Hundreds mourn G8 protester

The coffin of Carlo Giuliani, wrapped in an AS Roma soccer team flag, his favourite team

GENOA, Italy -- Hundreds of mourners have assembled for the funeral of an Italian protester shot dead by police during riots at the G8 summit in Genoa last week.

The ceremony comes a day after tens of thousands of people took to the streets across Italy to protest over the use of police force at the G8 meeting that left more than 230 injured in two days of street clashes over the weekend.

Carlo Giuliani, 23, is believed to be the first protester killed by security forces in a series of anti-globalisation protests at international conferences over the past two years.

There were no flowers at the non-religious ceremony at a cemetery in Staglieno on the outskirts of Genoa.

Giuliani's coffin was adorned with green ferns and draped with an AS Roma football club flag, of whom Giuliani was an ardent supporter, said Reuters news agency.

IN-DEPTH G8 Summit: Genoa 2001   • What has G8 achieved?   • Text of G8 statement   • Q&A: Genoa fallout   • Q&A: Summit history   • News search   • Audio/video archive   • Quickvote   • G8 country profiles   • G8 Okinawa 2000 archive   • TIME special: G8 summit   • In-depth: Bush in Europe   • Official Genoa G8 site   Message boards   • Missile defence   • Bush presidency   • Climate change

Friends carried the coffin through a 500-strong crowd of mourners who broke into a minute-long applause, some shouting Giuliani's name and shaking their fists in despair.

Former trade union official Giuliano Giuliani, Carlo's father, addressed the crowd, saying: "In his short life, Carlo has given us many things. Let us try, in Carlo's name, to be united, to refuse violence.

"Carlo taught me you shouldn't judge a person by his crumpled t-shirt, ripped trousers, body piercings or dreadlocks because under those dreadlocks may be a head which thinks, a person hungry for justice," he added in a shaking voice, said Reuters.

"Carlo, you'll always be in our heart," one mourner shouted as the coffin was lowered into the grave.

Friends read poetry at the graveside, which was attended by around 1,000 people, including left-wing local politicians, said The Associated Press.

Police used water cannon and tear gas to keep protesters at bay in days of bloody rioting at the G8 summit over the weekend.

Television pictures showed images of black-clad youths -- believed to belong to the anarchist Black Bloc movement -- provoking violent clashes with police, torching cars and smashing up shops and petrol stations.

Giuliani, bending over (obscured by person in foreground), wearing a white shirt and dark pants, picking up a red canister (top) and lying on the ground after being shot

But many protest groups say the Italian police beat and arrested demonstrators who were standing on the sidelines and were unwittingly caught up in the mayhem, said Reuters.

Human rights watchdog Amnesty International has urged the country to respect the rights of those protesters who have been detained and allow them access to lawyers and relatives, the news agency reported.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi -- whose centre-right administration took up office last month -- praised the police and security forces for their handling of the demonstrations.

Interior Minister Claudio Scajola said the policeman who killed Giuliani fired the shots in self-defence without aim, to protect himself from an attack "which was becoming a lynching," said AP.

Politicians in the centre-left opposition have called for Scajola's resignation.

Some opposition figures have also questioned how an inexperienced 21-year old officer who allegedly fired the shots came to be at the centre of crowd control during the demonstrations.

According to AP, media reports said the man was not a full-time professional but working with the police force during his one-year military service.

The policeman faces a possible manslaughter charge. More than 200 arrests were made during the weekend riots, with damage to property at an estimated at 100 billion lire ($45 million.)

The anti-globalisation marches in other Italian cities passed of peacefully although some demonstrators threw eggs at police headquarters in the southern city of Taranto and bags of red paint at headquarters in Naples.