plainclothes officers, who did not identify themselves, had nothing to do with the demonstration scheduled to take place in Piazza Navona, and were inhabitants of the area. The only weapons I saw were in the hands of the police, who fired

wildly. I saw people who were incredulous and frightened for what was going on, who said "this is Chile!". All those present can testify that there were no provocations on the part of "young thugs", and the clashes with the youngsters and the people who were in Piazza della Cancelleria, broadcast at length by the TV, took place because the police surrounded the square. In the streets I noticed hundreds of tear bombs with relative plastic containers and a great number of cartons containing them. I saw very few stones and few fragments of bottles. I can refer several testimonies of people who live in the area.

Giuseppe Ramadori, lawyer. Denunciation to the Procurator General of Rome, submitted May 14.

I feel I have the duty, in relation to the grave events occurred in our city on Thursday 12th of May, to state all I had the chance to see in the surroundings of Piazza Navona, and this to inform the Attorney General of facts which may have a penal relevance and to provide Mr. Santacroce with further elements in the difficult investigation he is charged with for the death of Giorgiana Masi.

At about four 0'clock of 12 May, I found myself in Piazza S. Pantaleo. In front of Palazzo Braschi, there were several police vehicles and officers in uniform who blocked the accesses to the two streets beside the building which lead in and toward Piazza Navona. Other enforcement officers, they too in uniform, were in the middle of the square, before Corso Vittorio, with their tear gas rifles ready for use. Mingled among the officers and speaking with them were a dozen people, dressed as "youngsters", with long hair, shabby attire, and guns in their hands which were not of the "Beretta" type but another type of gun, bigger and longer. As groups of young people started to appear on the side of Piazza della Cancelleria, the officers in uniform started firing tear bombs, while the plainclothes officers, who had in the meanwhile hidden behind parked cars, fired shots in the direction of the tear bombs which had by this time exploded, and of the smoke which they produced.

In all likelihood the plainclothesmen, armed with guns, were police officers, because they spoke in a friendly manner with the ones in uniform and discussed the conditions of the action. I also heard some of the plainclothes officers reprimand some of the photographers for having been photographed with their cameras; obviously, if the armed plainclothesmen were not police officers the situation would be extremely serious, as this would mean that civilians were allowed to use weapons and violence not only at the presence of the police, but in cooperation with them. Equally serious, on occasions such as that of last 12 May, is the presence of armed enforcement officers disguised as young "extremists", "extraparliamentarians" and "yippies". Citizens, and the police forces themselves, I believe, could fall into serious misunderstandings seeing civilians in a violent and threatening attitude circulating with weapons in their hands.

Even more serious is the fact that, at least in the episodes I witnessed, these plainclothes officers fired without any control or order of superiors immediately present, and acted on their own initiative without a superior ordering to fire, and the weapons could have been aimed on any objective or even on none, and be used blindly in the smoke produced by the tear bombs.

Therefore I believe the situation which formed in the above mentioned episodes was extremely serious as well as dangerous, and in any case outside of the legitimate use of weapons on the part of the police, in particular because of the presence of plainclothes officers, whose aspect did not resemble that of enforcement officers and who did all they could not to appear such, and who were allowed to shoot and circulate with weapons.

In the hope that this episode will be completely clarified, and that the culprits be prosecuted, I remain at your complete disposal for any further explanation.

Piernicola Simeone

At about four o'clock the charge against the group of comrades which was together with Pinto started. Then, at the beginning of Via dell'Arco della Ciambella, I saw a group of people who were backing with their hands raised followed by a unit of the police who were shouting. The comrades turned around and started to walk faster and at that point the officers started to fire tear bombs also point-blank. Then there was a group of carabinieri in front of the offices of "Il Popolo"; some were in plain clothes and carried batons, other were in uniform and armed with FAL light machine guns. As soon as I approached, they started to push me with their batons, I turned around and they started to cudgel me at the back of my head and on the back. I fell on the ground, they continued to beat me up. Then I managed to get up and run away. They fired every time someone appeared from the alleys. I reached the party, and several carabinieri were shooting against the windows and against the sign of the Bar Pascucci, next to t

he party. Three carabinieri were stationed at the corner of Largo Argentina, others on the roof of the theatre, if they saw someone coming they fired three or four tear bombs. At a certain point an old man came along on a scooter, with a woman on the back seat. A carabiniere aimed at him to fire a tear bomb, and if he hadn't changed direction he would have been hit.

Luigi Irdi - Corriere della Sera

In the meanwhile, Corso Vittorio started to be crowded with people: onlookers, radical and other demonstrators who had not managed to reach Piazza Navona.It seems that the police were given the order to disperse any form of gathering with the use of tear gas. In order to clear Corso Vittorio, the armoured jeeps and vehicles of the police departed in a column with sirens on from Piazza S. Pantaleo. Everyone ran in the surrounding alleys, no one, absolutely no one, attempted a reaction. On Corso Vittorio, a group of people had sought shelter in front of the gate of a religious institution protected by an indentation in the wall. At that moment I was on the opposite side of the street, behind the corner of a perpendicular road. A young man of about twenty runs on the sidewalk. The last police jeep passes and one of the officers sitting behind points his rifle with the tear bomb against him. He fires from a distance of no more than five metres.

The youth falls on the ground screaming with pain. The bomb has hit him on the back, just below the nape. He remains in that position, with his body half on the sidewalk and half on the street. The police jeep stops, a few officers come out, beat the youth up, drag him to the jeep, then leave him on the street and leave.

Filomena Levato

At about a quarter past four plainclothes officers arrived, thereafter the police jeeps. They started to fire tear bombs against the demonstrators who had in the meanwhile placed several cars at the far end of Piazza della Cancelleria and who had stopped launching objects because they had clearly finished the few they had found on the street. Amid the smoke of the gas bombs policemen with pointed weapons advanced, crouching between the cars. Among these I later recognized the officer with the T-shirt with a blue stripe on it; the latter, together with another colleague in a blue suit, had advanced and reached the centre of the square with pointed guns.

At about then to five I came out of the gate to go to work. The scene of the accidents had moved to Piazza Campo de' Fiori.

Carla Poli

At about a quarter past four I reached my home together with a friend, Bianca Pomeranzi. As I was walking from Piazza Pasquino to Via dei Leutari (where I live), despite the fact that there was no gathering and the street was deserted, a few policemen fired a tear bomb at us. Subsequently, from the corner of Via dei Leutari, I saw a number of plainclothes officers in Piazza della Cancelleria fire with guns toward Campo de' Fiori.

Augusto Angeletti and Gaetana Latini in Angeletti

On 12 May at about four o'clock in Piazza S. Pantaleo my wife and I happened to witness the beginning of the disorders which were followed by the tragic events. We had left home with the intention of reaching Piazza Navona, and after parking the car in Lungotevere di Castello at 15:25 we crossed Ponte Umberto I and passed by Via Zanardelli, where there were many officers of the Guardia di Finanza with vehicles; we continued through Piazza Tor Sanguigna and Via dell'Anima, the perpendicular streets of which in the direction of Piazza Navona were blocked by the police armed with batons and shields and by carabinieri. The vehicular traffic was interrupted and there were few pedestrians, mainly tourists.

