Turin's CIE - International University College of Turin

One interesting fact that emerged from this study was the lack of a uniform consensus on the
behaviour of the Red Cross staff and the security apparatus. Some detainees faulted the former 81
and others the latter 82 whereas some held both responsible for misbehaviour. This is especially
surprising since our interviews revealed that some detainees held diametrically opposed views
to the same group of people at the CIE 83 .
One of our non-detainee interviewees described the attitude of the CIE staff as being one built
on a desire to emphasise control and authority. He outlined the problem of having the military
section of the Red Cross staff in charge of the CIE and he expressed concern about the behaviour
of the CIE authorities when the gates were closed to visitors:
“People who work inside CIE are not bad people but they behave in a way to emphasise the
fact that they are those who have the control and decide on detainees’ lives. For example, if
a detainee needs a doctor they are those who can or cannot call him. The CIE staff consist
of the military section of the Red Cross: these people’s behaviour and their way of thinking
is that of military personnel. They wear military uniforms. Moreover, there are four
different military bodies working inside the centre and this is very strange because if you
needed to save money, you could save it on things like this. You don’t need to have four
people of two different military bodies to open a door! And, once you needed eight people
to open a door! As if the detainees were lions! This militarisation raises detainees’ anger”;
“As long as it is open, half of the military should go away because they are not necessary.
Those who remain, that is CIE staff, should not be military personnel. It makes no sense to
militarise a place like this”; and
“CIE staff and guards should not play the role of the good people in front of us and then act
as if they were the masters of detainees’ lives when we do not see them” (Interview 1).
Some interviewees noted a disparity between the manner in which different staff members
treated the detainees. Some staff were patient and understanding of detainees’ psychological
states while the others were more prone to direct insults against the detainees:
“The relationship between CIE staff and detainees varies very much according to the
individual person. There are people who work there and who are extremely patient and
understand that if detainees are rude it’s because of the situation that they are living.
Moreover, they do all sorts of things just to be noticed, to attract the workers’ attention,
otherwise they feel ignored. There are guards who talk with them, guards who insult them,
it depends on each single person” (Interview 2);
“The Red Cross are good people. There are some people among the Carabineri 84 and
Guardia di Finanza 85 who are a bit so-so, but among them there are also good people”
(Interview 21).
81 “The Red Cross spoke badly to me. There are both Italian and foreign people working inside the Red Cross,
but foreign people as well behave badly towards detainees” (Interview 17).
82 “The Red Cross is doing a great job, while military are bad” (Interview 25); “Carabinieri, guards when they
pass by they speak badly to me, they insult me” (Interview 19); “Sometimes the military laugh at us, they joke,
and when someone is unwell they do not call anyone” (Interview 26).
83 In contra-distinction to the indictment of the military, one of the detainees said “With the army I’m fine. They
behave themselves well” (Interview 22).
84 The Carabinieri is one of the five Italian police branches. It is under the authority of the Ministry of Defence.
Similarly to Polizia di Stato, the Carabinieri’s main functions are: maintaining order, ensuring public security
and preventing crimes. The Carabinieri is also part of the Italian army, so it is a military police branch.
51 | P a g e