Rome residents protest council house for Roma

(ANSA) - Rome, April 8 - Residents of another outlying Rome district protested against the presence of Roma in local council houses Monday after a near-riot led to 60 or so Roma being moved from the Torre Mauro district last week.
    "We don't want the gypsies here, that house should have gone to an Italian," said residents of Casal Bruciato.
    One of the residents, Nunzia, told reporters: "That house has now been occupied by a girl with a six-month-old baby, she was sleeping in her car". "Better an Italian than the Roma...the Roma had better not return or we'll block everything".
    Rome prosecutors last week opened an investigation into the violent protests that took place in the Torre Maura district of the capital on Tuesday against the transfer of a group of around 60 Roma people to a reception centre there.
    The probe is into the crimes of criminal damage and threats with racial hatred an aggravating factor.
    Around 200 local people, supported by militants of the far-right CasaPound party, took to the streets in the protest, which saw trash canisters turned over and set alight, and bread trampled on.
    The city council said that 60-odd people would be moved to other facilities in the Rome area.