Having passed in front of "Pasquino", we entered via S. Pantaleo, at the end of which, on the square, there was a police block with vehicles blocking the street and several policemen armed with rifles ready to fire tear bombs pointed toward via S. Pantaleo. At that moment in the street there were us two, three elderly foreign tourists and a photographer who took pictures of the policemen and who told us, as we overtook him, "dangerous"; perhaps he thought we were tourists or perhaps he was a foreigner himself.

We continued toward Piazza S. Pantaleo and we passed by some soldiers and stopped on the right hand sidewalk of the square at the corner with the street. On the side where we stopped, separated only by a parked car, there was a stout plainclothesman grasping a gun, and further on another plainclothesman with a machine gun, both pointed toward Corso Vittorio, behind the policemen in uniform. We noticed that the latter were rather restless, and pointed toward via S. Pantaleo. A stout middle aged plainclothesman tried to keep them calm, and kept saying "take it easy, boys, it's not time yet". Nonetheless, disregarding his orders, they advanced in Via S.Pantaleo and started to fire tear bombs and gunshots. At this point my wife and I, frightened and with our eyes irritated by the smoke, made for Corso Vittorio, and while we were crossing the street to reach the opposite sidewalk to avoid the shots that were fired in Piazza della Cancelleria, we saw a few young men who were running away, crouching amid the smoke

and the shots. It was a terrible experience, and we had the clear impression that the police attacked without any provocation and without any apparent reason, and that, at least at that moment and in that shape, there was no offensive reaction but simply a general rush. We wanted to call on the same evening, but in our home in Rome we don't have a telephone and only yesterday evening heard from Radio Radicale that they were looking for witnesses of the events and the telephone number. For any further explanation we are at your disposal in Ceccano, Piazza XXV July No. 29, tel. 63106.

With our statement we wish to contribute to the ascertainment of the responsibilities for the grave events occurred on that occasion and out of an act of conscience.

Valter Vecellio

As of four o'clock, at the first police station, people come and go, taken in from the oddest places for controls. A young man, a plainclothes soldier, is taken with the charge "defamation of the armed forces" and arrested; coming out of a bus, in Piazza Venezia, his girlfriend, seeing a unit of policemen, had said "Jesus, how many of them!". The commander believes there has been an offence, takes the boy, has him beaten up, just as to teach him a lesson (one shouldn't go around with a girl who speaks that way) and has him arrested. Later, people who come from Campo de' Fiori, Largo Argentina, the whole centre. Outside I can hear the sound of tear bombs being fired. Only the following day I learn that Giorgiana has been killed. A group of young people in track suits are brought inside, they are no older than 18 or 19; in the prison of Regina Coeli they are informed that they are charged with "contribution in homicide", but the judge releases them two days later. Other people are arrested: one guy because the

y found a prohibited knife in his bag; it is a 7cm-long knife, but he's a yippie, with long hair. The policemen tease him all night long, but he is extremely patient, he never reacts in any way. They keep him handcuffed the whole time (eight hours, with handcuffs that get tighter with each movement of the wrist). Another one is arrested because they found a real knife in his bag. "I've been the victim of an aggression", he explains, "and I don't want to run any risks". He adds "I've never used it but it gives me a sense of security". He's a young man with a beard, no older than 25, he says he's a socialist; he signed for the referendums, and he concedes that, with or without a knife, when they attacked him they beat him up all the same. It seems they arrested him in Piazza del Popolo at four o'clock.

I am the last to be questioned, together with Marco, whom they arrested with me. No one knows why they took him here and when. I see some men arrive, they are "disguised" policemen. One of them strikes me particularly, the one who arrested the yippie; he is thin and of a normal stature. He wears a washed-out denim suit like many youngters. He's blond and wears a thin moustache. He keeps his revolver (the same type used by the "vigilantes" of the banks, judging from the gunstock) hanging from the belt. He takes another pair of handcuffs, a chain and a sling from his pocket. He leaves everything on the desk and leaves. Then at midnight, they charge me on a patrol car and take me to Regina Coeli.

Giorgina Rondinara

Together with my children Loredana and Umberto at about four o'clock I was in Corso Vittorio, and was just coming out of Via dei Leutari.

I saw the police that were firing tear bombs from Piazza S. Pantaleo toward Campo de' Fiori. Another group of police officers were firing tear bombs on the opposite side of the street. Some of these bombs landed in Piazza S. Pantaleo and hit the policemen themselves. For this reason a group of people that was with me started to clap their hands at the police officers, who seemed to be firing at themselves and acting in an extremely confused manner. Following this initiative, a number of police jeeps made for us. A police officer who was in one of these jeeps fired a tear bomb from a very short distance against a young man who was running on Corso Vittorio. The bomb hit him in the nape. At that moment I was in front of a main door (N. 187) next to a shop of bathroom accessories in Corso Vittorio ("Il bagno").

I came out to see whether I could help the youngster and I saw four police officers beating him up and kicking him. We could not intervene because the police fired a series of tear bombs and we were forced to close the door and seek shelter inside.

Immediately after we came out and saw the youngster wounded by the tear bombs in the shop. He was being treated by two traffic policemen who intervened and by the shop owner.

Silvia Iannarelli

AT about half past four, from inside the shop (two traffic policemen were also there, who had sought shelter inside) I saw a column of police vehicles inside which there were policemen who fired tear bombs. I also saw a young man hit at the nape by an object which I cannot identify, fall on the sidewalk in front of the shop. Four officers came out of the last jeep and beat up the youngster kicking him in the groin, in the face and cudgelling him. The scene lasted about one minute.

I was about to help the youngster when the two traffic policemen who were in the shop offered to take him inside the shop for a first aid treatment.

Inside the shop I treated the youngster, who was wounded in the forehead and bruised all over the body.

At about six o'clock, from within the shop, I could see a group of policemen in uniform with guns in their hands and three plainclothes officers armed with guns and sticks at the corner between Corso Vittorio and Piazza della Cancelleria.

I cannot state with certainty that the shots came from the guns in the hands of the police. However, I can confirm the coincidence between the sight of the officers with guns aimed low and the sound of shots.

I recognized the man photographed by "Il Messaggero" wearing a T-short with a blue stripe among the plainclothes officers.

At about half past six I saw a plainclothes police official approach two couples of young people who were examining a part of tear bomb they had picked up from the ground. I could only see that the young man was forced to throw the object on the ground, and that the official asked to have the film contained in the camera. The same scene occurred when a person picked up a case and the same person in plain clothes ordered to throw it on the ground.

I noticed that one of the plainclothes officer was carrying a rifle which was different from the one used to fire tear bombs.

Francesco Cossiga, Minister of the Interior

New accidents occurred between five o'clock and half past seven in the area of Piazza S. Pantaleo and Largo Argentina as well as at the beginning of Via Arenula, where a barricade was emplaced and later removed by the public force. Another barricade was removed on Corso Vittorio Emanuele and on Ponte Garibaldi, where the demonstrators had blocked the way with vehicles. During these last, grave episodes, the tanks of a number of cars were voided and the fuel, spread on the street, was set fire to, thus creating a barrier of fire which made the immediate intervention of the police difficult. The rising tension and the aggravated dangers that could ensue from this aberrant bravado kept the police forces active at the beginning of Ponte Garibaldi. It is precisely at that moment that, in Piazza Belli, that is, on the opposite side of the bridge, the young Giorgiana Masi was killed, hit in the abdomen by a bullet. According to the first controls and the first testimonies, it seems that Giorgiana Masi was running f

rom Piazza Belli to Viale Trastevere together with other young people.

