Visit by US President George W. Bush
Posted by admin on June 6th, 2007 filed in Tips for travellers
ROME (ANSA) - Rome officials were busy working on security measures on Tuesday as the capital prepared for a visit by US President George W. Bush and braced itself for a major demo by anti-war protesters.
Bush will arrive in Rome on Friday evening from Poland, which he will briefly visit after taking part in the Group of Eight summit in Germany.
His Rome trip, which ends on Sunday morning, will include talks with centre-left Premier Romano Prodi and President Giorgio Napolitano and a visit to the Vatican to meet Pope Benedict XVI.
Italian pacifists and other demonstrators are planning a massive anti-Bush protest which is expected to draw thousands of supporters from across the country.
Some 8,000 extra police will be on duty amid fears that violent militants could infiltrate the demo.
Security officials are particularly concerned that militants known as the ‘black block’ could move down to Rome after taking part in anti-G8 protests in Germany.
The black block were blamed for the violence which marred a demonstration in the German port city of Rostock on Saturday, close to the resort of Heiligendamm where G8 leaders will meet from Wednesday to Friday.
More than 1,000 people were injured in clashes between police and protesters in what was the worst street violence seen in Germany for years.
Security will be stepped up along Italy’s frontiers and ports in a bid to prevent potentially violent activists entering the country from Germany, Austria, Spain, Greece and France.
But organisers of the Rome anti-Bush protest insist the event will be peaceful and have accused security officials of trying to discredit their march by creating unnecessary alarm.
“This is a mass pacifist rally. It won’t be another Rostock,” the organisers told journalists on Tuesday.
The demo is supported by some 200 anti-war organisations ranging from trade unions and student groups to activists angry at the expansion of a US military base in the northern city of Vicenza.
The march will kick off at 15:00 on Saturday afternoon and wind its way through the city centre to a famed square, Piazza Navona.
Meanwhile, the main concern for security officials is a planned trip by Bush on Saturday to the picturesque neighbourhood of Trastevere in the heart of Rome where he intends to visit one of the city’s oldest churches, Santa Maria in Trastevere.
The US president is also slated to visit the nearby headquarters of Sant’Egidio, a Catholic organisation known for its mediation efforts in international conflicts.
But Trastevere is a maze of small streets, squares and alleys, making security particularly difficult.
Police are considering setting up a temporary, 10-metre-long tunnel near the Trastevere church which will allow the Bush delegation to travel through the area in greater safety.
Access to the neighbourhood will be blocked on Saturday and rubbish bins and manholes sealed.
Security has already been tightened at Rome’s Fiumicino airport, where Bush will be touching down on Friday aboard the presidential plane Air Force One.
Helicopter gunships will be deployed during Bush’s stay, when air traffic over the city will be limited.
Bush will be accompanied by his wife, First Lady Laura Bush, who will join her husband on his trips to the Vatican and Santa Maria in Trastevere.
At the end of his official appointments on Saturday, Bush will meet up with opposition chief and former premier Silvio Berlusconi.
Berlusconi was a close ally of the president during his five years as premier (2001-2006) and was described as an “old friend” by a White House spokesman on Monday.
VISIT COMES AFTER TENSIONS BETWEEN ALLIES.
Bush’s trip comes after tensions between Rome and Washington over foreign policy and other issues.
America was among allies who criticised Italy over its handling of a recent hostage crisis in Afghanistan which ended after five Taliban prisoners were released in exchange for the life of an Italian journalist.
Another source of friction is the case of Nicola Calipari, an Italian secret agent killed in March 2005 in a controversial ‘friendly fire’ roadblock incident in Iraq.
A US soldier has just gone on trial in Italy in absentia accused of murdering Calipari.
The Italian courts are also about to open a trial against 26 CIA operatives accused of kidnapping a Muslim cleric in Milan in February 2003.
The trial would be the first judicial examination of America’s controversial rendition policy, the abduction of terrorism suspects in one country in order to have them interrogated in another.
Plans to expand the American military base in Vicenza have also sparked tensions, drawing fierce protests from city residents and leftist elements in Prodi’s coalition.
The incidents have however done nothing to dent the firm ties between Italy and the US, officials stress.
June 7th, 2007 at 10:46 pm
NEWS FEATURE: Bush visit bemoaned by “real Romans”
By Nicholas Rigillo, dpa
Rome (dpa) - “If it were up to me, I wouldn’t have let him in,” says Enzo, a lively 60-year-old pensioner, summing up the mood of an entire neighbourhood.
“Him” is none other than the most powerful man on Earth, George Walker Bush.
