Italian 'Ku Klux Klan' man cited
White supremacist membership drive 'a flop', say police
12 March, 14:07
(ANSA) - Rome, March 12 - A man accused of trying to import
the Ku Klux Klan to Italy was cited by police on Friday for
inciting racial hate and violence.The 33-year-old from Modena was responsible for the Italian section of the web site of the United Northern and Southern Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, judicial sources said. Though the man has a clean criminal record, he was already on the police radar for being close to skinhead groups.
"We don't think his attempt to recruit new members was going very well," said Rome prosecutor Andrea Rossi.
"We've had a look at his computer and taken a number of files for further examination, but it doesn't look like the website was generating much of a response," he said.
Rossi estimated that the Italian page, hosted on the Michigan-based hate group's website www.unskk.com, received fewer than six requests for membership.
"We suspect that a number of those were made by users trying to gather information to give to the police," he added.
Rossi added that investigators had a difficult time tracking down the website's creator, who is unemployed and lives with his parents, due to his own attempts to remain anonymous.
He said that while the man was "basically cooperative", he was evasive when asked about his involvement with the American white supremacist movement.
His webpage ad seeking "good, Christian people ready to join our cause" caught the attention of Italy's racism watchdog UNAR last fall, who flagged it for the police.
The web page invited prospective members in Italy to send an application and color photo ID in order to receive a provisional one-year membership.
''We're looking for white patriots willing to defend our race and heritage, and take back what's been stolen from us,'' the website read.
Another section lamented the ''sad and inexplicable lack of white pride'' among Italians, described as the "fathers of white civilization". According to coverage by Rome daily La Repubblica, the KKK made its Italian debut in 2005 with groups in Italy and Germany that consolidated into "realms", local groups at the bottom level of Klan hierarchy.
In 2008, the Italian group obtained recognition from the Northern and Southern Knights, one of the largest white supremacist organizations in the US with chapters in 27 out of 50 American states. Hate crimes are a growing concern in Italy, where a string of attacks and unrest have highlighted growing racial tension.
In early January, the issue came to a head when African field hands rioted in the Calabrian town of Rosarno after they were shot at by local youths.
Some 50 people were injured in clashes with town residents, which lasted for two days and saw immigrants run over in cars and beaten with metal clubs.
The Ku Klux Klan was founded in the southern United States in the years following the Civil War to terrorize freed black slaves and speculators from the victorious north.
The first groups were broken up within a few decades, all but disappearing by the turn of the 20th century to re-emerge in the 1920s, reaching over 4 million members around the US.
Membership in the US has fallen steadily to an estimated 6,000 members in 2008 divided between dozens of groups scattered across the country.