In the accidents eight people were furthermore injured, one of whom was hit by a firearm. Among the police forces, a carabiniere was wounded in the wrist by a firearm shot. During the police operations, 49 persons were identified, 11 of whom arrested for various offences, including attempted homidie, personal injury and unlawful carrying of weapons. Following is a brief account of the events.

Moreover, further episodes for which a relation of connection seems evident, that of violence, cannot be underestimated. At about half past two this morning, a powerful bomb was made to explode in front of the secondary entrance of the garage of the Ministry of the Interior, in Via Tommaso Campanella. The explosion considerably damaged the entrance, the civilian cars parked in the neighbouring street and three vehicles of the public security parked inside. Moreover, the explosion smashed the windows of many apartments.

Pannella: when will you organize the arson of the Reichstag?

Giglia (DC): Enough!

Villa (DC): Enough, you marabout!

Cossiga: After the explosion, a number of witnesses saw a high-powered car leave the scene with five people on board. During the subsequent patrol services, a patrol car blocked a car at about 2:40, inside which they found a bag with 80 sticks of explosive, a slow match with detonator, an empty holster, a leaflet of the movement of "struggle for university". The three occupants of the above mentioned car were arrested.

As to the prohibition, decided by the prefect of Rome following dispositions of the Government, to hold public demonstrations in the city and in the province of Rome until 31 May, I must make it clear that it corresponds, in my opinion and in the opinion of the Government, to objective reasons having to do with the safeguard not only of the order but also of the security itself of the citizens. After the serious accidents recently occurred in the capital in the area of the university as in other central areas of the city, accidents in which, unfortunately, extremely unfortunate episodes have occurred. The suspension of the public demonstrations was to be considered as a prevention, fully justified by the obvious purpose of avoiding further occasions of unrest and provocative infiltration (Chamber, 13 May 1977)

Isa Moroni

I walked away from Piazza Navona after the first signs of accidents, I walked toward the statue of Pasquino and tried to run toward Via del Governo Vecchio to seek shelter in the headquarters of the MLD. A unit of the flying squad ran toward me and other comrades, firing tear bombs at point-blank, we could hear them whistle near our legs. In the meanwhile, there were people who opened their windows and threw empty bottles and other objects. We finally reached the MLD, remained there for a while and then reached the party. I found the headquarters almost in a state of siege. When we looked out of the window to see what was happening they fired at us, so we had to close the windows and the shutters, but the police continued to hit them. Many people sought shelter inside the party. The police had smashed a comrade's radio because he was listening to Radio Radicale. They shouted it was like Radio Alice and beat him up. At a certain point, at about half past six, I had to go home and I went downstairs. I had left

my scooter in the street. I barely had the time to remove the lock and start it and I saw a carabiniere at the corner of Via Torre Argentina with a rifle who looked at me with incredible calm, crouched on his knees, aimed and fired. The bomb grazed my right leg, because I moved. Then I managed to run away on the scooter.

Walter Baldassarri

I arrived at the Radical party at about five o'clock, they were shooting tear bombs everywhere. They were of two types, the usual type, producing white smoke, and others that produced an orange coloured smoke. Obviously the latter contained toxic substances, because after breathing some of it I felt terribly ill and vomited. I was searched, but all they found was a pack of cigarettes, and they let me go up. From the party it was impossible for more than two people to go out, because any tiny group became a target for the police.

1st injured

I was on my way to Piazza Navona. At about five o'clock I was in Piazza Farnese with a group of young people. In front of the restaurant 'La Carbonara' in Piazza Campo de' Fiori, the police were stationing with two armoured jeeps. In the group I noticed a young man dressed with black trousers, a denim jacket and a yellow shirt, long moustache, medium length hair, thin, about 1.70 cm, who was signalling with his hands and saying "watch it" to the police. At that moment, the young people were making for Campo de' Fiori. Other people noticed the strange behaviour of this man, and shouted "he's a police officer!" Raising his jacket, the same man shouted "I'm not a police officer". But people ran away from the person all the same. Another person came out of the group, shouting "I know him". At this point there was a moment of confusion, following the formation of another group of young people in Via dei Baullari. I distinctly saw this individual clumsily disguised as left wing terrorist advancing in the direction

of the police, imitating, with a gesture of the hand, the sign used by the extremists who used P38 guns, and turning round several times to see what the young people were doing. Subsequently I lost sight of him. I followed the young people who were advancing toward Corso Vittorio until the centre of Piazza della Cancelleria. As I was at the beginning of the square on the right hand side (opposite to Palazzo della Cancelleria), I heard several shots being fired and was hit by a bullet coming from Corso Vittorio in the wrist and in the shoulder. At first I didn't realize I was wounded at the shoulder. I went to a surgery of Vicolo del Gallo where I was given first aid treatment. Subsequently I was transported...where a bullet was extracted from my shoulder.

Marco Tirabovi

At about half past five I was going to friends' place, passing by Piazza della Cancelleria. I saw a number of police officers on Corso Vittorio. At a certain point I heard a shot fired from Corso Vittorio and I distinctly heard a car I was close to vibrate. The car was a dark coloured FIAT 127, and was in the middle of Piazza della Cancelleria. Obviously it had been pushed there by the youth.

A few young people opened the door of the car to follow the trajectory of the shot, which had penetrated the right door and made a hole in the front seat and the back seat and had stopped in the boot. These same young people whom I do not know gave me the bullet, which I now give into the hands of Roberto Cicciomessere.

The photographer of "Il Messaggero" , who also took pictures of the bullet, witnessed the above mentioned facts.

Leandro Turriani - Il Messaggero

At ten past six the plainclothes officers advanced in Via dei Baullari, and this time they had sticks in their hands. On first sight they might have been mistaken for demonstrators. From Via del Pellegrino the officers in uniform also advanced. Together with four photo reporters I hid inside a door. An officer aimed his rifle against us. In Piazza della Cancelleria two officers in uniform reached the right door, where I believe there is a church or a convent. They take out their guns and start shooting on the demonstrators point-blank. I try to photograph them with my camera. One of the two realizes this, and points his gun at me. A few minutes later they leave, after having picked up the shells.

At 18:32 new shots are fired point-blank in Via del Pellegrino. The officers in uniform fire a rifle shot in addition to tear bombs, the demonstrators answer by throwing stones. A FIAT 500 comes along with a woman and a girl on board. They are crying because of the tear gas. I come close and the woman says they need to reach the station to pick up some relatives who are coming from Palermo. I ask her to take out a white handkerchief, I raise my identification card and the woman was finally able to make her way to Largo Argentina. From 18:40 to 18:50 the police officers fire at least twenty shots. There is a moment's pause. Renzo Rossellini advances. "Where are you going?" I ask him. "I'm trying to make them go out", he says. Behind him there is Emma Bonino who is crying because of the gas. "For God's sake let's try to get out before they kill someone". In Piazza Campo de' Fiori the young people gather under the statue of Giordano Bruno. They decide to get out of the square, but not to leave the comrades who

are besieged by the police in Via Arenula. I hear that there are allegedly five injured from firearm shots among the demonstrators.

