HONOR KILLINGS NOW IN ITALY... and here there just may be a vendetta...

Death in Brescia: It's an ancient Italian city known for its conservatism.

But in 17 days in August, seven people were callously murdered.

**

Ed Vulliamy reports from an area riven by racism and organised crime

Sunday October 29, 2006

The Observer

'See you soon,' chirped Hina Saleem to her boyfriend Beppe Tampini, after receiving a phone call from her father. 'I won't be late.'

She also informed her boss, Grumail Multani, at the Pizzeria Antica India where she worked in the northern Italian city of Brescia: 'Some relatives have arrived from France - with presents! I must greet them, but I won't be late for work.' During the hours that followed, both Beppe and Multani tried to call the 21-year-old on her mobile - without success.

The call home had been a trap: Hina's father, aided by three male relatives, had cut his own daughter's throat, after a family council condemned her to death for her liaison with Tampini, a local carpenter.
The Saleem family had arrived in Brescia from Pakistan five years ago. Hina warmed to the Italian way, with her tight jeans and T-shirts, and her love for Beppe was eagerly requited. The city was astounded by the 'honour killing' meted out to such a girl, but her murder was only the beginning.
Within 17 days, another six people had been killed across the city, some murders so savage as to defy the imagination.

A 23-year-old woman was strangled to death in a church by the sacristan, from Sri Lanka, while trying to light a candle to the Madonna - her corpse hidden behind a pulpit while Mass continued over two days.

Next day, a renowned Lombard painter was stabbed to death by a youth from Morocco, whom he had admitted into his home.

A Pakistani man was knifed to death in the street and an entire family - father, mother and son - was ritually tortured and executed, the woman and child having their throats cut in front of the father who was left to die slowly from a slash to his own throat.
Brescia was cast into, and remains in, a state of stupefaction; a vortex swirls around the charged themes of immigration, racism and organised crime; political leaders turn up the volume while demonstrators take to the streets. But the alarm bells ring beyond the ancient walls of Brescia.

(read it all...)

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/magazine/story/0,,1932050,00.html