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But hadn’t the problems in L’Aquila already been sorted out?
So why, more than a year after the earthquake were the citizens of L’Aquila protesting
and blocking the motorway to shouts of L’Aquila, L’Aquila?
We decided to find out for ourselves to see first hand and to listen directly to personal testimony.
Without intermediaries and above all without relying on news from RAI
the public service broadcaster, which we no longer trust.
We are the men and women of Valigia Blu (Blue Suitcase)
with a petition of 207,000 signatures requesting a correction to a report by RAI 1 News in February 2010
which falsely stated that David Mills, a former lawyer of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi had been acquitted on corruption charges
whereas in fact then corruption charges against him had been dropped because time had run out under the statute of limitations.
We’ve come to L’Aquila from all over Italy.
We’ve never met before, despite running the Facebook group
“The dignity of journalists and the respect of citizens” for months.
Up to now it has been a long-distance chat via Skype, FaceBook, Google and Twitter.
Tommaso was waiting for us at the railway station.
He’s also a member of Blue Suitcase.
He lives and studies in Bologna but is from L’Aquila.
He’ll be our guide.
And he’s organised with the firemen our visit to the
Red Zone, which in effect means the entire town centre.
Apart from 700 metres of the main street
which have been reopened, though still lined
with safety fencing, the town centre of L’Aquila
with its 800 years of history is one
huge, eerie, shocking Red Zone.
Safety fencing and scaffolding, all along the main street.
The safety fencing, put up to prevent injury from falling masonry, now also
serves as a message board for those whose voices are no longer heard.
Bits of paper, banners, bed-sheets all say the same thing:
"Give our town back to us!"
"We’re not going to let it die."
One section focuses on RAI 1 News, accusing it of censorship in not even mentioning the demonstration
on 16 June by 20,000 citizens of L’Aquila to bring attention to their plight, followed by a blockade of the A24 motorway by 5,000 of them.
A visit to the Red Zone is more revealing than 1,000 photos could ever be.
You need to see it to understand.
This wasn’t simply an earthquake, this was a tragedy which destroyed an entire community
The extent of the devastation here isn’t fully understood by the rest of the country.
It was absolutely terrifying!
Walking though the squares and along the streets and alleyways with scaffolding everywhere you feel part of an open-air museum
and wonder if the town will ever be rebuilt.
Fifteen months after the earthquake the reconstruction hasn’t even begun.
There is no sign of any activity anywhere.
Everything seems locked in time at 03.22 of 06 April 2009 when the earthquake struck.
But the citizens aren’t giving in.
They’ve set up a permanent meeting place in a central square
to put pressure on the government and local authorities to act.
"This is a beautiful town and we want to rebuild it...
... Just tell us when we can start."
A café and shop have reopened but commercial activity has effectively ceased.
The town centre is home to soldiers, firemen and Ringo and his friends,
the abandoned dogs who follow the firemen whenever they make a tour of the Red Zone.
We speak with the people we meet, we try to understand
how they feel and what’s happening.
They’re respectable people, not extremists.
They just want to rebuild their town.
They were grateful for the rapid emergency response to the earthquake but since then it’s been abandonment and chaos.
"White T-shirts which are meant to represent the fairytales of L’Aquila,
the fairytales put together by someone who made the whole country believe that everything here is going well
that everything here is OK, that we are ungrateful.
But we’re still crying over our our dead, our friends and destroyed homes, relatives killed.
We’re just normal people.
We’re furious, we’re like a volcano that is about to explode.
And this from a citizen over 60 years of age who has always voted for centrist parties, a moderate.
This is what our political representatives need to understand
Nobody seems to know how much money is available for the reconstruction, or even if and how they’ll be able to rebuild their homes.
There is no official reconstruction plan.
Tax payment deadlines for local citizens and commercial activities have been put back
rather than waived the economy is on its knees, there’s no work.
It’s now been 15 months without any income because we run
a business and we haven’t had any help from the State.
We received only 2,400 euros for the first three months and then we were abandoned.
We need to get the economy moving because
if you give me a house and I haven’t got a job
what am I supposed to do with the house?
This is what’s important: work is vital.
L’Aquila has problems of work because 800 businesses and shops have not reopened.
Lots of people worked in these businesses and shops: three to four thousand people.
Leaving aside the accusations and recriminations, the key issue is what can be done now to help the citizens of L’Aquila.
But how can they be helped if first the facts don’t emerge?
Without political point-scoring by either side.
Democracy without truth isn’t possible.
Let’s start from here.
Let’s start by demanding the truth about L’Aquila.
Thanks to Chris for the translation