Piero Orsini - Agenzia Italia

At about half past six I was in Via dei Baullari, behind a group of young people who were on their way to Corso Vittorio. I distinctly heard a series of firearm shots and I saw the young people run toward Piazza Farnese. Some of them were carrying a tall young man, with a moustache, who had been wounded in the thigh, presumably by a bullet. The young people stopped the bleeding with a belt, and stopped a car to put the injured person on it.

Subsequently I saw another young person wounded in the eye by a tear bomb. He was put on an ambulance.

Renato Cianfarani

At about 18:15-18:30 I was accidentally in Via dei Baullari, as I hadn't managed to reach Piazza Navona, where the celebration was to take place. I saw a young man wounded in the calf by a shot. A few young people carried him toward Piazza Farnese. They stopped a car and put him on it.

Immediately after, in Piazza Farnese, I saw a young man being put on an ambulance: he was visibly wounded in the eye. Moreover, I saw a large bullet hole on the window of a private apartment on the first floor of Via dei Baullari.

Renata Graziano, actress

From 18:00 to 18:20 I was in the boutique "Tania" in Corso Vittorio 175. From the shutters I was able to witness the events of Piazza della Cancelleria, at the corner with Corso Vittorio. I saw a group of police officers, some of whom were wearing bulletproof vests, fire tear bombs toward Campo de' Fiori. Some of these tear bombs and a few stones were launched back against the police. I distinctly saw some officers in uniform fire with guns toward Campo de' Fiori. A friend of mine had told me by phone not to reach her in the above mentioned boutique because they were shooting. She also told me that some of the officers were shooting with rifles.

2nd wounded person

At about six o'clock I was in Piazza della Cancelleria, at the crossing with Campo de' Fiori. To avoid being hit by a heavy volley of tear bombs I sought shelter behind a blue Simca on the side of Piazza della Cancelleria, opposite to the Palazzo della Sacra Rota. As I was moving toward the opposite side of the square, I distinctly saw firearms being fired and at the same time felt an acute pain in the right ear. I thought I had been struck by a tear bomb. Subsequently a few young people told me I had been hit by a bullet, because I had a small hole in the ear lobe. I was brought to the house of a person I do not know, where a young person treated the ear by suturing it with three stitches.

Lamberto Marchioni

At about half past six I was near my newpaperstand in Via Cerri, together with about seven people. I was keeping an eye on the FIAT 600 which I had parked beside the newsstand and where I had loaded the newspapers. A number of officers or carabinieri in uniform (about four) who were in Corso Vittorio Emanuele in front of the shop "Real Mobili" ordered me to go away. At my negative answer, which I had motivated with the need to keep an eye on my car, they fired tear bombs at me point-blank. The following day I submitted a statement of the facts to a marshal of the carabinieri who normally buys newspapers at my newsstand.

Maurizio Della Porta Rodiani

In Piazza S. Damasco, at about half past six, I witnessed the launching of stones both on the part of the demonstrators and of the plainclothes officers, whereby a number of cars were damaged.

Riccardo Galgano

At about half past six, while I was at the corner between via dei Baullari and Piazza Farnese, I distinctly heard a number of shots being fired and the whistle of the bullets passing next to me. I immediately sought shelter behind the corner (near the newsstand) and saw some young people drag a wounded person. The latter was wounded in the left thigh, presumably he had been hit by a bullet. I offered to take him to the nearest hospital, but there wasn't enough space in my Bianchina for the person to lie down.

After about fifteen minutes I saw other young people who were carrying a young man wounded in the eye by a tear bomb from Piazza Campo de' Fiori through vicolo della Corta.

Emma Bonino, M.P.

At about six o'clock of the 12th of May I went to Piazza Navona once again and I remained on the stand for about a quarter of an hour.

I then reached the end of the square, toward Corso Vittorio, with Gianfranco Spadaccia, because a series of violent charges of the police were under way at that moment. However, we did not leave the square and subsequently returned to the stand.

There, Pino Pietrolucci proposed to make another control toward Corso Vittorio. Having reached Piazza Pasquino, a young man comes out of a bar, eating a piece of pizza. He is wearing jeans, a T-shirt with a large blue stripe on it, and a leather "Tolfa" bag, in pure yippie style. A stick protruded from the bag. He exchanged a couple of sentences with the policemen in the area, and made for Corso Vittorio, stopped to talk to a police official and shortly after moved toward Piazza della Cancelleria which was blocked by policemen who let him go. These manoeuvres of the plainclothes officer (going to and from the official and Piazza della Cancelleria, disappearing toward Campo de' Fiori) occurred two or three times. Shortly after his last talk with the police official, the journalists and photographers at the beginning of via dei Baullari are brutally cleared by the police, who shout (recorded sentence): "If you don't get out we'll shoot you". Pino Pietrolucci was with these journalists, I was standing on the t

raffic island of Corso Vittorio. Pino summons me across the street toward Via dei Baullari, and I talk with Renzo Rossellino, who proposes to act as a guarantor for the outflow of the besieged group in Campo de' Fiori toward Via Giulia and Ponte Sisto. I talk with Improta, who accepts to make the police tanks withdraw; the latter had advanced into Via dei Baullari and kept the demonstrators "at bay" with charges of tear bombs. Throughout my permanence in Corso Vittorio I often heard gunshots. Having cleared Via dei Baullari from the police vans and from the policemen, I started toward Campo de' Fiori with the journalists, asking those present to move toward Via Giulia, which, Improta assured me, would be "clear".

Those present meet briefly in assembly on the square and decide to accept. I go with them toward Piazza Farnese. I stop at the corner of the square. I see them go toward Ponte Sisto without accidents. I saw no guns, some of them had stones in their hands. I went back to Piazza Navona. At this point it was about ten to eight.

Marina Ventura

In Campo de' Fiori a rather large group of young people was lingering in the surroundings of the entry of Via dei Baullari; on the opposite end of the alley, at the corner with Corso Vittorio Emanuele, the police were firing tear bombs against the demonstrators without pauses. Most of these crossed the air between the young people at a low height, others bounced along the alley or landed in the rear part of the square.

Several shots were heard, other than those of the mortars, probably gunshots; young people who were at the beginning of the alley fell on the ground and were dragged away by their comrades, some of them stopped cars to transport the wounded ones. A young man who had been struck full on the back was raised and transported toward the centre of the square and from there toward the French embassy, where an ambulance arrived shortly after. The number of shots increased; often, in addition to the clear-cut noise of the tear bombs I could perceive hacking shots, probably firearms. Someone shouted: "they're killing us", or "they're shooting at us".

I was with a journalist on the right hand side of the square with respect to the beginning of Via dei Baullari, I was very close to the group of demonstrators but none of them had firearms. Shortly before the arrival of a delegation of journalists accompanied by Mrs. Bonino, a young man run toward us asking for help because there were "three comrades wounded by bullets". On the terrace of a building fairly close to the square, on the left hand side of Via dei Baullari, I saw three men who looked down at the demonstrators; the shutters of the building were shut.

Text of a tape recorded by Pino Pietrolucci from Radio Radicale

18:15 approximately

(rec.) "A further charge toward Campo de' Fiori is imminent". Suddenly, when the order to attack was about to be given, a few enforcement officers approached a group of journalists and photographers stationing along the wall immediately behind them and order them to go away. One of them conceitedly shouts "go away, you have to go away, fucking hell, go away or we'll shoot you" (pointing his rifle at them). Journalists and photographers are pushed away and protest. In the meanwhile, the charge of the police starts with several tear bombs and, from one corner, covered by smoke, a plainclothes officer shoots with a gun against the demonstrators.

