Italy: Gypsy camp set on fire in Rome

Rome, 23 July (AKI) - Firefighters and police in the Italian capital Rome began investigating an attack on a Rome Gypsy camp in the city early on Wednesday.

The camp was set on fire by unknown assailants late on Tuesday. It is believe that the fire was started by young Italians.

The camp, called the Via Candoni camp, is considered a 'legal' camp and is located in the southwestern part of Rome.

Witnesses said a group of young Italians aboard three cars threw incendiary devices, and the fire quickly spread throughout the camp, reported Italian daily Corriere della Sera.

"We will bring to light what happened. If there is someone responsible for this, they will be severely punished," said Rome's mayor Gianni Alemanno, who visited the camp after the attack.

This attack on a Roma Gypsy camp comes a day after Italian authorities carried out the so-called 'census' in the camp to identify who lives there.

Italy's Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said last week that he would go ahead with the controversial 'census', which involves fingerprinting Roma Gypsies in Italy.

The procedure is already underway in Naples, Milan and Rome, despite criticism from international rights groups and the European Union.

In May, an Italian mob twice carried out arson attacks against a Gypsy camp outside the southern Italian city of Naples - incidents that drew criticism from rights groups, members of the Catholic church in Italy and the opposition.

The census of Italy's Gypsy population is part of the new Italian conservative government's promise to crackdown on illegal immigration.

Special Roma Gypsy commissioners have been appointed in several of the country's major cities.

Of the approximately 150,000 Roma-Gypsies in the country, 70,000 are Italian citizens, and many others come from European Union countries such as Romania, while others came from the countries that make up the former Yugoslavia.