No Vultures Will Steal The Truth From Us!
Giacomo Turra, 24 years old, a student, was murdered by four officers of the=
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Colombian National Police, on the third night of last September. He was in=
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Cartagena, on holiday, and also to contribute towards his Arts thesis=20
degree. He was beaten to death, inside and outside the police station,=20
struck all over his body with batons, kicks and punches.
The death certificate states the cause of death as 'multiple traumatism and=
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cranial trauma'. His body, when viewed by his father four days later, was=20
unrecognizable. His face, bruised and massively swollen, was a mask of=20
blood. His chest had collapsed from the blows. His arms full of bruises,=20
characteristic, according to the experts, with the position assumed when=20
attempting to protect oneself from blows to the head. His neck, his throat,=
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a mass of wounds and abrasions.
This senseless tragedy, absurd, unbelievable, occurred in a country,=20
Colombia, where this happens, every day, to another sixty people on average.=
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Giacomo's was one of twenty thousand deaths a year that result from this=20
kind of treatment. Watching from a distance, it would be possible to say=20
that what happened was nothing strange; our pain is short-lived. How many=20
times have we, with Giacomo, shouted, demonstrated, fought against such=20
barbarism, common to every corner of the earth. Shouting until the voice=20
dries in the throat, until it becomes almost ritual, voices raised in=20
protest every time an image, a story, a lament arises from the perennial=20
amalgamation of suffering that suffocates millions of women, men, children.=
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Our eyes are dry, safe from the sterile screened images of death that occupy=
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various hours of prime time programming, and have better ratings than the=20
soap operas.=20
But this time our eyes have been opened anew. Cries are born among us again.=
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They have killed our brother, our friend, our comrade. And perfectly we=20
realize that in the same instant, our tears are for every violated human=20
being, broken to pieces by this world and its guard dogs. And also our rage.=
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Giacomo was stopped by the police before witnesses. He hadn't done anything.=
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Probably his only crime was that he didn't immediately offer the ritual=20
hundred dollars cash to the murderers or, as those who saw and heard it have=
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declared, to have cried out "Go on then, kill me, go ahead!" They bound his=
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hands and feet with rope. Hauled, knocked down in the street, punched,=20
kicked, bashed.=20
Before continuing the 'treatment' at the barracks, they stopped at the=20
hospital: collaborating doctors injected Giacomo with heavy tranquillizers.=
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Back again to the hands of the officers; he breathed his last under their=20
filthy, bloody hands. Hands of butchers, operating under the cover and=20
direction of a r=E9gime which has only the successful performance of its=20
servitude to the United States and the New World Order at heart. Its agents=
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have never been held accountable for their actions, or suspended from their=
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jobs. On the contrary, witnesses have been threatened with death, and one=20
street kid who had related what happened that night, has disappeared, and =
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grave fears are held for his life.=20
One senator of the Colombian Republic has already advanced a motion which=20
seems likely to become the pathetic explanation of the state for this crime:=
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suicide. This week, a parliamentary debate will begin on this issue, to=20
decide whether or not to postpone the trial of the murderers. Our eyes are=
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still drenched with tears : our sorrow augments our rage. No court of no=20
country will ever give justice. But they must say that they killed him. We=
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want to hear them say it. The executioners must say to all that they are=20
executioners, and not the knights of democracy.=20
They will not silence us as they silenced the voice of our Giacomo. Tears do=
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not impede our vision. Sorrow will not impede our action. =20
CENTRO SOCIALE PEDRO - PADOVA (ITALY)
European Counter Network
Italian section - Padova
BBS +39 49 8756776
e-mail: calusca@iperv.it
http://www.xs4all.nl/~tank/ecn/