18:30 approximately

Renzo Rossellini reaches Piazza Campo de' Fiori and asks the besieged comrades whether he can negotiate a way out with Improta. He comes back agitating a handkerchief and speaks with Improta. (rec.) "I can make them go out from Piazza Farnese and Via Giulia", Rossellini says. "But will they go?" Improta answers. Rossellini: "Then we can let them go through Via Giulia, as long as you give orders to avoid any accidents". Improta: "A colleague has gone to inform that they are going away, there are no problems, no one will charge them there; therefore from the alley they can go through the Lungotevere, Trastevere, no problem, they don't have to pass here necessarily".

At this point, I propose the guarantee of Emma Bonino and of a few journalists present, and the proposal is accepted. A few minutes later we are already in a group making for Campo de' Fiori in a neutral area. The first encounter with the barricaded comrades is dramatic. (rec.) "There are four comrades wounded by gunshots, we can't trust them anymore". They speak to Emma (rec.): "You have to come with us, because we don't trust the agreements".

In the meanwhile a brief assembly is held in Piazza Campo de' Fiori, and they decide to clear the square. (rec.): Tomorrow the second day of nonviolent political struggle, but also of self-defence, according to my proposal. We can't trust them any more". (rec.): "We aren't prepared for an adequate answer, we have thrown stones versus guns, and it's no use". At this point, they accompany them without accidents until past Ponte Sisto and we walk back.

Leandro Turriani - Il Messaggero

19:20. In Via Arenula four or five young people are stopped and loaded on a police van. In front of the Ministry of Justice a group of carabinieri charge a few young people, including two nuns. Someone managed to penetrate through the gate of the Ministry, others are shoved against the wall with raised hands.I pass the bridge and see about a hundred demonstrators who barricading the bridge with cars. Fuel is extracted and made to spread on the ground, but no car is set fire to. Shortly after eight o'clock gunshots and tear bombs are suddenly heard. I hear a woman scream. I turn round and see a young man on a motorcycle who was falling off. Next to him a lady of about 35 who was limping. I try to help her with other people. She is bleeding from the thigh, loaded on a car and brought to the hospital. At ten past nine, together with my colleagues Cianca and Gaita, I get back to the office. Until then I saw no cars on fire, nor did I hear demonstrators shoot.

Gianni Santolamazza

At about twenty past nine I was in Piazza G. Belli at the centre of Lungotevere Anguillara, in front of the gas station. A police officer who was standing beside his motorcycle together with another officer of the police and two plainclothesmen took out his gun, charged the bullet and shot point-blank against the comrades who were on the Lungotevere near Ponte Garibaldi. I rushed to inform a local policeman who was in Piazza Belli, under the statue, of the events. The latter started toward the place where the police officer had fired. At that moment the police started firing tear bombs and advanced on Ponte Garibaldi in the direction of Piazza Sonnino.

Giovanni Salvatore

On 12 May at about a quarter past seven I was on Ponte Garibaldi, where I had to pass by to reach the centre, and more precisely to reach my brother's shop in Via del Governo Vecchio.

On Lungotevere Sanzio, coming from Ponte Sisto, I reached the head of the procession. At that point, the police, which were at the corner between Ponte Garibaldi and Lungotevere Sanzio, started launching tear bombs. I ran to a street parallel to Viale Trastevere, near Piazza Sonnino. At that moment (19:30) the police walked back and stopped at the entrance of Ponte Garibaldi, opposite Via Arenula. At the beginning of the bridge (opposite Trastevere) there were many people, no doubt the ones that had been dispersed shortly before, and I too advanced to ask what was going on. Many people were sitting on the steps of the sidewalks around Piazza G. Belli, others gathered in small groups, whereas someone placed two cars (a Citroen...) across the bridge. On the Lungotevere Anguillara, beside the gas station, there were two traffic policemen on motorcycle.

This was the general scene when, at about 19:40, the police on the other side of the bridge advanced, shooting tear bombs. Amid the noise of the tear bombs clearer shots could be heard distinctly, probably coming from firearms. After the first shots everyone was running toward Viale Trastevere when I too started to run. In front of me, a few metres on the left, a young woman whom I overtook fell head on. At this point I turned round and saw that the young woman was still lying on the ground. I went back to help her get up. I tried to pull her up but I couldn't manage it. I asked for help while tear bombs and other shots could be heard, coming from Ponte Garibaldi. At this point three people stopped and we raised the girl by her arms and legs. I took her left arm. The point in which she fell is more or less near the Atac Taxi sign next to the traffic light, in the surroundings of Piazza Belli.

After raising her we transported her near the terminal of the buses 56-60, next to the public lavatories. During that time the girl muttered "God it hurts". The person transporting her by her right arm said "it must have been the fall, don't worry". I thought she had tripped over or that she had been hit by a tear bomb, also because, after putting her on the ground, we noticed no blood. Lying on the ground, the girl's body suddenly became stiff, jaws clenched, arms stretched, eyes wide open. Someone said it was an epileptic fit. A person who identified himself as a newly graduated doctor came to give first treatment. At that point someone said a car had stopped (a very old white Appia), we therefore raised the girl and laid her down on the back seat. Next to the person driving sat a young man with a hat; asked by the doctor to take the girl to the hospital he said he would have taken her himself. I remember that when the girl fell there were no cars in movement, nor big motorcycles. The following day I recog

nized Giorgiana Masi in the papers as the girl I had helped. I wish to specify that when I loaded the girl on the car she was no longer as rigid as she was before. While I was helping her lie down I noticed she rested a hand on her abdomen. Three to five minutes elapsed between the moment she fell and the moment we put her on the car.

Alfeo Benedettini

At about half past seven of 12 May 1977 I was at the beginning of Ponte Garibaldi, on the side of Trastevere, on the sidewalk above the bridge itself.

A great number of people, young people, were occupying the beginning of the bridge, the whole area of the crossing and the square of the monument to Belli, causing a chaotic jam of cars that made it impossible for cars to pass in any direction.

Suddenly I heard a shot and a general escape from the area of the Lungotevere, not in a confused and disorderly manner, but in a circle, with the centre in a point where I could see two traffic policemen on motorbikes, one of whom, the tallest one, was calmly replacing something in his holster.

I was distracted by the fact that a third local policeman, not on motorcycle, who until shortly before had tried alone and in vain to make the traffic outflow on the bridge, after having removed his hat and after a rather long moment of hesitation as to the direction in which to run, started to run away in a rush, and seemed frightened, toward the point where the shot had come from, that is, going against the current.

I looked around for a while, remaining in the same point, and then looked again at the spot where I had seen the two policemen on motorcycle, at the beginning of the new stretch of Lungotevere after the square, but there was no one there except cars which started to move slowly.

After a period of uncertainty as to what to do, I started to move toward the monument and then toward Viale Trastevere with the intention of going home.

I had overtaken the bus terminal and had almost reached the fines service when I saw the first tear bombs arrive on the square of the monument to Belli.

