Italy's police chief said today his officers had acted in a "balanced and decisive" way during demonstrations at last week's G8 summit, after hundreds of people attended the funeral of a protester during the violence.
"The analysis is hard but positive," police chief Gianni De Gennaro told Canale 5 television.
"No Genoa resident had any physical damage. The security at the summit was assured and it was able to continue to the end. The action of the forces of order was balanced and decisive."
Mr De Gennaro's comments came the same day a protester, Carlo Giuliani, 23, was buried in a Genoa ceremony that gathered nearly 1,000 people.
Mr Giuliani died after being shot by a carabiniere police officer last Friday during some of the worst rioting in the northern port city. The 21-year-old carabinieri police is under investigation for the killing.
Other investigations relating to the violence were announced today.
One is to focus on a police raid early on Sunday on a school in which the Genoa Social Forum - the umbrella anti-globalisation movement - maintained offices and a press center. The blitz left dozens of people wounded.
Two other inquiries will be opened into scenes of violence on the first and second day of the G8 summit, and on suspected anarchists arrested near Genoa after they were found to carry picks, hammers, balaclavas and black clothes.
De Gennaro put the blame for the bloody scenes on around 1,000 "particularly violent" people among the demonstrators, although he admitted that "the dramatic episode (Mr Giulani's death) certainly created a tense situation."
He said that Interior Minister Claudio Scajola was kept informed of the situation at each moment.
"The enforcement of public order was made more difficult by the introduction of violent elements in the rally," he said, adding that the sheer number of protesters created "a dangerous situation" for everybody, including the police.
He also said defended the raid on the Genoa Social Forum, saying "we had every reason to believe that violent elements were present on the property."
However, given the number of people injured in the raid - which the police chief said included 17 officers - "an evaluation will be made to see if there were errors."
AFP