The US President’s visit to Rome on Saturday has sparked a massive security operation, with reports saying up to 10,000 police officers will be deployed around the Italian capital. Schools are to remain shut for the day while the Eternal City will be declared a no-fly area.
The area most affected by the police’s anti-terrorist and “anti- anti-globalization” measures is Trastevere, a neighbourhood next to the Vatican.
Once a separate settlement - the name means “on the other side of the Tiber River” - Trastevere is where “the real Romans” claim to live.
Its cobbled alleyways and proletarian charm has in recent years attracted an increasing number of artists, professionals and foreigners.
Sleepy by day, Trastevere turns bohemian by night - this is where some of the city’s best restaurants and cafes are found. A tourist from the US might call it “quaint”; the locals prefer to call it “the heart of Rome”; or “a city within the city”.
In a surprise move, the White House announced that Bush would be adding a visit to the local Santa Maria in Trastevere Church and the Sant’Egidio Community during his 24-hour stay in Rome.
Despite initial scepticism from local officials due to logistic and security concerns - the neighbourhood’s streets are too narrow to accomodate Bush’s limousines, meaning the president will have to walk part of the journey - the Trastevere tour will go ahead as planned and will be squeezed in between a meeting with Pope Benedict XVI and talks with Prime Minister Romano Prodi.
Despite the publicity, most Trasteverini aren’t pleased.
“Don’t make me talk or I’ll have to swear,” says one angry resident while sipping an espresso coffee at the Bar San Calisto, one of the neighbourhood’s most popular meeting points.
Marcello Forti, the bar’s owner since 1969, says he isn’t really bothered by the disruption that Bush’s visit will bring, but admits he will have to make arrangements with his suppliers.
Nearby Piazza San Calisto will be completely closed to traffic for the day and traffic wardens have been slipping notices under the windscreen wipers of parked cars warning them that if they do not remove their vehicles, they would be towed away.
Bush will only be spending a couple of hours in Trastevere, but restaurants and bars around Piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere - the area’s main square - and nearby Piazza Sant’Egidio have nevertheless decided to remain shut for most of the day.
Ombre Rosse, one of Trastevere’s trendiest cafes, is located right in front of the Community of Sant’Egidio, a Christian group that has made a name for itself around the world by acting as a mediator in international conflicts and by encouraging inter-religious dialogue.
Two rainbow-coloured peace flags hang from windows above the bar.
But there’s nothing political about the complaints heard below.
“Nobody is going to be allowed anywhere near him, so we might as well close. Definitely not good for business,” says Luigi Santamaria.
Opposite Ombre Rosse, staff at Trastevere’s Rome Museum of Folklore, are livid. In order to minimize the disruption caused by Bush’s visit and by two separate anti-US demonstrations taking place in the city centre on Saturday, Interior Minister Giuliano Amato has invited Romans to “enjoy the nice weather and go to the beach.”
But the three young women employed by the museum say it should be up to them, not the government, to decide when to take time off work.
For the people of Sant’Egidio, the Bush visit is an “unexpected honour.”
“We were only informed about the visit a few weeks ago. We are proud and surprised that Bush would decide to come and talk to us,” says Paolo Ciani, one of its officials.
Ciani says his organization will remind Bush of its work in Africa and its campaign against the death penalty and plays down the disruption being brought to the neighbourhood.
While he speaks, an elderly woman asks a traffic warden where she should park her car on Saturday.
“Romans like to complain, but they’ve seen it all before and have learnt to be patient,” the traffic warden says.
June 7th, 2007 at 10:50 pm
Rome, 6 June (AKI) - No area in Rome will be sealed off during US president George W. Bush’s brief visit to the Italian capital starting Friday night, officials said Wednesday amid security concerns. Rome’s prefect Achille Serra told reporters “there will be inconveniences in downtown Rome, especially in the Trastevere area, when Bush will visit on Saturday 9 June after meeting [Pope Benedict XVI] at the Vatican.” In Trastevere, the president is expected to visit the Catholic charity Comunita di Sant’Egidio which promotes inter-faith dialogue worldwide.
The scheduled visit to Trastevere has reportedly been worrying Italian authorities for the neighbourhood’s narrow, winding streets and because reports that violent protesters will marr a pacifist demonstration amid a more radical anti-Iraq war rally both in downtown Rome. Some 10,000 Italian police are expected to be deployed during the two-day visit.
Though the final schedule of Bush’s trip has not been confirmed, the president is expected to meet his Italian counterpart Giorgio Napolitano on Saturday morning, followed by a trip to the Vatican for an audience with Pope Benedict XVI. Bush will then allegedly visit the Comunita di Sant’Egidio and perhaps the Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere in the heart of the neighbourhood.