Lucia Durando

I was walking with two friends of mine on Lungotevere degli Anguillara and we were making for Trastevere. I heard a gunshot and instinctively turned toward the point where the shot had come from. I saw an officer of the municipal police who was turning his back to me, at the corner of the Lungotevere with Piazza Belli, who fired a second shot in the direction opposite to me and aiming low. After having fired the shot the officer climbed on the motorbike and a local policeman sat behind him. The motorcycle left rather quickly and behind it a second one departed with an officer and a plainclothesman who was wearing a light blue denim. We ran away and, having reached the surroundings of Piazza Mastai, I noticed a clock, it was 19:50.

Daniele Mazzanti

I was with my two friends Enzo Inghingolo and Lucia Durando on the Lungotevere degli Anguillara, coming from the Isola Tiberina on the sidewalk bordering the river, when a gunshot attracted my attention toward the opposite side of the street, a few metres away. I saw an officer of the municipal police with a gun in his hand aiming low in the direction of Piazza Belli, at the beginning of Ponte Garibaldi. The officer then left on a motorcycle of the municipal police driven by another officer and followed by a motocycle of his colleague with a plainclothesman on the back seat.

Luca Del Re

As to the events occurred in the area of Trastevere on the period of time between 19:45 and 20:00, as I was passing by Ponte Garibaldi I noticed several carabinieri, both on one side and on the other of the entrance, standing at the beginning of the bridge; suddenly the attention of most of the people who were on Piazza Gioacchino Belli at that moment (while the police and the carabinieri withdrew in the direction of the bridge, opposite Via Arenula) was attracted by two motorcycles of the municipal police standing in the stretch of road behind the statue of Belli, followed by a car of the municipal police.

Simultaneously to the passage of these vehicles of the municipal police I noticed the launching of two or three Molotov cocktails in the direction of the these, which was almost immediately followed by a first volley of tear bombs on the part of the police and the carabinieri on Ponte Garibaldi. I distinctly saw a few other officers in uniform and in plain clothes protect themselves with the indentation in the wall at the centre of Ponte Garibaldi and aim with their guns in the direction of Trastevere, where people were running. I saw all this thanks to the fact that as I was in a lateral position compared to the one where the tear bombs were being launched, I was not affected by the smoke of the tear bombs.

I therefore started running, and having reached the "border" between Piazza Belli and Piazza Sonnino I turned once again toward Ponte Garibaldi and saw, amid the few people who had remained in the proximity of the bridge, a girl in a group of other people fall on the ground, immediately assisted by those who were seeking shelter with her.

I can assure that apart from these people who were running there was no one else but the policemen on the bridge.

As far as the girl who fell is concerned, a few minutes later she was loaded on a car and taken away.

Vincenzo Inghingolo

I was with my two friends on the Lungotevere degli Anguillara coming from the bridge on the Isola Tiberina when I heard a shot. I immediately turned toward Ponte Garibaldi and saw an officer of the municipal police with a gun in his hand fire a shot against a group of people who were in front of Ponte Garibaldi, aiming low. The officer hesitated a moment, then got on his motorbike and left with his colleague, he too on a motorbike. The two carried a local policeman and a plainclothesman (a light blue denim shirt and white trousers). After they left, a charge of the police started on Ponte Garibaldi. At that point I started walking toward Piazza Mastai, rather shaken by the episode.

Lelio Leone

I personally witnessed the moment in which Giorgiana fell. We arrived at the beginning of Ponte Garibaldi, when the police was withdrawing toward Largo Arenula. We advanced until the middle of the bridge, at the middle. In the meanwhile the police charged some comrades who ran away in the direction of Largo Argentina. There was no one on the bridge. A few minutes elapsed and the police charged again in our direction. First we stopped at the beginning of the bridge, on the opposite side of Piazza Sonnino. Then the police charged again...with tanks. They ran and shot a lot; few tear bombs and many shots. Together with me at that moment there were a dozen people. The other comrades, near Largo Sonnino were forming barricades with cars. We had trouble running beyond these barricades which the comrades had built behind us. There were one thousand comrades running. It is absurd to say that the shots came from their part; I was one of the last and I saw everyone with their backs to me. I was hit in the leg by a tea

r bomb, I bent over and was forced to turn around. I saw everything: a comrade, Giorgiana, was running at about a metre's distance from me. She fell flat on her face. She tried to get up but it seemed she had tripped over. Then we helped her and loaded her on an Appia. We took her to the hospital. I wish to underline one thing: Giorgiana was close to me, in a group that was running past the barricades which one thousand comrades had formed further on. Radio Città Futura said she was hit in the abdomen, and the thing puzzles me. The shots were coming from the part where the police was. The autopsy, according to which Giorgiana was hit in the back, reconfirmed by doubts. There were many plainclothes officers together with the policemen. The ones in uniform were on the tanks, with open windows. In the middle of the bridge there are two indentations. That is where the ones in plain clothes positioned themselves and fired.

Franco Sircana, IRI official

As I was going home, passing by the Lungotevere dell'Anguillara, in Piazza Belli, near Dante's house, I saw groups of young people in Piazza Belli and at the beginning of Ponte Garibaldi. The bridge was practically empty. At about 19:40-19:45 I distinctly heard gunshots. The young people in front of the beginning of the bridge immediately started running toward Piazza Sonnino.

Immediately after I got on a bus, which was at the terminal of Piazza Belli, (I think it was the Rome-Fiumicino line) which started toward Porta Portese.

Riccardo Galgano

At about 19:50-20:00 I was in Piazza G. Belli. The police fired a volley of tear bombs on a group of young people who were in Piazza Belli from the beginning of Ponte Garibaldi (Via Arenula).

The police fired another series of tear bombs from the middle of the bridge. Immediately after I distinctly heard a series of gunshots at regular intervals which came from behind me. I therefore ran away and entered Via della Lungaretta. As I turned round I saw a group of young people who were transporting a person, and laid her down near the public lavatories. I went back to the public lavatories and saw Giorgiana Masi, who was motionless.

Gianni Natali

At about a quarter past eight I was next to the gas station of Viale Trastevere (in front of Ponte Garibaldi) with a friend of mine, Franco Lacanale.

Suddenly two armoured vehicles of the police advanced through Ponte Garibaldi toward Trastevere and stopped about half way. After having fired three or four tear bombs I distinctly heard about ten gunshots coming from the group of police officers. I started running toward Piazza Sonnino with my friend Franco Lacanale. At that moment Franco was hit by a bullet which pierced his trousers from side to side near the calf. At that moment we saw Giorgiana Masi who was being laid down near the public lavatories of Piazza Sonnino.

A red FIAT 126 was stopped and then a light coloured Appia. Giorgiana was placed inside the Appia because it was emptier. We thought Giorgiana was having a fit or was passing out because no blood was visible.

Immediately after the police turned off the lights of the armoured vehicles and positioned themselves at the centre of Ponte Garibaldi.

I wish to specify that the charge I mentioned above was the second one, the first one having occurred about half an hour previously.

Testimony collected by the counterinformation committee of the Movement

After having charged the head of the procession of demonstrators coming from Ponte Sisto on the Lungotevere dell'Anguillara, the carabinieri unit withdrew until past Ponte Garibaldi, at the beginning of Via Arenula. Subsequently volleys of tear bombs fired in the direction of Piazza Argentina could be heard distinctly.

While most of the demonstrators concentrated at the beginning of the bridge and in Piazza G. Belli, a group of them advanced until the centre of the bridge placing two cars across it to protect themselves. It was about eight o'clock and everything was calm, people discussed what to do, some of them sitting on the sidewalks. Suddenly the police started to fire tear bombs. I was at the centre of the bridge, facing Trastevere, when I heard the shots of the tear bombs and saw people running away. I turned around a moment before running away and saw the flames of the Molotov cocktails; at this point I distinctly heard repeated shots, different from the ones of the tear bombs. As I was running toward Piazza Sonnino I heard people ask for help and with the back of my eye I saw a person on the ground, I thought she had fallen over. I went back and while a comrade I knew was already raising her, I took her left leg while another demonstrator I did not know took her by the other leg. We sought for a sheltered place, w

hile tear bombs continued to be fired and gunshots were fired only from behind us. I remember that the person I knew insisted on stopping at once, because he couldn't make it. We took shelter on the right hand side of the square, where the public lavatories are. The body of this person was laid on the ground. I knelt over her and saw it was a girl.

She was wearing jeans, a white blouse with a black design and a light brown woolen jacket with big buttons.

The first thing I noticed while laying her on the ground was that her arms were stiff, paralysed; I tried to keep her head propped up, then I let go, unbuttoned the jacket because I thought it might be a heart failure. I called for a doctor, I noticed her mouth was shut and she was grinding her teeth, I feared she would suffocate, I forced her mouth open, the doctor arrived and I noticed her dark eyes were wide open. The impression we had was a fit of epilepsy or something strange: she was not bleeding. None of us thought she had been hit by something, we noticed no wounds. I stepped aside and let the doctor help her. He raised her head and touched her arms, she seemed like a person who had passed out. There was a lot of confusion. The doctor raised her and loaded her on a car. There was confusion as to the car, confused indications about the closest hospital and who should get in with her. In front there was a boy whom I subsequently recognized on the papers to be Gianfranco Papini, Giorgiana Masi's boyfrie

nd. I noticed no white Simca followed by a big motorcycle.

The shots were all fired from behind me, while I was running, and could have come only from Ponte Garibaldi where the police forces were. I am willing to witness not in front of a bourgeois court, but also in front of the entire movement, witnessing in conditions of security to authoritative personalties who can guarantee the authenticity of my testimony.

Testimonies collected by the Movement's counterinformation Committee

After having been for several hours in Campo de' Fiori, suffering the furious charges of the police and the carabinieri, we decided to make for Trastevere and then dissolve the group, passing by Ponte Sisto all together. Having passed the bridge on Lungotevere Sanzio near the Jewish school we were once again the target of a charge of the carabinieri, who were at the corner between Ponte Garibaldi and the Lungotevere. At that point we scattered ourselves through Via Filipperi, while other comrades ran toward S. Maria in Trastevere. We gave a look at Viale Trastevere to see what was happening on the bridge when at a certain point the carabinieri went back on the other side of the bridge, toward the Ministry of Justice. We advanced until the beginning of Ponte Garibaldi and after a few comrades had placed two cars across the bridge to guarantee a minimum defence we advanced a little further. The usual groups had formed when, at about eight o'clock, units of the flying squad and of the carabinieri started to adv

ance, suddenly firing dozens of tear bombs alternated with gunshots. Starting panicking, I ran and overtook the beginning of Ponte Garibaldi by a dozen metres; in front of me, two or three metres on my left, while gunshots could be heard, a girl fell on the ground, whom I later recognized, thanks to the confirmation of another comrade who helped me assist her, as Giorgiana Masi.

As I said before, I was running when the girl fell in front of me; I overtook her because I was running, and while the police kept firing I stopped to see what had happened. After realizing I could not raise her, I started to shout for help, also because I was the last one. Before the charge and in the moments that followed it there were no cars in movement or big motorcycles anywhere in the surroundings.

Three comrades came, four of us raised her and all the while running we transported her to the public lavatories near the terminal of the 56-60 bus, laying her on the ground. All around us the police continued to fire tear bombs and gunshots. I told a comrade to stop a car to take her to the hospital, while another comrade tried to reanimate her as he could, because in the meanwhile her body had suddenly become stiff. At this point a doctor came, he was a bit uneasy because someone had said that Giorgiana was having a fit of epilepsy. As we were told that a car had been stopped, two or three minutes after laying her on the ground, and after no more than five minutes since she had fallen, we raised her and placed her inside a very old white car.

Elena Ascione

Arriving in Piazza Belli I saw people in small groups and a great cordon of police closing Ponte Garibaldi toward Piazza Sonnino. I cannot remember whether they were police or carabinieri. On the bridge there was a sudden barricade of cars which struck me as purely defensive.

At a certain point part of the police advanced toward Ponte Garibaldi. Since it was impossible to cross, I moved toward Piazza Sonnino and at this point I heard gunshots coming exclusively from the point where the police were. I cannot specify whether they were gunshots or machine gun shots. I started to run and was immediately hit, with my back to the bridge, and was hit on the left side. I could not see other people falling, but it was more or less eight o'clock.

Maurizio Della Porta Rodiani

At about none o'clock and I was on my way to Piazza Zanardelli with two friends, Enrico Von Leitenitz and Franco Cecconi, looking for an open restaurant. We passed by a group of policemen in uniform which presided the access of Via Agonale (Il Popolo). We stopped for a few seconds to look at a poodle puppy that was barking, kept on a leash by two ladies. Suddenly we were pushed and shoved by two officers who shouted "keep moving!". At our polite remonstrations they shouted "shut up, don't answer!" and they immediately surrounded us.

These officers, about twenty, repeatedly struck us with their batons and kicked us, following us until the arch of S. Agostino. I therefore went to the command of the carabinieri of S. Lorenzo in Lucina, where, in the hall, I meet a few soldiers whom I knew. The latter advised me to go to the S. Giacomo hospital to denounce the bruises.

Adele Faccio

We were informed of the assassination of Giorgiana at about nine o'clock, by a phone call. Alex Langer from Lotta Continua and I immediately went to the hospital; Doctor Boglino, our radical doctor, had already arrived, and together with him I went to speak to the doctor of the hospital, who only told us that Giorgiana had been hit in the abdomen, but that they did not know whether from the front or the back. This uncertainty struck me as odd, but our doctor also confirmed that it was impossible to establish anything before the autopsy. When the girl arrived at the hospital at about half past eight she was already dead. After the hospital we went to the headquarters of the carabinieri, where they had been questioning Giorgiana's boyfriend, Gianfranco Papini, for three hours. There a very odd thing happened: I went in with my parliamentary identification card in my hands and asked to speak with the commander. They throw me out. I say "just a moment, I'm a member of Parliament". They tell me: "This is a barrac

k, no one can come in". In the meanwhile the hall had filled with fifty carabinieri. At this, half jokingly and also to understand what was going on, I said "are you all here for me?". "No", one of them answers with a smile, "we have been questioned as witnesses". At that point I thought it wasn't true that the police weren't there. After waiting for a very long time and after my remonstrations for having been left out, they finally let me in, alone. Perhaps I made a mistake in insisting to get in at all costs, because this way I gave them the opportunity to separate me from Alex. Captain Iannace, with whom I talk, tells me generic things which do not convince me at all, then Judge Santacroce arrives and explains that Gianfranco Papini is in a state of mental confusion and that it takes a bit of time to help him. I think of how easy it would be to use psychological violence on a boy in those conditions, using the uttermost courtesy. He also tells me the testimony of the youth is extremely interesting because

there was neither a police officer nor a carabiniere on the spot. I ask why those fifty carabinieri witnessed if they weren't there. I ask for explanations to the judge, but he tells me he knows nothing about it, it is a normal service; "the captain can talk to you about it".