Prime minister Romano Prodi and foreign minister Massimo D’Alema are then scheduled to meet Bush before he heads to Villa Taverna for a meeting with US embassy personnel.
Bush is then expected to leave for Albania on Sunday morning.
June 7th, 2007 at 10:51 pm
Rome, 28 May (AKI) - The Rome-based Sant’Egidio comunity known for its peace-brokering roles in Africa and Asia said Monday it has been contacted about a possible visit to its headquarters by US president George W. Bush during his Italian trip next month. “We have been contacted” community spokesman Mario Marazziti told Adnkronos providing no other details. The meeting during Bush’s two day trip to Rome and the Vatican on 8-9 June, has not been confirmed by US authorities.
The Catholic lay community, based in Rome’s picturesque medieval Trastevere district, has drawn international recognition for its efforts to mediate and seek peace in third world conflicts, but also for charity work closer to home in Italy.
There have been rumours circulating in the Italian capital for several weeks that Bush had expressed his desire to visit Sant’Egidio.
If the encounter is confirmed, among the issues up for discussion would be peace in Africa, the battle against AIDS, inter religious dialogue and efforts to curb the exploitation of children in developping countries.
After the success of its mediation in the peace agreement to end the long civil war in Mozambique, Sant’Egidio has been involved in seeking to bring to a close other conflicts in Africa. It has played a key role in ending the conflict in the Ivory Coast and in the reunification of the country last March.
Nicknamed “the UN of Trastevere” Sant’Egidio is also active in Sudan, seeking to unify the various factions and overcome the current deadlock.
As well as its project DREAM for the fight against AIDS in Africa, Sant’Egidio has launched a campaign for anagraphic registration in Africa firstly and in other underdevelopped countries, to put an end to “invisible” or “non-existent” children who are all too often victims of human traffickers.
Closer to home it operates soup kitchens, Italian classes for immigrants and initiatives for the gypsy communities in Italy.
Bush’ visit would not be the first by a senior US official. In 1998, the then secretary of state Madeleine Albright enthused about the “wonderful people” of Sant’Egidio after visiting their premises in Trastevere and following their work in Kosovo.
June 12th, 2007 at 12:25 am
A planned visit by U.S. President George W. Bush to the headquarters of a Catholic peace organization, in the capital’s medieval Trastevere neighborhood, has been canceled due to “logistical” reasons and security complications, local media reported Friday.
According to reports, Saturday’s encounter with the Community of Sant’Egidio will now be held at the American embassy, also for “logistical reasons,” White House sources said.
Bush was also to have visited the Romanesque Santa Maria in Trastevere church following his meeting with Pope Benedict XVI and before his working luncheon with Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi.
The picturesque Trastevere neighborhood is a maze of narrow cobblestone streets and from the beginning many observers said a visit there would have been a security nightmare.
The president and first lady Laura Bush arrived the Italian capital from Poland on Friday evening and will leave on Sunday morning.
According to the schedule, Bush’s official visit will start Saturday morning at the presidential Quirinale Palace for a meeting with Italian Head of State Giorgio Napolitano at about 10: 00 a.m. local time.
Bush then goes to the Vatican for his audience with the pope and, afterwards, a meeting with the Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.
At 2:00 p.m., Bush will meet Prodi at his Palazzo Chigi office for a working lunch. They will be joined by Italian Foreign Minister and Deputy Premier Massimo D’Alema.
The president and the prime minister will hold a joint press conference after their talks to wrap up Bush’s official visit.
Bush and the first lady will leave Italy for Albania on Sunday morning, the next-to-last stop on their European tour before Bulgaria.
June 12th, 2007 at 12:26 am
Bush visit to Rome scrapped over safety
ROME: US President George W Bush will skip a visit on Saturday to Rome’s historic Trastevere neighbourhood for security reasons, a spokesman for the religious group he was to have visited there said on Friday.
Bush will instead meet members of the Sant’ Egidio Roman Catholic community, which has been nominated several times for the Nobel peace prize, elsewhere in the Italian capital, probably at the US embassy.
Asked if the change had been made because of security concerns, Sant’ Egidio spokesman Mario Marazziti said: “Yes, clearly.”
The Trastevere neighbourhood where the group has its headquarters is one of Rome’s oldest quarters, made up of narrow cobble-stoned alleys difficult for a presidential motorcade to negotiate.
Italian security officials had been nervous about a Bush visit to the neighbourhood although they decided earlier this week that it would go ahead.
Rome authorities had planned to effectively shut down the entire neighbourhood while Bush was there. reuters