Andrea Purgatori - Il Corriere della Sera

I witnessed the final stages of the clashes of Thursday. I moved several times from the area of Corso Vittorio to Ponte Garibaldi, where I remained until a quarter to ten, at which hour I went to the hospital Regina Margherita with my colleagues Cianca, Gaita and Piernoli. Personally I can witness having seen several plainclothes officers, many of whom stopped the people who wanted to cross Ponte Garibaldi when a barricade had been formed with cars at the corner with Piazza Gioacchino Belli. In particular, I can say that at a quarter past nine rumours spread that a student had died in hospital. Together with other journalists I asked the head of the political office, Umberto Improta, to confirm the news. "As far as I know there has been nothing of the kind; the police did not shoot". The young people who were on the other side of the barricade knew nothing of the rumour, and Cianca and Gaita from "Il Messaggero" can confirm this, as they were on the other side of the river at different moments of the clashe

s. From the side of the barricade, between nine and half past nine eighteen Molotov cocktails were thrown, which landed several metres in front of the three armoured vehicles of the flying squad, which were at the centre of the bridge. The officers protected themselves behind the sides, and told us to be careful because gunshots were coming from that part, but throughout the time I remained on Ponte Garibaldi I heard no gunshots nor tear bombs.

I saw other plainclothes officers in Corso Vittorio, where the police and the carabinieri were positioned in several spots: in front of the theatre Argentina, at the beginning of Corso Rinascimento and in front of Palazzo Braschi. Plainclothes officers were also at the hospital Regina Margherita. A carabiniere dressed with jeans and a blue pullover with a white stripe twice reconstructed, in front of me and of other five or six colleagues, the facts that lead to the injuring of the carabiniere Ruggiero. He said he assisted Ruggiero himself, who fell almost beside him near the border of the Tiber, on the left hand side of the bridge, facing Trastevere.

Until the flying squad advanced to clear the barricade of cars in Piazza G. Belli, the police were positioned in front of the Ministry of Justice. Three armoured vans, as I said before, were half way on the bridge and the officers sheltered themselves behind them. The same three vans had arrived after the charge of the carabinieri, where Ruggiero had been injured.

Lastly, I can say that on Saturday afternoon, immediately after the end of the sit-in and the volley of tear bombs, a light- coloured (possibly light blue) FIAT 127 arrived in Piazza Belli with the three plainclothes officers on it, two of whom got out to talk to an officer of the carabinieri who was ordering to search a number of people. We ran into another plainclothes officer together with my colleagues Cianca, Gaita, Bocconetti, Irdi and Bignazzi when, at about ten past nine of Saturday, we were arriving in Piazza Belli from Trastevere. The officer stopped us because a bomb-disposal expert was burning the contents of a Molotov cocktail found in the area. At about half past three of Saturday other plainclothes police officers or carabinieri had been charged with the task of deviating the traffic of Via Arenula toward the Lungotevere because Ponte Garibaldi was blocked by people.

Gabriele Orichetti

At about half past two I parked my blue FIAT 127 in Piazza della Cancelleria, facing Palazzo della Sacra Rota.

At about half past eight I returned to my car. I found it parked on the other side of the square, with the doors open, the seats lowered and partly bent. On the right door I saw a bullet hole. The bullet had pierced the back seat and stopped in the boot, on the tank. The people in the area told me they had seen people repeatedly look for the bullet and perhaps found in inside my car. Subsequently I went to the first police station, accompanied by a police car, but the officials could not find the bullet.

Simona Galluppi, 11

At five o'clock I took bus No. 26 to go to my ballet school. The bus made a deviation, passing by Lungotevere Vallati. At about 17:35 I came out of the bus and walked to the ballet school (in Via dell'Orso).

I came out of the school at about a quarter to seven. I stopped to talk to a friend of mine for about ten minutes, then started to walk home as there were no buses operating.

I walked along the Lungotevere and almost reached Ponte Garibaldi. Before the crossing with the bridge I saw a group of demonstrators who were pushing a bus in the middle of the street. I think it was about half past seven. I stopped and watched them for some minutes. A girl told me "go away, it's dangerous here". I didn't want to go. At that point the girl took me by an arm, saying "they're going to shoot here very soon", and accompanied me to the beginning of Ponte Garibaldi.

I became afraid and started running. On Ponte Garibaldi I saw many demonstrators. While I was running on the Lungotevere from Ponte Garibaldi, on Lungotevere dell'Anguillara, near a door with a white marble frame, I saw several men in uniform with a rifle or a machine gun pointed low. After a second I heard three shots. behind the policemen there was a car of the police or of the Carabinieri.

I ran away through Via dell'Olmetto. When I arrived in Piazzetta della Gensola I again saw the car of the police or carabinieri.

Subsequently, on 13 May in Veruno where I was visiting my father, I saw a paper with a picture of Giorgiana Masi. I recognized the girl who accompanied me to Ponte Garibaldi. I am not sure whether I saw her after that, at the end of Ponte Garibaldi.

Franco Galluppi

On the 14th of May, at dinner, I spoke with my daughter for the first time of the events of 12 May.

First of all I asked her whether it was true that she recognized the girl who had "saved" her as Giorgiana Masi. She then told me that at about five o'clock, having reached the surroundings of the ballet school, the police had stopped her and searched her bag. She also told me she wanted to run to get there in time, but she feared she would raise suspicions in the police officers.

She also told me she had come home on foot, and that she had covered her mouth with a handkerchief because of the smoke of the tear bombs.

On Ponte Garibaldi she saw young people form barricades with cars. She wanted to stay, but a girl, whom she later recognized in the papers to be Giorgiana Masi, dragged her away. She also told me she saw a number of police officers shoot when she was between Ponte Garibaldi and Piazza Belli. She wanted to lie on the ground, but she feared being trampled over by the demonstrators and continued to run home, in Via Botticelli, passing by the alleys also in order to avoid the police officers she had seen on the Lungotevere.

Maria Grazia Galluppi

At about eight o'clock my daughter returned home. She was very upset and excited. As soon as she came in she said "the police are shooting, a bullet whistled by me, it's Cossiga's fault". I tried to make the thing less dramatic. At that moment my mother called me up on the phone. I entrusted my daughter to a colleague. At the end of the phone call I tried to make my daughter explain the reasons for her agitation. She told me she had covered the distance from the ballet school to home on foot, that she had been pushed away from the site of the accidents by a girl "who accompanied me to Ponte Garibaldi", "then I started to run and saw the police shoot on the demonstrators"..."a bullet grazed me"..."I wanted to throw myself on the ground but I feared others could trample on me while running away". Rather skeptic, I tried to be ironical about the facts she was telling, but Simona told me: "you should have been there yourself, why don't you see for yourself!"

Throughout the evening I kept trying to make the situation less tragic and calm her down. On the following day my children and I went to Veruno (Novara) to visit my husband who was hospitalized there.

When we arrived in the room, while my husband was talking to a colleague, Simona saw the picture of Giorgiana Masi on 'Paese Sera'. Addressing herself to her brother she said "that's the girl who took me home yesterday evening".